Where meeting strangers, writes Mary Ryllis Clark, can be more than a brief encounter.
Hong Kong assails the senses. I love the complex aromas of its traditional Chinese food in Kowloon City or Tsim Sha Tsui; the smoky atmosphere of temples filled with incense-shrouded Buddhas; the mind-blowing city lights at night from the top of The Peak; and the melodic, all-enveloping sound of Cantonese. Caressed by the breeze on a cruise in Victoria Harbour, you soak up the sight of modern monuments to Mammon and explore islands that have not changed in hundreds of years.
Tai Chi is mainly harmony
for the body and mind more
than physical exercise.
It’s very passive.
Even though it makes you a
strong fighter, it takes away
the will to fight."But to truly expand the mind, travel must involve making personal connections. This can of course can happen by chance, when haggling, for example, for the same piece of jade in the market as I did with a smiling but determined Chinese grandmother. It can happen standing before an exquisitely embroidered silk robe in the Hong Kong Museum and knowing from the look in the eye of a total stranger - a young man in his thirties standing beside me - that we shared the same sense of awe. On neither occasion was a word of English spoken.
The Hong Kong Tourist Board (HKTB) has taken this concept of chance encounters one step further by introducing a free program of get-togethers between residents and visitors. It is called, appropriately, Meet the People. A number of Hong Kong identities, well known in their particular fields of interest, give their time to talk to people who see travel as an opportunity to push the boundaries of cultural knowledge. The result, as I discovered on a recent trip to Hong Kong, is a richly rewarding experience that offers a breaking down of barriers and a meeting of minds and hearts.
Tai Chi
William Ng and Pandora Wu are dressed in matching Mao-style pantsuits of silk lilac. They shimmer like two exotic butterflies as they make one graceful move after another, dipping, twisting and turning, slowly and surely in sync. They smile encouragingly as we attempt to follow, feeling awkward, fat and frumpish.
"You body is like an engine, it has to be warmed up in the morning," explains William. "If you allow an engine to go too fast it is easily damaged. We must teach it to go slowly." I follow as best I can movements with wonderful names like 'chasing waves’, 'painting clouds’ and 'mounting tigers’.
There are about four of us in the class and as we gently rev out bodies up to meet the day, Pandora smiles and says, "Tai Chi is mainly harmony for the body and mind more than physical exercise. It’s very passive. Even though it makes you a strong fighter, it takes away the will to fight."
I have been to Hong Kong several times and always on my morning walks envied the groups of people, young and old, taking time out to exercise together in such a reflective and graceful way. The Meet the People Tai Chi sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a wonderful opportunity to learn more about this ancient form of exercise as well as a chance to talk to two of Hong Kong’s best-known masters.
William and Pandora tell us they have been married for 33 years and have three children, all with successful careers in Hong Kong. William is a retired teacher of English, Pandora a martial arts teacher. Every morning at 5.30am they get up, dress and go outside to practice together: "This is when the time is most harmonised." Afterwards they go to a teahouse for breakfast.
The Language and Lore of Tea
A traditional Chinese teahouse, Moon Garden is one of a number of options on the Meet the People program and it seemed good feng shui that we had already arranged to meet owner Vincent Li later that morning. Although located in busy Causeway Bay, the Moon Garden Teahouse is a refuge for those for whom drinking tea, like Tai Chi, is part of the ritual of daily living, combining centuries of tradition and wisdom.
The Moon Garden is unexpectedly large for a city where small crowded shops are the norm, yet is an oasis of calm. Sets of Qing dynasty tables and chairs are separated by beautiful screens, combining intimacy with a sense of space. It took Vincent three years to find a suitable place to create the right setting and atmosphere for the serving of his exquisite teas. A restaurant would not work, he says. At Moon Garden he has created the sort of place he would enjoy going to himself.
Victor Choi with some of his treasures in his famous Dragon Culture
antique shop.
Vincent welcomes us to a table and a tray is placed in front of him with a tiny teapot, a bamboo scoop of tealeaves and three eggshell thin porcelain cups. "The cups are symbolic of relationships," he says. "They sit close together like friends. We watch fascinated as Vincent warms the tiny teapot with hot water, then fills it again to release the aroma, and pours it into the cups to warm and wash them, all the time talking about the language and lore of tea rituals. He then tips some Uloung tea gently into the pot explaining that all his teas come from China and Taiwan. He chooses them all himself, travelling to tea growing areas between March and late May for the best quality.
