Passtimes January2012

s e m i t s s a P

Spring Edition 2012

Imperial Food Cycle

Event Reviews 《走訪‧家》

Internship Experience

Imperialʼs Echo Environmental Protection of Home and Home

PASSTIMES, for the time we live in.

九龍城

Editor’s Words

Dear all,

As usual, ICPASS never sleeps. Back to Christmas time, the committee has successfully brought to you a career talk by our distinguished alumni, and co-hosted a Christmas Dinner with other UKPASS Societies for Makomborero, our charity of the Year. In Spring term, ICPASS had more discussion forums on different hot topics.

In this issue of PASSTIMES we have some Reviews on the events and achievements of ICPASS from summer to early Spring term. Our editorial board has tagged herself in Hong Kong and London: you will be bombarded with ideas of public awareness in the articles of Environmental Protection of Home and Home and Exploring Kowloon City. There were also some tags at the College when interviewing to an Imperial student-led project called FoodCycle, encouraging you to join more meaningful activities of social service in the College. Some peers were also delighted to check-in at different companies, sharing with us their valuable summer Internship experiences in Assurance, Industry and Academia research.

I shall stop here before you get bored. I cannot stress more how much I appreciate Clarenceʼs superb typesetting, committeeʼs support, and Editorsʼ effort in researching, writing and proofreading. I also would like to express my gratitude to my family, coursemates and friends. Last but not least, a big thank you to the readers letting us know you loved the previous issue. You all make our PASSTIMES real.

Please keep dropping us comments at hkpasssoc@imperial.ac.uk, we like them!

Hope you will enjoy this PASSTIMES, everyoneʼs PASSTIMES. Tag yourself at ICPASS! P.S. Best of luck with your job applications, final exams and projects!

Best regards, Monique Ho Editor-in-Chief

Spring Edition 2012

07"

03"

Environmental Protection of Home and Home

Event Reviews 03

Event Reviews

Reviews on events including: Candle of Vision 2011 Discussion Forums Warwick Asia Summit Cambridge Quiz Fundraisers for Makomborero Career Talk ........ and more!

Cover Story 11"

Exploring Kowloon CIty

Editorial Team Yung Wing Cheah, Clarence Cheng, Sheena Cheung, Timothy Lau, Vincent Li, Brendan Lo, Dominic Lo, Justin Ng, Victor Sham, Annis Wong

07

Environmental protection of Home and Home

11

Exploring Kowloon City

Social Service

15

Food Cycle

17

Volunteering Opportunities in the Summer

Internship Experience

18

HKU Laboratory

19

Cathay Pacific

21

PwC Assurance

22

Imperial始s Echo

Exploring Home

Best Regards, You.

03 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

What have we done?

ICPASS footsteps

Walkathon 17th July 2011 ICPASS organised the first APASS Charity Walkathon, supported by PASSers of Cardiff, Oxford and Warwick.

It was a five-kilometre walk to the top of the Peak, and a total of HK$3000 was raised for the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation.

Candle of Vision - The Glimpse of a Dream 7th September 2011 Have you ever imagined what it is like to be without vision? To light a candle for the 39 billion people in the world who are blind, and even more who are visually impaired, we are proud to have ORBIS Hong Kong as our beneficiary for the ICPASS Annual Charity Concert 2011.

The show featured a wide variety of performances, including the Hong Kong Virtuoso Chorus, YouTube sensation Robynn & Kendy, The Voice's Sophia Wong, just to name a few. With an audience of more than 250 filling up the YTheatre at Youth Square, Candle of Vision was successfully held for the first time ever in Hong Kong, and is anticipated to become a flagship event of ICPASS. “Candle of Vision is just a glimpse of a dream we share - a dream of making the even the smallest difference in this overwhelming world.”

ICPASS Game Quiz 13th October 2011 This event is a taster of the Cambridge Quiz that will be held in November. Students were challenged with questions on the facts of Hong Kong, useful information of London, news and trivial knowledge. It was great fun and a huge success, with more than 40 students joining us on the night, enjoying an especially great turnout of Freshers. We are pleased that students found it very fruitful and enjoyable participating in the Quiz.

