I’ve by no means been to Asia earlier than, and within the weeks main as much as my artwork journey to Hong Kong, I expertise way more pre-travel anxiousness than normal. I obsess over dropping a whole day, fret about what to pack, fear about jet lag and fail repeatedly to memorize what is well probably the most formidable itinerary of my rising travelogue sequence. (Forty-eight hours of artwork is just not lengthy sufficient once you’re flying midway around the world.) I additionally turn out to be oddly superstitious, studying portents into on a regular basis moments. This isn’t my regular, and even now, weeks after returning, I’m nonetheless undecided what rattled me so deeply.
However in an odd however welcome twist, the very first leg of my journey presents reassurance: my tough-guy Uber driver performs soothing spa music. Rating one for the universe. After which it’s precedence check-in, empty safety strains at 10 p.m. and clean crusing all the way in which into the Delta One lounge, the place I snack, examine Hong Kong’s artwork scene and finally discover I’m already surrounded by artworks: Gregory Block doughnuts, a Miles Jaffe matchbook piece and a balloon work by Patrick Nevins, whose cute “crayon” portray delighted me in Denver as soon as upon a time.
Am I relaxed? Not precisely. I nonetheless imagine people have been by no means meant to fly, however precedence boarding will get me into my business-class seat about 40 minutes earlier than takeoff, leaving time to settle in. My husband all the time says, “You’re simply in a room,” and on no airplane has that ever felt extra correct. The Airbus A350 ceilings are unexpectedly excessive, and I’m tucked right into a window cubicle that will probably be house for the following 15 hours.
Ready for dinner, I discover the facilities of my dice: noise-canceling headphones, a distant that doubles as a online game controller, Bamford toiletries and a number of other storage nooks. Then I eat noodle soup with dumplings whereas binge-watching The Workplace and Silicon Valley, sip the airline’s signature in-flight drinks (a non-alcoholic Cathay Delight and a boozy Cloud 9) and play a bit of Tetris. I assume they’ll dim the cabin lights after the espresso service—chamomile tea for me—and fairly candies, however after I return to my cubicle after becoming pajamas and brushing my enamel, my seat has turn out to be a mattress and it’s darkish. Actually darkish. And surprisingly quiet. I needn’t have fearful about sleeping on the flight. I snooze for roughly 9 hours, waking with loads of time for a few cups of espresso earlier than breakfast: pumpkin and crab congee with a lot of Lee Kum Kee Guilin-style chili sauce, Singapore Mei Enjoyable and one other Cathay Delight.
For all my anxiousness, I do start each journey believing one thing stunning will occur. And so it already has. That is the calmest, most pleasurable and most scrumptious flight I’ve ever taken. After we contact down in Hong Kong within the pre-dawn darkness, Yunchan Lim’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” taking part in in my headphones, I’ve formally time-traveled by Tuesday, and a giant, busy Wednesday awaits.
Day 1
I arrive in a principally empty Hong Kong Worldwide Airport at roughly 5:30 a.m., although it’s exhausting to inform as a result of my physique clock is screaming at me incoherently. I blearily make my solution to the taxi stands, stopping to double-check which colour cab I’m meant to take. (Crimson.) There’s little to see in the dead of night till we attain Tsim Sha Tsui, quiet at this hour however brightly lit. The Langham, in contrast, is something however subdued—Christmas music fills the huge neoclassical foyer, which is dominated by an enormous pink Christmas tree.
Naturally, my room isn’t prepared, so I head to the dual-level Well being Membership to clean up. Sauna’ed and showered, I eat breakfast within the Membership Lounge, an area that nods to the model’s London roots with its button-tufted velvet, gilt wallpaper and chandeliers. There’s a full unfold of American breakfast staples, however I am going straight for the hen congee, piling it with century egg and chili sauce, and including a aspect of dumplings.
I’m not jet lagged precisely, however I really feel gauzy-headed and the world gently rocking round me. I drink a drip espresso, then a flat white, whereas mapping my solution to West Kowloon Artwork Park and the Hong Kong Palace Museum for the editor’s preview of “Historical Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums,” led by affiliate curator Wenxin Wang. It’s solely a few mile and a half away, and a stroll in gentle climate looks as if one of the best ways to persuade my mind it truly is Wednesday morning.
