Once again taking the oh-so-efficient MTR I travelled to the northern part of Kowloon to the Wong Tai Sin stop to find a temple, to give its full name Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. Built in 1973 and named after the god representing health and well being the temple stands next to the not so attractive Wong Tai Sin estate. As I discovered a popular place for many to come, even fairly early in the day, the buildings of worship are a riot of patterns and colours; red and gold dominate the architecture with accents of blues, greens and whites. You would be lucky to get a clear view of the temple though as throughout the complex incense urns were stuffed full of burning scented sticks, thick white plumes shrouding everything in a pungent smoke. Stalls leading up to the temple sold all manner of potent inflammatory objects for visitors to burn as offerings to the deities, they certainly seemed to be doing rather well out of it all! To the side of the temple lies the Good Wish Garden, a series of zig-zag walkways over a pond (full of carp and terrapin) with a waterfall. All quite pleasant to wander around though a bit odd thanks to the fact every square inch is covered in concrete (they love the stuff out here!).

After seeing the temple and taking on perhaps more fumigation than any man probably should take I headed south to the Kowloon Walled City Park. Until as recently as the early nineties within the walls of today’s park, an area no larger than a couple of football pitches at most housed an estimated 14,000 people – though estimates were thought to be quite conservative! It was a seething hive of lawlessness and villainy unseen in the main part of Hong Kong. When the British acquired Hong Kong and the New Territories for some reason what lay inside the walled city was not included and remained, technically, part of mainland China though very much cut off. In effect the surrounding jurisdiction had no power over what occurred within its walls. Originally a fort built by the Chinese in the mid-19th century as part of the empire’s coastal defenses it remained a law unto itself when the surrounding lands were acquired by the British. After the second world war a lot of the stone work from the fort was pulled down to help create Kai Tak airport, which is no longer in use and now a golf driving range. What emerged fairly rapidly within the walls were ramshakle high-rise blocks, wedged in between each other and essentially run by triads, becoming a hotbed of criminal activities including gambling, opium dens and illegal dentistry. Despite many attempts by the Chinese to pull down the Walled City community groups resisted until in 1992 the finally relented and what now exists is a pleasant structured park instead. All that remains are a small group of buildings renovated to their original state now with illustrations of the fascinating history of possibly the most dangerous area in south China for some time.