Between wandering and nomadism: I live in a park in Hong Kong (Part 1)

Jan 20

Climbing 300 steps with a heavy load late at night, will the physiological limit be the end of nomadism?

In the past, topics surrounding Hong Kong homeless people only existed in the news I read. However, when I became one of them, I found that all the problems became truly concrete.

This is the nomadic group "Yu Zhoushan", composed of Yu and Joe. We are applying for the "Nomad Project". To learn about our nomadic story, please click: We are gypsy queers and monkeys, walking while counting noodles .

Yu's self-identity: 21st century gypsy queer, as a player, insert yourself into any self-development plot game.
Joe's self-identity: a monkey, using the inertia of his body to travel through the jungle of the world.

This article was originally written in October 2023. It comes from the first perspectives of Yu and Joe respectively, and is a documentary about our wandering in Hong Kong.

{Joe}

Later we talked and learned that Yu and I had two completely opposite expectations about where we would end up that night: Yu looked like he was going to sleep on the street today, but at the time he was very sure that he would not sleep on the street tonight; and I thought When I got up, I was actively looking for other solutions, but I was already convinced that I was going to sleep on the street tonight!

Under such a premise, we finally reached a consensus to find a place to sleep. Perhaps the fundamental reason is that we do not exclude this possibility.

Keywords: late at night, weight-bearing, 300 steps

After spending 5 days at a friend's house, working in exchange for accommodation, and staying in a hotel, on the sixth day, Yu finally couldn't bear to stay in the expensive, small, cold, and depressing unfamiliar space and insisted on leaving the hotel.

In Hong Kong, if we take away the hotel option, don’t consume or buy, where else can we stay?

——The first reaction was "camping".

We brought sleeping bags and moisture-proof pads, but no tent. So it’s best to find a campsite that’s relatively close and where tents can be rented. I naively thought that it wouldn’t be difficult to find a place to stay since there are so many outdoor public spaces in Hong Kong.

However, after searching the Internet, I found that the law stipulates that you can only camp at government-designated camping spots, otherwise it may be illegal. We find it difficult to agree with this, but time is running out and we are beginning to look for other alternatives.

——How about going to the park?

I once lived in Hong Kong for a short time, and I have the impression that the environment of the park is good and the public facilities are relatively complete. I thought that Victoria Park has a wide lawn and the location is not too remote, but I was not sure whether it had the conditions for sleeping outdoors, so I went to check it out first.

After getting off the bus, the lawn of Victoria Park is still as spacious as in memory. In the evening, many domestic helpers and children played there, and there were also tourists posing for photos. They were very happy, and we were infected by the laughter in the air. But on another parallel line, we are also thinking a lot.

Although there were plenty of people playing on the lawn, no one had set up a tent – which made us concerned whether the park had a no-camping policy;
Victoria Park is very spacious, but it is too spacious - there is no shelter on all sides, and our cold has not yet recovered. Can we withstand the cold wind after nightfall?
The park appears to be patrolled and there is a risk of being evicted.

After half an hour of sitting on the (pseudo) bench separated by the armrests, we had no choice but to return to Kowloon and decided to take out the luggage stored in the hotel first and then think of a solution as the sky darkened.

Unpack your luggage - open the map - search for parks sorted by distance. It's almost midnight.

Fortunately, the nearest park is only a few hundred meters away, so let’s go!

But halfway through the journey, we were dumbfounded at the foot of a mountain. The park I found was halfway up the mountain, and the way up the mountain was only steps. The steps are covered by vegetation on both sides, and the almost zero light seems to lead us to an endless black hole.

Adhering to the Chinese philosophy of "come, come, come", our feet honestly stepped up the steps.

Yu's body has been almost exhausted these days. I am carrying a 50L mountaineering bag and a suitcase in my hand. Every step is more difficult than the last one.

I climbed up about 50 steps with my remaining strength, but when I raised my eyes, I still couldn't see the side - I was about to collapse. I said, "How about we go down first? Maybe there are other routes that can go up?" It was already 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, and I was really afraid that my heart would not be able to bear such a load. Although I didn't voice this concern.

Yu obviously didn't want to accept such a proposal. "You've already climbed this far. It would be a pity to retreat. Keep climbing!" She stood on the steps two steps higher than me and looked back at me.

Seeing that there was no conclusion, Yu continued, "Let's each choose a path and then meet on the top of the mountain." This proposal was beyond the scope of my warning, and I rejected it with almost no hesitation.

Maybe a minute passed, maybe only 10 seconds, and Yu sat down.

