Wednesday is free admission day at 7 museums in Hong Kong, so we had planned to visit several museums. We grabbed breakfast at the bakery in the basement of our hotel and ate at a small park across the street. Then we took the MTR – we were old pros at it by now – to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense.
This is one cool museum! It is housed in a renovated fort on top of a hill. There were several rooms – old barracks and storage chambers – and each room showed a different period of Chinese military history. Spencer’s favorite room was about the Japanese occupation during World War II. Michenna’s favorite room was about the opium wars (which worries her mom just a bit). My favorite room was about the beginning of World War II, before the occupation. Upstairs there was a Children’s Corner where Michenna was able to draw a picture for the museum to display (we didn’t get a picture of the picture for some reason). We also posed as Chinese and British soldiers.
This is one cool museum! It is housed in a renovated fort on top of a hill. There were several rooms – old barracks and storage chambers – and each room showed a different period of Chinese military history. Spencer’s favorite room was about the Japanese occupation during World War II. Michenna’s favorite room was about the opium wars (which worries her mom just a bit). My favorite room was about the beginning of World War II, before the occupation. Upstairs there was a Children’s Corner where Michenna was able to draw a picture for the museum to display (we didn’t get a picture of the picture for some reason). We also posed as Chinese and British soldiers.
On the grounds of the museum there are cannons, forts, ruins of old barracks, and lots of stairs. In the barrack ruins you can still see the bullet holes from the Japanese invasion during World War II. We walked down a long series of stairs and saw the storage and launch house for the world’s first guided torpedo. It was interesting (Mommy’s word) and cool (Michenna’s word).
After we finished at the Coastal Defense Museum – which was about 2 hours later than we had planned – we rode the MTR to the Tsim Sha Tsui station. We ate lunch at a KFC, where they served awesome honey butter biscuits. Tsim Sha Tsui was what Spencer and I had always envisioned as a “typical” Chinese street – lots of people, Chinese signs everywhere, flashing lights, crazy traffic, unfamiliar smells, and lots of hustle and bustle. We walked to the Hong Kong Science Museum.
Spencer and I got to lie on a bed of nails (Michenna was too young).
Michenna and I tried to run away from dinosaurs and were devoured.
And that was just the basement!
We went to the first floor and started exploring the Electricity and Magnetism exhibit. We connected circuits to power different things. We also discovered that our bodies conduct electricity as we joined hands, touched two ends of a circuit, and made a bulb light up.
The museum closed all the exhibits temporarily so that we could watch the 4-story tall Energy Machine, which I can’t possibly describe. The simple explanation is that the machine takes several balls through a series of loops, hills, musical instruments, etc. in a continuous round. It was amazing. (If you want all the details, follow the link to the Hong Kong Science Museum, and go to English, Exhibitions, 3/F, Energy Machine.)
After we watched the machine, we visited the Energy Conservation, Transportation, and Food Science areas. Then we went back to the basement for the Liquid Nitrogen demonstration – in Cantonese. We didn’t understand a word, but the demonstration was awesome. The scientist ended by soaking a cabbage leaf in the liquid nitrogen, and then dropping the leaf so it shattered all over the table. Michenna was drawn in and completely awed.
We left the museum and walked back toward the MTR station, looking for a place to eat. We ended up at the Charlie Brown Café. Spencer ordered spaghetti; Michenna ordered grilled cheese. I ate potato-pineapple salad, which tasted much better than it sounds. (In Spencer’s defense, he was trying the entire time to get us into a “real” Chinese restaurant. It is entirely my fault that we had only eaten Western food up to this point.) We finished with cheesecake and pictures. 
The Hong Kong Science Museum was by far one of the best museums I have ever visited. The entire basement was full of interactive, kid-friendly displays about dinosaurs, mirrors, the human body, and simple science (bubbles, motion, Bernoulli’s principle, etc.) We started in the Hall of Mirrors, where Michenna lost her head. :)
Next we went to the Life Sciences area. Michenna was able to try the Smart Ambience Therapy room, where she put on 3D glasses and danced with ribbons. We measured our heights and weights and then participated in 13 different activities to test our bodies – blood pressure, balance, center of gravity, standing/jumping reach, Memory, computer puzzles, hanging chin-up – I can’t remember them all. We created quite a scene at the standing/jumping reach. Spencer and I were a bit taller than the other museum patrons, and we were jumping and reaching with all our might, trying to outdo each other. We had attracted a large, cheering crowd by the time I conceded my defeat. Spencer reached 270 cm; I was only able to reach 265 cm.
We went to the motion area and walked on a human treadmill (similar to a hamster wheel).
Spencer and I got to lie on a bed of nails (Michenna was too young).
Michenna and I tried to run away from dinosaurs and were devoured.
And that was just the basement!
We went to the first floor and started exploring the Electricity and Magnetism exhibit. We connected circuits to power different things. We also discovered that our bodies conduct electricity as we joined hands, touched two ends of a circuit, and made a bulb light up.
The museum closed all the exhibits temporarily so that we could watch the 4-story tall Energy Machine, which I can’t possibly describe. The simple explanation is that the machine takes several balls through a series of loops, hills, musical instruments, etc. in a continuous round. It was amazing. (If you want all the details, follow the link to the Hong Kong Science Museum, and go to English, Exhibitions, 3/F, Energy Machine.)
After we watched the machine, we visited the Energy Conservation, Transportation, and Food Science areas. Then we went back to the basement for the Liquid Nitrogen demonstration – in Cantonese. We didn’t understand a word, but the demonstration was awesome. The scientist ended by soaking a cabbage leaf in the liquid nitrogen, and then dropping the leaf so it shattered all over the table. Michenna was drawn in and completely awed.
We left the museum and walked back toward the MTR station, looking for a place to eat. We ended up at the Charlie Brown Café. Spencer ordered spaghetti; Michenna ordered grilled cheese. I ate potato-pineapple salad, which tasted much better than it sounds. (In Spencer’s defense, he was trying the entire time to get us into a “real” Chinese restaurant. It is entirely my fault that we had only eaten Western food up to this point.) We finished with cheesecake and pictures.
We only made it to 2 out of the 5 museums we had planned to see. We hopped on the MTR and went back to our hotel to dream about the next day - at Ocean Park.
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