Day Three in Hong Kong

Thursday 20th June, 2013

My meandering took a different route to the ferry terminal and I encountered a "time ball", first picture. This simple but effective device was popular in Europe and we put one up here for the same purpose namely for ships chronometers to be set to the right time. At about 12:50 pm every day the ball was raised and then at 1pm sharp it was dropped (this still happens). Ships in the harbour could then set their watches to the correct time which, of course, was required for accurate navigation. Never heard of it before. Live and learn. 

Once again I caught the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong and first port of call was the maritime museum which was not what I was expecting. I had hoped that it would cover the history of Victoria Harbour and the development of Hong Kong as an important seaport. Although it covered this it also covered the long maritime history of China as a sea faring nation, how to build a junk etc. I suspect that political correctness has intruded and they couldn't tell the story of Hong Kong in all it''s glory because 99% of it happened without China. However, they did mention a few sea battles they had with the Japanese, French and us all of which they lost. For all the hype as to how great the Chinese navy was I didn't spot one display of a battle that they actually won. All vaguely interesting but somewhat disappointing.

Just for fun I got on a random "ding ding" which is the local name for a tram. Very narrow vehicles but cheap to use with a flat fare of HG 2.30 (about 80p) for what ever distance. I had no set destination but at one point when we were waiting at some traffic lights I spotted a sign on the pavement for the "Mid level escalator" which I had heard about and thought worth a look.

The escalator system apparently runs for 880 meters and rises 135 meters but I only went along a couple of the lower ramps because there is only one moving bit and I would have had to walk back down which didn't appeal to me.

Definitely enough sight seeing and beer and an investigation of the underbelly of Hong Kong is now in order :-)

R.