Tram to Happy Valley

     A journey, not a destination, was what I was after this afternoon when I hopped on a tram.  Terry had lunch a couple days ago with a German expat who recommended getting on a tram and riding it all the way to the end of the line and back again, just to take in the sights along the way.  Hong Kong has the largest fleet in the world of these double-deck tram cars still in service, over 160 of them that creak and wind their way along the Victoria Harbor side of Hong Kong Island where we live.  In fact, they run on the street right outside our apartment building.

     I hopped on the first one that came by and was lucky enough to find an open seat at the very front of the upper deck, where I had a great view of all kinds of Hong Kong hustle bustle.  I recognized quite a few familiar sites along the way, among them the Western Market, Victoria Peak, a couple subway stops and the ferry terminals; and my nose picked up the multitude of dried seafood shops in Sheung Wan before I saw them.  (What Hong Kongers do with all of this ultra-fragrant dried fish is a mystery to me.)

     After an hour of riding we arrived at the last stop, Happy Valley.  This has been an expat residential area since the British arrived.  The name of this place is an ironical reference to the high number of mortalities among the first British living here because they'd built their homes on swampland, perfect habitat for malaria-bearing mosquitoes.  There were several huge terraced cemeteries right along the tram route, such as this one at right.  These date back to colonial times when living here often meant dying here, if not from malaria then from something like typhoid or bubonic plague.

     Happy Valley is where you go to watch the most popular spectator sport in Hong Kong:  horse racing.  The British held the first horse races here in the 1840's, and the racing been going strong ever since.  The grounds on the periphery of the Happy Valley Racetrack look like a huge park, with beautiful landscaping, playgrounds, walking paths and benches.  There were lots of people out and about there on this sunny, pleasant afternoon.  The interior of the racetrack is used for sports fields.  If the racetrack has multiple uses in this densely populated place maybe the cemetery could see some other uses, as well!  The Chinese generally have so many superstitions around death, though, that it seems unlikely.

     Sign-reading along streets like this one on the tram route yielded a few new notables for my growing collection:
     Hopeful International Enterprises Co.

    Hopewell Holdings Ltd.

    Unlimited Creativity Holdings Ltd.

    Artly Hair Salon

     And this one at the subway construction site a couple blocks from our apartment:

     Deeply Consider All Work Activities

     The round trip to Happy Valley on the tram took a little over 2 hours.  Tram fare for an adult rider is HK$2.30, which is about $.30.  I think I got my money's worth.