How much do you know about the history, cultural and heritage of Hong Kong? There is a place where you can go to get a quick in-depth educational tour about the country of Hong Kong and is rated as one of the top attractions of the city.

The Hong Kong History Museum with it’s permanent exhibit known as the Hong Kong story, occupies 7000 sq meters, comprises of 8 galleries and 3,700 exhibits. “The Hong Kong Story” outlines the natural environments, culture and historical development of Hong King through its use of 750 graphic panels, lots of dioramas and multimedia exhibits.

Gallery 1 – The Natural Environment

Emerging from a ‘tunnel of time’ paved with stone slabs, we enter into a forest of towering trees as high as 18 metres, with specimens of birds, reptiles and mammals.

Gallery 2 – Prehistoric Hong Kong

We enter into prehistoric Hong Kong 6,000 years ago, with a 42m long beach diorama where several activities are depicted; such as making fire for cooking, building houses and making ornaments with stone.

Gallery 3 – From the Han to the Qing

This gallery outlines the development of Hong Kong form the Han to the Qing dynasties through the relics preserved in the territory and on loan from Shenzhen.

Gallery 4 – Folk Culture in Hong Kong

This section of the museum has one of the most elaborate dioramas which were so impressive, comprising of live sized junk boats, figures and living conditions of the 4 ethnic groups of Hong Kong and South China.

The Boat Dwellers’ living conditions

Making Salted Fish

A Hakka’s peasant family’s dwelling

The most impressive diorama from this section of the gallery has to be the reconstruction of the Taiping Qingjiao ceremony held annually in Cheng Chau, including the…

i. Cantonese Opera Theatre

ii. Backstage of the Opera

iii. The puppet theaters

iv. The Street stall

v. The amazing diorama includes the Lion Dance, the bun mountains, the altars etc

Gallery 5 – Opium Wars and Cessation of Hong Kong

This gallery outlines the Opium wars, their causes, the way they unfolded and the consequences.

Gallery 6 – Birth and Early Growth of the City

Now this is another intriguing part of the museum, which houses a three storey European style structure adjacent to a port scene and against the background of an old photograph of Kowloon.

Next to the bank is an old steam launch, all real sized

Behind the building stretches an old street scene lined with a variety of shops;

A bank

Post Office

Pawnshop

Teashop

Grocery Shop

Tailor Shop

Quaint Shing Chai Tong shop selling herbal medicine

A Teahouse

There’s even a dark alleyway with a stall selling fruits

And an actual double decker tram

Gallery 7 – The Japanese Occupation

No dioramas here, however the gallery is designed as an air raid shelter in order to create the atmosphere of war. Through the display of relics, historical photographs and videos, you can witness the battles during WWII and learn about the harsh living conditions during the Japanese Occupation.

Gallery 8 – Modern Metropolis and the Return to China

This last gallery follows the story of Hong Kong’s postwar development into a modern metropolis. In this area, are reconstruction of…

Hong Kong public housing in the 60s, which housed at least 8 people in one room

A herbal tea shop

A barber shop

A cinema

Inside of the cinema showing snippets of old Hong Kong movies

A grocery shop

A comic book stall

The second part of Gallery 8 is devoted to the handover ceremony marking the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty too China which brings ‘The Hong Kong Story’ exhibit to a close. If you have time for only one museum visit in Hong Kong, and have about 3 hours to spare, this is the place to go.

K and I were utterly intrigued by what we saw and experienced in the museum and in his words, “This is the 2nd best thing I saw in Hong Kong, first best thing is Lantau Beach. Singapore’s History Museum is really not so good.” One word for Singapore History Museum, “Dioramas”. Maybe all Singapore History Museum needs are more dioramas, and we will be a little more engaged with the exhibits there.

To get to Hong Kong History Museum, follow the same directions from Hung Hom MTR station, as this museum is located right opposite the Hong Kong Science Museum on the same side of the road. Admission is at HKD$10 for adult (cheap, cheap!!) and child HKD$5. Admission is free on Wednesdays and the museum is closed every Tuesdays. Audio guides, providing English commentaries on more than 100 exhibits in the museum, are available for HKD$10.

This post wraps up my blog series of Hong Kong 2012. This is just but a small part of Hong Kong that we have discovered from our recent trip to Hong Kong.

Here are the 7 parts of this series of posts :

Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food

Part 2 – Flowers and Birds

Part 3 – Sartorial Hong Kong

Part 4 : Lantau Beaches

Part 5 : Hong Kong Fresh Food Market

Part 6 : Hong Kong Science Museum

Part 7 : Hong Kong History Museum

All Photos for Hong Kong 2012 (with the exception of Part 4 – Lantau Beaches), was taken by yours truly with my trusty Canon 550D, with Tamron 17-55mm F2.8 and Tamron Wide Angle 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 lens.

