Dawn Over Victoria Harbor

My camera and I are 35,000 feet over the Aleutian Islands right now, so I won't confuse it by trying to make magic of the inside of our Delta aircraft (although I know many of you out there could do just that!) Instead, I'll "back blip" a couple of days and let my camera catch a few zzzz's.

My favorite weekend-morning thing to do in Hong Kong after I've made myself a cup of hot tea, is to pull a chair over by the front window, pick up my crosswords, and watch the harbor wake up, slowly coming into focus as it, too, rubs the fog out of its eyes. Hong Kong mornings are usually overcast and cloudy, and the most wonderful part of the morning is watching the sun valiantly fight through the cloud cover, spraying the harbor with shards of light and making large sparkling pools of brilliance here and there across the water. Sometimes the sun actually enjoys a victory and we get a sunny day, which in Hong Kong is something to be relished and enjoyed!

The harbor is home to ships and boats of every shape and size. Enormous container ships chug through, hard working tugs accompany beautiful cruise ships pulling into port, replica Chinese junks carry tourists on dim sum dinner cruises, passenger ferries of every kind criss-cross the channel constantly, and the occasional speed boat will bravely cut in and out across the wakes of ships ten times its size. On a windy day, you might even catch a sailboat breezing by! The harbor is a life force all its own, and it's fascinating to be a part of it, even from afar.

For the last year, my morning view has also included large dredging machines, sand-hauling scows and towering cranes waving over unsightly construction sites along the harbor front, property that, in Hong Kong, is limited and expensive. Miles and miles of harbor front are being reclaimed as Hong Kong stretches itself out toward the sea, narrowing the magnificent harbor year by year. The irony, of course, is that in their quest to reclaim more and more land along the water, Hong Kong is slowly choking off the very asset they're working so hard to exploit.

This photo captures the Hong Kong Exhibition Center, one of the city's most venerable and cherished pieces of architecture, sitting on the Hong Kong side of Victoria Harbor. It's not quite the Sydney Opera House, but it does figure prominently in the harbor skyline, jutting out into the water with its steel and glass façade, waiting impatiently for artists from around the world to sail into port and grace its stages. When you look at the swaying roof and acoustical construction, you can almost hear the performances going on inside!

Sadly, Hong Kong's landmarks must now fight to keep their footprint along the harbor. The heavy construction was the demise of the original Star Ferry Terminal, a fully-operational hub that shuttled passengers between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon for over a hundred years. Despite arguments that the city should refrain from sacrificing the old world charm of these veteran landmarks, there are now several new and efficient ferry terminals lining a brand new promenade along the water, and the addition of a few high-end restaurants have made the harbor something of a destination locale. The new construction promises to bring parks, shops and outdoor cafes and restaurants, as well as providing more efficient highways across town, taking some of the load off of Hong Kong's narrow interior roadways.

As with everything, I guess only time will tell how the harbor's landscape will evolve. Until that time, I'll enjoy my cup of tea in the front window, peruse the boat traffic and ignore the hum of construction far below. There's still plenty of water left to enjoy, and in all our travels up to now, it's still hard to find anything that quite compares to dawn over Victoria Harbor!