The South African Women’s Chamber of Commerce (Hong Kong) is showing their support of the UN Peace Celebrations in Hong Kong at a Gala Dinner later this month.
The speaker on the evening will be Vanessa Farr, the United Nations Development Program’s Senior Social Development and Gender Advisor in the occupied Palestinian territories.
If you’ve taken careful notice, you will have seen our section called “SA in the HK Media.”
With the 2010 World Cup a mere 5 days away, it’s getting more and more of a chore keeping up with all the reports from home appearing in the Hog Kong media. That is NOT at all a bad thing.
We hope you didn’t miss last Friday’s edition of HK Magazine for they had a lekker insert about the World Cup called “HK World Cup Guide 2010.”
A useful local guide to the world’s biggest sporting event, it features sections like:
* A guide to the BIG TEAMS: Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
* The COMEBACK KIDS: Australia, Chile, Greece, Mexico, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Serbia, North Korea, Slovakia and Slovenia.
* The ONES TO WATCH: Cameroon, Denmark, Honduras, South Korea, Netherlands, Paraguay, South Africa and USA.
* The UNDERDOGS: Algeria, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria and Switzerland.
The insert also features a handy guide to where you can sample some of the participating nations’ cuisine in Hong Kong while watching the on-the-pitch action from South Africa.
Needless to say there’s also a handy Match Schedule as well as a sheet where you can enter the scores and progress of the teams as the tournament progresses.
If all else fails and you did in fact miss last week’s issue of the HK Magazine, just contact them, hopefully they still have a few copies left over.
I’ve always been baffled by the response I get when asking tourists if they know where the Avenue of the Stars is here in Hong Kong. The conversation often gets to that point when I try to explain to them where I live, where the Bruce Lee statue is or where the best spot is from where to watch the fireworks or nightly laser-show.
It has never really dawned on me that maybe they don’t know because they haven’t been able to find it!
Maybe I should also add that it didn’t dawn on me because whenever I visit a new city, I always do thorough research about what to see and how I could get there. Blame it on the Boy Scout in me. I have spent many a year following the teachings of the good Lord Baden Powell. I also have a ritual of “doing the walk.”
Huh?
Well, whenever I visit a new city, and I have the opportunity to wake up in said city, I make it my mission to take a pre-dawn walk to experience the city waking up. It just gives one another perspective of the place and in my opinion, the early-morning experience makes exploring it during the day less daunting. I had some memorable mornings in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, to name but a few, a couple of full-moon parties ago. My early morning in San Antonio, Ibiza will (for obvious reasons) remain a BLURR!
I had the opportunity to do the walk here in Hong Kong a few years ago, before it became my home-away-from-home.
But again, I digress.
Reading a story in this past weekend’s HK Magazine, it became clear to me just why tourists don’t know where the Avenue of the Stars is located. It’s just so damn difficult to get there!
In short, the Avenue of the Stars is separated from the Peninsula Hotel/Nathan Road-side by Salisbury Road and other than the Star Ferry-corner, there is no above-ground way to cross Salisbury Road to get to the Avenue.
If you do want to get there, you have to take one of three underground routes which could be both time-consuming as well as baffling to tourists.
So what do the time-constrained tourists do?
They make their way to the Star Ferry area, watch the nightly laser-show from there and go back to their hotel, etc. In the process they miss out on a great walk along the Avenue, right up towards Tsim Sha Tsui East where there are some great restaurants and entertainment venues. (I know this area intimately because I live on the Eastern-end of the Avenue of the Stars.)
This it what they could miss during the day:
Or at night:
Nice movie, great soundtrack! (Video from trabeller on YouTube)
Continues below. SA readers please click on the banner to support Howzit-HongKong:
Please read the story that appeared in the HK Magazine on Friday April 16, 2010:
(You can click on the story to read it full-size)
Click on the pictures below to view HK Magazine’s 3 detailed routes to the Avenue of the Stars:
Here at Howzit-HongKong.com and especially over at BlitzBokke.com, we concentrate a lot on the fans and their experiences and shenanigans at the world’s premier Sevens event, the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens.
I wouldn’t exactly say that we neglect the on-field action, but the simple reason for is that we don’t have the access (yet) to pitch-side to catch all the action from that side. We also don’t have the skills (yet) nor the equipment (yet, again) to do real justice to that profession. Believe me, there were some real talent snapping away at the Hong Kong Stadium this last weekend. I saw their tools and yes… they’re HUGE.
However, what we do have (other than said skills) are friends with connections. What can I say: we’re from Cape Town ek sê! Our friends-with-connections are from Elite Step Asia and they gave us these magnificent on-field pictures to share with all of you.
I don’t know if it’s just my observations, but there seems to be a lot more Saffas, or like a Brit called us the other day: Yarpies, in the Hong Kong Stadium this year.
The usual “South African Corner” next to where the players enter the pitch is filled with Green & Gold as well as rainbow colors, while there are clear “green patches” to be seen on the infamous South Stand.
On one of my regular intrusions into the South Stand, I bumped into “Madiba” who promptly introduced my to his friends sporting what I would call “The Best Banner on the South Stand.” (Picture on the right)
The Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens starts just after 4pm today and Howzit-HongKong.com & our sister-site BlitzBokke.com is raring to bring you all the action as it happens from the Hong Kong Stadium.
The Springboks close Day 1 of the Sevens with their game against African neighbors Zimbabwe.
BlitzBokke.com will be covering the Sevens with blow-by-blow accounts of all the Springboks’ games, with updates of the scores of all other games as it happens.
All you have to do is go to BlitzBokke.com for updates and pictures from in and around the Stadium.
Hong Kong tonight ushered in the Year of the Tiger in true Chinese style: with a HK$3 million spectacular fireworks display. While the lighting of fireworks remain illegal in Hong Kong, the annual New Year’s Day fireworks display is a major draw-card on the tourist calendar.