We savour the warm, subtle flavours of the tea and the satisfaction that it is doing us good. When Vincent says that tea has many medicinal qualities, he is not talking about the tea bags most of us are accustomed to in Australia. "If you leave an ordinary tea for 15 minutes," he says, "the only stuff you get rising to the top is chemicals." With Uloung tea, for example, what happens when the leaves are left to soak is that they unfurl in the shape of a dark dragon, or 'Uloon’, – hence the name.
It comes as no surprise to learn that film stars such as Jacky Chan and Gong Li are regulars at Moon Garden Teahouse and that many a film contract has been negotiated here over bowls of exotic teas behind richly carved screens. Locals tend to come in the mornings, tourists in the afternoons. The Meet the People program here is usually between 11.00 am and 12 noon or by arrangement.
Hong Kong, city of water, skyscrapers and forested
hills.
Health and food are
synonymous in Chinese Medicine.Treasures of the Past
After experiencing the beauty of drinking tea in such surroundings, we were irresistibly drawn to meet Victor Choi at his famous antique shop, Dragon Culture. It is packed from floor to ceiling with precious items, from the large pottery horse dating from the Han Dynasty, AD 23-220, to the tiny, tiny bronze tortoises from the period of the Warring States, c. 400BC.
Victor is world famous for his extraordinary knowledge of Chinese antiquity and for the treasure trove he has spent many years accumulating. He has a better collection, he says, than the Hong Kong Museum and has donated 169 pieces to the local university. "I consider it my career to make donations to the city of Hong Kong."
Victor’s passion for his subject is contagious. "When people come to meet me we just talk," he says. "I guide them in the right way to be an expert. There is a lot of homework to do."
Victor’s book for beginners, Collecting Chinese Antiquities in Hong Kong, describes about 300 of his favourite pieces. It covers commonly asked questions such as, ‘How do you know if something is genuine?’ and ‘Can I take it out of the country?’ The beauty of the objects shines forth in the quality of the pictures. He is preparing another publication on specific pieces as well as working on a horse book. His website, he claims, is the best of its type in the world (www.dragonculture.com.hk).
Vincent Li drinks tea with elegance in his Moon
Garden Teahouse
Balancing the Dragon
What a contrast from Victor’s Aladdin’s Cave to the down-to-earth home and clinic of Dr Mark Houston and his wife Sylvia. Originally from Brisbane, Mark studied in both Australia and Hong Kong where he has now lived for 34 years.
"With Chinese medicine, when a person comes to you, you diagnose their state of health, not specific diseases," he explains. "They come to stay healthy – to avoid illness. It takes many years to learn because everyone is different."
Mark manages two highly successful Wellness Centres testing clients’ fitness and prescribing exercises and treatment with traditional Chinese Medicine. When necessary, with broken limbs, for example, he refers people to Western doctors and firmly believes both approaches to health complement each other. His practice is 98 per cent Chinese.
Mark obviously thrives in Hong Kong but admits many visitors find it hard to relate to its noise and sense of urgency. "They often ask – why are people so rushed. I say, it’s their normal speed. We have a reputation for cutting corners but we’re going so fast, we don’t notice."
Perhaps the reason is that they take time, like William and Pandora, to develop inner strength; like Vincent, to be present to the time-honoured rituals of drinking tea, like Victor, to cherish objects of ancient beauty and like Mark, to maintain that crucial balance between mind and body.
Fact File The Hong Kong Tourist Board offers eight Meet the People tours. As well as the four mentioned above, there are:
‘Living with the spirit world’: an introduction to the Goddess, Tin Hau
‘A world of contrasts’: internationally respected curator Mr. Chang talks about Chinese contemporary art
‘Buns and medals’: Mr. Lai, a native of Cheung Chau tells stories of the island’s 200-year-old Bun Festival
‘Wind and Water’: an introduction to feng shui by expert practitioner, Mr. Cheung.
Contact Hong Kong Tourist Board Ph 02 9283 3083
Web www.DiscoverHongKong.com
Mary Ryllis Clark travelled to Hong Kong courtesy of Cathay Pacific and stayed in Hong Kong at the Grand Stanford Inter-Continental.
Photos: Hong Kong Tourist Board
These article and many more,
were in the
(15th edition) of Your
Retirement, Your Life.
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