Tin Hau Temple, Aberdeen Hong Kong

After about an hour of the leisurely walk around the Aberdeen Promenade, Hong Kong, I headed into Aberdeen town centre. In particular, my next stop is going to be Tin Hau Temple (天后古廟).

Aberdeen's Tin Hau Temple is located at the intersection of Aberdeen Main Rd and Aberdeen Reservoir Rd

Main entrance

From the outside, Taoist temple can be easily recognised with its elaborate roof's decorations.
Usually there's a pair of dragons (just outside the photo). 
Buddhist temples roofs are quite plain without little or no decorations.

In the Taoist Heaven, Tin Hau (天后) is translated literally as the Empress of Heaven (aka Queen of Heaven). In the neighbouring Macau, she's better known as Mazu (媽祖), which literally means Mother-Ancestor (or Ancestral Mother).

Left:  Tin Hau statue in the main altar in red Empress regalia embroidered with dragons (interestingly not phoenix) design. Above:  Closeup of Tin Hau wearing an empress' crown

Remembering that Aberdeen - and indeed the whole of HK - is a fishing village once upon a time. Aberdeen still retains some character of a fishing village. So you can expect there're at least several Tin Hau temples in HK, not the least, in Aberdeen: the original HK. This is because Tin Hau is worshiped by seafarers and fishermen in the Chinese communities. It's believed that she rules the waves (Britainia also claimed such power).

Tin Hau is franked by 2 fierce looking guarding generals:
"Thousand Miles Eye" (千里眼, Qianli Yan) and "With-the-Wind Ear" (順風耳 Shunfeng Er). 

These 2 generals aren't just her body guards, but her friends. In fact, once upon a time, her pursuers, in other words, wannabe boyfriends. Looks like most of statues in this temples are made in lacquered woods. Maybe she finds them a bit wooden?

"Thousand Miles Eye". He has a 3rd eye on his forehead to enable him to have amazing telescope vision.

"With the Wind Ears". Notice the size and shape  his ears are such that it enables him to  hear sounds that are very far away.

"Thousand Miles Eye" is a singular eye appears in the forehead. The Hindu believes this is the location of the Third Eye Chakra. In some cultures, this is the location of the so-called 3rd Eye. Apparently, Chinese too has such a concept. It seems quite universal. This leads scientists to suspect that there's something to it.

Some mystic schools believe this 3rd Eye refers to the pineal gland, which is located just behind the 3rd Eye. It's quite interesting - in fact spooky - that the pineal gland is light sensitive. Why should it be light sensitive when it's inside the skull with no exposure to light?

This begs the question, how did the ancients know about it? Is it just coincidence, and there's something more to it? Weird, isn't it?


Her main altar are franked by 2 side altars with Taoist deities.

Ancient physician Hua Tuo (華佗)

Tin Hau figurine

God of Wealth (财帛星君 Cai Bo Xing Jun)

At first, I was surprise that statue of Hua Tuo is found in this temple. Hua Tuo to TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) is what Hippocrates is to the ancient Greek medicine. While the traditional Greek medicine is no longer mainstream in the West, TCM is very much alive in Chinese communities. While the West isn't practising ancient Greek medicine, but his spirit lives on in the Hippocratic Oath today.

Chinese knows about Hua Tuo via the Chinese classics Romance of the Three Kingdoms where he performed surgery on Guan Yu, and suggested performing brain surgery on Cao Cao to cure his chronic headaches (possibly caused by brain tumour). Yes, you hear me right, brain surgery in the 2nd century.

Being notoriously suspicious by nature, Cao Cao ordered his death. While waiting to be executed in the prison, Hua Tuo wrote his masterpiece in a hurry. No wonder Chinese today don't like Cao Cao.

At first I was surprise by his appearance in this temple. Deified historical figure isn't anything new in Chinese or many other cultures. For example, Guan Yu was deified as a god. On second thought, his presence shouldn't be come as a surprise at all.