Jonathan, the lounge’s ebullient host, is about to retailer my bag when he will get phrase that my room is prepared. It’s cozy, with curved floor-to-ceiling home windows overlooking Dior, Chanel and Cartier storefronts, which I shortly study could be very Hong Kong. The desk has been laid with dainty strawberries and hilariously massive grapes, plus chilled bottles of Saicho glowing jasmine tea, a welcome various to the standard champagne.
The stroll to West Kowloon Artwork Park is simple, although waterfront development means extra crossings than anticipated. Nonetheless, I arrive on the Hong Kong Palace Museum with time to seize my earpiece and be part of the tour of 250 treasures from pharaonic instances, on mortgage from seven main museums and the Saqqara archaeological website. The irony is clear—the primary artwork I see in Hong Kong is Egyptian—however there hasn’t been a serious exhibition of Egyptian antiquities right here in many years, and it feels particular to be a part of it.
The present is superb, presenting historical Egypt by every day life as a lot as royalty. “We tried actually exhausting to attach what historical Egyptians wished and what trendy folks need,” Dr. Wang says, noting how difficult the set up was. Organized into 4 sections—“The Land of Pharaohs,” “The World of Tutankhamun,” “The Secrets and techniques of Saqqara” and “Historical Egypt and the World”—it mixes statues, coffins and gold ornaments with humbler objects: a Senet set, a pigment-stained painter’s palette, sandals, a bathroom seat, a 4,000-year-old piece of bread and even a number of mummified cats.
From there, I transfer on to “Brilliance: Ming Dynasty Ceramic Treasures from the Palace Museum, 1368–1644,” after which “The Quest for Originality: Modern Design and Conventional Craft in Dialogue.” I’ve by no means been a lot of a plate-and-vase individual, however the latter’s dialogue between historic objects and modern Hong Kong designers deepens my appreciation of the porcelain artifacts by a number of levels.
I seize lunch within the park, which has all the things from advantageous eating to meals vans, earlier than strolling just a few hundred meters to the M+, billed as Asia’s first international museum of up to date visible tradition. With 33 galleries, a roof backyard and 4 everlasting collections, together with one of many world’s strongest holdings of up to date Chinese language artwork, it deserves hours I don’t have. Past works by Qiu Shihua, Kan Xuan, Chang Xugong, Duan Jianyu and Shao Fan, together with Hassan Khan’s improbable Jewel (2010) and Chiharu Shiota’s immersive Infinite Reminiscence, what stays with me are the music pairings and wall prompts. My favourite asks, “Can unhappiness be stunning?”
On my means out, I stumble into “Dream Rooms: Environments by Ladies Artists Fifties–Now,” the place I see folks eradicating their footwear. I’m powerless to withstand a hands-on present, and inside is pure delight: Pinaree Sanpitak’s monumental pillow fort, The Home Is Crumbling; rebirth by way of Lygia Clark’s A casa é o corpo: penetração, ovulação, germinação, expulsão (The Home is the Physique); and, better of all, Judy Chicago’s Feather Room, tucked away round a nook and so blissfully uncrowded.
Again on the lodge, I tour the Langham Artwork Assortment with Emilie Zhang, director of promoting companies. In all its widespread areas, the lodge shows a rotating collection of works by established Chinese language artists collected by Langham Hospitality Group chair Ka Shui Lo. Except for just a few fastened items, together with a very Instagrammable portray close to the elevator financial institution, the gathering modifications always. The lone non-Chinese language work is a modest Dale Chihuly behind reception; it’s overshadowed by stronger items within the foyer, the Palm Court docket and T’ang Court docket, the one Cantonese restaurant with a MICHELIN three-star score and my vacation spot for tonight’s dinner.
Zhang joins me for a glass of champagne earlier than I dive right into a tasting menu that includes 4 programs and dessert. The stuffed crab shell is a Hong Kong basic, with each restaurant claiming supremacy. The Wagyu beef could also be the perfect factor I’ve ever eaten, with the cod fish with honey shut behind. Dessert is a basic egg tart and, unexpectedly, a aromatic almond cream soup. Then, as exhausted as I’m, I make my solution to the Avenue of Stars for “A Symphony of Lights,” the nightly lightshow on the buildings of Hong Kong Island. The waterfront is packed. The present is simply okay. Or possibly I’m just too drained to take pleasure in it.
