Meatball Monday

Unless you have visited Hong Kong in the last while chances are you haven’t heard of Cheung Chau, which is a small dumbbell-shaped island located about 12 kilometers south of the Hong Kong mainland.

It is a fishing community that depends almost solely on the sea for its living and is a mix of both the modern and the traditional world.

Water taxis and ferries compete with sampans for space in the crowded harbor, but what makes Cheung Chau truly unique is the world’s only annual bun festival they hold.

Bun Climbing is an interesting sport where all of the participants scale or climb a tower and it’s known as Bun Mountain all covered in plastic buns with the eventual goal of reaching the top and receive good fortune for the year.

But the most interesting feature is the bun towers that are large bamboo structures standing several stories high, piled with sweet buns.

The bun towers are located in front of the Pak Tai temple was built in 1783 to commemorate the Pak Tai, the Taoist God of the Sea.

According to one source of the bun festival, it is said that it commemorates the islanders killed by pirates, and whose spirits may still be wandering the island.