Have you experienced the educational side of Hong Kong? If you haven’t, do follow through these 2 final posts of my 7 part series of Hong Kong 2012, where I will cover 2 must-see places in Hong Kong if you have kids above 4 years of age.

The Hong Kong Science Museum 香港科学馆 is a perfect place to visit if you experience a rainy day during your visit to Hong Kong.

The Science Museum has more than 500 exhibits within their premise, and close to 70% of their exhibits are interactive. One of their most prominent exhibit is the 22 metre high Energy Machine, which is the tallest and biggest exhibit in the Museum. It stands as high as the four storeys of the Museum, and displays energy conversion when the balls are set in motion and produces sounds and visual effects.

The Energy Machine

1st Floor

Occupational Safety and Health Gallery on the 1st Floor

Electricity and Magnetism Gallery

Ground Floor

The Lufengosaurus exhibit at the LIfe Sciences Gallery

Looking at plastic models of baby fetuses

A skeleton of a rabbit

A model of a human heart

Seeing through the eyes of an insect

Fiddling with a 3D motion sensor game

World of Mirrors

There are also the galleries of Light, Sound, Mathematics, Motion and Environmental Conservation on the same level of the Science Museum.

Second Floor

Food Sciences Gallery

A life sized DC-3 airplane which is the first local airliner of Hong Kong.

Driving Stimulator

The galleries of Home Technology, Telecommunications and Prototype zones are on the 2nd Floor of the Science Museum.

Third Floor

The Children’s Gallery and Energy Efficiency Centre is on the top floor of the museum

The exhibits are interesting, well-maintained and sanitized every hour, something that Singapore Science Centre should take a page from, for their much needed over-haul . K and I took about 3 hours to complete most of the interactive exhibits within the museum.

To get to Hong Kong Science Museum, take the MTR to Hung Hom station and follow the footbridge for a 15 minute walk to the museum.

Standard ticket for an adult is at HKD$25.00, $12.50 for a student from 4 years of age and free admission for children below 4. Free admission on Wednesdays.

Next post on part 7, the final part of my blog series to Hong Kong 2012; a comprehensive photo coverage of what is there to see at the Hong Kong History Museum.

Here are the other parts of this series of posts :

Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food

Part 2 – Flowers and Birds

Part 3 – Sartorial Hong Kong

Part 4 : Lantau Beaches

Part 5 : Hong Kong Fresh Food Market

The Hong Kong-ers love their food and despite eating out very often with their wide selection of cafes, there are many fresh food markets located in each town. Staying in the vicinity of Tsuen Wan, I visited a fresh food market to see how different it was from the regular wet market in Singapore.

One key difference was, almost all the stalls in the wet market were open and teeming with customers at 4.30pm. And from what I heard from a local, that some of these markets are opened till 2am on certain nights, 7 days a week. The Hong Kong-ers are indeed a very industrious bunch!

Vegetable stalls, rather similar to the ones we see in Singapore

There are live chickens in cages and you can still watch chickens being slaughtered

The best feature of a local fresh food market has to be the live seafood

Coming up soon, theseason of Hairy crabs

A variety of fish available

I was amazed by the variety of pork parts available

It’s no wonder that food tastes so good in Hong Kong, with their variety and affordability of fresh food.

Next on Hong Kong 2012 Part 6 and 7, see an educational side of Hong Kong.

Here are the other parts of this series of posts :

Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food

Part 2 – Flowers and Birds

Part 3 – Sartorial Hong Kong

Part 4 : Lantau Beaches

While I was enjoying the sights of the flowers and the birds and spending time in sartorial haven, the little boy made a trip to Lantau island with grand-dad. K claims that the Lantau Island trip is his favorite-est part of our 6 days Hong Kong visit, even better than Disneyland. Disneyland is only at No.3 of the best places that he has visited in Hong Kong.

Part of the attraction of Lantau Island beaches are the Water Buffaloes in Pui O Beach. These Water Buffalo were once a part of village life on Lantau, owned by farmers to plough the coastal plains for wet-land rice cultivation.

These Water Buffalo droppings were considered the most important fertilizer for gardens then. However as many of the Lantau Island farmers ceased farming and moved to mainland Hong Kong, these buffaloes were left to fend for themselves on the fields.

The other feature of Lantau Island are the pristine beaches with clear waters…

…and the mussels that can be found in abundance during low tide.

Mussels and shells picked up at Pui O beach

More ‘treasures’ found at Shui Han Beach

Shui Han Beach Kite-boarders in the background

You can get to Lantau island by MTR, just take to the end of Tung Chung line and then grab a taxi to Southern Lantau.

Coming up in the Part 5 of Hong Kong 2012, a glimpse into a place where locals get their fresh produce.

