My favourite places in Hong Kong

Hi, today I want to introduce some of my favourite places in Hong Kong, sometimes tourist guides/books will leave out certain places because they are simply not as commercial or don't look as "fancy". I don't know.

I want to write about some my favourite places in Hong Kong, depending on what you like to do. For me, Yuen Long, Sham Shui Po, Sha Tin, Kwun Tong, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay are my favourite places to buy miscellaneous things. In Yuen Long, you can buy clothes, but a lot of the clothes are for super skinny girls. Whilst, Mong Kok provides a wide range of styles and sizes and also super cheap.

First, I will talk about Yuen Long, Yuen Long has a lot of small shopping malls that consist of 2-5 floors varying, (if I remember correctly), its also more old (unless you go to Yuen Long Plaza) compare to other bigger and more commercialised shopping malls in other areas of Hong Kong. A lot of the stores are super small, not a lot of space and can perhaps fit up to 2 or 3 customers inside.

However, don't be fooled, a lot of these shops sell lots of things, some sell shoes, clothes (cute, girly and street style, t-shirts, Korean-style clothes etc), whilst some shops sell stationary (these shops are usually bursting with so much colour because of all the different stationary), one shop, I saw sold Rilakkuma and Korilikuma stationary and other miscellaneous objects such as clocks, letter sets and phone straps. Some even offer services like replacing your old screen protector on your phone and having your nails done etc. Other stores, also sell phone cases with plentiful designs and accessories for the phone like plugs and phone straps. 

The things that I have bought from Yuen Long include these three cute face masks, one of the eyes has already fallen off =.= and I haven't even worn it. Although, super cheap ... roughly $20 (HKD) for 3. Material is super comfy, breathable in hot climates and non-itchy, lots of cute designs to choose from. I also bought these cake/biscuit nail art for $15 (HKD),

Sham Shui Po

Sham Shui Po is good for buying arts and crafts,  kind of thing, so if you are like me and enjoy personalising your own clothes or bags, then you'll like some of the shops in Sham Shui Po. My favourite shop that I went too sold like hundreds and hundreds of different kind of buttons, thers the silver kind of buttons with lacy, intricate details but the ones that I like are colourful like Harajuku and in different shapes like strawberries, bats, dogs, stars, hearts etc. I bought a bag with so many differently coloured buttons for $40 (HKD), which is really good.

Another, shop I went to was so overly-crowded with people, I could barely in it (shop is quite small), it sold rolls of lace, threads, buttons, wooden beads, plastic beads and ones in teddy bear-shapes and other shapes. They are super cute, if you thread your own clothes, it would really match a sweet lolita style. If shop in the right places, you can find awesome things. I'm thinking of threading the bears into a cute long necklace to wear with a cute outfit.

Sha Tin

If you like shopping malls, theres a huge one in Sha Tin ... and the best thing is its connected to the train station so you don't have to walk out of the train station to get into the shopping mall. Its huge, it has lots of floors with lots and lots of shops, there are shops that sell clothes, shoes and bags, there's a Skinfood store. Lots of restaurants to eat lunch/dinner... there's a Thai restaurant, Japanese pizza restaurant, another Japanese restaurant that has lots of nice sets (I had a set with udon, six pieces of sushi and tempura)mmm... there's also a sushi on conveyor belts, Mos Burger, Yum Cha restaurant. (I'm not sure, if there are anymore restaurants, if you know... let me know and I'll add it back in... thanks).

You can seriously spend the whole day browsing the stores, there's such a wide variety of stores and there's so much to see, I think the bottom floor is a store or a brand called Yata, that sells a bunch of Sanrio soft toys, stationary and other bits and pieces. I bought a Pom Pom Purin glasses cloth and cute Sanrio plastic sleeves from there. The prices range from low to high but not very expensive. My glasses cloth was $18 and the plastic sleeves were $12~ (roughly). 

Kwun Tong

Kwun Tong also has a big shopping mall but not as big as the one in Sha Tin, the shopping mall is called APM. It has several fast food restaurants like KFC, a frozen yogurt place, a Japanese restaurant (amongst other restaurants) a cinema on the top floor. A music shop, Sports Marathon (I know there's a sport shop there but I don't know if its Sports Marathon,), a massive Muji, Log On which sells a bunch of Japanese snacks, stationary (some from Japanese brands), cute notebooks, Dolly wink make up, I bought my Tony Moly perfume stick from there (I got the purple one which has floral tones) was $60 (I think, sorry... I can't remember the exact price). There's also a food court if you walk through Log On.  Outside of APM, in Kwun Tong there is also a Gong Cha which I got Green Tea Latte (?). My dad bought it for me. 

Mong Kok (which is pronounced as Wong Kok).

I believe the ladies market is in Mong Kok but yeah, its mostly outdoor shopping so if you go in the summer. I would not go during noon time and early afternoon, otherwise you'll be burning in the sun, if you do... go at that time, then you can rehydrate by buying baby coconuts to drink. Anyways, go for late afternoon to early evening when the sun is down and the weather is more tolerable in the afternoon.

There's a long street of market stalls selling clothes (more casual style), bags, there's a store selling those Usagi hair band (I think its what they are called, the long band that you wrap around your head and tie a little bow on the top), its quite popular in Korean fashion. 

There's also lots of small indoor shops too, including J Closet that I saw in Yuen Long, I bought a cute gold necklace with little crystals, its a fish bone necklace, my mum got a cream jacket and my sister got a top or something (?).

