512 Thoughts I Had When I Was In Stanley

Murray House. Photo by author

Stanley, Hong Kong. Here’s what I knew about the place before I visited:

1. It’s a tourist spot that is known for having a market that sells souvenirs to tourists.
2. People wanted to preserve an old building called Murray House a while ago. They looked at an empty lot in Stanley and were like, well, there’s space here; let’s take the building apart brick by brick, then put every brick back together like a LEGO house in Stanley. And then they did it.
3. Stanley is a dude’s name; the Chinese name of the place “赤柱” meant “red column”. There was probably historical significance in both names, but the significance was so insignificant that I had never come across it in my 16 years of being a student and 4 years of being a teacher in Hong Kong.

It sounded worse than the Peak.

I have lived in Hong Kong for 28 years. I had never been to Stanley.

That’s why when my friend (who dragged me up the Peak) asked me where I wanted to go next, I quickly answered Stanley.

“Let’s go there in December then. They’ve got a Christmas market there. Stanley is actually a pretty cool place. I think you’d be surprised,” she said.

And surprised I was.

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