We just stared at each other without arguing or talking. An invisible tension stretched between us.

Yu signals for a kiss.

I leaned down and responded to her. The mountaineering bag was pressed against my head and was about to lift my center of gravity. If I had one more second, it would probably be a forward roll.

“You never know what will ultimately help you make a decision until it happens.”

Just when I didn't know who was about to make a compromise, suddenly a young man who looked like he had just finished exercising ran down the mountain. I quickly stopped him and asked about the distance between here and the destination. I was a little confused when I heard the number "300", but whether it was 300 meters or 300 steps, it was enough to make me despair at this time.

I don’t know if he could see the embarrassment in our expressions, but with a gesture, this guy with a South Asian face picked up our suitcases and started running up the stairs without saying a word. We thanked each other profusely while panting hard to catch up. In the second half of the journey, we had to rely on our remaining will and the handrails on both sides to pull ourselves up section by section.

In this way, we came to the mountainside, and in front of us was a quiet rest park. It is of medium size, with the night view of the city on one side and the stars in the sky on the other.

The grass was damp, so I spread the floor mat on the concrete floor under the small pavilion. Without a tent, I had no choice but to shrink my head into the sleeping bag as much as possible.

As the night goes deeper, the cold wind on the mountainside becomes more and more clear. I was half asleep.

What we didn't expect was that this "secret lawn" on the mountainside turned out to be a popular place for running and fitness among the neighbors. From the time of bed to before dawn, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock... People show up here almost every hour, running in the dark.

We thus came to the conclusion that "Hong Kong people are really exercising 24 hours a day".

At six o'clock, I was woken up by the aunts saying "morning" to each other loudly. That day, we stumbled into their time zone, but accidentally felt an unexpected and long-lost human connection.

We, who were originally a little afraid of society, soon became infected and started saying "morning" to every aunt and uncle we met. In the crowd, we, who are in our twenties, are obviously still a little awkward, and they are full of curiosity about us. The most common question is about where we come from. For a long time, I have been accustomed to blurring my identity outside the home, so I always try to summarize it to the greatest extent. However, I still couldn't help the aunts' enthusiastic inquiries and reported my home.

When they learned that we were from the mainland, they almost all showed exaggerated expressions and gave a thumbs up (maybe they thought we had walked all the way from the mainland...), the mainland is so far away! You are so awesome! I received a lot of compliments for this.

There was an aunt not far away. What was different from the aunties who formed a team for morning exercises was that she stood alone some distance away from the crowd, wearing a hood on her clothes, holding her hands on her chest, quietly Standing on the ground.

We made a few quick glances.

This made me somewhat wary - despite having made it through the night, my insecurities about some sort of warning or eviction had not dissipated.

Finally, after a long pause, the aunt leaned forward and spoke - "Do you need help?"

My tight strings relaxed a little, at least not threateningly.

She said, "I'm not sure whether camping in Hong Kong's parks is allowed, and I don't know if anyone will come to chase you away, but I have the impression that there are showers in Kowloon Park. You can go and take a look if you need it. Pay attention to your safety."

When I was packing my bags and preparing to go down the mountain, I was reminded by more than one uncle who was doing morning exercises: "Don't forget to bring the things on the bench!"

We were looked after like this for almost the whole morning. This was indeed unexpected.

After going to the shower room in the park next door to wash up briefly, it was only eight or nine o'clock when I came out. I was surprised to find that following the time zone of my aunts and uncles, there was a lot of extra time in the day.

When asking for directions, I met an enthusiastic uncle and helped him sweep the floor together.

In the evening, we returned to the park again, planning to "extend our stay" for another day.

At 11:34, we were locked in the public toilet.

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{Yu}

Keywords: wandering in a daze is meaningless

Staying in a hotel is really expensive and boring. The spaces I wanted to visit were all played in the harbor next door. When I was in a daze, I focused on the park, the natural gathering point of the city. You can lie down in a comfortable park all the time. The longer the time is, the better it will be if you can live in it.

Climbing 300 steps with a hiking bag and suitcases on my back,

My wish to sleep in a park finally came true during my last two days in Hong Kong.

twelve o'clock in the morning

"I suggest that we each choose a road to meet on the top of the mountain." However, such a suggestion is not very convincing in a strange and secluded place late at night.

We climbed up a staircase with no end in sight. The steps were very steep. After a few days of walking and old illnesses, my waist and knees were no longer strong. Although I almost guessed that this staircase was difficult, it seemed that both I personally have no intention of giving in. But Joe, who was holding my suitcase for me, got so tired after walking up about 50 steps that he stopped and deliberately wanted to change the route. And I was so sleepy that I slumped down on the steps, probably because I had already walked a lot of steps and didn’t want to have to do it again, and I couldn’t decide whether another route would be flatter and more suitable.

