(Very Rustic: This is one of the metalsmith shops nearby. It is open for business six days a week of which the smith usually bares his upper body and sits on the chair at the folding gate. He left the chair with a grin on his face when I asked for permission to take this photo. I wished he hadn't. The small cabinet with two red bulbs is a shrine for deities which is obiquituous in Hong Kong's Chinese families and old shops.)
I live in a neighbourhood which has an atmosphere. It is sort of aged and dilapidated. An old area it is, having seen better days before an extensive reclamation of the sea some 15 years ago to form the land in existence today.
In those days, the area bordered on the waterfront where sailors from the four seas* disembarked at the piers. Those seamen were ashore either to take a short break, load or unload the goods consignments, or replenish necessities in preparation for another long voyage. Travelling in barges to and fro the piers and their big ships, which jam-packed the waters several metres offshore, they brought about a flourish in trades to the area.
Still in business today, many of the shops are seafaring-specific that you may call them metalsmith shops in general. At the sight of those old shops, you will wonder if they are as old as grandpas.
(Chain Store: These are the only goods sold in a nearby chain store. The whole store is full of chains in different sizes and lengths.)
In fact, oldness is a city's treasure. The unique characters fermented at the old areas in Athens (gives a back-in-anciet-time delusion), Paris (a crime-happens-any-moment excitement), London (an everything-is-antique-but-over-priced heartbeating), Melbourne of Australia (a tree-tree-nothing-nothing-weird-street-name puzzlement) and Bali of Indonesia (a simplicity-is-joy epiphany) are what still impress me the most among all the sightseeing I have done.
As for my old neighbourhood, it speaks literally of a "rust"ic charm of lifestyle. I am loving it!
(*Four seas: A Confucius teaching goes, "In the four seas, all men are brothers", meaning roughly people should treat each other with friendliness. In Chinese, "four seas" is an idiomatic expression for "around the world")
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