Hong Kong | oliviatamccue

Rekindle Life-long friendship with reunions

by ccue

2025 marks the beginning that I have been in the California Bay Area longer than Hong Kong , a city where I was born and raised. To which city am I supposed to be homecoming?

Every trip to Hong Kong reminds me that happiness is tied to human connections. Trips in Hong Kong are less about sightseeing, more about connections with families and friends. There is the delight to find families and friends doing well. Special events often play a role in firming up our travel plan. This year, the special event turned out to be the 125th anniversary of my secondary school.

When I was still studying in secondary school, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of school. This year is the 125th anniversary of my secondary school, 45 years since the 80th anniversary. I made the trip to join the anniversary dinner with over a thousand other graduates in Hong Kong. How amazing is that!

Despite many complaints about the demanding nature of Hong Kong education systems, the Hong Kong system appears to offer a better environment for students to build lasting friendships. I personally experienced the life-long friendship deeply again with the multiple reunions with the secondary school classmates on this trip.

The Hong Kong pre-college education consists of kindergarten years, 6 primary school years and 6 secondary school years. In my days, the students have just a few subjects we can choose: art vs science, geography vs history, etc. Due to the limited varieties, I had many classmates taking the same curricula with me. That created so many shared memories. The classmates may drift apart for years. Some of us may move to different places of the world. Often when someone, like me, comes back to Hong Kong for a short trip, we get together, the bonding revives so naturally and so quickly. It is a life-long friendship with a class of friends.

Comparatively, the Bay Area education consists of pre-school years, 6 elementary school years, 2 middle school schools, then four high school years. There is less continuity when the kids grow up in their teen years. The rich choice of subjects mean most kids hardly are on the same curricula or with the same teachers. After graduation, the classmates would settle in different parts of the US if not of the world, far away from each other. Sometimes, I am concerned about the few friendships one can sustain after graduation especially for those who may not be a social butterfly in their teen years. In spite of its heavy homework and strenuous studies, the Hong Kong system is better in terms of life-long friendship.

The school celebrated the 80th anniversary of school when I was still a teenager. The school did not jump from the 80th anniversary to the 125th anniversary. I skipped many, if not all, the between, and jumped 45 years for a special anniversary dinner.

The 125 anniversary dinner was held in the 5-star Hopewell hotel in Hong Kong, with 125 tables, 10 per table. When I arrived at the hotel, many current students in the CheongSam school uniform were there at the building entry, showing us the ways to the Grand Ballroom on the 16/F floor. They bridged all the years, and brought back so many memories of my own school days. They just looked to be the refined and upgraded versions of our generations. When I got to the Grand Ballroom, it became immediately apparent that the organizers had put in tons of thoughts in setting up the venue. It certainly felt star-studded an Oscar experience with classmates, students, teachers and principles. I immediately felt at ease and it was easy to find my table among the 125 tables. A couple of my classmates were already there. One also flew in from California. We had not seen each other for years. Just seeing her made my trip to Hong Kong worthwhile. Soon the tables were filled. The conversations bridged all the gaps of the years. My school is a Girls’ Christian school. We were busy chatting, and did not notice the noise level of a thousand of us catching up with each other in the Grand Ballroom. It took some effort for the MC to kick off the evenings with school songs and prayers. The school song has a phrase that tells our hearts to stay together even if we will be far apart. I certainly felt that I had not lived up to that phrase after drifting away for many of the years. The performance of the current students has been impressive, and the farewell set up for the current school principal has been thoughtful and heartwarming. What I like the most is the opportunities to catch up with each other, reminisce about our school days, see our teachers, and other familiar faces. We took a bunch of photos together.

It was an evening that I would remember for a very long time. I am thankful that after all these years, we can rekindle our friendship and are still young enough to have some remaining years together. We met again shortly after the anniversary dinner and look forward to more happy times in the years to come.

If you graduated from high school this year, and your school continues another 45 years, you will join your school anniversary dinner in the year 2070. How special will that be for you?

Dear Diary Hong Kong Misc. Travel

Let’s go the ageless Pop Concerts

by ccue

Watching a concert is a good live-in-the-moment experience. In the concerts, you are in a different place, and forget about a lot of troubling happenings in the world, or stress at work, or other hardship. You got into the theatre, you waited as a collective unit for the star to show, you clapped, sang, or screamed collectively. The audience came alive as an entity.

