Observations on Life - Hong Kong Park

Today I took a stroll through Hong Kong Park. I love to walk through this park and looked at the multicoloured Koi (carp) in the large pond. It is very peaceful and relaxing and a great place to spend some time.

This Park, which cost HKD$398 million and opened in May 1991, covers 8 hectares in Central (the central business district of Hong Kong) and is an outstanding example of modern design and facilities blending with the natural landscape. For example, large workshops and garages are hidden under the large pond and accessed from a pathway further down the slope from the pond.

A further attraction is the way of flowing water, which has been employed as a thematic motif to link the different features of the park by waterfalls, streams, ponds and cliffs from artificial rocks.

The park occupies the upper area of the former garrison area known as Victoria Barracks. The lower area of the is used for commercial development (Pacific Place Shopping Mall) and Government buildings while the remaining portion became a park.

The park site is quite steep but amid the old vegetation are good specimens of large trees, which were originally planted by the military. Most of the trees have been retained during the development

The concept for this park was to provide an enjoyable leisure experience for the community as well as being educational. The main features are an aviary, a conservatory, a squash centre, a sports centre and landscaped gardens, which include children's playground and restaurant.

Today my observation focused on at guy who I later called "Joe". This guy works for the security patrol at the park and I first saw him as I entered the park. He was about 5' 3", approximately 40 years of age and came striding towards me in his light blue uniform with peaked baseball style cap, but not one of those baseball type caps with the rounded top, no, this one was one of those baseball style caps has sides that go straight up and has a flattop like the military wear or Fidel Castro and makes the wearer look like they mean business.

Anyway, as this guy came walking towards me, he had a look on his very expressive face that said " don't mess with me, I am a very serious guy" (well, as serious as you can be when you're wearing a light blue uniform and you are only 5' 3" tall....). He looked like he had just returned from a dangerous mission saving a damsel in distress from some killer butterfly somewhere in the deep dark reaches of the park. As he came towards me I noted that he looked like a cross between a Cantonese G.I. Joe and one of the characters out of the Thunderbirds puppet/cartoon series ('Brains' I think). He strode along purposely with his hands hanging loosly at his sides ready to spring into action again. He had an equipment belt with so much stuff on it I thought that it was no wonder he was not very tall, all this jangly, jangly stuff was weighing him down. As he walked past me, he eyed me up and down and I thought that he was going to arrest me for standing on an ant or something but he kept striding off into the distance looking for another soul to save.

I saw Joe again later in the afternoon. He was down near the koi pond letting his presence be felt by a group of children and Filipino housemaids who were at the waters edge so that the children could get a close-up view of the fish. Joe was standing close by, hands on hips looking like a sugar bowl, knee of one leg slightly bent in a haughty attitude with a look on his face that said to all closeby " don't go any closer to the water's edge or I will arrest you for intimidating a fish, for I am Joe, slayer of butterflies, rescuer of little children and protector of Filipino housemaids ".

I had to leave at that point as I had an appointment in Central to attend so I never did find out whether one of the little children was arrested or saved from attempting to swim with the koi. Nevertheless, I tip my hat to you Joe (metaphorically speaking of course because I don't actually have a hat) and wish you well in your job as a superhero and protector of Hong Kong Park.

Until next time,

Tales of Asia signing off.....

Alan