Learn-a-word picture card

One more Chinese lesson? This is the sign of a furniture/household items shop and to you, it can serve as a learn-a-word picture card. The pronunciation is "wun ying" in Cantonese, and I'm sure you know what it means now. Hope you don't have insect phobia. Tags: Chinese|Central|Wun Ying Collection|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Look right, look left

Since you notice that driving direction is different; and some of you are thinking about visiting, let me show you this -- once in a while you'll see these big signs on the ground reminding people which way to look when crossing the road...also, taxi is red in HK. See this lady has Burberry pattern umbrella and bag...must be a big fan. Tags: street scene|Central|taxi|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Show and tell on mini van

How much can I tell you about HK from this photo? This is a 16-seat public mini van...we use electronic stored value card for fare payment (the dark grey device)...they take cash too, of course (the beige box with green label)...the LED is a speedometer...if the driver speeds, we can call 9277 7643 to report...it was 5:12 pm when I took this photo...it was sunny yesterday...and obviously it was not easy for me to get a properly leveled shot on a mini van... :-) Tags: street scene|Causeway Bay|mini van|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Perfect match HK version

This photo reminds me of a post in Paris Daily Photo showing a lady with red outfit matching pefectly with the color of a shop window. I was trying to photograph the blue and white decoration along the Star Ferry walkway when this lady with the matching blue sweater rushed into frame. Tags: Central|street scene|Star Ferry|blue|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Incense tower

As far as I know, these are called "incense tower". I found this roadside worship place in an alley I walk past from time to time, but had never taken much notice of. From what I heard when I took the photo, it is a Taoist worship place. I only managed to take a few shots because it was very very smokey. Tags: Central|street scene|Chinese|worship|incense|taoist|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Take a break

Mr Dove: It's sunday, and I need a break from being chased by those kids... A dove taking a nap in the Victoria Park. ps, beautiful stripes on its feather... Tags: Causeway Bay|Victoria Park|dove|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Say "cheese"

How do you get 50 kids in a group photo and capture the nano second when nobody blinks or looks away? I took this photo in a park and I stood next to the group's photographer, until I heard somebody asked: who's that? :p Tags: Botanical Garden|Central|park|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Dream chair

This big red velvet chair is the signature of Pacific Coffee, a local chain cafe which started here before Starbucks did. There are, inevitably, different opinions as to whose coffee is better but the comfy chair surely earns extra credit for Pacific Coffee. They are tailor-made and when asked from where, the staff wouldn't tell. I really want one for myself. p.s. please let me know if HKDP doesn't show up ok on your side with this new layout. Thanks Tags: Central|Pacific Coffee|chair|red|velvet|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Fashion changes, styles remains

(click photo to enlarge) The walk from Emporio Armani (also seen yesterday) to the new Bape store probably takes about 5 minutes. Though it may take 5 hours for those who decide to check out all these stores along the way. The HQ of HSBC is nearby so in case they need some service... I think the facade of the Harvey Nichols store is beautiful, and credit to Coco Chanel for her quotation in today's title. Tags: Central|Bape store|Emporio Armani|Harvey Nichols|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Fashion doublebill

Let's go shopping today. This is the very heart of Central, which is the heart of HK. Here we have an Italian fashion empire face to face with a French one :-). Don't think their customers take buses, so the bus stop is probably for people like me who take photos but not the merchandise. See another shot and the answer to yesterday's (obviously easy) "guess who" quiz here. Tags: Central|street scene|LV|Armani|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Red cotton and starry eye

I took this photo in Central, the bright red flowers are of cotton tree (literally red cotton in Chinese, aka hero tree) which blooms gloriously in spring and there are many of them around. Here's a beautiful shot by my friend and see a whole tree here. In the background is a giant advertising billboard and it is the eye of a movie star looking at you. Guess who? :-) Tags: Central|red cotton|movie star|Sharon Stone|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Buildings of stamps

I am so amazed by this 4 m x 6.5 m stamp mosaic of HK's waterfront. The description says it took nearly 1 year for post service staff and their families to make, using used stamps collected locally and from 98 overseas postal administrations. See the buildings in yesterday's photo? I almost couldn't resist posting multiple photos today, but click here and enlarge, you'll see the beautiful details. Tags: Central|stamps|mosaic|waterfront|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Buildings of power

It was sunny yesterday and after a few days in an older district, I want to show you another side of the city. These buildings dominated the Central district, the heart of the world's 10th largest trading entity and 11th largest banking centre. They are, from right, Citigroup, Bank of China, Cheung Kong Centre (of the world's 10th richest man Li Ka Shing), HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. Tags: Central|banks|Citigroup|Bank of China|Li Ka Shing|HSBC|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

You've got mail!

