The PENguin Blog

I'm writing this from memory early Monday morning, 29 November, having gotten back mid-day on Friday the 26th. It was a great trip, a great experience. For those interested, the sale was a considerable success, enough so that there are preliminary plans for us to participate in the Spring 2011 Hong Kong sales. I am still hoping to get up on the blog my early impressions of China (based on my vast experience-two days in Shanghai). We shall see . . . Our last day in Hong Kong. On the advice of Alice Leung, who, alongside Carson Chan, managed the sale, we went to see the Big Buddha on Lantau island and to visit the fishing village of Tai O. The visit began, once we were out of Hong Kong and across Lantau, with a spectacular cable car ride up the mountain to the Big Buddha housed in the Po Lin monastery. Now this is not an ancient shrine, having been built in 1993, but it is impressive. The ride up is spectacular. There is actually a trail up the mountain and we figured that an ex...

This is our preview for the big Bonhams Hong Kong sale of Asian fine art and objects, jewellery, watches and of course, Pens. We are most fortunate to be located right at the entry point. Angel Chu, who is an art student, has been helping me with the preview and will be studying next semester at Carnegie-Mellon University's art program. If the preview looks good, it's due to her work.

Saturday was my last day of touring until after our sale. Still trying to get a "handle" on this remarkable city, we decided to take another tour, this time using our favoured mode, the "hop on, hop off." The streets here are, indeed, less congested than those of Shanghai and the driving style a bit less fierce, but they do it on the wrong side! It's like being in England again. Especially with buildings like this, a remnant of the colonial past. Sharon says this is her favourite building in Hong Kong, for its graceful lines. I'll leave my comments at that. From Hong Kong to Kowloon on board the famed Star Ferry Christmas in Kowloon Another remnant of colonial days, The Peninsula Hotel was the city's leading luxury spot and the site of the British surrender of Hong Kong to the Japanese in December 1941. The scale of Kowloon is a bit smaller than that of Hong Kong And these overhanging neon signs seem to define the streetscape. Some are so low that i...