Day 2
Tip: In case you’re going to have insomnia wherever, have it in a lodge with deep bathtubs. I discover myself conscious in the course of the night time, possibly as a result of my physique thinks it’s the center of the day or presumably as a result of my first day in Hong Kong was massively overstimulating. I’m transferring slowly this morning, and getting out the door is precedence one. As a result of I must put cash on my Octopus card—or so I believe. After a fast snack of large grapes, I speedwalk to a packed 7-11 and watch the folks forward of me on the counter for clues on tips on how to load up my card.
I add funds, however seems the cardboard with which I’ll pay my metro and ferry fares got here pre-loaded, and I now have sufficient credit score to journey across the metropolis for presumably weeks. Public transit in Hong Kong is affordable: the costliest peak fare on the Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central is roughly 85 cents. Most metro journeys value between 50 cents and two bucks. However again to the ferry, which is my trip to a breakfast appointment with a PR. The Star Ferry, which crosses Victoria Harbour each 10 minutes or so, is an iconic Hong Kong fixture based in 1888 because the Kowloon Ferry Firm, and whereas the boats are clearly newer, their look hasn’t modified a lot. It’s all totally charming, and I vow to take the ferry as typically as doable throughout my journey.
Citymapper is my go-to app in unfamiliar cities, Hong Kong included. Principally it really works properly, however there are two exceptions. One is in Central’s city canyons, the place skyscrapers mirror the alerts that inform the app the place I’m. The opposite is wherever an overpass or underpass bisects an intersection or cuts diagonally throughout a plaza. Hong Kong is a metropolis of ranges, threaded with pedestrian pathways that make strolling simpler however navigation tougher. It doesn’t assist that many locations you’d count on to be storefronts are tucked inside buildings, and I wander hopelessly till my PR contact finds me wanting misplaced in entrance of a Prada.
Subsequent up is a tour of Sotheby’s two-story, 24,000-square-foot Hong Kong Maison, which my colleague Elisa Carollo has coated extensively for Observer. For these unfamiliar, each main Sotheby’s location now features a retail element, and this one is a testomony to its metropolis’s luxury-shopping tradition. There are pre-auction exhibition areas (exhibiting historic works from China, Korea and Japan throughout my go to), alongside salons that may be reconfigured for privateness or accessibility. “Each salon has a spotlight: jewellery, watches, wine or purses,” comms supervisor Vinchi Wong tells me. “The enclosed area lets purchasers strive items on in a extra private means, surrounded by artwork to create a cohesive setting.”
Strolling with Wong, comms supervisor Fei Yip and head of comms Nancy Wong, I like a fossilized skeleton of a uncommon juvenile Gryposaurus, intricately articulated animal-themed jewellery by Buchin Yoshioka, uncommon classic wines and luminous jade. “Some purchasers stroll in understanding precisely what they need, like an enormous pink diamond; others need to study,” Nancy Wong says. “Asian collectors, particularly, love the academic aspect—understanding high quality, craftsmanship and design. Our specialists are educated to inform these tales.” The spotlight for many, although, is the gleaming wooden portal and staircase main all the way down to the maison’s much-lauded exhibition area. “The curves proceed all the way in which all the way down to the bottom ground; there are not any straight strains, so the area flows naturally,” Yip explains. “When it’s darkish, guests gradual their tempo, like transferring by your house at night time. The lighting is concentrated strictly on the artworks.” Sadly, the area is closed throughout my go to for the set up of “Heaven’s Mandate: Giuseppe Castiglione’s Auspicious Lotus for the Yongzheng Emperor,” so I solely get a quick peek.
Then I’m off once more, this time to discover Central. That is my one free afternoon, and I’m assembly up with a good friend, and generally Observer author, Xinyi Ye, for gallery hopping and sightseeing. We begin at David Zwirner, which is exhibiting “Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Someplace higher than this place / Nowhere higher than this place,” on view by Feb. 14, 2026. The exhibition consists of sweet and stack works, the mirror piece Untitled (Concern) (1991), a lightweight string sculpture Untitled (Couple) (1993) and Untitled (Welcome Again Heroes) (1991), with parts extending into town to emphasise probability. Subsequent is Tang Modern, the place a solo exhibition of painter Ming Ying’s faceless figurative works invitations hypothesis. (Tempo was meant to be our third cease, however the gallery shuttered the area the week earlier than.)