04

Discussion Forum on poverty of China 10th November 2011 The discussion forum began by playing videos about China public issues, and was followed by a short discussion. We discussed about the values we place on our lives and the lives of others.

The reason we held this discussion forum is because we care about our home, no matter where we are in the world. It also provided students a platform to express themselves on this political issue.

Warwick Asia Summit 5th November 2011 The Warwick Asia Summit had gathered honorable speakers from leading universities together to share and discuss with students of various nationalities their studies, investigations and points of views.

The first talk of the day was titled ʻDevelopment and Current Issue: Aftermath of JapaneseEarthquakeʼ. This was followed by a discussion panel, focusing on the Stability of the Six-Party talks on North Korean Nuclear Proliferation.

And finally, we studied and compared the Economic Structures of India and China in the final talk, which was as much inspiring as the previous two.

There was a buffet social after the Summit. It was a great opportunity and pleasure to meet people of our year group who are aspiring and care about what is happening around the world as much as we do!

Cambridge Quiz 19th November 2011 Itʼs time for another annual 8-university trivia contest on questions ranging from current affairs, geography, sports, Chinese culture, to science, music and art.

Our team this year was composed entirely of first-year students: Jeffrey Tam, Justin Ng, and James Lo. They did not disappoint us as they brought home yet another Championship. Applause to our unsung heroes as well: the practice questions research team and the training sessions they held covering a range of expertise. Congratulations to our team again, and we are very proud of you!

One of the questions our team managed to answer : “How many episodes does the TVB drama series「皆大歡喜古裝 版」have?” (It is 322 for those who didnʼt know!)

05 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

AO Reception 30h November 2011 We are delighted to have Mr. Andy Lam, Deputy Director-General of HKETO (London), Miss Gillian Lam, Assistant Secretary for Food and Health (Food) and Miss Wan-in Lee, Assistant Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs to give us an insight into working as an A d m i n i s t r a t i v e O f fi c e r o f t h e H K S A R Government.

All three honorable speakers shared with us their invaluable experiences working in the public sector, and answered any queries from some of our students who aspire to pursue a career as an AO in the future.

This was ICPASSʼs first collaboration with the HKETO. We look forward to working with them more closely in the near future!

Parliament Trip 10th December 2011 We successfully held our first joint event with UCLPASS on this gorgeous, with more than 35 attendees. The guided tour took place in some of the important venues of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the House of Parliament) in which Parliament meets, including Commons and Lords chambers and historic Westminster Hall. Our guide also explained where the Parliament stands in both the history and today. Apart from the tour, our event committees also organised sightseeing to the Christmas Markets, Whitehall, to name but a few. This valuable opportunity gave students an insight into an essential part of UK politics while meeting other PASS members.

Fund-raising Campaign for Makomborero Throughout autumn term 2011 'Makomborero' means 'blessings' in the language of Zimbabwe. It is a UK-based charity that aims to reduce poverty in Zimbabwe through providing further education. Throughout the autumn term of 2011, ICPASS has organised a series of events to raise funds for this meaningful cause. We had charity hotpot gatherings and Krispy Kreme sales (12 dozens were sold out in an hour! Special thanks to our top sales Janis Tam and Jason Ho.) within the College for a net profit of more than £100. We also had a jointuniversity Christmas Dinner held in Metropark Hotel Mongkok, Hong Kong. Over 120 students were involved in this campaign.

Special acknowledgement goes to the co-hosting institutions such as LSE, UCL, Exeter, and Oxford.

06

Career Talk: Demystifying Your Future 21st December 2011 It was our first joint event with the Imperial College Alumni Association Hong Kong (ICAAHK).This year, we are delighted to have Mr Adrian Sou and Miss Carmen Liu, graduates of Civil Engineering of the College as our distinguished speakers. They shared their experiences in the financial and consulting sectors respectively. The event benefited students with ideas of career prospects and a more intimate opportunity to meet with alumni. Â

Chinese New Year Dinner 19th January 2012 Although far away from families and home, Chinese New Year is nonetheless an important occasion. During this major festival, we have organised a CNY dinner in China Town to celebrate the coming year of Dragon.

