Bride’s Pool in Hong Kong

Do you know there is a tragic story behind the beautiful Bride’s Pool (新娘潭)?

…Actually not so tragic. The story’s not long enough for you to get emotionally attached anyway…

The pool located in Tai Po, northeast New Territories, with several other waterfalls around. While the scene there looks pristine and calming, a well-known folklore surely adds melancholy and even eeriness to the place.

Legend has it that centuries ago, a bride passed throw here on the day of her wedding. While she sat on her comfy sedan chair carried by four men, happily waiting for the sedan to reach her lover and start her new page of life, an unfortunate accident happened. The chair-porters got slipped by the slippery rocks and the whole group, including the bride, fell into the pool. The bride, wearing heavy wedding dress (cheongsam, to be accurate), could not escape and…

Yeah, you can guess the rest. As a result, the pool is named “Bride’s Pool” in the memory of the drowned bride.

What’s creepy is that people seemed to have found some mysterious cremated remains and abandoned spirit tablets around there a few years ago; the road right above the pool is an infamous sport for fatal traffic accidents; lots of people have claimed seeing a womanly figure there at night and locals always warned others against visiting this place after dark.

Maybe that bride was lonely and tried to look for companion? Or maybe she was still waiting there, believing that her lover would come for her?

…Nah, people probably made these up for fun.

This place holds a popular hiking trail, and there are a few barbecue sites around as well.

You think ghosts dare show up at a crowded tourist attraction like this?

But, in case you are alone by the pool, and you saw a suspicious female wearing cheongsam, looking sad and, more importantly, soaked…

It may be a good idea to run away as fast as you can.

Just saying.

Vegetable in Hong Kong

Do you know that only around 3% of produce consumed in Hong Kong is locally grown?

…OK, that’s really negligible, and is far away from self-sufficient.

But when you remember that Hong Kong is a concrete jungle, where the land is scarce and expensive, this figure becomes kind of interesting.

There are actually more than 1900 farms in New Territories, and Hong Kong’s overall climate is good for growing, with winter being the most productive season. In winter, people can grow choi sum, bok choi, pumpkin, carrots, taro and the like. During warmer seasons, lettuce, bitter melon, lychee, mangoes are some welcome produce.

Moreover, people start to pay more attention to health and environment. “Eat green and organic” has obviously become a topic. Together with the bad news about how imported produce from mainland China is full of pesticide and chemical, it’s only natural that people would want something “safer, fresher and greener”.

So it’s not necessarily a joke when people said “let’s farm in Hong Kong”, as you can see both the potential and demand.

Still, restricted amount of land, development projects that tends to destroy green valleys, lack of surveillance, high cost of organic farming…All of these post great challenges to the “farm in Hong Kong” idea.

Well, there is still a long way to go, a really, really long way, to be honest.

However, it is a long road that worth waking, if you ask me.