Xinyi then leads me to Tai Kwun, the previous Central Police Station Compound turned cultural advanced, and it strikes me how good it’s to stroll with out Citymapper for some time. With a good friend, I stumble into corners I’d by no means have discovered alone, particularly throughout the maze that’s Tai Kwun. There are artwork galleries right here, too, and we try Discovering a Place to Name Residence by Philadelphia-based muralist and glass artist Eric Okdeh earlier than making our means by the Central Magistracy and the previous Victoria Jail exhibitions that present what these areas have been like earlier than the historic buildings have been restored. After which we go to JC Modern, house of Tai Kwun Modern, which I overlook I’m scheduled to go to tomorrow.
After we half methods, I make a fast cease at Pottinger Avenue, a cobbled path from Hollywood Street to Queen’s Street relationship to the 1850s. It hosts a elaborate costume market, and through my go to, the sellers have gone all-in on Santa hats, red-and-green garlands and different Christmas trappings. I can’t linger, although, as a result of dinner awaits. Roganic in Causeway Bay is each Michelin-starred and Michelin Inexperienced-starred, a farm-to-table restaurant helmed by head chef Adam Catterall. Like many issues in Hong Kong, it’s in a mall, although you’d by no means guess as soon as inside. The nice and cozy wooden, matte stone and curvingly natural design really feel oddly like a pure extension of Sotheby’s glowing portal.
Just a few issues to learn about Roganic: the menu is the menu, although it shifts with what’s coming from the farms. There are wine pairings, however I go for the considerate non-alcoholic pairings, all made in-house from components which may in any other case be discarded, in line with the restaurant’s low- and no-waste philosophy. The meals arrives as a parade of surprises: umami-maximized mushroom mousse, horseradish trout wrapped in a crisp beetroot cylinder, honey-soaked brioche with salted butter, a easy pork croquette that’s shockingly good, frozen Yoshida cheese with Alpine plum and caramelized soda bread that eats extra like a sundae than a cheese course. I attempt to keep current with every dish and pairing, noting how salty, bitter, acid and fruity notes stability and echo each other. In some unspecified time in the future within the menu, I jot down that it “seems like I’m consuming the platonic very best of meals.” However when the ultimate dessert lands, I’m uncomfortably full and two and a half hours have handed. Plan accordingly.
Day 3
It’s lodge switch day, which for me begins at 5:30 a.m. and never particularly properly. I’m anxious about making it to a scheduled road artwork tour, and I’m beginning to suspect that biology can’t be ignored. I’m so discombobulated that after a ultimate bowl of congee with century eggs within the Membership Lounge, I go away the Langham to verify into the Cordis Hong Kong in Mongkok with out saying goodbye to my contact there. Then I go away the Cordis with out connecting with my contact there, who’s gracious about it and blissful to reschedule our deliberate walkthrough for the next morning. Fortuitously, attending to the tour meet-up is as simple as could be. From my new house base, I stroll previous Larry Bell’s Pleased Man to the metro, take the ferry again to Central, and make my solution to a espresso store close to Tai Kwun, the place I meet Alexandra Unrein, a self-taught knowledgeable on road artwork and its practitioners.
On our stroll from Central to Sheung Wan, we cease at one of many metropolis’s most photographed spots, Alex Croft’s Graham Avenue portray impressed by the Yau Ma Tei tenement buildings in Kowloon. From there, we transfer on to Jaune’s tiny stenciled sanitation employees, Innerfields’s spacewoman, HERA’s studying woman, Mon’s celestial deer and lots of others. Alongside the way in which, Unrein factors out a number of small, solitary statues by Isaac Cordal, tucked excessive into out-of-the-way locations: businesspeople in fits and vacationers in shorts gazing down on the metropolis with inscrutable expressions. As for the way she discovered a lot about Hong Kong’s road artwork scene, Unrein tells me she merely engaged with the artists, exhibiting up the place she knew, or suspected, they’d be. “Hong Kong is influenced by New York, the place graffiti actually grew up and advanced right into a mural scene within the Nineteen Nineties,” she explains. “Right here, graffiti solely started to appear within the late Nineteen Nineties, however by 2010, after I arrived, a small group targeted on road artwork had began internet hosting exhibitions that includes many internationally famend artists.” That momentum finally turned the annual HKwalls pageant, which brings artists from world wide to go away their mark on town.