This gathering also served as a chance for people to catch up after the holidays and exams.

The dinner was held at Joy King Lau in Chinatown.

After dinner, the committee treated everyone to Häagen-dazs dessert. I would like to take this opportunity to say another huge thank you to them for the lovely dessert.

Discussion Forum 27th January 2012 Angus Chan, a member of the PCM, chaired the discussion forum by expressing his views on a strange behavior he observed on students attending Imperial. He noted that a lot of people are interested in going into the banking sector even though Imperial is a science college. A lively and entertaining debate was carried out for half of the evening leaving everyone fruitful thoughts after a good evening.

Future events The charity concert committee was elected for the 2012 charity concert, which will be held in September 2012.

For future events please keep a close eye on our facebook group, where events will be published.

07 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

Environmental Protection of Home and Home Sheena Cheung and Justin Ng

______________________________________________________________

We are just past a decade into the new millennia - only a miniscule proportion of time in the grander scheme of the history of the world. In these short 11 years, we have developed greatly on a global scale. However, the rapidly developing factions have not always used the most sustainable methods, and the international community has tasted some of the consequences already for what have been done. We constantly hear devastating reports of disappearing ancient forests and oil leaks, and terrifying accounts of extreme weather that the media blames global warming for. However, at the same time, some of us are attempting to raise awareness, amend for our wrongs and reduce our carbon footprint. Al Gore始s An Inconvenient Truth in 2004 and Nobel Peace prize winning efforts were the first of many dramatic public awareness campaigns that have since recruited the general public backing our greener ways. Even now, there is hope of international cooperation and progress towards a greener future as agendas were set during United Nations Durban climate change conference in Dec 2011 to replace the Kyoto 2008 agreements, with new goals for the future. These talks of forest protection, clean technology, adaptation to climate impacts and global financial support to work towards similar goals are noble goals that are a clog in the part of a bigger machine in our efforts towards a greener future. In this Public Awareness edition of the PASSTIMES, we are going to examine our environmental protection efforts closer to home and home.

Home: Hong Kong Accompanying China始s great economic development is the less publicised fact that a new coal fire power station was opened every 2 weeks for 10 years to supply for 10 million people. There had been little efforts in China itself to conserve and develop sustainably, with the hugely subsidised energy cost to encourage industrial development, thereby sacrificing efforts in using cleaner and fewer energy resources. But China aside, what have been Hong Kong始s recent investments into a greener future?

In Hong Kong, we claim ourselves as an international city in Asia, and of course we don始t act indifferently towards recycling. The Policy Address in 2009 formally encouraged the development of environmental industries, such as the Cleaner Production Partnership Program to further assist factories in the region to adopt cleaner production techniques. Since the launch of the Program, over 330 projects have been approved. In addition, Hong Kong enterprises are now able to participate in Clean Development Mechanism projects in Mainland China.

7th July 2009 was a major step forward towards recycling and waste reduction. A 50cent (in sterling, 4-pence) tax was levied to each plastic bag in over 2000 shops, including every major supermarket.

Before the tax, Hong Kong people were using an average of about 1,200 plastic bags each a year, or about three plastic bags a day per person. About 30 million plastic bags a day are thrown away in the city, accounting for about 6 percent of the 17,500 tons of rubbish sent to landfill sites every day.

This was the first piece of legislation under the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance, an umbrella bill that aims to set out a legislative framework for the administration to keep control over many other products such as electronic equipment, drink containers and packaging waste. The tax is estimated to have led to an 85% reduction in the amount of plastic bags dumped into landfills.

Hong Kong is slowly advancing towards the greener renewable energy sources, moving away from the heavy-polluting non-renewable fossil fuels, which are currently drawing up more and more criticism.

The first

08 commercial-scale wind turbine in Hong Kong, Lamma Winds, began operation in 2006. In ideal conditions, it can generate enough power for approximately 250 households. Despite the fact that Lamma Winds “turned a new chapter in Hong Kongʼs electricity supply history”, according to official sources, containing only one generation unit with an output of merely 100kW, this is still a relatively small-scaled renewable energy project. The China Light and Power Company, which supplies power to New Territories and Kowloon, also initiated the Town Island power project – it includes the installation of two wind turbines and over 650 solar panels.

