Today was a museum day. Last time I was in Hong Kong I didn't get a chance to go to the Coastal Defense Museum so I wanted to make sure I got there this time.
Lunch was had at this beautiful little harbor.
These boats seemed like there were the water taxis out to the other bigger boats.
After a lengthy walk through some industrial areas, the museum finally appeared.
The museum itself is a large tent structure erected on top of the originally fortifications of Lei Yue Mun Fort. The Fort was originally built in the mid 1800's by the British to provide firepower to defend the entrance to Victoria Harbor. Developed over the decades, it finally saw action in 1941 when the Japanese attacked, and eventually over-ran the fort.
Post war, the fort had little use and was relegated to a training base
by the British military, until it was finally abandoned in the mid
1980's. It was eventually turned into a museum in the 2000's.
This is a model of Murray House as it looked where it was originally located.
One of the disappearing gun turrets, missing it's gun.
The museum itself is spread out over a fairly large piece of ground.
This is one of the campioners, basically a room that provided defensive fire along the outer perimeter of the fort.
Long stairway down from the main fort to the South Campioner.
This is the "ditch" that the campioners would provide withering defensive fire. Enemy soldiers attempting to get into the fort would have to cross this ditch and climb up the inner wall - imagine trying to do that with machine gunfire coming from both sides.
This is the view from the top of the battlements to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.
Ruins of the former steam plant for the fort.
This is the entrance to the torpedo room at the fort.
The fort provided an early form of guided missile defense. The torpedoes were launched out a narrow launch way, and guided to the enemy ships by wire. Quite advanced for the 1900's.
You can just make out the two wire spools in the middle of the torpedo, they would have played out behind it as it sped off into the water, and provided left and right maneuvering from the land.
This is the launch way that, looking back into the torpedo room itself.
After the epic Coastal Defense Museum, my feet were once again killing me so it was time to go back and rest. Instead of taking the 12A bus back to the apartment, the decision was made to reverse course back through Hong Kong Park. I forgot that going DOWN these stairs in the morning is much easier than going BACK up at the end of the day when you're exhausted.
Tomorrow it's off to Viet Nam, so the rest of the day was spent packing, resting and finalizing plans. What a beautiful view of Hong Kong!
