Ships from our Balcony

We live across from Lamma Island, and between us and Lamma is a channel leading to both the Hong Kong Victoria Harbour, as well as the shipyards at Tsing Yi. Tsing Yi (pronounced Sing Yee) is a major point for the container business. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of them, but the cranes that lift the cargo from the ships were George Lucas' inspiration for the giant Imperial fighting walkers in Star Wars 3 (not sure what they are called, but they were those giant long-legged robots that were in the forest of Endor - ???).

Anyhow, the USA navy came to town...guided missile destroyer comes first...

Then the aircraft carrier.


The USA Navy is leaving town. Guided missile destroyer goes first...

We had a good time waving our flag from the balcony.

Then the navy leaves town...first the missile destroyer...

Then the aircraft carrier.

Here's a nice sign of the economy rebounding...a full container ship! When we arrived in summer 2008, they were full. Then they were empty. Now they are fuller again. Each container could fit as a car on a railroad or on the back of an 18-wheeler. Pretty big ships!



It took until 2010 to see this kind of traffic again - caught them coming and going! The platforms in the background completely disappeared in 2009. They help offload the ships of extra capacity.





Not the greenest images, but commerce does help employ people...