Here are the other parts of this series of posts :

Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food

Part 2 – Flowers and Birds

Part 3 – Sartorial Hong Kong

If you are a crafter who love your hand-mades, Yu Chau Street is a place to go in Hong Kong for buttons, zippers, cloth, beads, lace, ribbons and sequins. This place will put Textile Centre in Singapore to shame , with their shops after shops of wholesalers peddling vast array of sartorial wares.

This is the same street where I am certain ETSY sellers from Hong Kong get their supplies of these items, and are probably earning a healthy profit from selling them online.

Don’t get distracted by the busy markets in Ap Liu Street though, as it is the first street that you will see when you step out of the MTR exit at Sham Shui Po station. Yu Chau Street (see map here) is one street after Ap Liu Street, towards Nam Cheong Street.

Look out for the signs (if you can read traditional chinese), ‘Cloth’, ‘Buttons’, ‘Beads’!

Beautiful fabric at Nam Cheong Street, but you need to spot some of the shops that are willing to sell to individual buyers. Or be prepared to buy ALOT.

You can purchase lace by meter, the selection of laces come from China predominantly. These shops used to import European laces, but far lesser these days.

Lots of retro styled buttons. You can purchase buttons individually.

All types of ribbons, sold by the meter.

Vintage-style brooches and Bling

Love to make your own accessories? Then this place is where you should go to find baubles, resins, wood and stones of all kinds.

Look what I spotted in a small alley opposite Nam Cheong Street?

An Old School Barber!

To get to Yu Chau Street, take the Tsuen Wan line MTR to Sham Shui Po station and take A2 exit to Ap Liu Street. Yu Chau Street is just one street after.

Next, part 4 of Hong Kong 2012 will touch on the beaches in Lantau Island.

Here are the other parts of this series of posts :

Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food

Part 2 – Flowers and Birds

There are plenty of markets in Hong Kong but the ones that I focused on for this trip is for the nature lover in me; specifically blooms and plants of numerous varieties and (caged) birds of many kinds.

From the Prince Edward Road MTR, head west on Prince Edward Road west towards Fai Yuen Kai (Flower Street – see map here). It is located in the same vicinity of Ladies Market in Tung Choi Street which is to the east of Boundary Street.

Everyday Spring plants (direct translation from Cantonese)

Happy Family plant (translated)

Adjacent to Fa Yuen Kai is Yuen Bo Street Bird Garden, a quaint garden peppered with about 70 small shops selling birds, bird cages, accessories, bird feed and bird food.

The typical profile of a bird owner in Hong Kong is above 40 years old and male. It was a Saturday morning when I was in this bird garden, but I did not spot a female amongst the males who were chatting amongst themselves and admiring their pet birds. The only women here were the pet bird store owners/helpers

The bird garden is a fascinating place to visit, especially if you are planning a trip to the Ladies Market at Tung Choi street.

Next, see a part of Hong Kong which is visited by tailors, fashion designers and crafters.

Here are the other parts of this series of posts :

Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food

We are back from Hong Kong and our 6 day trip to the Pearl of the Orient was awesome.

There is so much to see and do in Hong Kong. Since I am not an avid shopper, time not spent shopping can be used to view the sights and to bask in the culture atmosphere of Hong Kong.

We stayed in the area of Tsuen Wan, located on the west side of Hong Kong, about 25-30 minutes to Disneyland Hong Kong by MTR. A trip to Hong Kong will not be complete without a visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, at least for the little boy anyhow. Two days in the theme park was more than adequate, as he got to experience his favorite rides at least twice.

Flight of Fantasy Parade

His souvenir from Disneyland, the boy still prefers his Marvel comics characters to his Disney characters.

The quintessential photos with the Disney mascots

Food

Hong Kong definitely lives up to her reputation as a food haven. From the Bolo pau (pineapple bun), 奶茶 (milk tea), 豬仔包 (little piggy buns) to the porridge and dough fritters from the 茶餐厅 (Tea Food Hall).

奶茶 (milk tea) at Tsui Wah Cafe, a popular 茶餐厅 frequented by locals.

And fresh seafood at Tuen Mun, Castle Peak Bay. A place that brought back fond memories for my dad, as he used to visit this seafood market with his father in his childhood days.

Mantis Prawns

Lobsters

Mussels

More Shellfish!

We ate the Abalone on the left

We were the last customers at the seafood market, as the market workers were seen moving the live fish into the bigger tanks before closing the shop.

This trip to Hong Kong was a rather rewarding experience as I managed to do a couple of photo walks around various areas, while the little boy made a trip down to the beach with his grand-dad.

So apart from the Disneyland and the food in Hong Kong, stay tune for the blog posts lined up in the next couple of days to see a different side of Hong Kong.