Causeway Bay

When you exit out of the train station, I think it exit b or c, there's a Forever 21 store with five levels that has lots of clothes, it sells some shoes and accessories. I bought two sweaters, one was dark grey with dark green patches, one is cream with gold thread embroidery and pearls attached. I also bought a leather vest with gold zips and detailing and a cross shoulder envelope shaped bag in black and white. Its good for formal events or when you want to be a little dressier. Anyways, I thought a lot of the clothes there were beautiful... amongst other things.

I'm sorry, this ended up being a lengthy post without any pictures :D

Grasshopper the band

Hi, I am back with another music related post, recently I introduced the band Beyond (click on the word to read it). So know I shall be introducing an another Hong Kong band that I discovered recently and love them dearly. 

The Grasshopper that I will be discussing is, the Hong Kong band. Although, I haven't found a song that I particularly like but I like the way they perform and their clothes. I always search for their lives on YouTube because I think they look like, they are really enjoying themselves and look really happy. Anyways, moving on~~~ here's some facts about Grasshopper.

They are a Hong Kong Cantopop boy band which was formed in 1985. The band consist of two brothers Remus and Calvin Choi and their neighbour Edmond Leung. The band was formed when Remus (who was interesting in dancing) selected Calvin and Edmond as his backing dancers for a competition. Although, they were unsuccessful in this competition, they stayed together and carried on performing together. They chose the name "Grasshopper" because they liked the fact that Grasshoppers have "agility" and its also the name of their favourite "cocktail".

In 1985, they took part in the "Hong Kong New Talent Singing Awards" where Anita Mui (a completely, different post in the future of her.) was one of the judges, during their audition they suffered a black out and Anita Mui started talking to them. Later, she became their mentor and visited their "low-cost houses" in her limousine (and probably wearing very glamorous and stylish clothes too). You can search for their lives and music videos on YouTube.

You can check out the rest of their biography on other websites~ as usual... I'll finish with 5 pictures of them, if I find a favourite song or live, then I will add it into this post in the future.

 

 

 

Credit: The information for their biography was taken from different sites on the Internet, so credits to the original owner and the pictures, do not belong to me, so credits to the original owner.

Update

Hi, everyone... I'm back, I moved to my uni campus, and I was busy sorting out my belongings, getting to know the people, I would be living with and familiarising myself with the uni campus. Its quite confusing, its so big and many lecture theatres but I'm getting used to certain lecture rooms and where the main building is. Do other people feel like this when they first moved into uni or if you just move in? then do you feel that the campus is really big.

I was a little homesick at first and sometimes during the evenings  but I'm good now... I think it will be harder for me to blog regularly when I start getting more assignments so I hope you'll understand that. 

I'll be studying International Hospitality Management and I will work as hard as I can, so I get a excellent grade at the end.

Take care~~~ 

Who are Beyond?

Hi, I'm back with another music/band related post. Today, I want to introduce you to one of my favourite bands that I recently discovered back in June/July. This band is fairly old and no longer perform together...  lets start!

Beyond are a Hong Kong rock band, they are made up of Wong Ka Kui, Yip Sai Wing, Wong Ka Keung (brothers with Wong Ka Kui) and Paul Wong. The band was formed by Wong Ka Kui (who is often described as the soul of the band, as he composed majority of the band's music and penned a few of the band's lyrics as well) and Yip Sai Wing who were both interested in Pink Floyd's Progressive rock. They decided to enter a music contest hosted by the guitar magazine, the band's guitarist at the time wanted the band to go "beyond" themselves, thus "Beyond" was chosen as the band's name. However, they had a diffcult path to go before reaching success. The band truly did go Beyond, their music certainly touched the hearts of many people and there songs are extremely popular and famous to this day. 

In 1984, Wong Ka Kui's brother Wong Ka Keung joined the band, however Chan See (who at that time was the guitarist for the band) soon had to leave the country thus leaving them without a guitarist, soon after the position was filled by Paul Wong. However, it wasn't commercial success straight away, the young band had to handle many aspects of the band such as selling tickets and buying their own equipment. 

In 1986, Lau Chi Yuen joined the band but then left in 1988.

Moreover, in 1987, the band released the album "The Arabian Dancing Girl" which become one of many commercial hits, the band would go on to produce. However, they would soon be hit by a tragic accident in 1993, the band appeared on a Tokyo Fuji television game show and Wong Ka Kui and Japanese actor Uchimura fell through a broken platform, the stage was 2.7 to 3m high. This resulted in  both of them sustained severe head injuries and immediately hospitalised, which led to Wong Ka Kui's passing a week later (he had fallen into a coma). He was 31 years old.

A lot of popular Cantopop singers paid tributes to Wong Ka Kui, at the time of his funeral, the song "Boundless Ocean Vast Skies" was released, which is perhaps the song that Beyond are most known for.  The song has a soft yet catchy melody, that I'm sure a lot of older generation of people that were listening to Hong Kong music, could hum along too. The lyrics are also not too difficult to sing too even if you can't read Chinese characters.

You can go onto the Internet and browse around to learn more about Beyond...

My favourite songs are "Boundless Ocean Vast Skies" and "Paradise", the second song, I believe was released after Wong Ka Kui had passed away as Paul Wong provides the vocals of this song. In my personal opinion, I like both voices, they sound very different but both very like able for me.

I'll shall end this post with some pictures of Beyond:

     





Credit: The pictures do not belong to me, also a lot of Beyond's information such as dates and information about Wong Ka Kui's death was found on the Internet, from various websites, so credits to the original owner. 

 
Thank you for reading...