Last October, we went to Napa, California to watch Christopher Cross in the uptown theatre. It brought back childhood memories of how we listened and discovered our favorite songs, and how much the world has changed since. We carried the theme of childhood reminiscence into 2024.

Valentine’s day this year was a few days after Lunar New Year. On Valentine’s day, we caught the Air Supply concert at the San Jose Civic center. There was nothing more fitting to watch their concerts on Valentine’s day. Their songs literally created love in the air. The songs in their 1980 “Lost in Love” album and the 1981 “The one that you love” showcase their talents at the peak. At one time, I remembered the lyrics of almost each song. Several decades later, the duos are still at it, still passionate at singing in concerts every week at different venues. I can no longer remember the lyrics as well as before.

We continued the ageless concert theme during the President’s long weekend a few days later. We went to watch the Wynners, from Hong Kong, at the Reno event center with a friend. We watched Sam Hui last May at the Reno event center. If you were in Hong Kong in the 70s, it was impossible not to have heard of the Wynners, just as every HongKongers grew up with the songs of Sam Hui in that era. The Wynners, made up of Ah B, Alan, Chan Yau, Ah Kiang, Ah Jian, was the most popular boy bands of the era. The five members never broke up even when they went solo over the years. Ah B, Alan and Ah Jian went solo with great successes. Chan Yau, the drummer, went to film production. Ah Kiang, the most quiet member, immigrated and kept a low profile. For one night at the Reno Center, they were together again. They sang and danced. They were energetic in their 70s. They looked happy, healthy and united. I was particularly impressed with the solo of Chan Yau and Ah B. Alan Tam was the most popular of them all in the 90s. Alan seemed to have grown so much in width and in depth. Maybe he just enjoyed food and enjoyed life with all the money earned. We had a great time as their songs transported us from our childhood to the present. Ah B seemed to still be at it, while others looked more settled into other things in life. It was a good show!

It took us almost eight hours to drive from Reno to the Bay Area due to the heavy snow and rain. The concert was worth the hassle.

In a nostalgic way, it could be the last time they would show up together in the US to present a concert. Check out our Wynners 2024 Reno Sound Track on YouTube.

Concerts Dear Diary Misc.

2023 Travel : Part 2 | Hong Kong, Macau, Foshan/Shunde (香港、澳門、佛山/順德)

by ccue

I have not been back to Hong Kong since December 2018. It marked my longest absence. Finally, there were no longer the many days of quarantine requirements and the city has opened up. Our travel decision was made instantaneously when Sam Hui, the Cantopop legend, announced to open a series of Concert in April.

Airfare was hard to get and there was no longer any shoulder season pricing. Hotels were not cheap either. The HK ID appointment slot needed a smart strategy to get. These were surmountable obstacles. After almost five years of absence from our beloved city of Hong Kong, we made our trip back.

The family is one of nature’s masterpieces!
True to the tradition of family gathering, we gathered around food and had a few beautiful dim sum lunches. The most beautiful dim sum dish has to be Victorian Era (香江花月) which blends the oriental and western culture in Hong Kong into the dim sum served with elegant aromas, gold flakes and creative flora additions.

If you visit Hong Kong, it is worth planning a few extra days to visit the “remote” islands, some unique villages and hike some famous and beautiful trails, such as Maclehose Trail, Wilson Trail, Hong Kong Trail.

We visited Lai Chi Woo with my bro and sis, did some hiking to the nostalgic “walled village”, and enjoyed a special Hakka meal at Green Villa at Sam A Tsuen. It takes an hour one way for a ferry ride from Chinese University station to Lai Chi Woo. There is only one ferry each day in each direction. If you miss the ferry ride, there are not many options other than a couple of hours of strenuous hiking. Hong Kong has so many places, like Lai Chi Woo, with a variety of hiking trail, unique landscapes.

