Hong Kong 2007

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L’Itcca ad Hong Kong

2 e 3 day at HK

Yesterday was our second day in Hong Kong.
Master Chu, who is always traveling around Europe and the East, knows well how jet lag knocks you out on a trip like ours, that’s why he let us have a whole day of relaxing touring with him as a guide – an unusual thing-.
We met in the hotel hall around 10.30; we had a brunch at 11 – which is a very common meal here – in a Chinese restaurant, then we went off to our first destination in the south area of Hong Kong: to our big surprise, as soon as we got off the taxi, we entered some sort of amusement park, then it got more interesting as we walked in front of a pavilion where a Panda lives, but we can’t really see it because Master Chu walks away. Pity, because I heard there’s a little panda living there, very cute, that looks like a “real” teddy-bear.

We get on a cable-car, the car has a round shape with 6 seats and we have our picture taken before getting on; - as soon as we arrive to our destination (their usage of technology is amazing) they give us one picture each, and we sign it for each other as a souvenir – then we walk following the coast line up a hill, although the road keeps going on the flat and it’s three kilometers long.
We get to a queue of people trying to get on a platform, which rotates climbing up and down a tower: the line is not long though, the service is properly organized and nobody tries to push; there’s a lot of room in the platform and the trip is short, although very striking, we’re sitting and turning around watching the landscape below.
Hong Kong is situated on the sea and it spreads wide on the coast line, which is quite similar to our Riviera Ligure, even though the slopes are steeper, there’s also a thin fog which blurs our sights, Master Chu points out that it’s constantly foggy.

We go for a visit of the aquarium… there’s a pool packed with sharks of various sizes, then we walk in a tunnel made entirely of glass with sharks swimming over our heads… it’s quite impressive but I couldn’t record it with my video camera, I wish I could go back, but it’s one way path and Master Chu keeps walking forward. You should know that Master Chu rules his time, when he has an interest in something, he could stop and stand still contemplating it for a whole day, he also could just walk off and everyone can hardly keep up.

The next pavilion is the main attraction of the day, it was a huge cave with a big aquarium lake – I hope my students from Genova won’t get mad at me because the aquarium there is really beautiful, but here you can find all the species of fish you’ve seen in all the documentaries you’ve ever watched, Razze, Hammerhead Sharks, and so on – and then we see it, a huge turtle pops on top of the lake, it’s truly it, “The Sacred Turtle paddles”!
Our path walks down under the water level and, it’s marvelous, it leads us in this fascinating melting pot of shapes and colors; when we get out we feel extremely relaxed, thanks to the water and its graceful inhabitants.

We go for a rather short visit to the “Zen House” and its garden which is a huge version of the portable “Zen Gardens” that are so fashionable here.
On our way back we stop on the coast, but it’s not as stunning: looks like Rapallo except it has big skyscrapers and a small Taoist temple.

Master Chu urged us to visit it since we asked him about the temples but he laughed saying that they’re touristic attractions.

Third Day
We meet at 10.30 in the hotel hall, now we mean business, we have our own room in the hotel and we sit down reading the convention program.
We have 10 minutes for our demonstration, other groups have 4 or 5 minutes.

What to do in such a short time in front of a public? (which will be eagerly waiting for the famous pupil of Yang Sau Chung). Speaking of which, we asked him where was the house of his Master, who is the elder son of the legendary Yang Chen Fu, he turned around with a smile looking at a skyscraper, and said: “It was here, but now it’s gone”, replaced, as mainly every old house, by a huge building.

Sky

We agreed that Master Chu will show the “Ling Hung Jing”, “the Empty Power sharp as a diamond”, the powerful energy outflow of the Yang family. We formed a line and started to push him and suddenly, without any preparation, as simple as he was drinking a glass of water, but thanks to 50 years of training, as we touch him, he makes us fly all around the room.

To our big surprise everything in Hong Kong is cheaper than Europe, taxis, restaurants (9 euro for a good meal), hotel, clothes… only the Italian ice cream shop and coffee (7 euro 50) are madly expensive.

With our “powerful” euro we enter the shop area and we really are overwhelmed by the big metropolis, over our heads reign the huge and countless skyscrapers, and we really are stunned by their beauty and by their harmony with the surrounding environment. Most of them are thin, some have a hole in the middle, among them there’s an Anglican church and thousands of red taxis and double decks, as well as the narrow roads hosting the colorful and authentic Chinese markets – in the East, before building anything, it is custom to call the “wizard”, a Feng Shui expert who will weight, valuate and advice where and how to build in order to balance the energy (the line of the Dragon is really important). That’s the reason of such beauty, thanks to these building skills...anyway the traffic is heavy and the city is covered by smog.

A last note, the politeness of the people: we were looking for a taxi and an old lady, from the other side of the road, called us to point us to an empty one...

Carlo

(2 of 5) - go to number 3

Aggiornato: 4-mag-07