La Vie Quotidienne

I'm trying to not completely forget eight years of French, hence the title.

Again having not much to do today, I figured doing a post on Sham Tseng, and everyday life in general, might be nice.

I guess we can start with breakfast again:

Preserved mustard plant and pork rice vermicelli in soup (榨菜肉絲米) and a ham omelette.  The ham in Hong Kong is noticeably sweeter than anywhere in North America, but not in an off-putting way.  Just different.

Often, in their busy lives, Hong Kongers won't sit down for a breakfast, but instead grab a small bite to eat on the go (but not on the bus or MTR, that's "not allowed", as the nice female voice says!).  Feeling a bit of a craving, I grab this from 鴻記:

An egg tart (蛋撻), a flaky pastry filled with an eggy custard.  These appear to be descended from either English custard tarts or Portuguese pastel de nata, and are now a staple at any Hong Kong-style bakery, whether here or overseas.  (DOP, your pineapple bun will be exhibited shortly!)

Sham Tseng is centred around a few main residential estates, all privately owned.
The first built was Lido Garden, where I currently reside:

When this was built, there was nothing around it but the traditional village to the north, the sea to the south (with no bridges yet!), and a beer factory to the east.  Yep, my grandparents were hipsters...

Of course, other buildings were planned, with this one being built next:

Rhine Garden (海韻花園), on the mountain side of Castle Peak Road.  These two complexes are some of the best examples of mid eighties architectural thinking in Hong Kong, rows upon rows of thin towers built to last the harshest weather this territory experiences.

To take a look at how thin these towers are, here's a floor plan of my tower in Lido:

I'm in "C"!

When the airport development program began, people realized that Sham Tseng would have a great view of the new bridges they were building to connect the new airport to the rest of Hong Kong, and thus another round of skyscraper building was underway.

Sea Crest Villa (浪翠園) was built on top of a hill overlooking the town:

And finally, Ocean Pointe (縉皇居), and the Bellagio (碧堤半島) (below) were built in the middle of the last decade:

Right on top of the old beer factory!

You might notice how progressively nicer these apartments have gotten over the years.  The funny thing is, the price difference between Lido and Bellagio (the oldest and the newest) averages $500-$1000 ($66-$133 CAD) a square foot, which is definitely not a lot by local standards.

Within these newer complexes, though, are a whole ton of amenities that simply weren't thought about in the eighties.  To the left of the above picture, there's a small shopping centre, with many popular Hong Kong chains:

Mannings (萬寧), a drugstore.

Fairwood, Hong Kong-style fast food (no photos inside!)

We had a quick lunch inside the Fairwood.

Underneath the mall is this:

A public transport interchange, with stops for buses, minibuses, and taxis.

If Sham Tseng is famous for one thing, it's the roast goose (燒鵝).  There are quite a few competing restaurants that specialize in the dish in this small town, and one goes at length to advertise:

That sign in the red there is not a typo.  Wellcome (惠康) is a popular supermarket chain in the city.  Going inside:

"Taikoo" is prominent in the packaged goods section.  Taikoo is the local name for the Swire Group, one of the oldest English companies to set up shop in Hong Kong, and one of the ones largely responsible for the former colony's relative success in the first half of the last century (and by success I mean for the British.  The local Chinese were heavily discriminated against at the time).  Today, the Swire Group is still prominent in the city, owning the flag carrier airline Cathay Pacific, a mall they call Pacific Place (which lent its Chinese name, 太古廣場 or "Taikoo Shopping Centre" to Toronto's Pacific Mall), and the namesake of an entire neighbourhood on Hong Kong Island with its own MTR station.

This one's more of a quirky Chinese method of thinking.  This a discount percentage.  No, it does not mean 95% off.  It means that the product is 95% of its original price, or is 5% off.

There are no public schools in Sham Tseng.   The nearest ones are in Tsuen Wan.  The two primary schools are run by Christian organizations, one by the Catholic Church, and one by a Protestant church:

Going into the traditional village on the mountainside, we're greeted by a Chinese gate:

(I apparently forgot to take a picture of the front, so here's the back)

Here are some shots of the village:

Sham Tseng is technically part of the Tsuen Wan District.

Some of the best eats are found inside the village, and some older aspects of Chinese society are preserved here:

Yue Kee lays claim to being the best roast goose in town.

This Chinese name is traditionally written from right to left, and it reads  "Cheng Kee See Dor"
Transliterating "store" as "See Dor" was common in the early days of Hong Kong.

Apparently, this place is pretty authentic.  Who would've guessed?

 Back on Castle Peak Road, we see something all too common on the streets of Hong Kong:

 Rows upon rows of real estate agencies, all contributing to the ridiculous housing market here.

Back home, we decide to have a small snack:

 Yeah, you can get cup noodles back home too, but for some reason you never get the stuff you have here:

Those are pork pieces.  And egg.

We never get any of the good stuff... if you haven't already seen on my Facebook, normal residential internet speeds average in the 90mbps range, and unlimited data for a month is $70 to $80 (around $10 CAD).