The government has also tried to regulated pollutant emissions from power companies by limiting their allowed rate of return of assets.

Signed on 2008, the 10-year agreement between the Hong Kong government and the territoryʼs two power companies authorises them to charge electricity rates that will give them a 9.99% return on assets.

If either company exceeds regulatory limits for any pollutant, the government would reduce its allowed rate of return by 0.2 to 0.4%. If the companies manage to cut their pollution more than required, then they are allowed to raise prices to the point where they effectively earn bonuses of 0.05 to 0.1% on their rate of return.

A complicated formula also allows them to charge slightly more for electricity as they exploit renewable energy sources. This has a similar mechanism to the International Emissions Trading System of the Kyoto Protocol, which enables countries to ʻpurchaseʼ energy credit from other countries with market currency in order to increase their allowable pollutant emission.

A statutory ban was enforced against idling of motor vehicle engines, with effect starting midDecember 2011. Undoubtedly, this is one step forward towards protecting the environment, but more are concerned with the extent to which it can really reduce air pollution, due to the difficulty in enforcing this law in practice (to spot non-idling cars) and vague legality guidelines which may lead to legal conflicts.

Regrettably, Hong Kong is one of the latest regions to implement this law, years after many other overseas countries or territories to do so, such as the EU.

A short talk with my former Geography tutor on 24th December was one of inspiration and insight.

Environmental conservation is, somehow, more of a social and cultural issue, than an economic one. While we concede the fact that environmental conservation may result a sacrifice of economical interest, such as the closure of polluting factories for afforestation, it also requires much cooperation by citizens, industrialists, commercialists, and the government. This is very true indeed.

Despite how many recycling bins the government places around the city, or how many the school places around its campus, what use would they do if no one ever does the sorting of waste materials himself? If our instincts, unfortunately, do not remind ourselves to turn off electric lights when we donʼt use them, or if we continue with our reliance on private transport when it is only walking distance away, then however few fossil fuel we use, we are not doing any good to our planet Earth.

So while our local governments and transnational ones are endeavouring hard to conserve the environment, let us not forget that we also need to push our instincts towards a living style in which we save energy, recycle waste, and reduce our carbon footprint, meanwhile remembering that every little helps.

09 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

Home: United Kingdom and Imperial The United Kingdom is committed to improving green technology efficiency as well as to cut down on carbon emissions through the EU climate action plan. The UK aims to reduce emissions to 8% below the levels at 1990 by the end of 2012, as well as contribute to Europeʼs overall goal of reducing carbon emissions by at least 20% by 2020. Ambitious climate change legislations by the UK also further aim to cut 80% carbon emissions by 2020. As part of a more local effort, the Mayor of London is funding a London-wide home retrofitting scheme called RE:NEW, arranging home visits with tailored energy saving advice as well as free energy and water saving devices (light bulbs, standby switches, energy monitor) to reduce domestic energy consumption (and your gas, electricity and water bills). None of this could be done without the support of the general public. Despite the Climategate controversy of Nov 2009 with the hacking and subsequent reveal of falsified data by UAE climate scientists, environmental review reported that 81% of the population remained concerned about climate change.

UK is slowly turning away from the more traditional fossil fuel energy sources and examining the possibilities of renewable energy sources. Although there will always be time consuming political hurdles and a not-inmy-backyard attitude (an attitude of “do good and be green, just not near me”), the UK is making decent progress towards the use of wave, tidal, and wind energy especially. Lack of public support for nuclear power and physical location obstacles for solar power will perhaps be overcome in the future as well.

There are plans for a massive wind farm, the London Array, in the Thames Estuary. It is expected to be the worldʼs largest offshore wind farm when it is completed by the end of 2012. The London Array will have a 1,000 megawatt capacity – to put that into perspective, that is enough power during maximum wind speeds to supply a quarter of homes in the Greater London area, or the entire Kent plus East Sussex.

