Hong Kong Maritime Museum

After staying for almost two hours in Thai Pad, a Thai restaurant along Bonham Road where I took advantage of the free wifi, I went on my way to Hong Kong Maritime Museum. To this day I still treasure the moment I was in the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense in Shau Kei Wan where I thoroughly enjoyed walking around. It was because of that museum that I became determined to go visit each and every one of HK’s museums and I am happy to say that this year I was able to go to five.

Tired from walking around the whole day in HK summer, I almost didn’t make it to Central Ferry Pier 8. The good thing about travelling alone is that when in a desperate situation you will be forced to interact with strangers and place your trust in them. I was lucky because when I kept on asking the bus driver if it was already my stop, a woman in her 40s took care of me. She was headed to TST and was to go there via a ferry. She told me to tag along and I did, grateful for the company. If I went alone I would have missed Pier 8. It was she who pointed it out to me.

Entrance fee was HKD 30 and I had second thoughts because I got there at past 4PM, leaving me with less than two hours to go around. And I can really kill time when inside a museum! And my camera battery was also about to die out.

Visitors will first see vintage posters advertising great ocean liners. As marketing materials they can be considered as artifacts in their own right, giving information on the history of the maritime industry.

Also on display are fine dining ware. The cruise ships are indeed for the rich as even eating utensils, cups, and teapots are given great attention. Clients are really given the best luxuries.

view from within the glass walls

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this artwork

 Aside from ship models, SCUBA equipment, and exhibits on luxury liners, the museum also educates the public on how seamen give signals to each other other. I especially liked that section. Public awareness of water pollution is also ensured as the museum commemorates the Plastic Disaster of 2012 when a ship leaving HK carrying plastic pellets fell victim to Typhoon Vincente. The containers were destroyed and the pellets spilled into the waters. HK residents immediately sprung into action to save the beaches and the seas by recovering the plastic pellets.

As expected, the museum houses a lot of miniature ships, including the Chinese junks. There are also exhibits on pirates and on the history of HK's shipping industry. Interestingly, Wu Delin who set up the Taiship Group in 1951 which remains active to this day, attended the University of the Philippines! Now isn't that awesome?

Booklets were on sale that time so I bought three. One is about pirates since lately I've been engrossed in One Piece again.

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I wish we had a similar museum here in the Philippines, plus archives on our maritime history since we are surrounded by waters and watercrafts are an ancient mode of transportation. BTW, a book I'm excited to read after I finish the ones I have been reading for months now is James Francis Warren's Iranun and Balangingi: Globalization, Maritime Raiding and the Birth of Ethnicity. I bought the book at a discounted price last month during a conference where I presented a paper related to archaeology at UP Diliman. I'd be more than happy to get a book related to the Philippine maritime history. #wishlist LOL