Tropical Cyclone

The kids didn't have school today.  Typhoon Kalmaegi is moving through the area.  Hong Kong has a system of warning ratings depending on the conditions of the storm.  The ratings are as follows:
1 - Standby
3 - Strong Winds, sustained wind from 26-37 mph with gusts up to 69 mph
8 - Gale or Storm, 38-73 mph with gusts up to 113 mph
9 - Increasing Gale or Storm, 55-73 mph
10 - Hurricane, 74+ mph

Apparently they used to have more levels between 3 and 8 that depended on the direction of the storm, but they consolidated them all to a level 8 to make it simpler. 

Instead of individual schools deciding when to call off schools like snow days in the US, the government has mandated rules.  If the warning is a level 3, all kindergartens and below are cancelled.  If the warning is a level 8, all schools are cancelled as well as non-essential government jobs.  Therefore, even though Tommy and Charlotte go to the same school, if the warning is a level 3, Tommy would have school, but Charlotte would not. 

The threat was a level 8 today so everyone got to stay home.  The shuttles in our neighborhood didn't run, the gym was closed, and they didn't pick up trash, the MTR also ran a lighter schedule.  Tom worked from home, it would have been difficult for him to get to the office if he had wanted to.  We had a lot of storms last night.  We lost a few branches from our trees.  One of the houses down the street is under construction.  They have a temporary metal wall enclosing the property.  About 3 AM, one of the pieces of the wall fell on top of one of the cars parked on the street.  Luckily, it looks like the car just has some scratches and nothing major. 

You can see the missing part of the wall that fell down.

It was an unexpected and fun day off.  The kids did a little bit of school work this morning and had the neighbors over for a playdate this afternoon.  The threat has already been reduced to a level 3, so hopefully they will be back at school tomorrow.

Mid-Autumn Festival

September 9th was the Mid-Autumn Festival, a public holiday in Hong Kong.  September 9th was a Tuesday.  That is something different I have noticed about holidays in Hong Kong versus the US.  Except for a few holidays that always fall on a certain date (Christmas, Fourth of July), most US days are moved to a certain day of the week (usually Monday) to make them more convenient.  The US wants to celebrate the holiday, but they also want everyone (or at least people who get off for holidays) to have a 3 day weekend.  In China, most holidays depend on the lunar calendar and fall when they fall.  The only time they will move the official day is if the holiday falls on Sunday.  Then, they celebrate it with a day off on Monday.  If the holiday falls on Saturday, then the only people who have the day off are the ones who normally work on Saturday.  In a few weeks, the kids have a Wednesday and Thursday off for a public holiday.  I am guessing there will be a lot of people absent from school (and work) that Friday.

We tried to watch a video to find out the history of the Mid-Autumn Festival.  We watched 2 videos, that gave very different stories.  One thing that was the same, is the holiday celebrates Chang'e, the moon goddess of immortality.  The holiday is sometimes called the moon festival.  People eat mooncakes to celebrate, which are small cakes with a egg yolk filling.  The filling is usually circular, so when you bite into the cake it looks like a full moon.  The cakes are also baked in a special mold so they have Chinese characters imprinted on the top.  People light lanterns to celebrate as well.  The legend is the lanterns are lighting the way for Hou Yi, Chang'e's husband on Earth, to find his way to Chang'e on the moon.

We went to a celebration for the holiday in our neighborhood.  It was very nice.  The strange thing (to me) is even though the celebration is designed for kids, it didn't start until 8 PM.  My kids are usually in bed by then.  The celebration had food and drinks, games for the kids, and a raffle.  Everything was free.  The food and games both required tickets to help make things more fair, but you could get a free sheet of tickets whenever you ran out.  The kids came home with a bag of freebies.  Finally, around 9:30, Tommy told me he was tired and wanted to go home.  We had a great night. 

Tommy being silly for the camera. :)  They both got glow bracelets and fans.

  

The crowd

The Peak Tram

I am little behind on blog posts.  Now that the kids are in school, I am going to try to get caught up.  A few weeks ago, we rode the peak tram up to Victoria Peak.  The kids and I rode the train down to Central and met Tom after work.  It had rained on and off all day.  I was hoping the Peak Tram wouldn't be too crowded because of the weather.  One of the highlights of riding the Tram is the great views of Hong Kong from the top, but there wouldn't be great views on this cloudy day.  We walked to the station and found there was a long line anyway.

A great day for an outdoor adventure

The line was long, but it moved fairly quickly.  Once we got to the inside area, there were some displays to look at while we waited.  

Tommy and Charlotte being silly in front of the old tram display.

The Peak Tram takes you to the top of Victoria Peak, where they have built a mall with lots of shopping and restaurants.  The tram travels at a pretty steep pitch.  The floor has ridges to help people who are standing from falling.  You can also pay extra to go to the roof top terrace to get an unobstructed view of the Hong Kong skyline.  We skipped this option because of the weather.  We still had a fairly decent view from the windows and outside walkways.  There are also several nice restaurants that advertise fantastic views.  

Selfie on the tram.

Cloudy view of Hong Kong

Charlotte and Tommy in front of the Peak Tram sign.

When we were done eating, we got in line to ride the tram back down.  At this point, it was raining pretty hard.  The line was outside, under an awning and we had umbrellas, but it was also very windy, so we all got soaked.  The kids both complained they were cold.  Then we went in the indoor section where it was dry, but even colder with the air conditioning.  I think it was the first time since we got here in June I was truly cold.  :)

Finally, we walked back to the train station and traveled a new route Tom has been taking home from work.  We sat in the first class train on the last leg, which has nice cushioned seats and is much less crowded than the other cars.  The kids thought it was a lot of fun.  I can definitely see why Tom prefers this route.  We had a great day!