It may be a long way to go before we can match Britainʼs greenest family, who only

throws away only 50 grams of rubbish a month and empties their bins once a year (for more, see http://www.myzerowaste.com/) but we can do our part by chucking our milk cartons in the green bin and flipping the lights off on our way out of rooms. Imperial has not been neglecting our green efforts either– there are colourful recycling bins dotted throughout campus, unobtrusive awareness campaigns such as slogans on napkins, and self-timer lights installed to save electricity effortlessly. The universityʼs StepChange campaign, in conjunction with the many different student led initiatives at Imperial hope to reduce Imperialʼs carbon emissions by 20% by 2014. Imperial is working towards a Bronze EcoCampus award.

EcoCampus is a phase-approach scheme to rewarding universities for working towards a full implementation of environmental management system. For more, please see http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/sustainability/ ecocampus.

For a week in late November, Imperial hosted green week. It was widely advertised throughout campus and in the Felix, with interhalls energy saving contests, tours of the universityʼs food composters and more.

Throughout Imperial green week, there were events such as meat free Monday, clothes and book drop and mass cycling events. With the incentive of £100 towards the winning Hallʼs Christmas party budget, Imperial as a whole managed to secure Green pledges (promises by individuals to do their part in turning off lights, using pot lids, boil only the water they need, etc.) with potential carbon savings of over 30 tonnes from 100+ participants.

Higher authorities at Imperial does indeed seem optimistic about our energy saving prospects and progress – but where is the transparency and how quantifiable is this progress? Great amounts of money and effort have been put into these various schemes, but apart from superficial effort points, where are the actual evidence and figures of changes made? The effectiveness of the recent Green Week at Imperial is still forthcoming – but at least vocal support is better than none at all?

10

Looking towards the future at London 2012 The Olympics 2012 in London boasts of incredible green friendly development and overall sustainability. On their website, they have detailed their commitments “for the regeneration of and improvement of quality of life in East London and encourage more sustainable living across the whole of UK.” Among their five key themes for sustainable games are the themes of waste management and inclusion. The London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) aims to minimise waste sent to the landfill at every stage of the games organisation, from building to running the games during the summer of 2012. They are also encouraging the development of new waste processing infrastructure in East London. For their Inclusion theme, LOCOG is promoting access for all “and celebrating the diversity of London and the UK”. They are creating new jobs, training and business opportunities through the process of gearing up for the games. The London 2012 games

are very focused on leaving a positive legacy post-Games and using the games as a launch platform for regeneration of East London itself.

After the Games, the Olympic park will be converted into one of Europeʼs largest urban parks created in the past 150 years.

Biodiversity will be encouraged, with planting of different local species and the restoration of original wetland habitats and natural flood plains. The sports facilities will also be available to both sports clubs and the general public for encouraging active and healthy living of London urbanites. Most notably, the Olympic and Paralympic Village for housing athletes during the games will be converted into affordable homes, providing for key workers such as teachers and nurses. New amenities will also be added to transform the entire area into a local community.

Editorʼs Smartbox UK Population CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita, 2008) Municipal waste (million tons per year) Plastic bag usage (billions per year)

HK

62.3 million (mid 2010)

7.10 million (end 2011)

8.52

5.53

12.5

3.5

8

4.3

Levy on plastic shopping bags

None in English/Scotland; Wales 5p effective from October 2011; Northern Ireland 5p from April 2012, 10p from April 2013)

50 cents (about 4p)

Ecological footprint* per capita (2007)

5.42

4.00

* According to WWF, ecological footprint is a measure of the amount of bioproductive land and sea required to support a personʼs lifestyle. It includes the land needed to grow their food, dispose of their waste and absorb their carbon emissions. The footprint counts all the impacts of personal spending as well as the business and government expenditure on their behalf.

