Theme: Hong Kong, the flowing city

While looking at our lives and the changes of the world as a constant flow, we attempted to reflect the theme of flow and change in the program and the discussions during this retreat. Hong Kong with it’s waterways, ever-changing weather, contrast of new and old presents the perfect environment for this topic.

Program:

With discussion topics that focus on the contrasting views of the past and the long-term future of the members and their environment spanning the whole retreat, we will showcase the changes in the city that have been changing its shape over time. One of the aspects will be the old markets that are situated in some of the busiest quarters of Hong Kong but still manage to serve the most persistent aspects of Hong Kong culture and resist to move into the omni-present malls of the city. We will experience how the fast pace that has the retail environment in a tight grip was unable to change specifically the most traditional trades of the city while still keeping up with the ever-changing daily demands of a modern metropolis. Further, we will see how the seafood trade, originally forced from boats to harbors and then to supermarkets can still survive on the outlying islands in small fishing villages, served by slow ferries and the most rudimentary infrastructure can survive in a city where otherwise everything needs to be as convenient and shiny as possible. Last but not least we will take a look at how over millennia the geology in Hong Kong has developed on distant and hidden-away islands in a process that shaped as well the steep mountains that are so iconic today as a backdrop of the city.