Behind todays calender door you will find the Noon day gun.
Every day just before noon (mid day, 12pm) tourists assemble at a little area in Causeway Bay Typhoon shelter to see (and hear) the firing of the Noon day gun. This tradition goes back into the 19th century where one of Hong Kongs oldest and largest trading houses often fired the gun to salute the arrival of its senior managers in the port. Here you can read more about the Noon Day Gun. Today it is more of a charity fund-raising event and tourist attraction. To get to it you have to enter the multi-storey car park beneath the World Trade Center Mall next to hotel Excelsior. Down there you will find the badly signed underpass which in fact just houses some water pipes from the harbor. At 5 minutes to mid day a little man in blue uniform enters the small enclosure housing the gun.
With an attitude like the most important guard in the world he marches through the crowd, unlocks the locker in the fence surrounding the gun and theatrical steps towards the gun, place himself behind it and look at his watch and then straight forward. At exatly 12pm he rings a bell, turns around to grab a cable hanging down from the gun, pulls and the gun goes of with a deafening blast. 
Then the important blue man walks down, rings the bell another time, turn around and walks to the gate, opens it and in this second the expression on his face changes form very important to welcoming and open, while he invites all spectators inside the fence to have a look at the old gun and to make the typical:
"I was there photos" Unfortunately I was alone, otherwise I would have made one as well.
As you will recognize on thees photos, the weather is not really Christmas like here at the moment. To be honest, then I would say that I think October, November and December has been the most beautiful months we have had here with temperatures around 20 - 25 degrees. But that again means that I can not find my Christmas mood, all though I am looking very heard for it, as you might see on the daily: "Find my Christmas mood picture". Today I found this piece of Christmas in the Sunshine Plaza Shopping center in Ma On Shan.
May the Christmas be with you...
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