My international readers might not know that here in Canada we have our very own Amazing Race television show. It started last year and all the race challenges took place in different parts of our own country. This year the show’s gone beyond Canada’s borders and the first stop was Hong Kong! I was excited! I lived in Hong Kong for six years and was curious about what places the contestants would be sent to in this wonderful city I once called home.
The Amazing Race show sites included the Big Buddha, a wet market, the walled city in Kowloon, a restaurant that served snake soup and the walk of fame along the harbor. Those weren’t bad choices but I couldn’t believe the producers hadn’t chosen two spots in Hong Kong that clearly have a strong Canadian connection. 
One is the Chi Lin Nunnery. It is the site of sixteen beautiful halls each containing a statue of Buddha. The halls were all built with thousand-year old Canadian cedar and you can smell that wonderful Canadian cedar the moment you step onto the site. The grounds of the nunnery are stunningly beautiful……
I think the Chi Lin Nunnery would have been a perfect site for one of the challenges of the Canadian Amazing Race.
At the Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong you will find hundreds of graves belonging to Canadian soldiers who died defending Hong Kong against the Japanese. Many were part of a regiment from my home city of Winnipeg. All the graves of the Canadian soldiers bear the maple leaf imprint.
It would have been great to use either the cemetery or the nearby war museum as a site for a race challenge so more Canadians could learn about the involvement of Canada in defending Hong Kong.
This week the Amazing Race contestants are off to Macau. It is also a place I have visited many times. I’m curious to see what sites will have been chosen there for filming.
Other posts about Hong Kong…..
