Chung Yeung Festival, Yuk food and Mountain fire!

Last night we went to The Avenue of the Stars to see the view of Hong Kong's beautiful harbour after we went out for dinner.

Today was the Chung Yeung Festival which falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.

Similar to the Ching Ming Festival in spring, the Chung Yeung Festival is when entire families congregate at cemeteries to engage in age-old practices of ancestor worship.

It is also popular to hike to the city’s high points on this day, as it’s believed this will bring good luck. This custom is rooted in a Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) legend in which a soothsayer advised a man to take his family to high ground for the ninth day of the ninth moon. The man complied and the next day discovered that all the inhabitants of his village had been slaughtered, while he and his family had been spared by leaving for the hills.  

In Hong Kong, people go to the great outdoors for a picnic on this day, with many people eating special cakes called ‘ko’. The name sounds similar to ‘high’ or ‘top’ in Chinese and people eat them in the hope of being promoted to high positions.

Today we went to Mong Kok and did some shopping.

So eating at a certain restaurant was interesting today. Dan ordered a chilli hotdog and after he had eaten half of it, I saw something shiny. What could it be? Plastic in the food. I complain and they say 'We bring you another' so we waited 15 minutes and Dan gets a new hotdog. Second bite and Dan pulls out plastic in his mouth. I lose it. Went crazy at the fact that the second piece of food had plastic it and say we're not paying. They didn't even apologise so I tell them I'm walking out. Eurgh. I was livid!!

We think people taking part in the festival might have had a little accident because we came back from our day of shopping in Mong Kok today and the mountain is on fire!!

oopsie.