Mansions, Medicine, Markets and Meetings.

Most of this week, when it hasn't been pouring, I have been taking Peter down to the swimming pool to try and start rebuilding his strength. We also ate out a lot more than usual. We ate in our sports club after swimming on Tuesday, in a Thai restaurant, with our friend Bonnie, on Wednesday and in the Bounty Bar after a swim on Thursday.

Beer and gyoza after a swim.

Singapore vermicelli rice noodles for me.

In the Bounty Bar.

Enjoying fish and chips.

On Friday I was having a girls night out to celebrate my friend Linda's birthday, so I decided to go across to Hong Kong Island much earlier than our meeting time and revisit two museums. I have been to these museums quite a long time ago on a staff development day to check whether or not they would be interesting for children to visit on a school trip. The short answer to that was - probably not. Plus I was there at a time when I was neither interested in, nor knowledgeable about Hong Kong. On this visit I was much more interested.

Before heading up to the museums I had to go to a pharmacy and pick up some medicine for Peter. Then, since it was on my route, I went into Central Market. I noticed a shop devoted entirely to Harry Potter here. Maybe these are common, but I have never seen one before, so found it quite interesting. I had a quick look around Central Market, then headed up onto the Mid Levels escalator system. I passed many, many restaurants and bars on route.

Harry Potter shop.

Harry Potter.

Display in Central Market.

Display in Central Market.

Cafe in Central Market.

On the escalator.

Going up the escalator.

Restaurant viewed from the escalator.

Shop from escalator.

The first museum I visited was The Sun Yat Sen Museum. This is located inside a stunning old mansion called Kom Tong Hall. Sun Yat-sen never actually lived in this building, but the area around it is associated with many important events in his life, plus he went to school with the building's original owner.

The building's original owner was Ho Kom-tong. He was part of a very influential Eurasian family. One of his most famous family members was his older brother Sir Robert Ho Tung, a very wealthy and influential businessman and philanthropist.

Ho Kom-tong was also a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. Among other good deeds, he funded The Kau U Fong Public Dispensary to help Chinese people get through constant outbreaks of bubonic plague and he also served on the Tung Wah Hospital Board.

Kom Tong Hall was built in 1914 by two well-known English architects: Aston Webb and Ingress Bell. They also designed the eastern façade of Buckingham Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Signal Tower in Tsim Sha Tsui and the Hong Kong Supreme Court. Ho Kom-tong lived here together with his twelve wives and concubines and their thirty children. One of his daughters, Grace, married Cantonese opera star Lee Hoi-chuen, and together they gave birth to a son, the martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

There were rules in those days about which racial group could live where. Kom Tong Hall is situated in what was once a whites only area. Eurasians could not live there. Ho Kom-tong lobbied against these rules and used his considerable influence to get the racial restrictions removed.

Ho Kom-tong passed away in 1950, but the Ho family continued to live in Kom Tong Hall until 1960 when they sold it to a merchant surnamed Cheng. He then sold it a year later to The Church of Latter-day Saints. They maintained it for a while, but in 2002 planned to demolish it. Fortunately the government intervened and bought the building from them in 2004. It became the Sun Yat-sen Museum two years later and is now a declared monument.

Kom Tong Hall is made of red bricks, has windows lined with granite and ornate ironwork balconies. It was one of the first buildings in Hong Kong to have a steel frame with concealed electrical wiring. Inside the building there is a wonderful grand staircase, lots of lovely fireplaces, tiled flooring and colourful stained glass windows.

There are several exhibits about the life of Sun Yat-sen inside the museum, but while it's possible to photograph the building, it's not allowed to photograph the exhibits. Sun Yat-sen was a revolutionary who fought to overcome the Qing Dynasty and modernize China.

Kom Tong Hall.

Sun Yat-sen statue.

Sun Yat-sen statue.

Grand staircase.

Grand staircase.

Stained glass window.

Fireplace.

Hall.

Bust of Sun Yat-sen.

Bust of Sun Yat-sen.

Balcony.

Balcony.

View from the balcony.

Next I headed off to the nearby area of Tai Ping Shan. Historically this is a very interesting area. It was at one time a residential area for the Chinese population of Hong Kong, but as more and more people flooded in from the mainland, it became densely packed and overcrowded. There was no proper sewerage system and the area became filled with rats. In 1894 there was an outbreak of bubonic plague and many people lost their lives. This outbreak was followed by several more. Something had to be done. The government built plague hospitals, then sent soldiers around to check for people who were sick or dying and remove them to the hospitals. Sometimes the Chinese population hid their dead relatives. They practised ancestor worship and their relatives' bones were very important to them. They didn't want them taken away. Another anti-plague measure was to provide disinfected rat bins. These were often attached to lamp-posts. They could still be found in Hong Kong up until the mid 1970's. Dead rats were placed in these and the disinfectant helped kill off the plague germs. The rats' bodies were collected frequently and examined for signs of plague in the Pathological Institute. This was where I was heading next.

