Hi Tony!
Yes - when I was in Hong Kong in 1999, I made sure I acquired a good map (in English) which I could use there and in the UK for research purposes. Hong Kong is small - but in the Chinese mind - it is huge! Bear in mind that a Chinese mile (1 li) is the equivalent to one-third of an English mile. We would run up and down a 10 mile hill in the heat to warm up - but that was actually around 3 miles! The heat and steepness made it seem worse than it was. Clan migrations of 100 miles (a massive distance in the old days) turned-out to be around 30 miles. Even Westerners I know working and living in the Hong Kong area find it difficult to locate places and areas. Once, one of my gongfu students - a young man from Sutton who got into Oxford - made his way to the town of Sai Kung, and got on the correct bus (75 probably) I said we used to catch to the Chan (Banana) Village - which is out in the countryside. Our Hakka ancestors grew bananas to sell at the local markets. Otherwise, the place is covered in thick trees because the Hakka who originally settled there used to plant sustainable forests from which they made a career for themselves producing charcoal. When the charcoal market dried-up - the place was left covered in healthy forests - whereas before there was desert and malarial swamps! The Hakka farmers turned barren land into lush crop growing earth. Now, by the time the bus made it to the remote road, my student (who was the only person left on the bus) rang the bell for the bus to stop (we had given him the road co-ordinates). It is an open road with trees aligning both sides. To the untrained eye - there is no settlement there. However, if you walk through a gap in the trees and follow a private road down a steep incline - you arrive at the heavily locked village gate which is guarded by ferocious village dogs and whichever villagers are on guard duty that day. Quite often, the dogs are released to attack anyone walking toward the village they do not know. The bus-driver stopped the bus but wouldn't open the doors. He asked by student "why" he was getting off in this area - and when he explained that his gongfu teacher's family originated in this village - the driver said that no foreigners are allowed here without being escorted by Chinese people. When asked why this was the case - the driver explained that "Hakka people are very violent and unpredictable. You cannot just go to their villages - you need Chinese escorts to protect you and introduce you. If I drop a foreigner off in these parts and they get hurt - it will be my fault and not the foreigner or the Hakka people!" And that was the end of that. My student had to sit down and ride the full circuit of the bus route to be taken back to Sai Kung. What he did manage to do was take our prescription for the Chan Family Dit Da Jow to a local herbalist - who was shocked when he produced it. My student managed to get a huge bag of ingredients that will probably last more than one lifetime!
Yes - when I was in Hong Kong in 1999, I made sure I acquired a good map (in English) which I could use there and in the UK for research purposes. Hong Kong is small - but in the Chinese mind - it is huge! Bear in mind that a Chinese mile (1 li) is the equivalent to one-third of an English mile. We would run up and down a 10 mile hill in the heat to warm up - but that was actually around 3 miles! The heat and steepness made it seem worse than it was. Clan migrations of 100 miles (a massive distance in the old days) turned-out to be around 30 miles. Even Westerners I know working and living in the Hong Kong area find it difficult to locate places and areas. Once, one of my gongfu students - a young man from Sutton who got into Oxford - made his way to the town of Sai Kung, and got on the correct bus (75 probably) I said we used to catch to the Chan (Banana) Village - which is out in the countryside. Our Hakka ancestors grew bananas to sell at the local markets. Otherwise, the place is covered in thick trees because the Hakka who originally settled there used to plant sustainable forests from which they made a career for themselves producing charcoal. When the charcoal market dried-up - the place was left covered in healthy forests - whereas before there was desert and malarial swamps! The Hakka farmers turned barren land into lush crop growing earth. Now, by the time the bus made it to the remote road, my student (who was the only person left on the bus) rang the bell for the bus to stop (we had given him the road co-ordinates). It is an open road with trees aligning both sides. To the untrained eye - there is no settlement there. However, if you walk through a gap in the trees and follow a private road down a steep incline - you arrive at the heavily locked village gate which is guarded by ferocious village dogs and whichever villagers are on guard duty that day. Quite often, the dogs are released to attack anyone walking toward the village they do not know. The bus-driver stopped the bus but wouldn't open the doors. He asked by student "why" he was getting off in this area - and when he explained that his gongfu teacher's family originated in this village - the driver said that no foreigners are allowed here without being escorted by Chinese people. When asked why this was the case - the driver explained that "Hakka people are very violent and unpredictable. You cannot just go to their villages - you need Chinese escorts to protect you and introduce you. If I drop a foreigner off in these parts and they get hurt - it will be my fault and not the foreigner or the Hakka people!" And that was the end of that. My student had to sit down and ride the full circuit of the bus route to be taken back to Sai Kung. What he did manage to do was take our prescription for the Chan Family Dit Da Jow to a local herbalist - who was shocked when he produced it. My student managed to get a huge bag of ingredients that will probably last more than one lifetime!
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