New Territories.

I am so glad we had the opportunity to go to the New Territories with our new friend, Marcus!

When we asked our aunt and cousins about what was "over there" and pointed at the swarms of massive residential towers, the response was a general shrug. The New Territories isn't really a touristy hub, financial district, or massive shopping district (though there is shopping pretty much everywhere). I get the feeling that the people who hang out there are the people living there, which is what gives it so much local flavour.

People in the New Territories ride bikes! There are some bike lane projects happening outside the main HK island and Kowloon crazy-traffic areas, where normal people use bikes to get around as usual. Check out the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance.

But before I saw bike lanes, we first had to get to the New Territories. We took the train instead of MTR (the train happens to be on the same block as our apartment) and it was... two stops? I think the whole journey cost around 75 cents and took around 15 mins including the walking and waiting for the train. It was truly impressive.

Once we arrived, Marcus took us to Sha Tin Temple.




There were lots of beautiful little windmills.



We got some incense.



And paid our respects.



Here is the river you cross during the walk.


And we strolled over to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum where we saw an incredibly fabulous exhibition on poster design.

Below is a picture I snapped at the Cantonese Opera heritage hall. This is a replica of a special Chinese opera stage back in the day. Apparently if you were an opera troupe of any significance, your first performance would have to be on this stage.



After a few hours at the museum where we learned all about how the New Territories were built up, we walked back to the train station along a bike path.



I was so pleased to see people coming and going to and from work, school, or whatever.



And it was nice to see little signs with bikes on them again.



It was also novel to see a little bike store too.



It seems as though most people are riding horrible mountain bikes everywhere, so I feel there is a market here for better bikes with fenders and lights. Though for now I am pleased to have seen bikes in action in the New Territories. I knew they were out there somewhere.