to cities around the world
We love the “oo-ing” and “ah-ing” we somehow allow ourselves to do when we see beautiful light pink blossoms in the midst of an urban cityscape – cherry blossoms in Tokyo, roses in Paris (“the roses in Paris are worth waiting for”) – and doing a pink-flower-and-scent-walk using our secret gardens in Paris map is Read more
There are many hidden and not-so-hidden coffee places in Hong Kong … here we share with you 8 special ones that reflect a diverse range of cultural and culinary influences from our address book … Visit Mount Fuji at Grandmama Café in Tsim Sha Tsui (or “TST”) (176 Nathan Road, Jordan is the nearest MTR Read more
July is almost upon us: ’tis the season for strawberries, summer operas, fashion shows, and Wimbledon is back after last year’s unprecedented hiatus. But in Hong Kong, the weather is stormy, the mood is grey, the summer local fruit is more lychee than strawberry (and yes some lychees are grown locally … you may even find Read more
We here at Madeleine’s love walking cities – whether it’s travelling “in”, “through” or “across” those urban spaces! In fact, we think meandering one’s way across a city and running the risk of getting lost (whether armed with maps or not) is an art that needs to be recovered and rediscovered! In this year where Read more
IV. Beijingers and Tokyoites: walkers Despite the low cycling statistics for two of the most famous cities, Paris and London, all is not lost. There are other noteworthy trends and possibilities, including an ultra-high 46% walking modal share for Paris and almost 30% for London, according to Deloitte’s City Mobility Index. In fact, we find Read more
One of the most astounding things about this ultra-urban city of Hong Kong is that there are still some tiny and remote villages that are not accessible by vehicles, are mainly populated by village houses, and rather untouched by urbanism, and many of these are in Sai Kung, a large area in the Northeastern part Read more
[An early April update: Hong Kong Museum of Art has opened up some of its multimedia collections online in its virtually@HKMoA initiative while the museum is itself still closed to public access.] We at Madeleine’s have been spending time in a city where there is definitely a siege-like feel: shops have shorter hours, office-workers are working Read more
Madeleine is in Asia for Christmas and there’s an arts festival taking place on a tiny island in this island-based place called Hong Kong. It’s called the Yim Tin Tsai Arts Festival, taking place on the tiny island of Yim Tin Tsai, and it has caught the eye of us and our friends. What do Read more
We at Madeleine’s recently had the opportunity to do a “revisit” to a big urban renewal and revitalisation project: Tai Kwun, which celebrates its second Christmas (and hits the first-year-and-a-half anniversary of its opening). This is a complex sitting almost in the middle of Central, just 100 steps up the hill from Queens Road Central Read more
When we decided to spend May in Hong Kong and China and shared our reflections about May being the month in between 2 very important historical anniversaries (“It’s the month of May … in a Year of Political Anniversaries”), we could never have imagined that a mass protest in Hong Kong would make the top Read more