Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. This year it falls on September 30th, followed by the Chinese National Day on October 1st. This means that most people in Hong Kong have Monday and Tuesday off (according to gov.hk the day off is the day following for these two holidays for 2012). 

What is Mid-Autumn Festival? After reading about it on several websites and talked to Hong Kong people it is a national holiday where people decorate with lanterns, eat moon cake and gaze at the moon. But why staring at the moon?

The Legend

One of the legends tells about Houyi (an immortal) and his beautiful wife Chang'e who were forced to live on earth due to Houyi's jealousy of the other immortals. To survive, Houyi became a very skilled archer. At that time earth had ten suns that resided in a Mulberry tree. Every day one of the suns had to travel around the earth in a carriage driven by the Mother of the suns. One day all ten suns traveled at the same time and burned the earth. The Emperor then commanded Houyi's arching skills and asked him to take down all but one sun. If he did so he would be granted a pill to give him eternal life. Houyi fulfilled the emperor's wish and got the pill, but he wasn't allowed to take it for another year so he hid it. However, his wife Chang'e found the pill, swallowed it and noticed that she could fly. She reached the moon, where she stopped and coughed up half of the pill. Chang'e then demanded the Moon Rabbit (who lives on the moon) to make another pill. The story states that the rabbit is still pouring herbs, trying to make the pill. Once a year on Mid-Autumn Festival, Houyi visits his wife on the moon, which is why the moon appears extra bright that day, and the reason to gaze at the moon. 

There are more legends about how Chang'e ended up with the Moon Rabbit, pounding herbs for the Gods, they vary some, but the idea is the same, Houyi and Chang'e are not at the same place, and the wife is the curious one. 

Moon Cake

Moon cake is eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a very labor intense, thick and rich cookie, about 10cm wide and 4 to 5 cm tall. The imprint on the top usually states "Longevity" or "Harmony", the bakery's name and the filling. Usually it is a crust shell and a soft, rich filling. You share one moon cake with your family and friends. 

This turned in to some kind of history telling, not really my intention. But as with many of our Western holidays we are not always aware of the story behind the day off. This is the same. It's a tradition, and it sounds like a nice tradition to me. 

I guess you will see me on Sunday with a Lantern in my hand, eating a tiny piece of moon cake, staring at the moon and wondering if the moon rabbit ever will finish making that immortal pill... 

Wedding Progress?

So what's happening with the wedding plans? Let me give you an update. You who know me knows that I don't really like organizing things, and organizing my own wedding in another country is a lot of work, (and boring). I know my family wants a wedding date so they can book flights and stuff, but it takes time since Honey is not the quickest to get things done (and he's working full time) and I don't speak the language. Anyway, here is what we have to do first: 

- Decide the venue for the ceremony and reception for around 150 persons. 
According to Honey HK couples plan their weddings at least a year ahead, but we are planning on getting married in November or December this year, and preferably on a Saturday. I guess at this point we will be happy to take basically any venue as long as it's available, and we just have to find that one place. Since my family needs to book their tickets and get time off I have to get this solved as soon as possible. This is the most crucial thing to me. The rest I hope they can solve at the venue, like flowers and stuff... :). 

That's how far we are. I do have the time to look, and I actually got distracted looking while I wrote this note. 

Okay, I should keep looking, and making phone calls... waaaah! 

Diversity

It's 7.30 in the morning. I wave good-bye to my Honey at the subway station and get ready for a nice, brisk morning walk up on the hill side (it's too hot to run outside, just toooo hot). As I'm walking I meet lots of people, all kinds of persons and all kinds of outfits. 

It's the boys and girls in uniforms on their way to school; it's the helpers dressed in capris, a top with a fun message like "Have a nice day :)" and flip flops who are taking the dog for a walk; it's the grannies dressed in old rags slowly making their way to practice Tai Chi in the park; it's the women in black lace tops (don't know why lace is so popular among office women), black pants and nice heals, and men in suits, on their way to the office; it's the men and women in hats and worn down clothes that carefully and proudly clean the streets and parks each day (no wonder Hong Kong stays so clean, they rock!). And then there is me, in work out clothes, hat and headphones, on my way to burn calories. 

