I visited Hong Kong with the audiences of NTUC Radio Heart 100.3 in January 1999. That was an opportunity for me to take a break after the two-year hard-work Year-2000 Project. We departed on the weekend and there was a public holiday after the weekend. I needed to apply for a day's annual leave to enjoy my 4-day vacation. I was also pleased to travel with our favourite DJs Q. Ken and Yongmei. I always listened to the program of Radio Heart in the late evening. I loved to listen to the voice of Q. Ken. He used to answer to the audiences who called in and gave them his advice. I was wondered how he looked like; therefore I decided to go with the group. 16.01.1999 We took the 1.30 SIA flight. There were all together 100 participants. When we arrived in Hong Kong in the evening, we were transferred to the hotel in three coaches. That was the third time I visited after 1977. The first sight was the grand airport. Looking at the highway, the bridges, the mountains on the way to the hotel, I realised that I did not visit for a long time. The tour guide with our coach was a handsome young man Jackie. He had a lot of stories to tell us. When we arrived at the hotel, Jackie requested us to check in to the guest room and meet at the lobby as soon as we could. He would bring us to look for our dinner which we had to settle by ourselves. After ordering our meals, he could then rush back home in Yuanlang. He had to come back to Kowloon early in the next morning to bring us for our breakfast and tour. Jackie brought us to a restaurant near the hotel. We were busy in placing our orders and forgot to invite Jackie to have meal with us. Only when we finished our dinner and happy with Jackie's recommendation, we felt sorry that Jackie had gone home without food. Some group members went shopping after dinner. I went back to hotel. I made a call to Pastor Tze Dao Chuan. I told him that I would be in Hong Kong. When he received the call, we decided to meet on 19 January morning and he would come to the hotel to bring me to his home in Yuanlang. When I told Pastor Tze that the hotel was in Nathan Road and I could see the busy Bowring Street from my guest room, he then knew which hotel I stayed. After making the appointment with him, I called Mary whom I knew her from the Internet chat room. She said that she had just passed our hotel and was in Yau Ma Tei. She suggested we would meet on the day after tomorrow with another friend Gujing. After making the appointments, I wanted to make a long distance call home. I had the International Credit Card of Singtel and could make the call with the phone in the room. But the hotel staff misunderstood that the hotel would charge me for the service charge. He suggested I make use of the public telephone so as to spend less. There were many public telephones along Nathan Road. I made the call home to talk to my son. He was about five years old. He could apply a day's leave from the kindergarten and come together to Hong Kong with his mother. He spent only two to three hours in the kindergarten each day. But his mother was inflexible and did not like him to be absent. I asked him what he would like to have for souvenir. He asked me how Hong Kong looked like. It seemed that he could visualise Hong Kong. He would like to have whatever kinds of car and bus I could see in Hong Kong. Jackie reminded us that we had to pay for viewing certain channels of television program in the guest room. He said that those television programs would make us high. The time we spent on those programs would be billed. I stayed by myself and I had to be more caution. Otherwise it would be too bad if I suffered from sudden death. 17.01.1999 After taking our breakfast, many of us were very keen to take photo with the nine-dragon wall as the background. We began today with a tour to the popular Ocean Park. A new highlight was the "Discovery of the Ancient World". "Constructed at a cost of HK $45 million, the 300 meters long adventure, located at the Lowland, allowed visitors to pass through the ruins of an ancient civilisation and a rainforest filled with a variety of animated wildlife, caves inhabited by bats, giant spiders and carnivorous plants. " That was the description of the new attraction, but we were not very interested in. In the afternoon, we visited the Middle Kingdom, an authentic theme park depicting thirteen dynasties and five thousand years of Chinese history. When we went to the duty-free shop, I bought a set of stamps and nothing else. There was a bus model that was too expensive for me. I was only looking for various types of toy car and bus for my son. He would like to have the various buses which provide public transportation in Hong Kong. I had a chat with the DJ Q. Ken outside the duty-free shop. We talked about his radio program, his voice and hair style freely. He said that as a public image, it was unable to chat freely with any friend in the public in Singapore. According to our tour itinerary, the breakfast, lunch and dinner were provided today. The dinner was grand and it seemed like a welcome dinner. We had our dinner as well as the variety show in the restaurant. The three groups of members took the dinner together. It was full of joy. Q. Ken and Yongmei also sang a few songs. Most of the members presented the programs willingly.

The City of Life - Hong Kong

DJ Q. Ken and the writer

I went to the night market after dinner. I was delight to see a toy seller. There were various types of vehicles. The shopkeeper looked like a Pilipino. She knew that I was looking for toy cars for my son and gratefully to recommend me the toys. She might have her children in the hometown and was interested to know about my son. After getting those toys I would buy, she was surprised to see that there were many pieces. She then gave a toy car for my son as a gift. 18.01.1999 We visited the Phoenix Television (·ï»ËÎÀÊÓµçÊǪ́) this morning. There were some families subscribed to that TV program. There was also a group member who watched the program and she was invited to have an interview program. One of presenters of the program Good Morning China (·ï»ËÔç°à³µ) showed us where the program was filmed and about his job. I wondered how he overcame his sneeze when the program was telecasting. He answered that he must control. That was strange to me. How to control? We took a group photo after the visit. I thought Singaporeans were conservative, nobody asked any question. Then I went to the presenter and asked whether I could take a photo with him. He was very willingly to take a picture with me. I requested a group member to take the photo for us. When we were looking at the camera, he asked, "May I hold your shoulder?" I was very surprised with his manner. I thanked him after taking the photo. I then found that he was a handsome young man. How come none of our members would like to take photo with him? While the thought struck my mind, I saw many members queued up to take photo with him. I had a very good impression with his manner.

