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Newsletter #7 - August 1-8, 1959 |
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Newsletter #7
August 1-8* 1959 Mailed Australia (date blurred) Reed, Philadelphia 8/24/59 Joe sun (Good Morning -- Cantonese): Nee caw lie pie (This week), I will try to tell you more about our wonderful visit to Hong Kong. It is raining like mad this Sunday morning and we went to two churches in the teeming rain. A friend of Meredith's, Bill Markle, wrote us a letter in Japan and said we might contact Rev. and Mrs. Charles Reinbrecht, Lutheran missionaries in Hong Kong. After several telephone calls with no response before Sunday, I again called Sunday morning and they answered and gave us directions to get to church. Since the rain continued pouring in torrents, they called us back and said they would pick us up at the hotel. They took us to a room above a noodle shop on a very busy shopping street and this was church. An American-speaking Chinese had charge of the service and a Mr. Stump gave us a very uplifting sermon. The music and service made us feel right at home although we had no opportunity to talk to the Chinese later, as we left during the closing song in order to visit another church above a store in another section of town, where we enjoyed a Chinese Service. They had two ministers as one was an Evangelist who spoke in Cantonese while the other minister repeated his words in Mandarin. Even though we could not understand, we enjoyed their Lutheran form of worship and the excellent choir. They had a very large crowd of Chinese people and they were most sociable and friendly after the service. I held the dearest little Chinese baby boy and really made him laugh. The Rev. and Mrs. Reinbrecht insisted we have dinner at their home and with a continuing pouring rain we had a lovely dinner after which they took us on a trip for several hours around the New Territories relating many most interesting phases of their thirty years of Mission Work in Northern China and Hong Kong. We certainly feel they are the finest people God could have sent to these Chinese as they are really working all the time for the welfare of these people to spread the love and word of God. By the time we spent a whole afternoon with them we were calling them Mazie and Charles and really feel we've known them for years. Sunday [August 2] night we went to the "Golden Phoenix" for dinner and I splurged by wearing my new Chinese-style brocade dress, called a cheongsam, and felt very festive. It was a little hot to wear even with air-conditioning as the high collar was annoying, and I had had mine made with even less height to the collar than the true Chinese style. We danced a few times and the dinner was excellent as usual and there was a new floor show. Monday [August 3] we had more rain but we went out just the same and about 3 P.M. we took another sightseeing tour on Hong Kong side and the sun soon decided to shine, so we took several pictures. We had a very late dinner as we went up to Victoria Peak before dark to take a picture of the lovely lights of the harbor. |
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Newsletter #7
Tuesday [August 4] we really finished up our shopping and hired a car, driver and guide for five hours to drive us around the New Territories and Kowloon. This scenic drive covers approximately fifty-six miles of beautifully laid road, through the industrial area lying beyond the peninsula of Kowloon. You view a regular "sea of Chinese shops" selling wares of Interest to the villagers, and you see many new developments taking place in the rural area. We passed some of Kowloon's most outstanding bathing beaches and then traveled Inland through terraced paddy fields and plantations where we saw water buffaloes knee-deep in mud, plowing and natives with their coolie hats planting rice and also harvesting, as they have several crops of rice each year. Our Chinese driver is excellent but speaks very little English, so our guide does most of the talking and he next takes us to Kam Tin, which is the famous walled village. Here we watch the natives drying the rice on straw mats and just hordes of beggar children with their hands outstretched for money. Within the walled city you see dung piles, chickens, children, babies, and much filth and encounter many offensive odors. This city is in the center of fertile plains and it looks like the walls defended by a meet are about to decay. You approach it by quaint gates and stone bridges. This city was built by the Tang Clan and is still inhabited by their descendants, and you have the feeling of being in medieval China in this section. (Without a guide we would never have dared go within the gates as it was really a scary place to us.) As you drive on you see a lovely cove and hills which overlook a harbor. You notice an upright boulder which looks very much like a colossal statue of a Chinese woman carrying her baby on her back. Among the many legends is one that she was a fisherman's wife, who was turned to stone after waiting in vain for the return of her husband who had fallen into the hands of a witch. According to another version, Amah Rock is the petrified figure of an amah who saved a Prince's child from rebels in Swatow, another city. We traveled on to Tolo Harbor and the scenery rapidly changes to heavily wooded mountains as we approach Shatin Valley lying at the apex of the bay. Next we view the oldest reservoir in the Colony and coasting down the hill another panoramic view of the harbor comes into sight. Next we go to the city of Fan Ling, meaning the area of the "Bamboo Curtain", which is heavily guarded and closed to everyone as just over the mountain is Red China. We go on to Castle Peak and see a Buddhist Monastery which is very ordinary, but the view from the terraces is magnificent. The Buddhist nunnery with its lotus pool and quaint buildings set in surroundings of great natural charm is quite ancient. Again we go over a steep rise and see hills, woods and water which makes another lovely picture. We are soon back into Kowloon and see its millions of refugees roaming the streets, but we've had a wonderful time for five hours giving scenes of varied beauty and interest. The Reinbrecht's call to take us to Carlton Hotel for a night picture on Kowloon side, so we quickly have dinner so we can meet them by seventhirty. They take us on a ride where we pass through a Chinese section of open markets, food stalls and side streets where it seems millions of Chinese are bustling about still shopping for foods for dinner. - 2 -
