Unsettled as the weather was, we didn’t embrace hope in successfully arriving at anything in our little journey to ‘Stone Slabs Street’. Coming to the season of blooming flowers and gentle breeze, a beaming sun should have been awaiting us.
Yet… it was rather nippy out there.
“I remember that I’ve been to ‘Stone Slabs Street’ once when I was small but I don’t really remember how it looks,” Wing said.
“It’s tucked away in the fancy shops and tall buildings. Probably you won’t even notice it when you pass by.” Sandy giggled.
“Nah. I think I’ll when I see some stairs… that are made of rocks.” Wing argued. And we all burst into laughter.
Beyond our expectation, in spite of the bad weather, ‘Stone Slabs Street’ was overwhelmed with different groups of people: families, friends, photographers, tourists and you name it. We’re honestly thrilled by the people there. In order to dig more into the days and nights of ‘Stone Slabs Street’, we tried chatting with a few shop owners.
Interestingly, it took us around 10 minutes to decide who to approach as we’re all too shy to ask the first question. We’re so afraid that we’d be driven away by the shop owners, therefore we ‘chose’ an old man at a snack shop who seemed to be the nicest among the others.
This old man was indeed friendly, filling us with a lot of information together with his own experience of opening a snack shop. Sometimes he even joked about his clumsiness of serving foreigners when ‘Stone Slabs Street’ became popular in tourists’ eyes in the 1990s.
“Are you thirsty?” he suddenly turned to the refrigerator behind him, and took four juice boxes out of it.
We felt embarrassed as we realized we should have patronized, given that we annoyed him for more than 15 minutes.
“Oh yes… how much are they?” asked we, taking out our wallets.
“Free!” he said with a sunny smile.
“Nonono… We should pay!” we said. But we’re pretty sure that we gave a yell of astonishment instead.
“Come on! Just take one. Each of you,’ he insisted.
It was a pity that we failed to take a photo with him in the end. His hospitality warmed our hearts in this chilly day. Never did we come across a stranger who was willing to give us a juice box for free after our first conversation, especially when we only kept bothering him with a bunch of questions.
Although being over-shined by other modern establishments nearby, ‘Stone Slabs Street’ stood on its own with historical values, and more importantly, humanity that had once been belittled by many Hong Kong people.
A little hope lied in our mind that ‘Stone Slabs Street’ could be preserved as long as it might be, or even forever… which could act as a narrator of milestones in Hong Kong.
Yet… it was rather nippy out there.
“I remember that I’ve been to ‘Stone Slabs Street’ once when I was small but I don’t really remember how it looks,” Wing said.
“It’s tucked away in the fancy shops and tall buildings. Probably you won’t even notice it when you pass by.” Sandy giggled.
“Nah. I think I’ll when I see some stairs… that are made of rocks.” Wing argued. And we all burst into laughter.
Beyond our expectation, in spite of the bad weather, ‘Stone Slabs Street’ was overwhelmed with different groups of people: families, friends, photographers, tourists and you name it. We’re honestly thrilled by the people there. In order to dig more into the days and nights of ‘Stone Slabs Street’, we tried chatting with a few shop owners.
Interestingly, it took us around 10 minutes to decide who to approach as we’re all too shy to ask the first question. We’re so afraid that we’d be driven away by the shop owners, therefore we ‘chose’ an old man at a snack shop who seemed to be the nicest among the others.
This old man was indeed friendly, filling us with a lot of information together with his own experience of opening a snack shop. Sometimes he even joked about his clumsiness of serving foreigners when ‘Stone Slabs Street’ became popular in tourists’ eyes in the 1990s.
“Are you thirsty?” he suddenly turned to the refrigerator behind him, and took four juice boxes out of it.
We felt embarrassed as we realized we should have patronized, given that we annoyed him for more than 15 minutes.
“Oh yes… how much are they?” asked we, taking out our wallets.
“Free!” he said with a sunny smile.
“Nonono… We should pay!” we said. But we’re pretty sure that we gave a yell of astonishment instead.
“Come on! Just take one. Each of you,’ he insisted.
It was a pity that we failed to take a photo with him in the end. His hospitality warmed our hearts in this chilly day. Never did we come across a stranger who was willing to give us a juice box for free after our first conversation, especially when we only kept bothering him with a bunch of questions.
Although being over-shined by other modern establishments nearby, ‘Stone Slabs Street’ stood on its own with historical values, and more importantly, humanity that had once been belittled by many Hong Kong people.
A little hope lied in our mind that ‘Stone Slabs Street’ could be preserved as long as it might be, or even forever… which could act as a narrator of milestones in Hong Kong.