Earlier than we half methods, Unrein offers me a duplicate of her new e book, Vibrant Hong Kong – Avenue Artwork Tales. I flip by it by the pagoda in Hollywood Park, watching turtles play king of the mountain whereas I eat an Okinawan musubi, a sandwich-like onigiri, Hawaiian by the use of Japan, right here stuffed with fried hen, honey mustard, an egg and Spam. Among the many images within the e book are two murals, one from the tour, that really feel oddly acquainted. It seems HKwalls artist Alex Senna has additionally painted in my hometown. Typically the world actually is surprisingly small.
Subsequent comes extra gallery hopping, which is simple on Hollywood Street, as soon as dominated by vintage retailers and now house to an rising variety of modern artwork areas. I cease into “SWAG” at Modern by Angela Li, a solo present of charming character work by artist and gamer Agnes Leung Po Ying, then head to 13A New Avenue Gallery to satisfy proprietor Ruby Fung and see Sinje Lee’s “Childtopia,” the Golden Horse Award-winning actress’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Whereas the present facilities on her newer, sweetly childlike round canvases, my favorites within the present are a number of earlier, meditative works: Quietly, Ocean and Mom. Once I ask Fung about Hong Kong’s artwork scene, she’s candid. “Shopping for and promoting slowed down after COVID,” she says, “however I do assume extra folks recognize artwork now. The federal government additionally has a whole lot of huge occasions and exhibitions within the artwork and tradition sectors. Usually, the tradition is evolving, however money-wise it’d take time for folks to actually know tips on how to recognize or make investments, or to personal a work from home.”
There’s definitely no scarcity of locations to purchase it. Persevering with down Hollywood Street, I peer into the window of Liang Yi Museum, open by appointment solely (I’ve no appointment), then step into Gallery 149, additionally by appointment however welcoming anyway. There I see a hanging pairing of Tracey Emin’s gouache Ready to be with You with modern Chinese language ink items. I additionally make a quick cease at Illuminati Tremendous Artwork, which is exhibiting dramatic brush works by Ng Kwun Lun Tony, Zhou Jin, Chan Keng Tin, Yau Wing Fung and Tony Ng.
Then it’s again to Tai Kwun, the place I meet a gaggle of the advanced’s reps in entrance of the JC Modern & F Corridor Gallery constructing. They inform me that Tai Kwun Modern presents three to eight exhibitions every year throughout its 1,500-square-meter area, which incorporates the previous Central Police Station compound and a contemporary addition designed by Herzog & de Meuron, in a program organized into three classes: “New Narratives,” massive thematic group reveals spotlighting rising generations (of which “Keep Linked: Navigating the Cloud is one), solo exhibitions commissioning new work by artists who haven’t proven extensively in Asia; and “Pioneers,” monographic reveals of main figures.
Exploring “Keep Linked” alone, I notice how a lot I missed earlier whereas strolling by with a good friend. This time, I soak up Ye Funa’s Curated Nails: Diamond Nail Salon set up, Lu Yang’s The Nice Journey of Materials World, Gong Jian’s work of iconic historic moments and two of my favorites, Cao Fai’s Asia One and What Is Your Favourite Primitive by Li Yi-Fan. I’ve all the time been a bit of skeptical of video artwork, however this present, together with Jewel at M+, is altering my thoughts. However my favourite work within the exhibition is Solar Yuan and Peng Yu’s Can’t Assist Myself, the leaking industrial robotic endlessly attempting to scrub up after itself. I really feel a direct kinship with that robotic arm as a result of we’re each simply doing our greatest.