Macau, once a Portuguese colony, is another special administrative region of China. It is connected to Hong Kong with the recently opened “Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge” as well as a different ferry. It has been years since the last visit, when the children were young. We took the Golden Bus and that bridge is a true feat of engineering with tunnels and artificial islands mid-way. Sadly, it is hard to imagine this project scale can be done in the United States just because it has taken us so long to construct a small length of a subway route. Macau is right next to Hong Kong on the map. The Easter holiday and the change of China Covid policy, seemingly have overloaded the small Macau. It took us over three hours – a bus ride to the Golden Bus, a long queue to get on to the Golden Bus, the Golden Bus ride on the impressive bridge, then the hotel shuttle to the Venetian Hotel. We still arrived well before the check-in time, and were able to check in.

The three days of Macau were a trip of continuous snacks and cuisines (吃吃喝喝,飲飲食食). The famous food street, Rua do Cunha, is within a comfortable stroll from Venetian Hotel. The street was just packed with people with long lines outside of many take-out food stalls. We split ourselves into different snack groups to line up for the Portuguese pork chop bun (Tai Lei), the world-famous Pastel de nata (Lord Stow Bakery), the omnipresent strong-favored cow internal organs. We passed through the food street many times over the few days, but the crowdedness is not the best companion for delicious cuisine. We also tried the shark fin soup at Fok Lung Street which has unique and historic shops. There are different desserts such as “steamed milk custard”, “steamed egg custard” and ice cream. As a pattern, many renowned restaurants turn out to be not as good, but there are other neat surprises. The winner of the desserts went to LemonCello Gelato, a Michelin recommended shop. The winner of the best coffee went to this food market coffee booth located on a multi-story grocery and food market off the Senado Square. The owner used Chinese ceramic pots to prepare coffee, not Chinese herbal medicine. Surprisingly, the process brings out the aroma and flavor and gets rid of the coffee bean bitterness. The most memorable and delicious congee has to go to the Lok Kei Noodles and Congees. If you were in Macau, their large pot of crab congees and the no-wheat beer is a must-try.

No matter how many times we have been there, the Ruins of St. Paul’s, the Senado Square and the magnificent hotels (MGM, Wynn and its fountain shows, Venetian, Paris, Londoner, and the Lisboeta) are worthy of visiting both during the day and in the evening. The Monorail is convenient to hop on when you are tired of all the walking. Surprisingly, the busy schedule left us with very little time for these world renowned casinos in this small city of Macau.

From Far and Wide, Friends Collide!
The connections with people always matter, as we age, it matters more. It is also a source of enrichment as each is on a different journey. Technology has enabled us to stay connected with our friends across the world, but it is not in the same league as face-to-face gatherings.

I enjoyed the nice morning walk along the coastline corridor to Admirable for a Dim Sum lunch. The light shower created a nice memory of walking in the rain. There has been such an effort going on to beautify the city and to “invent” more recreational areas. These progresses have been largely unmentioned and in a way, left me with delightful discoveries.
I had these fun chats during the dim sum lunch with ex-workers at the I-Square, hardly noticing the ever shrinking harbor.
I cherished the dinners with best friend(s) enjoying food together in this “capital city of good food”, such as Rabbit Fish Congees (泥鯭粥), Peking duck (北京烤鸭).
I have been thankful to have a friend to take us to my parents’ hometown Shunde (顺德). It has been eye opening to experience the convenience of the customs checkpoints, the impressive hi-speed train systems in China, the didi ride (Chinese and probably better version of Uber), the subways as well as the great food in Shunde. If someone told me about these progresses in China some decades ago, I would not have believed. Compared to the experiences of traveling to China just after my college years, it felt like it was a lifetime ago. There are still many many things that can be improved. I wish for more of one mind to make things better to improve the livelihood of billions of people.

Sam Hui Concerts (許冠傑 – 此時此處演唱會)!
We had the time of our lives watching Sam Hui on the stage of the Hong Kong Coliseum. The concert stage was designed to model his home, and the concert felt like an invitation to his home to join a singing party of ten thousand folks. It was heartwarming, full of positive and happy spirit to share with Hong Kongers. We knew all the songs, their lyrics and sang along.

We also bought the 414 Global Livestream of Sam Hui Concert on the last day of this concert series. We ordered a Suckling Pig from the Tai Hing restaurants at a price of HKD 880, and brought it to my brother’s home to have a family party, while enjoying the show. The suckling pig was a hit. It was a happy gathering. Heaven cannot be much better.