I spent part of the weekend inside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island. Getting from Shenzhen to Hong Kong is easy: Train, ferry, or bus will take you to the once-British colony.

When you miss your bus, and the one you board breaks down, you can be somewhat late.  On the way home, running between Hong Kong and China immigration checkpoints at 10:50 at night so you don’t miss the last subway train, is also not recommended.

I did get a new toy. A first attempt at time-lapse photography. Pretty bad, but it show promise.

Thank you, the veterans and their families were told more than 60 years after the Battle of Hong Kong. The dedication of a new monument to in Ottawa, Canada, August 15, recognized a much-overlooked chapter in Canadian history

The Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall, on the Rideau River near Canada’s Parliament Buildings, lists the names of the 1,975 men and women that helped defend Hong Kong. The 17 day battle was Canada’s first military engagement of the Second World War.

Canadian Maple Trees in Sham Shui Po Park, in Kowloon, Hong Kong, a former POW camp.

The Japanese army invaded the then British Colony from Mainland China in December 1941. The Canadian defenders, fresh off the boat, and lacking equipment and proper training, fought heroically until the colony surrendered to Japanese forces on Christmas Day 1941.

More than 800 Canadians were wounded or killed in the battle. The survivors spent the remainder of the war in POW camps, facing unimaginable conditions, disease, and torture. A further 267 Canadians died during captivity.

The new monument is a permanent reminder of the sacrifices made by Canadians during and after the Battle of Hong Kong, acts some veterans felt were marginalized or forgotten.

Not so now.

Government ministers thanked the 22 Hong Kong veterans that attended the ceremony.

“Even in the difficult times you faced when you returned home, you promised never to forget those who were left behind,” said Canada’s Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson

“I truly believe that when this day is over, when you have the chance tonight to explore the silence and solitude of your own thoughts . . . you will hear the distant voices of your fallen comrades — and they will be saying: ‘Thank you. Thank you for today. Thank you for your gift of remembrance.’ “

There are smaller memorials in Hong Kong to the Canadian veterans. A memorial wall at the Sai Wan War Cemetery on Hong Kong Island lists the names of the soldiers that died during the Battle of Hong Kong. A plaque at the Wong Nai Chung Gap trail (a former defensive line) documents Canada’s involvement in the short defense of the colony. Canadian maple trees, planted by the Hong Kong Veterans Association, can be seen at the Sham Shui Po Park in Kowloon, the former site of a POW Camp.

John Robert Osborn, VC, awarded the Victoria Cross for his act of valor during the Battle of Hong Kong, is honored with a statue in Hong Kong Park, and a marker where he fell during the battle.

With files from the National Post

It’s easy to take photos at sunset: At that point of the day most people are awake. Sunrise is something else entirely.

I’ve wanted to shoot Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour at dawn for a while. My problem has been not being in Hong Kong early enough. Arriving at 8:30 am via bus precludes any shots of the rising sun.

Near the end of July I had to spend the night in Hong Kong to complete the dreaded “visa run.” My guest house, in the infamous Chungking Mansions, was a hop, skip, and a jump for Victoria Harbour. Being an early riser is occasionally of benefit (although Mrs. Stevo would fight me tooth and nail on this point). I skipped down to the Avenue of the Stars, camera in hand.

I got lucky: I capture a great series. Photography is science but it’s also luck. You can plan for the perfect shot but you need The Fates’ assistance. I didn’t have a tripod (my tripod, in the patois of my youth, “blows” I will remedy this soon. I found a great carbon-fibre model with ball head while perusing the used photo gear shops in Sham Shui Po).

This sunrise is symbolic: The starting of my new life, post teaching ESL in China.

Yes, actually this is an exit, at a Hong Kong MTR station on Hong Kong Island. I’ve always wanted to use the final line from Brent Easton Ellis’ satirical novel American Psycho.

I’ll be away for a couple of weeks, as I said, putting on my traveling shoes. Changsha, Heng Shan, Chenzhou, Guiyang, China – It should be quite fun. I’ll follow my standard of practice of not asking what I’m eating. Asking will limit my food choice. Being dumb is often better.

I’ll be getting a new Chinese visa on Tuesday, then catching a night train. Fifteen hours in a soft-sleeper is better than 15 hours in a hard seat. The romance of the rails doesn’t apply in China. I may drink heavily before the train trip.

I’ll try to update with fresh photos while on the road. The best way to get updates is to follow me on Twitter.

On the many corridors under the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense, formerly the Lei Yue Fort. The British built the fort in the late 19th century to protect the eastern approach, the Lei Yue Mun Pass to Victoria Harbour, from the French and Russian navies. (Ironically, the fortification look incredibly similar the Chinese Shajiao Fort in Humen China – that the British stormed during the first Opium War.)

The centerpiece of the fort is the redoubt that was dug deep into a hillside. The corridors and storerooms, containing ammunition and gunpowder, were covered with earth, making the fort hard to spot. A trench around the area, with stone caponiers, protected the fort if invaders found their way to land.

The fort was never used in the way it was intended. A shot was never fired at Russian or French ships. During the Battle of Hong Kong, Lei Yue Fort was used by British forces in an attempt to unsuccessfully repel the Japanese assault of Hong Kong Island. Evidence of the fighting is still visible.

After the Battle of Hong Kong and the Second World War the British used the fort as a training ground until it was vacated in 1987. Hong Kong government agencies decided to give Lei Yue Fort a second lease on life and created the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence in 1993.

A permanent exhibit covering 600 years of military defence in the Pearl River Delta is on display in the underground rooms that once held thousand of artillery shells and tonnes of gunpowder. A historic trail leads visitors through the batteries, a ruined settlement (destroyed during the Battle of Hong Kong), and the Brennan Torpedo station carved into the rock at the base of the fort.

The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense is a short walk from the Island Line’s Shau Kei Wan MTR station.

A beam of light to fall on the wall of the Law Uk Folk Museum in Chai Wan, Hong Kong. The museum is a restored Hakka home. The 120 square metre dwelling is modest: Featuring a drying room, workshop, dining room, and lofted bedrooms.

The Hakka people, from Guangdong Province, China, moved to the Chai Wan area during the 18th century. They cleared the land and farmed. The last of the families moved away during the 1960s. The Hong Kong government decided to save the last Hakka home in the 1970s and opened it as a musuem in 1990.

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Cracking Envy (Or How I Learned To Stop Romancing A Deadly Sin)
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