Kata in HK: Throwing plastic mandarins

Chinese New Year Part II

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On Sunday 10th of February, the first day of the new year, we went to Tai Po to visit the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree. Tai Po is located in New Territories and it took us two buses and two MTRs and over an hour to get there.

The original plan was to meet at 8am, go to eat breakfast in Kennedy Town and then go to Tai Po. Of course I overslept and woke up at 9am, but also luckily so did Cory, so I didn't have to travel and catch up with the others alone.

The Wishing Tree.

"The idea was to write your wish on a piece of paper, tie it to a citrus fruit and then throw it as high as you could into the tree. If your fruit lodged in the branches, you were in luck - and the higher it went, the more chance there was of your wish coming true. But things got, er, out of hand just once too often, and in 2005, a week after Chinese New Year, a large branch of the tree came crashing to the ground, dashing most punters' wishes once and for all." - from Lonely Planet Hong Kong & Macau guide 2010

The 2010 guide also says that you can't buy mandarins anymore. Well, that's kind of true as you now can throw plastic ones which are really light and most likely won't crash the tree. But apparently the plastic ones have been around for only a couple of years,

You could use the checklist to choose what you wish for and/or write something on the other side. The price was 20HKD.

The tourist.

Here it goes! (or actually didn't go with this try...)

It took me three throws to get it to the tree. Monica got hers with one shot, but others also needed several tries. As the mandarin was really light-weighted and it had the piece of paper attached, it was really hard to throw. A real one would have been a lot easier.

Some wishes really near the ground. Don't throw angry birds to the three!

Way to the tree.

Group photo time! I, Siyeon, Monica, Ian, Thomas, Keun Hee, a-French-guy-whose-name-I-can't-remember and Cory

There was also area (well, a building without walls) for all the zodiac sign statues. I guess you could pray in front of your own. The snake statue was decorated with a red ribbon and flowers and the others were left as plain normal.

Zodiac statues area.

I and Cory, the ones born in the year of snake, with the snake statue.

Ceiling decoration.

Outdoors.

Wooden racks where you can tie your wishing papers.

Snacks!

Don't know what is was, but it was ok.

Rice cake. Delicious!

All kinds red stuff being sold. Red is the lucky color.

There was also a kind of small temple in the area. Photographing was prohibited in the main room, but there was also so many people in small space that wouldn't even have gotten good pictures. The joss stick (a type of incense) smoke was quite heavy inside the temple, so we didn't stay there for long. In my opinion, those incense smell like a mosquito repellent we use for Finnish mosquitos.

Paikalliset hyttyskierrukat temppelissä. (Don't know how to say in English.)

Burning the joss sticks outside. You could smell them in some distance.

After going around in the area for a while we returned to Tai Wo station, ate lunch and went to see Tai Po Market... which was closed. Only like five stalls were open in the whole building because of the Chinese New Year holiday.