Food miles

Our new supermarket at Parkview - Fusion by ParknShop  is very posh.

Posh fish waiting to be eaten.



Amazingly, the majority of the  fresh produce is imported.  Not just from Asia but from Australasia, America, Africa and Europe.   This is not just about variety and Expats requirements for the familiar.    I think it mainly reflects about a deep distrust of the safety of food produced in China and particularly mainland China.   So those who have the means will pay 3-4 times the price of local product to ensure safety.

 Zucchini from Holland

For example Rika believes that most vegetables fro the mainland need to be washed thoroughly - in detergent - to remove pestacides and other harmful chemicals.    




















Pre washed salad greens from Australia and America.

Frankly I find this all rather frightening.   I can't but be appalled at the unnecessary waste of flying vegetables halfway around the world.   Not just the gross wast of greenhouse gasses, and secondly the fact that much of this produce spoil before its is sold and be thrown away.  And of course the fact that the locals don't seem to trust their own market gardens.

New potatoes from Australia  These were very nice.

Artichokes from France reduced from HKD 68 each to HKD 8.

Portabello mushrooms from Christchurch.  Half price but a bit soggy.

When it comes to Eggs,  I'd say 90+% are foreign,  with the local options seem to be premium organic brands.

Wilson Trail - Mt Voilet

This afternoon I had a pleasant walk up Stage 1 of the Wilson Trail, south from Parkview as far as Violet Hill.

Violet Hill (Tsz Lo Lan Shan) is 435m high with impressive views.   It is named after a native flower, the Hong Kong Iris which grow there.

This is the view looking north from Violet Hill across the Wong Nai Chung Gap to Central Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon,  with Parkview on the right.

Close-up of the Wong Nai Chung Gap.  You can just see the ICC across the harbor.

Looking east, across the Tai Tam valley and reservoirs towards Shek O peninsular.

Looking south-west across Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay to Lamma Island.

Video Panorama:  panning fromt he south, south-west to Deepwater Bay and Lamma island, west to Mt Nicholson, north-west to Central Hong Kong, then North East to Parkview.  

Wilson Trail - Jardines Lookout

Parkview is inside the Tai Tam Country Park which at 1,315 hectares covers 1/5th of Hong Kong Island.

Just outside Parkview, is the entrance to the Wilson Trail a well-known hiking route

Stage 1 starts down to the south in Stanley, climbs over the southern hills to Voilet Hill and finishes on Tai Tam reservoir road, just outside Parkview.  Stage 2 continues north over Jardine's Lookout and the northern ridge.

On my first weekend at Parkview, I couldn't restist checking it out.   This is the view looking south from the trail to Parkview with Voilet Hill (435m) behind to the right.  

Looking south-east across the Tai Tam Valley

Video Panorama:  panning from south-east, to south to south-west.

Looking south-south-west across Deepwater Bay with Lamma Island in the distance.

Looking west across Happy Vally towards The Peak.  You can clearly see the road down from Wong Nai Chung Gap (left) down into Central (right). 

The view west from Jardine's lookout at 433m.   Happy Valley racecourse stadium is in the foreground behind a cluster of towerblocks.  The tall bulding by the harbour is the 88 story, 415m high International Financial Center (IFC) in Central.

Looking North across Causeway Bay and North Point to the harbour and Hung Hom on the Kowloon Side.

Close-up looking north-west to the ICC at West Kowloon.  At 483m high and 108 stories, the ICC is actually 50m higher than Jardine's lookout.















Panorama:  from Jardine's lookout panning from west to north

Also starting near Parkview, and down from the Wilson trail  is another quieter trail that follows a water-race along the contour of Jardine's Lookout past some old WW2 pillboxes.

And some other ruined buildings.

Hong Kong Parkview

On 27th of March I moved from Chi to an apartment in Hong Kong Parkview.  The idea is to be closer to Hannah's pre-school and to shorten their school-run, albeit at the expense of a longer commute for me.

Parkview is a private housing estate built in the 1980s high up in the Tai Tam Country Park, just east of the Won Nai Chung Gap, the pass dividing northern and southern parts of Hong Kong Island.

