Bethanie.

I have walked down from the Peak via Pokfulam Reservoir a few times now and, every time, when I reach Pokfulam Road at the end of my hike, I find myself face to face with Bethanie.

Bethanie used to be a sanatorium run by the French Foreign Mission. It was used as a place where French missionaries, working in Mainland China could come and rest between posts.

I found myself intrigued by this building, as it was only possible to see so little of it, yet when I looked it up, I found it had interesting octagonal buildings and a beautiful old chapel. I wanted to get inside, but how? The gates were always padlocked and there were signs up about the building not being open to the public.

Then, by chance, I discovered it was possible to go to Bethanie on a tour. The tours are only available three or four times a month and cost HK$25 plus HK$15 booking fee, which is around four or five pounds. I got onto the booking site and found all the tours for September were fully booked. There was nowhere to book for a later month. I tried again in October and found, all October tours fully booked, no chance to book November. Well, I was determined not to give up, so I kept on checking the booking site pretty much on a daily basis.

One day, it finally paid off. I saw a sign saying November bookings will go on sale from 10am on the 16th of October. On that day, I had the booking page open before 10am and sat staring at it, waiting for the tickets to go on sale. At exactly 10am, I began the booking process. I got all the way through to payment, then was told my credit card could not be accepted. I was livid. I had to start the whole process again. It was 10.02 the date I wanted, November 22nd, was now sold out. I couldn't believe it. I grabbed a different credit card. November 22nd was gone November 15th was showing very limited availability. I pounced on November 8th, re-entered all my details and pressed pay. Mercifully, my booking was successful. It was about 10.05 and all tours were now showing fully booked!!! I don't think my nerves can stand any more outings like this.

I had to go to one of the Hong Kong ticketing outlets to get my ticket, so I chose to go to the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, but I forgot to bring my credit card, so they wouldn't give me the ticket. I finally got it on my second attempt and hoped nothing else would go wrong.

I knew the only way to get into Bethanie was on a tour, but unfortunately all of these were in Cantonese. I realised I would understand absolutely nothing, but I also knew it was the only way to get into the building. The tour was scheduled for 3pm yesterday. As usual, I left ridiculously early as I was utterly paranoid about missing it.

I took the MTR to HKU Station where I planned to switch to a bus. Since I was ridiculously early, I decided I would go into Hong Kong University to photograph the main building, which is quite old and attractive. I actually studied at Hong Kong University for one year. It was here that I did my teacher training course. Believe it or not, I don't think I looked at the old part of the university even once during that year, or if I did I have long since forgotten it.

The University of Hong Kong is the oldest institute of tertiary education in Hong Kong. The idea of creating the university was proposed by Governor Frederick Lugard and the university was officially opened in 1911. Most of the university buildings are very new and not especially attractive, but the main building is old. It has a clock tower and several quadrangles, filled with ponds and greenery.

This is a picture of Hong Kong Main University building in the MTR station.

More art work on the station walls.

More art work on the station walls.

More art work on the station walls.

Clock tower of the Main University Building.

The clock tower of the Main Building.

Looking down into a quadrangle.

Pond in a quadrangle.

Pond in a quadrangle.

Corridor in the old building.

Corridor in the old building.

Arched walkways.

Doorway.

Bust of Dr Loke Yew, a Malayan, who was one of the original benefactors of the University in 1912. He is credited with saving the university from near ruin during the financial crisis of 1915, by making it a loan of $500,000. There is a huge university hall named after him.

Sculpture outside the university.

After a wander around the old part of the university, I headed to Pokfulam Road to get bus 970 to Pokfulam Reservoir Road. When I got off the bus, I took a photo of Bethanie from the outside, while puzzling over what was in there, hopefully for the last time. I crossed the road and found the gates of Bethanie tightly padlocked and the sign saying it was not open to the public still firmly in place. I was not pleased.

Bethanie from the main road.

I decided there had to be another way in. I could clearly see that it was not off to the right of the building, so I headed to the left. The road just kept going straight with the wall around Bethanie towering above me. It felt as if there would just never be a turn off. Eventually, I came to a road heading off to the left. On one side of it there was an International Culinary Institute. On the other there were some old buildings that looked more promising. Suddenly, I noticed a Bethanie sign. What a relief!

International Culinary Institute.

I headed off towards the right and came to Pokfulam Farm. This is also a museum and it is free, but you can only visit it if you make a reservation. I had tried to make a reservation for when I visited Bethanie, but wasn't able to, so I will visit on the 24th of November instead. I just took a couple of pictures on this visit.

The Pokfulam Farm Sign in words.

Dairy Farm Sign in pictures.

Pokfulam Farm.

Pokfulam Farm.

Pokfulam Farm.

Just past the farm was Bethanie. Bethanie was built by the Missions Etrangères de Paris around 1875 as a sanatorium for sick or exhausted missionaries who had been posted to missions in Mainland China or other parts of Asia .

French Mission Symbol.

Symbol of the French Mission.

Bethanie was located on a hilltop and surrounded by dairy pastures, so it would have had lots of fresh air and access to fresh dairy produce. I'd imagine it would have been quite peaceful and have beautiful views. As well as running a sanatorium, the priests here also successfully established a printing press.