The 20-minute extravaganza was lauched from 3 barges docked 200 meters apart in Victoria Harbour opposite the Avenue of the Stars.
Some of the features of this year’s display included images of tigers as well as gold ingots that signifies the Year of the Tiger and prosperity.
Howzit-HongKong had it’s trusty point-and-click handy and we shot the following clip:
Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year is the most important Festival on the traditional Chinese calendar. It is part of the Spring Festival that starts on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar and ends of the 15th day that is called Lantern Festival.
This year Hong Kong celebrates the start of the Year of the Tiger that coincides with the (western) Valentine’s Day on February 14, 2010.
Here are some of the traditional decorations that can be seen around Hong Kong:
Lucky bamboo
Lucky bamboo is known as ‘Kai Yun Zhu’ in Chinese, which means ‘bamboo that invites good fortune’.
Lucky Bamboo represents the natural 5 elements of water, earth, wood, metal and fire to balance the flow of energy or ‘chi’ in the house.
A red ribbon is tied around the stalks to represent the fire element. The number of bamboo stalks and layers has its own symbolic meaning:
2 for Love & Marriage
3 for Happiness
5 for Perfection
6 for Luck
8 for Wealth and Abundance
9 for Everlasting Good Fortune and Happiness
Tangerines & oranges
Tangerines and oranges are commonly displayed in homes and shops. Tangerines symbolises ‘good tidings’ as it sounds like ‘good luck’ in Chinese. Oranges symbolises wealth as it sounds like ‘gold’ in Cantonese.
Peach blossoms
Peach blossoms symbolise ‘courage and hope’. The blossoms burst forth at the end of winter season on a seemingly lifeless branch.
Here are some more pictures I took around Hung Hom Bay:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the most aptly-named tighthead prop in world rugby… Marius Hurter!”
This is how (HKRFU Head of Rugby Services) Robbie McRobbie introduced the 1995 Rugby World Cup winner and Springbok Marius Hurter. The occasion was the Gala Charity Premiere of the movie Invictus at the Grand Cinema, Elements Mall in Kowloon West (Hong Kong).
The looong evening started with a meet-and-greet at the downstairs bar/restaurant WildFire, part of Hong Kong’s Igor’s Hospitality Group. Hong Kong RFU’s Robbie McRobbie kick-started events by asking the big man a number of questions relating to his experiences around Rugby World Cup 1995. Marius aka. Shrek (watch the video for an explanation) responded by recounting his memories and some insights into his fellow-players, which were lapped up by the guests, especially those about Os Du Randt and (obviously the skollie/riff-raff in the 1995 Springbok squad) James Small, allegedly a minor-celebrity amongst the Robben Island prisoner population at the time!
Later, in the cinema lobby, he faced the local Hong Kong media, enticed by some strategically invited (and well-labelled with Invictus stickers) schlebs, also called pseudo-models in Hong Kong parlance. The big man was clearly enamoured by the attention as the MC-lady translated his answers into Cantonese. Then again, maybe he just loved her shoes!
Thanks to Elite Step Asia Limited, Howzit-HongKong.com was fortunate to be seated in Cinema 6 (some 600 folks attended the event spread between different cinema’s) with the VIP’s including, of course, Marius Hurter, HKRFU officials, sponsors’ representatives as well as the Consul-General of the South African Consulate in Hong Kong, the charming Ms. Tembi Tambo.
The extended movie, that lasted until midnight, was clearly a hit with the South Africans in attendance who enjoyed the Souf Effrican eksent (South African accent) during the movie. My personal favourite was Chester Williams’ (played by McNeil Hendricks) “I don’t think, because it influences my game.”
Another hit with the guests was the seats that vibrated with heavy bass, especially when the SAA Boeing roared over the Ellis Park Stadium during the movie!
Howzit-HongKong.com was lucky to capture Marius’ chat on the evening, albeit with a dinky point-and-click. The evening was set in a busy, dark-ish bar, but enjoy Part 1 (Part 2 to follow):
As a Saffa rugby supporter living abroad, I must admit at being chuffed that the rugby season is about to start back home. The International Rugby Board’s Sevens World Series resumes with the New Zealand-leg in Wellington on the 5th of February, followed by the USA event in Las Vegas a week later.
Another highlight of the southern hemisphere pre-season is Western Province playing neighbours Boland at the brand-spanking Greenpoint Stadium on February 5. Then, on February 12 the Super 14 kicks off when local franchises The Cheetahs take on The Bulls. The Stormers play The Lions the following day, while The Sharks play New Zealand’s Chiefs.
The newest landmark on the Cape Town skyline, the Greenpoint Stadium.
But I digress. The Asia season is of course in full swing and local clubs are taking requests for Hong Kong Sevens tickets (unfortunately members only). In a previous post, I wrote about the movie Invictus that tells the story of how Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) joined forces with Francois Pienaar (played by Matt Damon) in winning not only the 1995 Rugby World Cup, but also the hearts and minds of South Africans from all walks of life.
The local custodians of the game, the Hong Kong Rugby Unionhas joined forces with Warner Brothers Pictures as well as Standard Chartered to organise a Gala Charity Premiere on Wednesday 13th January at the Elements Mall in Kowloon Tong. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Operation Breakthrough charity programme which is a joint HKRFU – HKG Police charity that targets at risk youth and engages them in sports like rugby to keep them occupied and instill positive values.
Special guest at the sold-out event will be Springbok Marius Hurter, a member of the triumphant 1995 South African rugby team.
Springboks Os Du Randt (left) and Marius Hurter (right) showing off the RWC 1995 spoils.
Invictus opens in Hong Kong on Thursday, January 14.
