FROM A DANGEROUS DECLIVITY TO THE LOWER RINGS: 從舂磡至下環

There are stretches along the road back from Chung Hom Kok (舂磡角) where both Round Island (銀洲) and Lantau (爛頭島) can be seen across the water, or, if you look further toward the north, Head Island (頭洲) which demarcates the edge of the bay (舂磡灣). Smooth Ripples (熨波洲) and Deep Water (深水灣) are slightly beyond that, with the Duck's Tongue (鴨脷洲) as well as the Yellowing Bamboo Pit (黃竹坑) barely even visible through the haze.

The view is lovely, especially on a warm day.
And it's a noiseless solitary area.
Quite unusual.

港景

A friend and former customer has an office on the Duck's Tongue, though she actually lives in Horse Pissing Water (馬尿水). She owns a bookstore which I think may be somewhere on the island, or near Oil Sharps (油尖).
I have never been to her place of business, so I really don't have a clue.

There was little chance to travel for over five years, and I did not know about the shop until a year ago, during the final gasps of our company.


Chung Hom Kok Road (舂磡角道) is quite twisty along the cliffs before you head back inland, and there is thick growth on both sides; it isn't until you're nearly at Cape Road (環角道) that it becomes a proper two-lane street. When you get far beyond Repulse Bay the trees and luxury housing estates have thinned out, and high-rise developments are the norm, but it is still much greener than you expected in so populous a territory.

This place is, in some ways (especially at its southern end), an entirely different world.


Where Broadwood Road (樂活道) joins Link Road (連道), the very tall buildings almost blot out the sky. Here are Bubbling Yellow Mud (黃泥涌), Blue Pools (藍塘), and a Great Big Pit (大坑). This part fell to the invading Japanese (倭寇) on December 19, 1941.
Six days before the end at Stanley.

Happy Valley (跑馬地) gazes out over the densest part of the universe, and Wan Chai (灣仔區) further down defies belief. Remarkably, there are few public housing projects in "little bay" itself; incomes are too high.
From the outermost extreme to the very heart of the city.
A short distance, an extraordinary difference.



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