Dinner is at Madame Fu Grand Cafe Chinois, a up to date dim sum restaurant additionally in Tai Kwun, which has a sequence of theatrically themed rooms. One is drenched in tufted Millennial pink, impressed by India Mahdavi’s iconic design for London’s Sketch. Madame Fù’s verandahs function lamps crafted from Hermès scarves. In the meantime, my eating room is heavy on darkish velvet and leather-based, clubby and masculine, softened by extra delicate artwork on the partitions. The crystal shrimp dumplings are my favourite, with the mushroom truffle shut behind, and the roast pork is all the things you want it will be elsewhere. Right here, too, there are considerate non-alcoholic choices. I sip a spiced mango and basil mocktail, then head again throughout the harbor throughout the mild present, which is way extra spectacular from the ferry’s higher deck.
Day 4
Biology actually received’t be tricked, and I wake earlier than dawn but once more, this time at 4:30 a.m. It’s too early for breakfast and I’m too mushy-headed to work, so I head to the Cordis’ Forty first-floor fitness center, which is well the perfect lodge fitness center I’ve ever used, if solely as a result of there’s nothing fairly like plodding alongside on a treadmill whereas staring out on the huge, twinkling metropolis under. (I study later that there’s additionally a personal health room friends can reserve for video lessons or yoga.) As soon as the solar is up, I do laps within the open-air rooftop pool with one other early chicken, then park myself within the scorching tub for an expensive half hour. Again in my room, I flip by the deck of artwork playing cards that map the Cordis’s self-guided tour of its intensive assortment, overseen by curator Angela Li, whose gallery I visited the day earlier than.
There’s notable artwork in all places on the property, reportedly valued at round $4.5 million when the lodge opened and nearly definitely much more now. Within the Membership Lounge, I eat breakfast close to a hanging teal-and-yellow photographic work from German artist and Beijing resident Peter Steinherr. It’s a part of his Cocoon sequence targeted on a defining function of Hong Kong’s city panorama, the bamboo scaffolding and colourful development draping that a lot of the world got here to acknowledge after the tragic Wang Fuk Court docket fireplace. Within the foyer are works from Ju Ming’s Taichi Sequence. Xiong Yu’s Feather Gentle is a favourite, as are Liao Yi Bai’s unusual and great chrome animal sculptures and works by Gao Yu, Wang Guangyi and Jiang Shuo.
cordis artwork picture
On my rescheduled walkthrough with lodge rep Julia Leung, she factors out a mixture of artwork and facilities, and I’m dissatisfied I received’t have time to go to the Chuan Spa, whose therapies are constructed round conventional Chinese language Medication (one other expertise for subsequent time). On the exhibition entrance, she explains that the lodge mounts a number of reveals yearly by its Artwork in Residence program, however I’ve arrived between installations. “SurrealHK: The Metropolis Reimagined,” that includes work by Tommy Fung of 13A New Avenue Gallery, had closed only a few weeks earlier.
(I’ll pause right here for a quick compare-and-contrast for anybody selecting between the Langham Hong Kong and the Cordis Hong Kong, each operated by Langham Motels Worldwide. The Langham is smaller, cozier and extra conventional. You’re addressed by title and surrounded by classical opulence with a distinctly British sensibility. It’s high-end in an old style means. The Cordis, in contrast, is luxuriently trendy. You’re one face amongst many, however surrounded by a powerful array of facilities and unbeatable views from the higher flooring. The Langham’s artwork assortment is thoughtfully curated however principally unlabeled, whereas every bit on the Cordis has a placard. The Cordis is flashy and very Instagrammable, and connected to at least one hell of a mall; the Langham feels extra like a house.)
I spend my morning with tour information Agnes Tam, visiting the long-lasting Wong Tai Sin Temple and the Chi Lin Nunnery, a welcome palate cleanser after days of suave indulgence. We take the metro to the one landlocked district in Hong Kong, chatting the whole time about journey and our completely different backgrounds. The colourful Taoist temple, constructed by Leung Yan-am and open to the general public since 1956, is a serious attraction, and I imply main. Hundreds go to every day, and through our cease it’s wall-to-wall folks, some training kau chim or praying, others snapping images or gathering luck to take house. Taoism, Tam explains, is inclusive, with all the things unified and linked, very similar to Hong Kong itself. “What makes town tick is a mixture of the previous and the brand new, the East and the West,” she says.