Further reading on the issue of plastic bags: What should be done about plastic bags http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17027990 with interesting statistics

11 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

《走訪‧家》" "

九龍城

劉建廷,岑侑蔚, 何鎧言

前言 《走訪‧家》

個籌備多時的專題終於面世了！

回想起一年前上任本刊總編一職以那種複雜的心情引入

嶄新的構思：一方面 ICPASS 希望能!讓同學和讀者

以不同的角度去探討家，另一方面卻擔心編輯小組會過分勞碌，疲於實地考察、資料搜集、設計問題、訪問、 稿等等。今天本刊得以用《九龍城

》為《走訪‧家》打開序幕，一

編輯確實是功不可沒，借此寫過。

我們幼嫩的筆鋒當然不會令各位引頸以待，不過我們亦由衷希望大家可以從文中發掘到一絲樂趣，一起愛上 家。歡迎賜教（hkpasssoc@imperial.ac.uk）。

-風馬牛不相及的泰式美食、潑水節、!德 機場、寨城公園和宋皇臺等合力打造了 質獨特的九龍城 -

氣

香港在秦代至北宋時期被中原人士視為蠻荒之地留 存下來的記錄甚少。不過自南宋起，歷史的足跡擦 亮了香港的土地，而九龍城本身亦看盡改朝換代， 國家興衰，參與着漁農石礦、工業及近代城市規劃 的發展，意義重大。

皇朝年代的寨城 南宋時期的九龍城原為官富場，政府屯兵駐守，監 控、生產和專賣食鹽。其後元軍大破首府臨安，宋 末二帝避走南下並建行宮於官富場，停留約六個 月，廣為人知的宋皇臺石碑正紀念此事。清初兩次 的《遷海令》是為了打擊當時強大、以

成功為首

的反清力量，勒令居民向內遷徒共八十里，藉此斷 成功的支援。之後嘉慶年間海盜為患，海賊張 保仔竟大敗虎門大將林國良。

促使移建佛堂門炮

台於地勢優越的九龍寨，成功制服一群盜

。

九龍寨炮台渡過了二十九年平靜的日子後為第一次 片戰揭幕。廣東水師提督賴恩爵率領部隊成功抵 抗"理‧義律（Charles Elliot）借故的突襲。而兩廣 總督耆英向道光帝上奏提議於九龍寨建造寨城安裝 更多炮台並設衛衙署兵房以定期演練。十九世紀 末，中國政府在激烈的割地遊戲中致力維護九龍寨 城的擁有權，希望在英國租借地中保留一個據點， 他朝能發揮軍事和經濟的影響力。 英方雖然同意，但提出一道無棱兩可之先決條款 ─ 「不能與保衛香港之武備，有所妨礙」─ 埋下了中

12 英雙方爭執的伏線。1899 年底，英方借故

並九龍

匠，更帶來飲食消遣的商機。不過，在一零年代

寨城，李鴻章和總理衛門的官員落力與英人周旋，

後，陸路交通發展迅速，大量價廉的新界、大陸貨

可惜下一年爆發的義和團之亂和八國聯軍直搗北京

品湧現，令九龍城的產物競爭力下降。加上九龍灣

令李鴻章再無力堅持交涉，結果寨城的主治權不幸

填海和#德的興建令天然海港消失，嚴重打擊漁

外流。

業，九龍街市集亦告沒落。

二十一世紀的寨城 三十年代，港府為了改善寨城內的寮屋問題，與居 民拉鋸多年，其間國民政府亦介入爭執。1937年7 月，港督羅富國獲授權以武力驅趕拒遷的居民。同 月7日，蘆溝橋事變爆發，國難當前，寨城問題暫時 擱置。1940年， 港府正式把民居夷為平地； 1943

九龍寨城是以本土（白鶴山，土瓜灣，牛頭角，尖 沙嘴）開採的巨石所建。不論清政府還是港英時 期，政府只許官批開闢，禁止私自開採，而當時的 牛頭角村聚居了不少採石工匠。