But I have no idea about the scene and the comfort of my body.

The two of us just looked at each other, trying to soften each other with our only eyes, but our stubbornness prevented us from coming to a conclusion.

I felt funny and tried to break out of the deadlock. Joe struggled to pull me up and get some rest. Just before I decided to speak, I vaguely saw someone coming down the stairs, and I planned to ask him about the situation of the stairs first.

I guessed that this was a boy of South Asian descent, a young man. Because he couldn’t speak Cantonese and his English accent required some effort to figure out that there were more than 300 steps in this staircase. The boy asked us if we needed to climb up and paused. He lifted our suitcases behind his head to help us carry them up. Although language made it difficult for us to communicate, his desire to help smoothed over the obstacles. This is the first enthusiastic person we have met. With dark skin, clean and natural curly hair, and a sporty attire, he looks like an energetic and kind-hearted sunny boy.

#See the long-lost Orion

As long as you are in a place far away from light pollution, or on a mountain, if you pay careful attention, at night, there will be three stars evenly and orderly connected together in the sky. They are the belt of "Orion". When we were in Dali, Orion was so common that we could see it just by looking up.

Suddenly, more than half of this year has passed and I have been away from Dali for half a year. At 12:30 in the morning, the moment I reached the top of the mountain, Orion appeared shining brightly in front of me, and I was as happy as the reward of a medal.

You know, there are not many such exciting moments, so that for a moment I almost forget all the pain and fatigue in my body, just to commemorate this midnight hour.

# Say hello to the uncles and aunts doing morning exercises in the park

At five o'clock in the morning, the number of people slowly started to increase, so I had to actively transition back in my sleep. Gradually, I could hear greetings everywhere. I asked where the toilet was, and learned that I still had to climb half of the stairs to the center of the park. The uncles and aunts were very enthusiastic and gave us guidance as we walked on the road. At first, one of the aunts waved to us and said "morning" with a smile. We found that they all seemed to say hi enthusiastically, so we also began to relax, smiling and nodding when meeting people, or "In the morning", I felt the human touch of Hong Kong in the park. This may be an unexpected experience.

#Hong Kong people are exercising 24 hours a day

I witnessed their jet lag movement here.

At first, Joe told me that the average life expectancy of Hong Kong people is higher than that of mainland China because they like sports. I didn’t believe this conclusion. Until we slept in the park for the first time, at 12:30 in the morning, we met a young man who helped us carry our suitcases on an endless hillside staircase. Around 1 in the morning, I had laid out the mattress and fell asleep. It didn’t take long I heard a sound. I looked up and saw someone running under the faint street light in the distance. He looked like a middle-aged and elderly man. I could hear the sound of someone coming and going all the way through the night, until five o'clock in the morning. Gradually increase.

I have been to Victoria Park before, mainly because I wanted to lie on the lawn. There is indeed a wide lawn there. There are many foreign coaches taking children for activities. Middle-aged and elderly women are sitting on the benches chatting. Adults are playing with their children or having a picnic together. There are people sitting there. I was in a daze when I met three young and beautiful Korean female students taking photos and checking in in the park. The lawn was large and comfortable, but the grass was wet. I regretted not bringing a moisture-proof mat when I came out.

Join the "Must Kick" team and play shuttlecock together

In contrast, the function of this park is almost entirely dedicated to sports. 90% of the elderly come early in the morning to exercise, such as walking, running, playing basketball, badminton, tennis, shuttlecock, and even meditating, Baduanjin, etc. Tai Chi, swordsmanship, and spear-playing, as well as some strange health-preserving postures that I may or may not know about, are all available in this park.

The sports facilities here are more complete, including tennis courts, basketball courts, amusement parks, etc. Because on the mountainside, you need to climb hills first and then climb stairs. The journey to the park is already a lot of exercise. Therefore, most people who come to this park have a clear purpose, which is to do sports. The people I occasionally meet in the park, no matter how young or old they are, seem energetic. I laugh at myself that they are all younger than me in mental state. In comparison, the two of us are more like social idlers, just showing up in this park for leisure or in a daze. The young man seemed a little awkward.

At 11:34 pm we were locked in the public toilet.

The closing time of the public toilet was 11:30 pm, and the cleaning lady locked the door without checking the door again. We were at an impasse. The toilet was warm and not subject to the wind, but the feeling of being locked made me full of discomfort and tried to escape.