Sunday on the Island

We went to sleep after an exciting first night on the island. The next morning we woke up after sleeping in for a bit and had breakfast. Amy and I had egg sandwiches with milk tea (and it was the best milk tea I have had so far). Paul and Katie had some sort of modified raman thing. Then we decided to suit up in our rain gear and visit our island!!!

This is the sign that indicates that Tung Ping Chau was made part of the country park system by being made the extension park of the Plover Cove Country Park.

 This is a grave on Tung Ping Chau. We didn't know that people were buried on the island. This grave is rather ornate. The two small statues that you see are guardians to watch over the body and guard it. These are also very well designed. There are little windows to let water drain out of the grave top. This particular grave has red and gold colors (very significant colors in the Chinese culture). Some of them have no colors.

 This is Paul trying to figure out if he can get up to see those other graves. There are only a few graves on this hill. We happened to pass at least 3 different areas that had a large amount of graves. It really helped us to realize just how many people used to live on this island in its hay-day!

 This is attached to a government path light and uses solar panels to generate the electricity that is needed since there is no electricity on the island.

 This is a notice informing the residents that the AFCD (Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department) will be improving the paths on the islands. It also gives residents the opportunity to write in and voice their opinions.

 This is a turtle :) I took the picture for mommy cause she loves turtles!

 This shows more signs posted by the Tung Ping Chau Affairs Committee. As you can see, the sign on the left is written in English. It is clear that the residents want their voices heard so they are striving to reach as many facets and people as possible.
*Note: The sign on the left is NOT a translation of the sign on the right. They each say something different

 This funny looking, brightly colored statue is guarding one of the two temples that exists on the island. This temple had these funny looking creatures and also some dragons.

 This is the sign for the temple. I mostly took the picture so you can see the Chinese characters, but I also took the picture because mom loves signs so I wanted to post a sign for her to look at it. (*Note: Mom, I have the rest of the sign in another picture so you can read the whole thing.).

 This is the temple itself. This green, rippled type of roof is very common on temples and monasteries. It is rather small. Right inside the door there is a reflecting pool and a slot in the roof to allow the sunshine in.

 This is the inside of the temple. The person in the middle is a female instead of a male. It was believed that she was the goddess of the sea which is why she was worshiped on this tiny island. The residents prayed to her to keep them safe from bad weather and also to keep their fishing nets full of bountiful fish.

 Really cool rock crevasse. I love this shot because you can see the different cracks, layers and colors in the rocks. You can also see the water in the distance. Its all very cool to me. I have decided that I am a geology nerd...

 This is a piece of soft brain coral. The tide comes all the way up the beach at high tide so there are lots of pieces of coral and other cool things lying around!

 This is Katie at the marker. It marks where the rock formations are for when the high tide comes in. This is helpful for boats so that way there are no cruise ship accidents here! (Minor joke about the cruise ship disaster... No cruise ships come near Tung Ping Chau). ANYWAYS... There are lots of really cool rocks everywhere. Also, I didn't get a picture of this, but out in the water there are two different yellow markers out there and they mark two distinct coral reefs.

This is the sign for the marine park. The marine park at Tung Ping Chau was instated in 2001. It protects the coral reefs and all the fish. This is one of the grievances that the residents have with the government because they think that the marine park ordinance took away their livelihood and their source of food.

These are some sea urchins that are in a tidal pool.

 These are the two rock formations that are the most famous on Tung Ping Chau. They have been eroded by weather and wave formations. They are pretty awesome! :)

 This is the rock climber Paul who decided to scale the rock tower. He unfortunately found graffiti and carvings on top of the rock :( We think he may have had a good view if it wasn't foggy and raining. He couldn't really see much.

 Here is some cactus! This just shows the very diverse plant life that exists on the island. One moment we were walking on the beach, then we encountered those two giant rock formations moments later, then we saw the cactus plants. A few more steps later we were in the midst of...

a rainforest! It was very tropical. We could peak out between the vegetation and see the other side of the island. This formation is really cool. It was again hard to see because of the weather, but was rather breathtaking even as is.

 This is the Dragon's Tail rock formation. This is kind of a bad angle... the rock is under cut so there is only a thin layer that sticks out over the water. The waves have eroded the area to make it have the shape of ridges, resembling a dragon's tail.

 Bamboo forest! There were lots of little patches of bamboo. Luckily, we did not see any bamboo snakes. These green snakes are the most common venomous snake in Hong Kong.

 This looks out from our path about 20 meters above sea level out to the opposite end of the island. There were some people down there. We were trying to figure out how to get there but then we realized we were all hungry and needed a bathroom so we went back to the hostel. That side is "to be explored at a later date".

 This is some of the tropical vegetation that is present on the island. We went down a little path off of the main path and we were on a different beach on the opposite side of the island. This was also where the  dragon's tail (a rock formation) is located.

This was my delicious beverage. It was some sort of pineapple shake thing. It  has a ball of shaved ice on top. Then there was a layer of pineapple. Under that was some sort of liquid that had colorful gelatin cubes in it. They didn't really taste like anything put the liquid had a sweet, pineapple-like taste.

 This was one of our dishes. It was fried noodles with spicy red peppers, beef and mushrooms. You can tell by the yellow color that this is a curry flavored dish. It was very tasty.

 This WAS our fried rice. We demolished it before I could get a picture.

 This is a crispy noodle dish with beef, onions and mushrooms. It was mostly just savory in taste but had the nice unique crunch to it because of the noodles.

 Amy is confused by her shake-like beverage. Hers also has the shaved ice on top and the liquid plus colorful gelatin cubes on the bottom. The middle, instead of pineapple had like cream or something and then giant black jelly cubes. It was tasteless. Amy didn't know what to make of it.

 This is the ferry at the pier from on of the beaches.

This is the journey home, just after getting on the ferry. Good bye Tung Ping Chau! Goodbye Mainland China! See you in a few weeks!!!