New buildings have mailboxes like Excel cells, but old buildings have "character" mailboxes that can tell stories. In this case, people at unit A tried too hard on mailbox security -- their mail can't even go through the narrow opening, the G/F unit seems to have the opposite attitude; people on 1/F reads the Financial Times, the 2/F occupant has a tax notice, and the 3/F is shared by Riminton and Taguchi...(trust me, I don't spy on mailboxes, I'm just doing this for you!) Tags: street scene|mail box|old buildings|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Everything has its beauty

Let's step back a little to look at the building in yesterday's photo. It is really a matter of perspective of how we see things and how we judge them beauty or beast. I never expected the old building would come out nicely in photo and only took one shot of it. Like some city photo bloggers have noted, we keep discovering new things in our cities that we didn't see before. These statues stood outside of an antique store waiting to be picked up. Tags: Central|old building|antique|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

The grandma of apartment buildings

I would say most apartment buildings in HK are not as beautiful as those in Barcelona or Paris. But older buildings built after WWII such as this one stand witness of a time when the city was striving to recover and practicality had all the priority. Not much design with this one but it is in the area where my grandma lived so I think I can show you what I saw as a child -- TALL buildings. I took this from a small slope so the orange "pizza" sign is actually of the ground floor shop. Tags: Central|old building|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Friendly neighborhood store

I just realised when I looked at other Daily Photo blogs that I haven't shown you HK at night. How could I? For a city which sparkles at night, there are also quiet corners such as this neighborhood store. It opens till late at night and is one of those friendly stores where owners chat with customers and if you forget to bring your wallet, you can get things and pay later. Tags: neighborhood store|night scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Wong Kar Wai's colors

Have you heard of HK director Wong Kar Wai? Well, I'm not a fan but I like some of his movies. I spotted this in a 50+ year old herbal tea shop in Central (see this photo), these colors and the nostalgic mood surely remind me of Wong's movies. BTW, Wong's Happy Together gave me my first impression of Buenos Aires, but now of course I refer to Karine and Cynthia's photoblogs. Tags: Wong Kar Wai|herbal tea shop|Happy together|movies|nostalgic|ceramic tiles|glass|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Photographers photographed

Hong Kong Daily Photo is one month old! :-) While I have enjoyed myself bringing images of HK life to you, I have yet to overcome a few things, eg, taking photos of people on the streets is still tricky to me. Therefore, you can imagine my joy when I went to the Flower Show and found there were as many photographers as there were flowers, and people just didn't care if you were pointing your camera at them. To get an idea of how the show was dominated by cameras, see also here. Tags: Causeway Bay|Victoria Park|Flower show|photographers|tulips|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Flowers on jeans

Of the many exhibits this year, I find this entry in a design competition most interesting. I forgot to check if this one wins but it did stand out from the other entries. How do you like it? Tags: Causeway Bay|Flower Shop|design|jeans|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

My Paris in HK

L'anniversaire heureux à Paris Daily Photo! We have french restaurants, Alliance Francaise, French May, Agnes b and Chanel here, but to me, Eric's Paris Daily Photo is the most Parisien and French in HK. I found Eric's blog last December and as he encouraged in his blog, I started Hong Kong Daily Photo last month. To thank Eric for his wonderful idea and to celebrate the first anniversary of Paris Daily Photo, I would like to share my exclusive everyday view -- on my computer, Eric's photo; and looking out from the window, the rooftop patio featured in the very first post of this blog. Tags: window|view|computer|Central|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Smooth sailing ahead