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Newsletter #7
The view from above the Carlton Hotel showing a myriad of colored fights and neon signs twinkling from the shimmering harbor, with native sampans, Chinese junks, liners and various ferries and even our own Ellen Bokke, which is now in the harbor, makes a picture and a feeling of being enchanted into a fairyland. Meredith sets up his tripod and we enjoy the bustling harbor below and then go to the roof garden of the Y.M.C.A. for refreshments and more views of the harbor. Charles and Mazie return us to our hotel and want to have us for lunch before we go out to board the freighter tomorrow. Thursday [August 6], our last day in Hong Kong, is quite a bustle as we pack, pay our bills, tip all the wonderful Chinese people who gave us excellent service and give farewells to many fine people we met during our eleven days at this hotel. We have a fine time with our new friends the Reinbrechts and plan to see them upon their return to the States within three years. We also plan to visit their son and daughter who live in New Cumberland and Rosseville. They take us to the Pier where we go to the Ellen Bokke on a Walla Walla after thanking them for the lovely time they have given us. The agent of the Knutsen lines makes us very comfortable in our luxurious stateroom, with a large tiled bath which has double sinks, a tub for a six-footer, a shower and all excellent conveniences. We have a large sofa, as well as two comfortable chairs, a table, bureau, night stands, two large closets and lots of moving-about space. The lounge, fining room and everything is much nicer than I ever expected. There is ample space for promenading and deck games, so I'm sure we will be very happy for sixteen days. Our first meal was excellent and very nicely served and we met the passengers which include Colonel Joseph Gilbreth and wife Peggy, Mr. Myren McLennan and wife, Mignon, Dr. Finn Brikeland, and Mr. Leo Stack and the Captain's daughter from Norway, Torun Fagerland. Our charming and most interesting Captain is John Fagerland and our other table officer is handsome Chief Engineer Johs Hellvik and they are from Hangesund, Norway. The First Officer is Olav Fatland and our beautiful Radio Operator is a Norwegian girl named Berit Aase, who could be a movie star because of her rare charm and beauty. We watch the lights of Hong Kong harbor once more, but this time from the water and it is a simply beautiful night and we stay on deck as the pilot comes aboard to take us out of the harbor. When we eventually turn in, my bed feels as if there is a motor under it, so I ask Meredith to exchange with me but discover his bed has the same vibrating motion, so go back to my own again to discover I cannot sleep. I count sheep, turn on all sides, back and tummy, to try to sleep and still I can't. I think of all of you at York and everything pleasant, but still feel very rocky and soon I hear banging noises and creaks in the ship and at about four o'clock I fall asleep and then awaken with the clanging of the gong which reminds us breakfast will be served in half an hour. - 3 -
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Newsletter #7
The China Sea is quite rough and I hold on to brush my teeth and get dressed for breakfast. By the time I get to the dining room I am as rocky as the sea and eat very, very little. After breakfast I walk a bit on deck and then sit on a deck chair to try to adjust to the rolls and motion of the ship. By eleven o'clock I feel a wee bit better and have broth and by lunch I feel more like a real sailor and eat my smorgasbord and dinner. The captain says we are in a monsoon and it is rough because of Typhoon Ellen, which took a quite heavy toll in Formosa and Japan. I suppose you have all read about this in the papers. After dinner I walk the deck awhile and then relax and talk with some of the passengers. At three-thirty we are served tea with dainty cookies or pastries and then for more lounging and conversation. Meredith and I play a few games of ping pong before dressing for dinner. After dinner we always go to the lounge for coffee, where a large tray of fruit awaits us. We usually eat apples every night before retiring. All the passengers sit and talk, play cards or read after their evening coffee. Here it is Saturday [August 8], the end of another Newsletter week and the one day I wish we were in York for Barbara and Tom's wedding. Our thoughts will be with all of you today and I certainly hope the weather is as beautiful at home for her wedding as it is at sea. This morning we stood at the rail and watched the flying fishes play and it certainly is a stirring sight as their small silvery wings fly through the waves. They really leap quite high and look very iridescent. Again we enjoy our excellent meals, broth and tea and another day passes with smoother polling than yesterday. As you know from our itinerary, Singapore is our next port of call and we are to arrive there on Monday [August, 10]. My slight seasickness has passed and Meredith is feeling great as he loves a sea voyage and he is busy either taking pictures, playing one of the deck games or eating all of the time. Unfortunately, he discovered today while taking an electronic flash picture that the flash did not fire and noticing this several times before he began to check the lens and has discovered that the wide angle lens shutter was not functioning properly. He checked his normal lens and his telephoto lens and they seemed to be O.K. but for most of his Japanese and Hong Kong pictures he had been using the wide angle lens he is upset as he doesn't know just how long things were amiss with this lens. We are certainly hoping not too many pictures are ruined as we nave seen so many beautiful places. Please remember to write and tell us as our Hong Kong packages arrive and save all the stamps on our mail and packages for our friends who are stamp collectors. Thus far I have purchased local stamps from Japan and Hong Kong and will continue to do so as we continue. Our life on the ocean wave is certainly relaxing after the hustle and bustle of Hawaii, Japan and Hong Kong and I am sure we will enjoy this rest. Until our next missive, we send our regards to all. Lots of love, Meredith & Charlotte - 4 -
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