Bethanie.

Bethanie.

Selfie with Bethanie.

In 1974, around a hundred years after it began, the French Mission sold Bethanie to Hong Kong Land, who in turn sold it to the University of Hong Kong. The university did not want to spend lots of money restoring it, so sold it to the Hong Kong Government. They intended to demolish it, but, fortunately, it was saved in 1981 when it was declared a Grade II listed building. In 2006 the building was taken over by the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts as its School of Film and Television. There is a theatre in Bethanie and occasionally performances are held there. The chapel is used by the Anglican Emmanuel Church of Pokfulam every Sunday. One of the loveliest things about Bethanie is its beautiful neo-gothic chapel.Bethanie is also home to a museum.

The architect of Bethanie was Father Pierre-Marie Osouf. He was the head of the French Foreign Mission in Hong Kong, before later being appointed as the Archbishop of Tokyo. His assistant, Father Charles Edmond Patriat, supervised the building of Bethanie and, after its official opening, became the first Superior here.

When the French Foreign Mission sold Bethanie, the furnishings and fittings from the chapel ended up being dispersed all over. Then when the HKAPA started restoring it, Philip Soden, Director of Operations at the academy, began tracking down as many of the missing furnishings as he could. He was able to retrieve the altar, reredos, communion rails and sacristy doors. He also found nineteen of the original stain glass windows. Four of the apostle statues, which adorned the altar, were also retrieved, but eight are still missing.

I was about fifteen minutes too early for the tour so I took a quick look around the outsides of the buildings by myself.

Bethanie Corridor.

Bethanie.

View through the arched window.

Corridors in Bethanie.

Wandering around Bethanie.

View from Bethanie.

I noticed a lovely bauhinia tree. The bauhinia is the symbol of Hong Kong. It's on our money and on our flag. Bauhinias were first discovered in Hong Kong around 1880 by a French Catholic Missionary of the Missions Etrangères de Paris. He found the bauhinias while out walking in Pokfulam near Bethanie. He gave cuttings from the tree to the botanical gardens of Hong Kong from which many other bauhinia trees were grown. There is a bauhinia tree in the grounds of Bethanie. I wonder if it also grew from one of these cuttings.

Bauhinias.

Bauhinias.

It was time for the start of my tour. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what the guide was saying from start till finish, so I just followed the group and took lots of photos while trying to read up on all the information on my own.

Waiting for the tour.

The tour began in one of the two octagonal buildings. These were once part of the Pokfulam Dairy Farm.

The Pokfulam Dairy Farm was created in 1886 by Scottish surgeon, Sir Patrick Manson and five other business men. They wanted to improve the health of people in Hong Kong by providing fresh milk at affordable prices. At one time, the dairy farm had fifty cowsheds and occupied three hundred acres of farmland. It continued business until the 1970's. Nowadays, the Dairy Farm may have closed down, but the company behind it is rather successful. It is currently a huge retailer and includes: Wellcome, Mannings, Maxim’s and the Hong Kong franchises of 7-Eleven and IKEA.

For the tour, we got to look in one of the octagonal cow sheds. The other is used as a theatre. There were models of cows and lots of information panels explaining the history of the dairy farm and of Bethanie.

Octagonal cow sheds.

Octagonal cow sheds.

Selfie with Octagonal cow sheds.

In the octagonal dairy.

In the octagonal dairy.

Cow models in octagonal dairy.

Cow inside octagonal cow shed.

Hoof prints decorate the floor.

Photo of Sir Patrick Manson.

Old photo of the dairy workers.

Old Photo of Pokfulam Dairy.

Old photo of the cow sheds

Next, we went to the main building of Bethanie. We noted the sign of the Missions Etrangères de Paris on the front door. When we entered there was a long corridor in front of us, which led to the lovely Chapel of Bethanie. I loved the stain glass windows and the beautiful wood carvings here. I saw the four apostles that had been tracked down, guarding the altar and saving some space for their missing brothers.

Bethanie Door.

Bethanie Corridor.

Inside the chapel.

Stained glass windows above the altar.

Stained glass windows.

Stained glass windows.

Stained glass windows.

Stain glass window.

Stain glass window.

Stain glass window.

Two of the apostles.

Two of the apostles.

Carved vines.

Carved flowers.

Carved flowers Close up.

Floor tiles.

Old photo of religious procession in Pokfulam.

Old photo of Bethanie.

Old photo of Father Charles Edmond Patriat.

When we were finished in the chapel, we went back out into the corridor and went downstairs to the museum. This was housed in a cellar, which contained racks of wine bottles, boxes which would have stored flour, sugar, rice and other necessities. There were also several religious reliquaries here. Plus there were some information panels about Bethanie and its history.

Inside the museum.

Inside the museum.

Wine bottles.

Wine bottles.

Wine bottles.

Storage boxes.

Storage boxes.

Reliquaries.

Pottery inside the museum.

Before I left Bethanie, I took one final look around the grounds. I noticed a beautiful old ruined wall and a stairway. At the foot of the stairway were the remains of a colourful mosaic floor.

Fancy walls.

Mosaic and walls.

Mosaic.

Mosaic.

I had finally satisfied my curiosity about this building and could make my way home.