Hong Kong Adventures: Hong Kong Day 20 -- Hong Kong Heritage Museum

Today we slept in a bit and woke up to pretty heavy rain. Because it was rainy, Ciara and I decided to go to a museum. We had looked at museums around the other day, and decided to see a culture/history museum. We chose the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin.

The easiest way to get there is to take MTR, so we went to the MTR station across from our apartment. To get to the museum we had to take 5 different trains, some were for only 1 or 2 stops. We took a train to Admiralty, then took the Tsuen Wan Line to Yau Ma Tei, then the Kwun Tong Line to Kowloon Tong, the East Rail Line to Tai Wai, and then took the Ma On Shan Line to Che Kung temple. We walked from the station down to the museum. Luckily it wasn't raining too hard, but we still got a bit wet, even with umbrellas. Once we got to the museum, we went to buy a ticket. Tickets to the museums are $10 HK and they also have student tickets that are $5 HK. We were able to get the student ticket, so we got to see the museum for less than $1 US.

The museum was really neat, they had some things on Hong Kong history, Cantonese Opera history, and Chinese art. We walked through the Cantonese Opera area first. They had displays about how the stages and theaters were set up, and also information about costumes, characters, and make up. The set ups were so elaborate, it was really cool to see what they were like, even a few hundred years ago. They also had a place that we could see what we would look like with opera makeup on. You choose a character, and then take a picture. They then put your face in with the makeup, hair and costume that you chose. It was pretty fun and entertaining and we each did a few different characters.

After the Opera exhibit, we went over to the "New Territories Heritage Hall." It was a gallery with how Hong Kong, and the New Territories area specifically, has evolved. They had information about how people lived, including what they wore, how they fished, how they made various things, what they did to remember ancestors and to celebrate occasions. There were also displays about when Hong Kong was turned over again, and how it has evolved in more recent years.

After New Territories, we walked through the kids area to see what it was like. They had a room full of music instruments and a few different interactive areas. Because of the instruments, it was really loud and they even had a sign about it being noisy because kids were playing.

Next we went into the temporary art gallery. This one was paintings by Cao Qileng and his disciples. All of them were really pretty and it was amazing how detailed they were. He has landscapes, plants, people, and animals, including some other things.

The last thing we saw was another art gallery. This one is the T. T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art. There was a big variety of things in it, paintings, pottery, statues, stones and jewelry, and an area of tibetan art, from fabric/quilt items to statues and other paintings.

We ate lunch in the restaurant attached to the museum. We weren't sure where we were going to eat, but we looked at the menu and decided that it sounded pretty good, and the prices were also really good. I got BBQ pork fried rice. It was nice and warm, and I was really hungry, so it was just right.

After we ate we walked over to the Che Kung Temple. It is still in use, so there were quite a few people there and a lot of incense burning. Because it was still rainy we didn't walk around it too much, mostly went from the entrance to the main hall and back. Spent a bit of time in each building, and then headed back to the MTR.

There is a horse racing track in Causeway Bay that has races every Wednesday night. There is a special visitors pass that is $10HK and gets you in and allows you to go to the special members level. We would like to try to go next week, so we stopped by the track on the way home to see if we could buy the tickets. We weren't sure where you get tickets, and because it was raining we only went to one main office area, and we weren't able to buy them there. If it wasn't raining we probably would have walked around a little bit to see if we could find the place to buy tickets. We can also buy them on the day of the race, so we will be able to go then to get them.

After the racetrack, we walked back to our apartments to rest for a little while before dinner. Ana invited us over for dinner tonight. It was her and Mark; one of their friends; Josh (a crown employee who just moved here from Crown Washington DC) and his wife Vana; and us. Dinner was delicious, it was so nice to have home cooked food. We had quinoa soup, quiche, baked fish, ratatouille, and coconut rice. She also made chocolate pudding for dessert. It was all so good, and we ate so much. We were stuffed after eating. It was fun to just hang out and talk. We had spent time with Ana and Mark, but not a whole lot of time just sitting and talking. Ciara and I had met Josh because he works on the same floor as us, but we had only talked to him for a few minutes. He is actually from Virginia, but lived in Cupertino and Sacramento for a few years.

We finished dinner and then went down to Lan Kwai Fung to join Kathy and Ciara's friends again. Lan Kwai Fung is a really big bar/night life scene. It was crazy how many people were down there. They close down the streets so that people can be out on the street in front of the bars. It was raining off and on, so the street was packed when it stopped raining, and then it cleared out quickly when it started raining. People would go into the bars to avoid the rain, and then back out onto the street once it stopped.