Tour to the Victoria Peak (̫ƽɽ) seemed like a must when visiting Hong Kong. That was the third time I visited the Victoria Peak and all during the day. I wondered how the scene looked like at night. Those staying in the Peak must have car as their transport. There were also visitors passing by the house and 'peeping at' their house everyday. Was it very irritated?

With DJ Q. Ken

With tour guide Jackie

We also visited the Repulse Bay. Jackie talked very well. He told us many stories and everyone paid much attention. When he told us to rub the belly of the laughing Buddha, everybody did so. Most of the members showed no interest at the jade factory. But it was rather different when we visited the Chinese herb shop. Many of us bought various types of herbs as they were free of charge. There were some Chinese physicians but I did not ask for their service. I just wanted to buy some herbs with the Dendrobium Huoshanense (»ôɽʯõú) to heal my cough. I also bought herbs with Dendrobium Huoshanense for my cousin who suffered from stroke. Those herbs were genuine, but the shopkeeper over prescribed for me. Therefore I spent almost four thousand Sing dollars. The herbs powder for me was for a month, but I took four months to finish it. Jackie was surprised to see me spent so much money in the herbs. He thought the herbs cost more than three thousand dollars was for my father. When he knew that that was for my cousin, he said that m cousin must love me very much. On the day we left Hong Kong Jackie sent us off at the airport. He told me to take the herbs powder regularly and not to waste the money. He also asked me to take care of my health.

When we were back to the hotel, I found there was a message from Gujing. He came to look for me earlier. I met Gujing later. Gujing also knew Mary. We went to meet Mary who was nearby the hotel. Mary was from Beijing. She suggested we went to take Beijing food. Mary ordered a few dishes which I had never taken. She showed us the way to take those Beijing foods. At the dinner, she told me that there were a few more girls would like to meet me when they knew that I would be in Hong Kong. They did not turn up because I did not inform them by e-mail. I asked Mary that how come the girls and her dare to meet a strange man. She said that all of them thought that I should be a good man. The manner I had at the chat room made them have confidence in me. Mary went home after dinner. Gujing brought me to the night market. He bought two pieces of shirt for me and a blinking click for my son. I had problem to communicate with him in the chat room. His English was not very good and I had problem to type Chinese. There were people in the chat room tried to drive a wedge between us. Some of them just talked bad behind him in order to give me a bad impression of him. But those tricks did not work. I told Jackie that I would not take breakfast tomorrow as Pastor would come to the hotel and bring me to his house in Yuanlang. Jackie was staying in Yuanlang. He said that we should exchange the rooms. He stayed in my hotel guest room and I stayed in his house in Yuanlang. Hence we did not need to rush to either place in the early morning. Actually I stayed in the guest room by myself for the last two nights. There were tow beds in the room. If Jackie stayed with me, then he would not need to rush back to Yuanlang every night and back to Kowloon in the early morning. He said that sometimes he did not take shower if he reached home too late. 19.01.1999 We packed up our belongings in the morning and kept our luggage in one of the room. Everyone checked out in the morning before breakfast. There would be free time after breakfast until three o'clock in the afternoon before leaving for airport. Pastor Tze came to the hotel early. After a short conversation, he brought me to his house by train and bus. That was the first time we met again after Pastor and Mrs. Tze left Singapore in 1966. Mrs. Tze made carrot cake for me as breakfast. Although we had been apart for thirty-three years, she was still as kind as a mother. I was glad to meet her.

Pastor Tze rent a taxi for the tour. We started from Yuanlang, passed by the New Territories and back to Kowloon. It took a big round. Pastor Tze said that it would bring me good luck. We visited the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Tao Fong Shan, Shatin. The buildings of the Seminary are designed in traditional Chinese-style. I thought we had to understand the localization of religion. As a Chinese Christian, we have to understand the Chinese culture and be broad-minded. When I was working in the Thai Good News centre in Golden Mile Complex after my study in the Bible College in 1991, Pastor James came to Singapore and visited me. He brought me the message from Pastor Tze. They wished that I could go to Hong Kong and take over the work of Pastor Tze at Prayer Mountain. I was born in Singapore and was not affiliated to Hong Kong, hence I did not promise to work in Hong Kong. I saw a line of verse "See, I am doing a new thing!" engraved on the wall. It struck me very much.

We stopped by at a few shopping malls. Pastor Tze and I got down of the taxi and just took a picture. I was not interested to walk around the malls. We were back to Kowloon at noon. Pastor Tze treated me to a lunch. Although I knew Pastor and Mrs. Tze for a few months only when they were in Singapore, they took care of me very much. They taught me to be a good Christian. I missed them very much. We said goodbye at the roadside after lunch. All members were back to hotel at three o'clock in the afternoon. We got our luggage and left for the airport.