Kenneth Whiting (AV 14) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE GROTESQUE, YET BEAUTIFUL, TIGER EALI4 GARDENS— Tiie li er paqoda (right lop) built for deccraticn only, cost $250,000. This fabulous garden, statues mostly, represent some figures in history, both fact and fictitious. The name came from the animal ' s fat, prepared in a balm. This wonderful panacea, so the Chinese believe, is a sure cure for gough, colds, headache, rheuma tism, neuralgia, gout, sciatica, lumbago, sore throat, toothache, asthma, scorpion and other insect bites and slings, cuts, cramps, and all chest complaints. Founder cf the garden, Mr. Aw Boon Haw. a millicnaire philanthropist, selected and erected all statues so as to purify his countrymen from sin. The gardens cover eight acres and cost $3,000,000. Even if a visitor to Hong Kong never ventuied beyond the city streets, he would find much of interest. The shops display almost everything that mortal man could desire . . . from a pair of nylons to a refrigerator; from a priceless jeweled clasp to a suite of blackwood furniture. But like all things, our stay had to end. And as night fell, and Hong Kong put on its diadem of lights, it transformed the already beautiful into a veritable fairyland of colored lights; and there were few of us but felt a stirring of the emotions. For here was not only beauty, but a symbol of what man can achieve if he has the will to create. The next morning Mount Victoria smiled down and bade goodbye . . . We peered back and bade goodbye. Rounding the bend in the river we all went back to cur individual jobs and began to think cf cur next pcrt-o-call . . . Formosa. — P y 0;viS :;« • ' HONG KONG AT h ' IGHT — A veniai ie iairyiand ol colored lights. .ft.i.d

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REFUGEE HAVEN— Thousands of squatters live in these shacks dotting the hillside. They arrive by the hundreds every day, mostly from Communist China. Four of cur men and a friendly resident look over the city from Mount Victcria. On asking a typically Western question: How will the city care for any more new- comers? an English businessman of 25 years in China explained: The Chinese have a deep loyalty for each other — family ties are forever binding. Another hundred thousand or so will make little difference. The ones that are here will take them in and no one will be the wiser. And in summing up, he shrugged his shoulders and gestured: Hong Kong is like a lady with a big bosom. She can care for many more if the need arises. Whether overcrowded or not, wherever we walked new vistas of scenic loveliness or gran- deur were met at every turn. And here in one respect at least man has improved on the beauties of nature. For the lakes that lie folded in the valleys of the island did not exist one hundred years ago. They are man-made reser- voirs, built to supply water to the crowded cities. Hong Kong has few antiquities — the Pirate ' s Nest of 1841 could hardly be expected to rival the glories of Imperial Cathay in a hundred years! But its monasteries are authentic enough and the walled villages such as Kam Tin are microcosms of the life in vast areas of South China. Nor is Hong Kong without its own legends and traditions. Jardine ' s noonday gun, immor- talized by Noel Coward, is probably regarded by the majority as a much more reliable time- keeper than Radio Hong Kong ' s electrically actuated system. And there are few residents of the Colony but will point with pride to the rubbed and shiny paws of the bronze lions out- side the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank . . . rubbed smooth by countless thousands of Chi- nese who believe that to touch the lion ' s paws is a certain — well, almost certain — passport to prosperity. Exploring one of the many tombs that catecomb the hills outside Kcwlcon. .loyinq .j food at tlie plush Repulso Buy H. 50

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FORMOSA A 30-lcol statue ct Generalissimc Chiang FCcii-Shck dctnir.jtes the drenched city square in the heart of Taipe From the air or from the sea, Formosa looks as peaceful as paradise. Opalescent waters edge her shore and break on her beaches m ivory foam. Water-covered rice fields flash their facets in the sun. Silvery riv- ' - ■-• ' •- • - roa and southward to the limit :: . jh mountains wrapped in gr-. : . :nty heads cloud-covered. This was Taiwan yesterday, is today, and will be tomorrow. An island 230 miles long and about 90 miles wide, it is situated about 100 miles off the South China coast. Shaped like a tobacco leaf it is flanked by the Formosa Straits in the west and the Pacific Ocean in the east, and is located halfway between the Philippines and the Ryukyus and is a short distance from Hong Kong and the Portuguese colony of Macao. We aboard the Kenneth Whiting discovered 11 had a lovely landscape and the most miser- able climate imaginable. The name Formosa is Portuguese for pretty or beautiful, and was given the island by Portuguese sailors who, m the sixteenth century, were the first Europeans to visit it. While the world has known the island of Formosa ever since, it has never been accepted officially by the Formos- ans themselves; they and the Chinese call it Taiwan. 52