It's fascinating to see all these people, sharing space and time, side by side. We all do our own thing and move on. We all have our own path to walk and everything has its time.

 

This is in Causeway Bay. See the sign way in the background? :)

Engaged!

I guess I should write about the ENGAGEMENT!! You know that being engaged and plan a big nice wedding is really not my thing. But I know how important this is for my future husband, my fiance, and I am happy to do this with him. He is the One I will spend the rest of my life with. 

My fiance has this thing that he wants us to tell a different story every time someone asks what he said when he proposed, because he wants it to be a romantic journey for us to come up with different scenarios, to make them all true! 

It was Sunday evening and we had just enjoyed a concert of Mozart's Requiem in City Hall. We were standing outside the concert hall looking towards one of Hong Kong's skylines and admire the clear sky and a bright moon. To see such clear skies in Hong Kong is rare. We just knew it was a very special night. He holds his arms around my shoulders tightly, keeps smelling my hair. I feel so loved. He grabs both my hands and we turn towards each other. He says: "You are the love of my life, will you marry me?" I smile instantly and throw my arms around him and yell "YES, YES, YES"! He covers the ear my mouth is closest to and says "Too loud", and laugh, we both laugh. 

There is no ring yet, nor a wedding date, but hopefully there will be a wedding sometime this year. I know, most of you already have done all this, but I guess now it's finally my turn!  

A toast for LOVE!! 

About the empty floors

Since Hong Kong is so small, and hold so many people you have to stack us on top of each other. There is no room to spread out. The "smaller" buildings are maybe 30 stories tall. The one we live in has 27 floors (we live on the 16th floor). Newer buildings are usually much taller than that, from 50 up to 100+ floors! 

Clear view of an empty floor

Here comes the peculiar thing; those very tall buildings have made each 25th floor (give or take) an open space... it's empty! When I first noticed I thought it was crazy! I mean, is there really room for such thing? Don't they want to make sure to fit as many apartments as possible? My fiance explained to me that it is in case of a fire the whole building won't burn down. It's a safety precaution. I like that precaution. It makes sense, and they can make the building look aesthetically nicer. On some buildings they make that floor in to a common area, like a terrace with plants and other greens. On other more modern office buildings they are hidden and you need to know about it to notice. 

That the empty floor is around 25 stories up probably has something to do with what my fiance's dad once told me: "don't live in an apartment on 26th floor or up. Because that's how high the fire trucks can reach".. 

However, the houses here are all concrete, heavy, sturdy buildings. Right before we left for vacation to Australia there was a very severe typhoon that went through most of the city. Restaurants and stores closed early. Everybody was sent home. The winds tore up trees, bushes and threw around debris, and I didn't notice a thing! I didn't hear the wind howl outside our apartment, nor the rain against our windows. Our building did not move at all, nothing. Yeah, I felt completely safe on the 16th floor through a Typhoon type 10! 

View from our kitchen

Another peculiar thing about Hong Kong buildings; they keep the pipes on the outside. Yep, water pipes, sewage and gas etc. It's all out there in the open. They insist of building a gap of about two meters (6.5 feet) between apartments where they place the pipes. In the summer we barely have to turn on the hot water, it's so warm already from the pipes being out in the sun. 

Talking about hot, to get hot water, each shower has its own gas heater. It heats up the water as you go (as in, there is no hot water tank in the building). At first it was a bit scary to have to take a shower with a gas tank! (It's not that big). Generally you only shower in hot water, the rest of the water in the apartment is not heated (although not that cold, as explained earlier). I even do the dishes in cold water! It was weird in the beginning, but with so many other things you get used to it. 

All these things may not be true if you live in the very exclusive and expensive part of Hong Kong. They probably have hidden pipes, a nice hot water tanks and all, not that I would know. However, for the general population this is the living conditions, and this is what I adjust to.. . 

Bonus info: They still use bamboo when they build or renovate buildings! So flexible and strong!