The close by Buddhist nunnery is all the things the temple isn’t. Hushed and serene, it’s widely known because the world’s largest handmade picket constructing advanced, constructed from cypress utilizing Tang Dynasty strategies with interlocking joints and never a single nail. The courtyard holds historical bonsai and lotus ponds, and contained in the halls, the place pictures is forbidden, are monumental golden statues of the Sakyamuni Buddha and Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. However what’s most hanging would be the distinction between the location’s disciplined serenity and the modern public housing estates and skyscrapers looming over it.
That distinction continues close by at Nan Lian Backyard, a nine-acre classical backyard designed within the Tang Dynasty type and accomplished within the early 2000s by a partnership between the nunnery and the Hong Kong authorities. Surrounded by highways and towers, it seems like a real oasis, with koi ponds, cloud-pruned Buddhist pines, immaculate bonsais, a rockery of large polished stones from throughout China set in raked gravel, a small gallery of ceramics and a teahouse. There’s additionally Chi Lin Vegetarian, tucked behind a water function, the place Tam leaves me for lunch. I linger over a lightweight meal watching water slide down the window, then do all my memento purchasing within the backyard store.
The climate at this time is the perfect I’ve loved thus far, and I may fortunately keep longer, however I’m due on the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, a big public museum on the banks of the Shing Mun River devoted to town’s tradition and artistic life. After some confusion about tips on how to cross the river from the metro, I start with the particular exhibition “Legacy of Lingnan College of Portray,” a retrospective of Chao Shao-an that features gorgeous depictions of unexpectedly dramatic wildlife. Highlights from the everlasting assortment embrace the Cantonese Opera Heritage Corridor and “Hong Kong Pop 60+,” which traces the movement of popular culture into and out of town over six many years. I virtually dash by “Buddhist Pilgrimage: Treasures from the Donation of The Tsui Artwork Basis,” as a result of I’ve a dance efficiency to catch.
Freespace Dance presents forward-looking views on dance from artists throughout the Asia-Pacific area, and tonight’s program is on the Xiqu Middle, a curvaceous open oval constructing close to West Kowloon Artwork Park I handed on my first day. A number of brief works, a part of a broader pageant that features works in growth by unbiased Hong Kong choreographers, adopted by Q&A classes. Lau Pak-hong’s Step 0, with sound design by Jonathan Ng, is gorgeous however controversial. “For me, after I create a chunk of labor other than watching with my eyes, I take into consideration the way it pertains to different folks: how can we expertise the identical factor collectively?” he says throughout the Q&A, however some viewers members categorical their uneasiness about being bodily drawn into the efficiency. “There’s an influence imbalance between performer and viewers—a component of peer strain,” one notes. Contact additionally figures into Midday’s Physique Capital, however right here consent is obtained prematurely for a transferring, often pornographic reflection on the commercialization of artwork and the physique, social judgment and authenticity. (I’ve little question Physique Capital will develop right into a compelling full-length work.)
I go away feeling that acquainted urge to make artwork after immersing oneself in it, hustling to make my dinner reservation on the Cordis’s Michelin-starred Ming Court docket. Outdoors, rows of clay pots replicate vessels unearthed throughout the lodge’s development in 2003, with the two,000-year-old originals now on the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Inside, the environment is calm with out being stiff. The nine-course tasting menu is formidable, with highlights together with jellyfish, an eight treasure soup that warms me by and a fragile lobster dish. Within the contest of stuffed crab shells, Ming Court docket wins with a model that’s crabbier, lighter on the onion and gently coconutty. Dessert is mango sago cream and an identical fruit-filled mochi. I’m full however not uncomfortably so—the tasting menu parts are refreshingly tiny—and I finish the night time soaking in my suite’s deep tub.
Day 5
I sleep till nearly 6:30 a.m. on my final day of artwork in Hong Kong. There’s no level attempting to float again off—I can see a skinny blade of sunshine creeping above the blackout curtain. Apart from, at this time is my departure day, however I’m additionally scheduled to go to yet one more museum so I must pack up early. I may return to the pool or have breakfast within the Membership Lounge yet one more time, however yesterday I purchased myself a coconut cream bun precisely like those I used to eat day-after-day after I lived in Brooklyn, and there’s nonetheless some recent fruit within the room. So I wrap myself in a lodge gown, flip an armchair towards the floor-to-ceiling window and eat my breakfast whereas watching town get up.