I found this in Aberdeen, the southernmost part of HK. The lucky poster, literally says: "A sail with favorable wind", was stuck on a pillar near a quay. Together with the red ribbon and other well-wishing symbols, it expresses warm wishes by the fishermen's families for their safe return. Once a quiet fishing village, Aberdeen has grown into a big town in the past decades but it is still home to most of HK's fishing boats and fishermen. Tags: Aberdeen|lucky poster|fishermen|boats|fishing village|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Arugula Arugula Arugula

Today, I am showing you a special roadside stall in Central. It has a wide range of imported vegetables at very reasonable prices. The ones we see here are not usually used for Chinese dishes so I bet a lot of expatriates shop here. Sometimes, even if I don't need anything, I would just stop by and watch. My favorite among these is Arugula (or rocket, rocquette) which is usually hard to get and expensive. What is your favorite? Tags: Central|market|vegetables|Arugula|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Concrete Jungle

With very limited land on a hilly island, the HK side is much more packed with tall buildings than the Kowloon peninsula. Shorter, older buildings such as those in the foreground are giving way to skyscrapers. And there seems to be an ongoing competition among the skyscrapers to be taller to get a bit of open view, or if lucky, a sliver of harbor view. I took this photo in SoHo, an area with interesting contrasts of old and new, east and west as you can also see in my previous post Trendily Traditional. Tags: SoHo|skyscrapers|concrete jungle|old buildings|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Alternative graffiti

I smile eveytime I look at this photo. Firstly, this graffiti is so kiddy, and my imagination of some kindergarten kids sneaking out at night to draw it makes me laugh. Secondly, there is a local story behind -- China Motor Bus was a very unpopular company and the graffiti shows just how bad the service was: rude drivers, skipping stops and reckless driving. The government terminated its licence some years ago and it is now history. (click for more photos) I hope you will find this amusing as much as I do...LOL. Tags: Central|street scene|graffiti|kiddy|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Solitary trash can

Well...finally we got some sunshine here a couple of days ago and I took this in a quiet corner of a park. You know what, I only realised when I took this photo that there are different colors of trash cans in the city, most are blue or green, and this one is red. No idea how they assign the colors though. Tags: park|sunny|trash can|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Trendily Traditional

A contrast of old and new HK. I took this in SoHo (south of Hollywood Road), an interesting neighbourhood mixing old residential buildings and trendy upmarket eateries. The old vendor is selling some kind of traditional Chinese snacks, while behind him is the popular Staunton's Cafe (on Staunton Street) which offers my favorite all-day breakfast. Tags: Central|street scene|SoHo|Hollywood Road|old vendor|Chinese snacks|Staunton Street|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Fated to the purpose

The first time I saw this lady, my camera's battery ran out and I thought: Bummer! Back home that night, I realised I had lost my scarf, so the next day, I retraced my route trying to find it. At the end of a 3-hour search, at almost the same time, I was back at the same spot and there she was. I lost my scarf but I got the shot. It is a 12 year-old scarf which carries special meaning to me. To make myself feel better, I imagine somewhere in this city, an underprivileged elderly is using it, so it is fated to a good purpose. Life is interesting :-) Tags: park|exercise|trees|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

catTalk

Tiger to Panda: "She's here with the camera again!" "Yeah...I know...been snooping around like that for weeks." "What should we do, what about our personality rights?" "Eh...don't worry, I just closed my eyes to spoil her shot...just like people always do!" I think they are beautiful though uncooperative. Well...should also credit them for holding still on that railing. :-) Tags: cat|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Last but not least -- dinner fish

Even if you don't have fengshui fish, paper fish, floral fish or dishy fish in your city, I'm quite sure you have dinner fish. Hong Kong people love seafood, so unless one is vegetarian or loves Nemo too much, grocery-shoppers always check out what is available at the fishmongers' . This photo is taken at Wanchai, an older district on the HK island with a big outdoor market spanning several streets. Obviously, no spot-the-fish competition today. Tags: Wanchai|seafood|fishmonger|market|fish|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

New dishes, anyone?

Wife to husband: "Honey, I invited some friends home for supper." "Are you crazy? All the dishes are dirty!" "I know that." "Then why did you invite friends for supper?" "Because the poor gals are thinking about getting married." I walked past a closing down sale in Wanchai yesterday. Does anybody need new dishes? Tags: dish|fish|plates|ceramics|Chinese|Wanchai|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life