What are the main blessings devotees come to pray for ? For fishermen (and seafarers), safety at sea is the most important. This is Tin Hau's jurisdiction. The other 2 important things in life are, of course, health and wealth. These 3 deities simply embody the devotees' 3 main concerns.

Goddess bless you !

Pray hard, work hard. Looks like there's some serious praying going on here. Is she praying for work promotion or a date, perhaps? Maybe both, and in that order. Can she pray for more than one thing? Is there a quota on how many prayers can occur at a given time? What about prayer quota on a weekly, a monthly basis? Where can I get the instruction manual? Can I pray for an instruction manual? What's the instruction for praying for instruction manual? Just playing the Devil's Advocate...

Incense coils suspended from the ceiling with bottom ashtrays.

Except for the smallest of temples, most Taoist temples are temple complexes that house different halls within the complex. Just like chapels within a church.

Side circular entrances to the main hall of Tin Hau as well as Guayin and Wong Tai Sin halls.

Above:  Signboard for Guanyin "Attic" (small temple). Right: Guanyin statue

Guanyin is another Taoist goddess, who's even more popular than Tin Hau because of her broad jurisdiction. In other words, devotees can come to her for everything.

Above:  Signboard for Wong Tai Sin. Left: Wong Tai Sin statue

Wong Tai Sin (黃大仙 Great Immortal Wong) is very popular in HK, and Zhejiang. Unlike the 2 above mentioned Taoist goddesses, who are also very popular in many Chinese communities in and especially outside Mainland China. It was due to unique historical situation that makes Wong Tai Sin being worshipped in HK.

According to my uncle, who's an amateur monk (for the lack of a better term, meaning he's engineer by trade and a monk by passion. He works closely with temples, but he retains his secular life) told me that Wong Tai Sin is something like HK's patron saint (borrowing Christianity's terminology, St. George is the patron saint of England, St. Patrick is the patron saint of you-know-what country (Guinness anyone?), and St. Francis or San Francesco is the patron saint of Italy, and so on).

There're other minor Taoist deities that I'll leave you to explore yourself.

Left:  Burnt offering incinerator Above:  Aberdeen Baptist Church locates just behind Tin Hau Temple, side by side like ebony and ivory on a piano, with the church kinda looking over the shoulder of the temple.

Just a few mins before 5pm, smoke started to billow from the burnt offering incinerator. Since nobody except for me in the temple, I suspect this is a closing ritual for this temple. As he closes the gate, the temple keeper saw me and said that he thought that I had left. He said that I was lucky that he saw me before he locked the gate. I'm neither Spiderman nor a parkour expert, but to climb over a 1m tall gate, i can manage You can see the short gate in the 2nd photo from the top). There's little chance I'll spend the night in this temple (would be a very interesting experience, although the cop wouldn't buy my lame excuse. 'Lame', get it?).

While I'm thinking of going to visit St. Peter's Church and its dead quiet neighour the Aberdeen Chinese Permanent Cemetery (who doesn't want to visit cemetery?), but daylights are dying off, and so is my energy level. I'll have to do that in Ada's next visit to the Horizon Plaza.

When you tour Europe, you visit churches and cathedrals, why shouldn't you visit temples while you're in HK?

I also visited the larger Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon. To read it, click here. 

Ap Lei Chau Waterfront Promenade, Hong Kong

Ada is going to Horizon Plaza in Ap Lei Chau for some bargain hunting. Instead of tagging along with her like a clothing tag, i decided to do some sightseeing myself in Ap Lei Chau (鴨脷洲 lit: Duck's Tongue Island), and Aberdeen across the harbour.

Above:  It's called Duck's Tongue Island because of its shape. Left: "Say buddy, cat gets your tongue?"

The only thing that's the slightest tourism worthy is the northern water edge of the Ap Lei Chau that consists 3 green spaces: Ap Lei Chau Park, Ap Lei Chau Waterfront Promenade and Ap Lei Chau Wind Tower Park.

Entrance to the ALC Wind Tower Park

The google street view below is showing the same view as my photo above before the entrance was being erected. The Macky opposite also hadn't been opened.

