Episode 154 - Little Egret

The photos were taken by me whilst crossing a bridge over the Tai O Waterway.

When I was walking on the bridge, I noticed that there was a little egret sitting on the tower. As the bird had no intention to fly away, I had enough time to take some photos of it.

This appeared to be a good season to watch little egrets in Hong Kong, as I could see a lot of them during my journey. However, the threat of H5N1 avian flu might have been deterring birds watchers from getting too close to these beautiful birds.

Episode 153 - Long Island from the Great Wall

This photo was taken from the "Little Great Wall" of Cheung Chau. The Little Great Wall is a well paved uphill path along which the tourists can have a close look at various weathered granite.

The photo shows the two main beaches of the Island. The one on the right side is "Tung Wan" (literally the East Beach). Tung Wan is a good place for swimming. The sand is smooth and the gradient is gentle. The water quality is good. It is classified as a Grade One beach. The one on the left is "Kwun Yum Beach" (literally the Beach of the Bodhisattva of Compassion). It is the place where Hong Kong's first Olympic medalist Li Lai Shan practised windsurfing when she was young. The circular object which runs into the sea is a helicopter platform. Next to it is the Windsurfer cafe owned by Lai Kan.

Episode 152 - Sunny Side Up

This photo was taken at Tai O. The red rounded objects are the village's traditional produce - preserved egg yolks.

The egg yolks are first extracted from duck eggs. They are then dried under the sun with salts. The selling price is HK$1.25 each.

The easiest way to cook a preserved egg yolk is to steam it in a rice cooker at the time when the rice is halfway done - yummy!

Episode 151 - Pirate from the Long Island

This photo was taken at the entrance of the Cheung Po Tsai Cave at Cheung Chau.

Literally, Cheung Chau means long island. It is one of the outlying islands of Hong Kong, with a population of some 30,000.

This beautiful island has a number of spectacular points of interest of which the Cheung Po Tsai Cave is one.

Cheung Po Tsai was a pirate living in the 19th Century. It was said that Cheung had a strong team of pirates with over 600 ships. People believed that Cheung had stored some of his treasure in various secret locations - the Cave was supposed to be one of such secret places. Backed up by the legend, the Cave attracts a large number of visitors every day. As you can appreciate from the photo, there was a long line of tourists on the day of my visit.

Both the entrance and the exit of the Cave are very small, allowing only one person to pass through. The internal area of the cave is reasonably spacious. No light is installed inside the cave. If you are not comfortable with moving around in total darkness, you can rent a light torch from the local hawkers at a cost of HK$5. It would however be fun if you could manage to find your way out from the dark cave without a torch.

Episode 150 - Three Levels of Achievements in Taiji

Some notes from my reading of "On the Art of Taiji":

Upper-level: The practitioner starts with both the artistic (the conceptual, the body of the art) and the martial (the technique, the use of the art) from the very beginning and get the best of the art.

Mid-level: The practitioner starts from the artistic and develops the martial subsequently in accordance with his studies. Alternatively, he starts from the martial and works out the artistic from the applications. In both cases, the practitioner reaches a higher level through devotion to his art.

Low-level: The practitioner focuses on either the artistic way or the martial way only and manages to work out the best of either stream.

The distinctions are for illustration purpose. They are not in hierarchical orders as the emphasis is on the effort and achievement of the practitioner.

Episode 149 - Vegetarian Goldfish

A new photo of the Red Cap and the Tiger Head.

The goldfish has been growing well. The Red Cap has developed long tail fins. The Tiger Head has longer tails too but the head growth is yet to develop.

Last month, I discovered that the goldfish's appetite was bad and seemed to have got diarrhea. I changed the pellets and fed them with more vegetable leaves. It worked and the fish soon recovered.

I find that the fish loves vegetables with soft leaves. "Choy Sum" and "Pak Choy" are their favourites.

Episode 148 - Nei Gong - the internal power

Nei Gong is a mysteries subject in internal martial art.

For an internal martial art practitioner, power is re-acquired through awakening the sleeping parts of the body (See Episode Three for more), so that he can utilise coherent bodily force. To fine tune this re-acquired power, the awakened parts should be conditioned so the power transmission process can be maximized . This is where the Nei Gong Training enters into the picture.

Nei Gong Training looks like breathing exercise. However, Nei Gong Training emphasises full inhalation and full exhalation. This is done, and should only be done, on the basis that the sleeping parts of the body have been awakened.

The rationale behind full inhalation and exhalation is to let the body go through a series of "high pressure" and "vacuum" conditions. The practitioner takes advantage of these conditions to direct / force the energy to break through the desired channels in his re-acquired "natural body".