The Cheung Chau Festival

Cheung Chau is an outlying island of Hong Kong reached by a fast ferry. Denise and Carmen took us for a famous yearly festival unique to the island. Amber and I actually saw it on tv the night before (and I had heard of the bun climb) and were wondering where and when it was. And it happened to be the weekend we were in Hong Kong! To explain, first they build three bamboo towers and put dough buns all over. They leave them there (nice and moldly!) and Taoist priests pray and make offerings. The whole festival is meant to placate hungry wandering ghosts on the island. So, the bun towers are left there, and they actually make a special 20 meter one for climbing. There are 12 contestants who have to scramble up the tower and try to grab as many buns as possible from the top within three minutes. Buns at the top worth nine points, the middle three points and the bottom one point: you get the picture. The winner this year got over 700 points! Supposedly this tradition was only reinstated recently because in 1978 one of the towers collapsed injuring 100 people. And to clarify, we did not actually see the competition... it was at midnight and we had too much of Hong Kong left to see.

This is the temple on Cheung Chau. I was fascinated by the candle and the incense cones hanging from the ceiling (I guess with prayers written on the bottom).