bc magazine, hong kong

Hello Kitty, candy, and fortune-telling. What more could one ask for? Rather than paying for a fortune-teller on Temple Street this Chinese New Year, you now have the cheaper and faster alternative of discovering your destiny by shaking this cute cat-adorned cardboard box while indulging in some sugary sweets. The box (appropriately coloured red for the lunar New Year) contains 6 jelly fruit lollies and 5 Paddle Pop sticks (none of which has anything to do with Hello Kitty). Each stick is labelled with Chinese characters denoting a particular degree of luck: super, big, medium, plain, small, or none. To discover your fate, rip open the perforated slot at the head of the box, shake (violently, in my case!) the box and one of the sticks will (hopefully) smoothly slide out of the slot, revealing your fortune for the upcoming year.

Being a new arrival in Hong Kong and having witnessed only frantic city life so far, the concept of a suburban area has not crossed my mind very often. But I suppose that is what you could call Sha Tin Wai, although it is not anything to get particularly excited about. As you leave the station, you are welcomed by the profile of Sha Kok Estate buildings – grey concrete giants the powers that be evidently tried to make less of an eyesore by paintings sections orange, green and yellow. Across the road, the small Sha Kok shopping centre was incredibly empty on the Saturday afternoon but a small indoor market displaying surprisingly appealing fresh vegetables and fish of all kinds makes it worth a mention. Still looking for something noteworthy, I continued wandering until I lighted on Sha Tin Wai Village. Separated from the Estate buildings by a football field, it is a collection of 30-40 humble houses against whose walls rusty old bicycles lean and whose front doors are often left gaping open. Elderly locals ruminate over chessboards and I even heard birds singing in the trees – such impressions in the city would be as rare as clean air. So should you wish a short release from the city’s interminable bustle, take the ride out to Sha Tin Wai, ignore the Estate if you can and take a gentle stroll through the quaint little village instead.

1.Olivia, Student
My boyfriend arranged a candlelight dinner on our anniversary.

2.Alex, Student
My ex took me on a junk boat trip to the beach where he had prepared a picnic basket and an ‘I Love You’ sign.