The Old Pathological Institute is an Edwardian style red brick building which opened in 1906. It was built to find a solution to the plague outbreaks. Nowadays it is The Museum of Medical Sciences. It costs HK$20 to go in, about £2.00. This museum contains the old laboratory where the dead rats from the plague bins were analyzed. It also has displays on the SARS outbreak, information on foot binding, models showing the inoculation of cattle to combat Smallpox, a herb garden, a reconstruction of a Chinese herbalist shop and autopsy tables.

The Institute of Medical Science.

The Institute of Medical Science.

The Institute of Medical Science.

The Institute of Medical Sciences.

The herb garden.

The herb garden.

Statue of Alexander Yersin. He was a Swiss-French physician, bacteriologist and the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague.

Painting showing insanitary living conditions and a plague victim.

Government inspectors check houses for plague victims and locals try to conceal the dead or dying.

Government inspectors removing the dead and sick.

The staircase in The Institute of Medical Science.

Staircase.

Furniture and window.

Fireplace.

View through a window.

Old laboratory. These scientists are dissecting plague rats.

Old laboratory.

In Memory of Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole, a philanthropist. There's a hospital here named after her.

Exhibition on SARS.

Chinese herbalist shop.

Inoculating cattle.

Model of densely packed housing in the Tai Ping Shan area.

I was also interested in the exhibition on foot binding. For many years in China women with small feet were considered desirable. To make their feet small, females were forced to bind them. This process began in childhood. Women had their toes broken and bound flat against their sole. The process was agonizing. They could no longer walk properly and risked infection which may even result in their death. Foot binding was banned in 1912.

X-ray of bound feet.

Model of bound feet.

Embroidered shoes for bound feet.

The streets around this area are known for being very steep. There are lots of restaurants and bars in this area, plus lots of street art.

Ladder Street.

Ladder Street.

Ladder Street street art.

Street art.

Street art.

Street art.

Street art.

When I left The Institute of Medical Science, I had a look at Blake Garden. This was at one time the epicentre of the densely packed housing where plague thrived. Sir Henry Arthur Blake, who was Governor at the time, had the slum houses here demolished and a park built in their place to ensure there was more open space and fresh air in this area. Nowadays Blake Garden has some incredible banyan trees.One in particular is really huge and elaborate.

Blake Gardens.

Banyan trees.

Banyan trees.

The Tung Wah Hospital is not far from Blake Garden.This owes its origins to a small temple called Kwong Fook I-tsz, which was on Tai Ping Shan Street. This temple provided refuge to the sick or destitute, but it gradually became overwhelmed. A group of Chinese community leaders became concerned about this and raised funds to build a hospital for these poor sick people. They called it The Tung Wah Hospital.

Tung Wah Hospital.

Tung Wah Hospital.

Tung Wah Hospital.

Next I headed to Upper Lascar Row, home to Cat Street Antiques and Flea Market. This street is nicknamed Cat Street because in the past some of the merchandise here was stolen goods. Stolen goods in Cantonese are known as 'rats' and those who prey on rats, i.e. in this case purchase them, are called cats. This market is quite fascinating. Much of the stuff here is cheap imitation, but there are also some interesting historical or cultural goods such as Chairman Mao memorabilia.

Cat Street Market.

Cat Street Market.

Cat Street Market.

Cat Street Market.

Cat Street Market.

Cat Street Market.

I still had a bit of time left before meeting my friends for dinner, but I decided to find the restaurant, just to make sure I knew where it was. I wandered the whole of Jervois Street looking for it and didn't find it. Fortunately, my friend Yang, who chose the restaurant, sent us all a picture of the front entrance of the building. It's not obvious there's a restaurant there as you have to go up in a lift to the second floor.

No wonder I couldn't find it.

Bear on the second floor.

The restaurant is called The Moon Thai Restaurant. There's a huge bear like the Harrod's bear at the entrance. It's good for taking photos with.

As Yang was the most familiar with the restaurant, she chose the food. It was really delicious. We had an excellent pomelo salad, a selection of cooked meats and spring rolls, crab baked inside a loaf of bread, spring greens, tom yum soup and a selection of Thai desserts. It was lovely to finally celebrate Linda's birthday and see Yang, Lai, Sarah and Maggie again. We all had a lot of news to catch up on.

Our group.

Our group.

Sarah and I.

Pomelo salad.

Cooked meats and spring rolls.

Tom yum soup.

Crab baked in bread.

Linda with her desserts.

Happy Birthday Linda.

Posing with the bear.

Posing with the bear.

Linda's flowers.

Next day I had offered to take my friend Janet hiking. She brought her friend Rachel along, too. We were originally going to walk from Stanley Mound Pumping Station along Tai Tam East Catchwater to Tai Tam Harbour, but as it turned out to be a really hot humid day, I suggested we did the Tai Tam Heritage Trail that I did recently instead. My reasoning being that it had no stairs to clamber up and down. This walk turned out to be just right for the sticky weather, especially the areas with a bit of breeze.

Janet, Rachel and I.

Janet, Rachel and I.

At the end of the walk Janet and Rachel headed off to Stanley for lunch. I decided not to join them as I had left Peter alone two days in a row so felt I should go home and spend some time with him, plus I was still full from the Thai meal. I was glad I did actually because easy walk or not I felt I'd had enough sun for one day.