After the entrance, there's a series of posters detail some of the history of this place as well as information regarding the traditional fishing and boat building, etc.


The following art installation of window tower gives this park its name.


There's also a museum that contains some exhibits, displaying tools of ship building.

Traditional tools of shipbuilding

Capstan replica (I guess this is where the word "captain" comes from). 

There's zero chance that I wouldn't share a photo of sundial when I come across one.

Sundial. It's solar powered timepiece.
No sun today, so no time keeping. The problem of not being base-load.

Perhaps, the building that I find the most interesting in this park is the Kwun Yum Temple (觀音廟) because of its prominent tree in front of the temple. Normally, a tree of such size and/or location or shape would be cut down to make way for the building. In this case, the tree is the reason for the temple to be built there.

Doesn't this tree that's wrapped in tendrils looks like a dragon? No sane Taoist who believes in fengshui would chop down something like that. This is a Taoist temple, and Taoists are the fengshui originators.

The plaque says "Shui Yuet Kung"

This Guanyin temple (or in Cantonese transliteration Kwum Yum) is named Shui Yuet Kung (水月宮), translated as "Water Moon Palace"). The name is an allusion to the Chinese expression, "flower in the mirror; moon in the water" (鏡中花，水中月), meaning that life is nothing but a mere illusion of a deeper reality. This is a quintessential Taoist philosophy. This is shortened to "Water Moon".

Decorative plaque
(click to enlarge)

A "pediment" or more correctly a decorative plaque sits atop a beam just behind the entrance of the temple. It shows various operatic scenes. The top rectangle shows musician playing instruments. The middle bottom shows the well known scene of Zhuge Lian's Empty City Stratagem (空城計). On the right hand side (in gold) shows the name "Ap Lei Chau", but with the word "Lei" written as 利 (= "favourable) instead of 脷 (= "tongue").


Nestled between ALC Park, and ALC Waterfront Promenade is the bigger and more well known Hung Shing Temple. Unfortunately, it was closed off with lot of structures around it.


I want to go to Aberdeen across the harbour, and the easiest way is by sampans or some watercraft. Several members of the Tripadvisor mob said that the sampan ladies would try to tout anyone who looks the slightest like a tourist.

I have been walking around the green strip of ALC for nearly 1.5 hours (and 45 mins on Aberdeen opposite). My bulky DSLR should alert to sampan rowers like a beacon in an harbour at night that put a spotlight on me that I was a tourist. Nobody approaches me. Either they aren't interested in my business, or that the tourism authority had a chat with them regarding to touting.

Tanka fisherwoman on a sampan.

You could say that she's an icon for Hong Kong Tsai (Aberdeen)

The closest thing I see of a sampan rower is this sculpture, which depicts a fisherwoman. She doesn't pay attention to me and gives me a steely (okay, a bronze) look.

After giving up being touted by lady sampan, I took the ferry to get across to Aberdeen for a fare of $2.10 HKD. I actually didn't have change, and they - like buses - don't give change. But the driver knew i was a tourist, and let me take a free ride.

Ferry pier where you board. Like buses, you need exact change or Octopus Card

God of Wealth vs Santa Claus: Reflection During The Year of the Goat

GOF (God of Fortune) started to appear punctually in my local supermarket, reminding me that CNY (Chinese New Year) is coming. GOF, aka Chinese Santa, arrived as early in CNY as Santa in Xmas (Christmas). Usually 6 weeks or so before CNY and Xmas respectively.

GOF, Sheng Siong supermarket

GOF, the Star Vista shopping mall

God of Fortune (or Wealth) is - in a sense - Chinese Santa because CNY (Chinese New Year) is in many ways share much more in common with Xmas (Christmas) and American Thanksgiving than the Gregorian New Year.

This makes sense. The CNY to the Chinese is what Xmas to the West. In both cases, it's the traditional times where people spend time with their families.

God of Fortune and Santa are certainly the faces of these festival seasons. And in these days of the largest commercialisations of festivals, these 2 faces are being put to sell stuffs. They become the marketers, spokesmen of the merchandises of these 2 festivals east and west.

