Hong Kong is a place of contrasts. Old and New live side-by-side. Abandoned villages almost next door to large residential apartment blocks. We took a boat via the Geopark to Ap Chau an island right near the Hong Kong - China border. Ap Chau is the smallest inhabited island in Hong Kong - it has 2 permanent residents (both in their 80's). Ap Chau is also known as duck island (due to its shape) and is the only island devoted to Christianity. In the 1950's it also had a school catering to the local area. The church is still active. Otherwise the fishing village is mostly abandoned these days, however, people are renovating houses and they come back on the weekends or for religious festival. In the background to the north of duck island the rural idyll is in stark contrast with the port being build for Shenzhen, the apartment blocks and Minsk-World (the amusement park on the old Russian aircraft carrier Minsk).
From Ap Chau we took the boat to 'Double Heaven' where we visited an abandoned village (one of 7) before trekking through the countryside to our lunch destination. The final part of the trip was around ' Double Heaven's special features (royal seal, parasol, Chinese brush tip, ink and paper). It was great being out on the boat and discovering new sides of Hong Kong.
The same weekend we also went to a concert in the dark - pitch black. Back in London we once had 'Dinner in the Dark' and so were sort of aware of what the experience would be like. What we didn't expect, however, was that rather than a concert the event was more of a audio play in Cantonese :)
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