First cease: the pool deck for Grasp Cheung’s Tai Chi class, provided every day for lodge friends. I’ve by no means achieved Tai Chi earlier than and do not know what to anticipate, however Grasp Cheung is a superb trainer. He leads 4 of us, all novices, by six of the artwork’s 24 kinds with persistence and humor, and I believe I’d like to begin day-after-day like this. Subsequent up, I’m speedrunning the Hong Kong Museum of Artwork; I can’t actually give the museum my full consideration with airport logistics looming, however what I do see is superb. I linger longer than deliberate in “Artwork of Gifting: The Fuyun Xuan Assortment of Chinese language Snuff Bottles,” mesmerized by these tiny vessels of their countless colours and configurations.
“Buying in Canton: China Commerce Artwork within the 18th and nineteenth Centuries” balances multimedia shows with vivid depictions of the port metropolis, particularly the export work. “Artwork Personalised: Masterpieces from the HKMoA” opens with a quiz that factors you towards one in every of 4 assortment groupings almost certainly to resonate. My private favourite, although, is “Participating Previous Knowledge: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five,” as a result of there’s one thing deeply satisfying about encountering exquisitely made objects, a whole bunch and even hundreds of years previous, that have been as soon as a part of on a regular basis life.
My ultimate cease is the close by K11 Artwork Mall, the place I briefly wander, marveling at iconic design items by figures like Hans Wegner and Børge Mogensen displayed within the walkways. K11 lives as much as its title, with artwork scattered throughout a number of flooring, although discovering it will probably really feel like a scavenger hunt. As I browse, I briefly take into consideration how a lot I didn’t see in 5 days. Museum reveals buddies raved about. Galleries shaping Hong Kong’s modern artwork scene. The Tian Tan Buddha and its cable automobiles. Lion Rock. And by some means I by no means discovered excuse to trip one of many streetcars in Central. Then I take into consideration how a lot I did handle to see and the way blessed I’m to have the ability to see it.
I spend my final hours in Hong Kong, like many vacationers, roaming the huge concourses of Hong Kong Worldwide Airport, shopping for presents for folks again house and marveling on the sheer scale of Terminal 1, one of many world’s largest passenger terminals. There’s loads of artwork right here too, principally sculptural and travel-themed, from Monica Tai On-yau’s Little Explorer to Raymond Fung Wing-kee’s Letters from Afar, although it’s as unfold out as all the things else. There’s even an annual HKIA Arts and Tradition Pageant, which I’ve simply missed. And, after all, there’s Louis Vuitton, Prada, Loro Piana, Valentino, Balenciaga and extra, in case you’re feeling like squeezing in a single final purchasing spree.
When starvation hits, I head all the way down to The Pier, First, one in every of Cathay Pacific’s lounges, and discover an airport oasis. There’s a full-service bar, massages, fantastically appointed showers, personal workspaces, day suites for napping and apart from the central widespread space and snack pantry, it offers robust luxury-hotel vitality. Within the restaurant, I eat one of the vital wonderful issues I’ve ever tasted: Cathay Pacific govt chef Adrian Upward’s Dan Dan Mein (I discovered the recipe!), paired with a wonderfully sized black tea cocktail.
Nonetheless ready on a gate project, I collect my issues and backtrack to The Bridge, one other Cathay lounge, for a change of surroundings. It’s busier than The Pier, however the vitality is energetic and the Korean dishes on provide that day are stable. I take a latte to a comfortable nook and sink right into a deep, bowl-like armchair, the place I like the barista’s flawless unicorn latte artwork and lose myself within the low hum of different folks’s conversations. My thoughts begins wandering and I believe again to earlier within the day and my gradual stroll alongside the Avenue of Stars with a whole bunch of others, having fun with the sunshine and photographing the daytime skyline throughout a glittering Victoria Harbour. On a visit the place almost each minute was spoken for, it was an opportunity to pause and easily sit with town. Throughout Tai Chi that morning, a girl from Singapore informed me the final time she’d visited Hong Kong was greater than 20 years in the past. I requested if it had modified a lot. “No,” she mentioned, “some buildings are taller, however it’s not that completely different.” Sitting by the water, I believe to myself that I don’t need to wait twenty years to return again. But when that’s how life unfolds, I hope not a lot can have modified.