Santa Claus holding a present at Jem Shopping Mall

God of Fortune holding an ingot at The Star Vista shopping mall

Both GOF (God of Fortune. Not to be confused with Goblet of Fire) and Santa are both givers. While Santa are said to present gift to children,  GOF also presents money to children (as well as some cheeky adults).

I have yet seen Father Christmas handing out gifts to children in shopping malls in Singapore, however, I had met GOF handing out hongbao (or red envelops, aka lucky money) to shoppers in Singapore.

These days, the rules are lax in the shopping malls. Hey, it's the festive seasons!

Since this is the Chinese Year of the Goat, and I'm talking about Xmas, So I want to bring up the Yule Goat. This is an mythical animal that connects Goat and Xmas. In Northern Europe and Scandinavian folklore, Father Christmas rides a Yule Goat instead of a chariot of reindeer . Yule Goat today is typically made of straws and used as decorations of the Xmas trees or Yule trees.

This is pagan belief because Father Christmas isn't in the Bible just in case you don't know. Many of the so-called Christian customs are inherited from pre-Christian, pagan traditions.

This year, I haven't been fortunate enough to meet GOF in the flesh, receiving his goodies like I had encountered them in 2013 when I've met 3 of them in different malls. This year, I only saw their likeness in cardboard cutouts or the more elaborate 3D figures. Call me old fashioned (or is it trendy? I prefer to meet GOF in the flesh).


Of course, the largest GOF figure could always be found in the Float @ Marina Bay for the CNY RHB (River Hongbao) display. He has grown tall over the years, and this year he's 18m tall. In a century or so, he might grow to 18 story tall.



He's tall from any angle.

As expected, most of the CNY displays and especially Light-Up occurs in the Chinatown's Eu Tong Sen Street every year. Orchard Road, on the other hand, because it's a "Western" street, its CNY display is minimal (Just look at the names, "Eu Tong Sen St" and "Orchard Rd", which is a Chinese and English name respectively).

A number of the CNY decorations were actually adopted from its Xmas displays and Light-Up, which Orchard Road occupies centre stage.

Take Paragon, which won the Judges' Choice for the Best Dressed Building Contest of 2014 for the annual traditional Christmas Light-Up on Orchard Road, had adopted some of its existing Xmas decoration for CNY. Waste not, want not. Or using modern language, be green, re-use, recycle!

The Christmas tree was of course being removed, a minimal additional Chinese motif and a few lanterns added, and voila! We have a CNY display.

Xmas display

CNY display

313 @ Somerset's Xmas Display

313 @ Somerset's CNY Display

The same recycling concept was also applied by OC (Orchard Central), who's happened to be the winner of the Voters' Choice for the Orchard Road's Best Dressed Building Contest in 2014. But OC adopted for the Valentine's Day instead of CNY. Because this year, Valentine's Day (Feb 14) is quite close to CNY Day (Feb 19).

Another example could be seen in the Changi Airport for the giant Micky and Minnie figures, who also had gone through 2 festive seasons.

Since CNY Day falls within 21 Jan to 21 Feb every year, and so it's entirely possible that CNY and VD falls on the same day. This actually occurred in 2010 in the Year of the Tiger. While the coincidence is possible, but not very probably. The next time this day occurs in 2030. So don't hold your breath.

OC's Xmas decoration

OC's Valentine decoration

OC's Xmas decoration

OC's Valentine decoration

As these 2 festivals are the most important festive seasons for West and East, and so their displays are the most elaborate, and most importantly, they're so close together in time, it makes sense that the business think about these 2 festive displays together.

Vivocity's front is quite free of festive displays

Some of the larger shopping malls outside Orchard Road were of course also got into the act of putting on CNY displays. You normally don't see much festive displays outside Vivocity, this is because they put theirs on their very spacious rooftop (completes with toddler pools).

Apart from decoration, Coca Cola is also getting into the act. No, I'm not talking about CNY decoration. They make Coca Cola bottle labels with auspicious CNY messages.