This is the view from the top of our block looking north-west accross the gap to Happy Valley and central Hong Kong.

Parkview consists of 18 tower blocks, with a central podium area with gardens, tennis courts and swimming pools, as well as a sports club, playgrounds, restaurants and a supermarket.

The view from our apartment looking south across the podium. 

It is all rather posh

The main club-house showcases the owners impressive and eccentric art collection with paintings and sculptures by Miro, Dali, Margrite, and an impressive collection of classical and contemporary Chinese Art,  including C5th buddhist sculpture and landscape drawings from various eras.

    

As well as the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower made out of lego (with the a lego millenium falcon hanging behind).

The supermarket is also very posh with a wide choice of familiar brand-names from around the world.  For example various Waitrose stables imported form the UK at 2-3 times the price.  Similarly Australian  yoghurt and New Zealand mushrooms and honey.    And live fish

Our flat is pretty comfortable.  I hope Rika and Hannah enjoy it.

Hannah was happy to have a bath again after 1 month of showers.

Ahhh. Back in civilisation again!

And finally some more Objects D'Art from the Parkview collection

Hong Kong - ICC

My new office is in the International Commerce Center (ICC) in West Kowloon.

The ICC is a 484m high skyscraper which is the tallest building in Hong Kong and currently the 5th tallest in the world.   It has 108 real floors, but because unlucky floor numbers like 13 and 14 are missed out the tallest floor is officially 120.

My company's offices are about half-way up, and the views are pretty impressive on a clear day.   The building is built on reclaimed land as part of the union Square development, almost directly above 'Kowloon' MTR (subway) station, which is one stop from Hong Kong station on Hong Kong Island and 20 min from the airport.


This is the view from our coffee-shop on my floor looking north-west across the Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter to Stonecutters Island.  You can just see the towers of Stonecutters Bridge which is the worlds 2nd longest cable-stayed bridge and carries the Route 8 expressway towards the airport.

Looking north across the typhoon shelter to the apartment buildings at 'Olympic', one stop on the MTR on from Kowloon, and where some of my colleagues live.

Looking west at sunset

My colleagues in our main meeting room.

My desk is near the window on the north side overlooking Kowloon.  It also overlooks the rooftop swimming pool of the 'W Hotel' next door.

View looking north-east across Kowloon towards Lion Rock.  Kowloon is home to 2million people with a population density of 43,000 per km2,  one of the more densely populated cities.

Video panorama:  from our coffee shop.  looking south-west to the east tip of Hong Kong island,then west across Victoria Harbour to Lantau Island in the distance then north-west to Stonecutters Island and finally north to Olympic.

Video panorama:  from our main lobby, looking south-east overTsim Sha Tsui (TST), then  the Ocean Ferry Terminal, then south over Victoria Harbour to the IFC building in Central Hong Kong with 'The Peak' in the background.

Video panorama:  the same view as above at night.   The shot finishes looking down to where the West Kowloon highway enters the Western harbour crossing tunnel.   This is a dual tunnel 2km under the harbour with 3 lanes in each direction.  It was built over 1993-7 by Japan's Nishimatsu Construction in 12 sections each 35,000 tons which were sunk into position then joined-up, pumped out and covered over ('cut and cover' method).     

Looking south from our lobby at night towards the IFC in Central.

Another view looking south across Victoria Harbour.   The IFC with ferry terminals in front of it on the shoreline, and Victoria Peak to the right.

Victoria Peak, with Sheung Wan in the foreground and Sai Wan, Kennedy Town and Green island to the right.

The blue building in the foreground is the ventilation for the West Harbour Tunnel.  There is a similar building on the opposite side , with a black-looking rectangular building behind it.  Just to the right of that building is a skinny building which is Chi Residences, where we lived in Feb.

The same view in video:

On the top '120th' floor of the ICC is a bar called 'Ozone' which is apparently the highest bar in the world (or more accurately the bar highest above street-level).

The extra 200m makes the views truly spectacular - more like being in a light aircraft than being in a building.    This is the view south-east across Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), and the star ferry terminal.

Of course the air isn't always clear.   This is the view from my desk on a few hazy days.