辧學

年日軍為了擴建#德機場而把寨城牆拆掉。

九龍城區學院林立例如香港培正中學、香港培道中

隨着二戰和中國內戰的落幕，寨城又再次成為中英

書院、英皇佐治五世學校、公開大學，浸會大學，

政權問題角力的磨心。六十年代初，港府確實部署

當中以拔萃男書院的校舍最為悠久，而喇沙書院的

了清拆整個寨城，不過由於中共外交部發出態度強

原址在三十至五十年代則常被徵用為拘留營、醫

硬的聲明，強調清拆動作是嚴重侵犯中國主權。港

院、貯藏倉庫等。

督柏立基怯於挑起紛爭，決定暫停行動。結果，九 龍寨城膠着在「維持現狀期」，久而久之變成了深 入民心的「三不管地帶」，衛生環境惡劣，龍蛇混 雜。 在1984年《中央聯合聲明》簽訂 後，中央政府同意港府清拆寨城 並興建公園於原址。終於，見盡不 平凡的寨城回歸寧謐。

漁農石礦業的足跡 九龍城的地理位置成就了從前制鹽、漁農和 採石業的發展。在清朝以前，九龍城與東 莞、歸德和黃田並列為四大鹽場，產量極高。 之後由於清初的遷海政策，九龍城的鹽業最終停 產。 九龍城區一帶亦有不少村落，當中衙前圍是九龍半 島內歷史最悠久的。 其圍牆其實是村落本身的外 牆，作用不在於獨立防禦。村民開墾土地並種植稻 米蔬果為生。另外，九龍城區與由紅磡至九龍灣的 水道相鄰，令捕魚業興旺起來。由於九龍灣是船隻 暫泊補給的熱點，九龍街市集亦因而衍生。當時居 民買賣多餘的農作物和日用品，那兒亦聚集各式工

學、協恩中學、英華書院、瑪利諾修院學校、民生

13 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

古跡與節慶

宋末的史跡，令遊人對九龍城從前的擔當多一份了

九龍城區除了有為人熟悉的寨城公園和宋皇臺公

解。

園，更有多個宗教色彩豐富或軍事遺址。截至本 出版，九龍城區一共有三項法定古跡，三項一級歷 史建築物（九龍城侯王

、紅磡觀音

堂）四項二級歷史建築物和十四項

、聖德肋撒 級歷史建築

物。由於數量繁多，本欄只略說其中幾個特色去 處。

潑水節 有“小泰國”之稱得九龍城又特別多泰國人聚居，於是 泰式美食亦 成為了九龍城的標記。而每年四月十三 至十五日是泰國新年（Song kran festival），群 會由打鼓嶺道出發舉行巡遊活動，人們按傳統向佛

現存的九龍城侯王

建於雍正八年（1730年）以供

奉南宋忠臣楊亮節，其前身只是一座作紀念之用的 茅屋。三幢式設計的侯王

雖然在2005 年進行大

修，但其古色古香的韻味濃厚依然。 不同時期贈予侯王

像淋水祈求幸福，亦會向途人（包括維持次序的警 察）潑水和抹上粉末示好，祝願各位新一年好運隨 身。

內更放置了

的文化藝術文物，確是謀殺了

不少目光。 紅磡觀音

建於清同治十二年（1873年），在日佔

時期兩遭轟炸，幸而屹立不倒。建築物分成三座 ─ 正座（觀音

）、左正殿（公所，現為中醫診

所）、右正殿（書院，現騰空）。觀音

香火無

休，尤其

宇定必

農曆正月廿六「觀音開庫」，

擠滿善信，祈求來年財運亨通。 聖德肋撒堂為現時九龍區屹立最久的天主教堂，於 1932年建成。聖堂由荷蘭的格寧神父設計，揉合了 中國宮廷、拜占庭式和科林斯式意念，$得一遊。 上帝古

雖只剩下中門石基，石刻門聯合門額，但

在原址築成的露明道公園有學者饒宗頤 古瑾圍上帝方

的「九龍

遺址闢建公園記」石碑，詳述九龍

參考文獻 香港大學中文系:《九龍城區風物志》 劉蜀永：《割佔九龍》，香港：三聯書店，1995 年。 梁炳華：《城寨與中英外交》，香港︰麒麟書業有限公司，1995 年。 英國政府歷史

案 FO371 Foreign Office: Political Departments: General Correspondence from 1906 – 1966, Serial Nos. 6646,

16196, 17133, 20990, 53637-53638, 69578, 69580, 75931, 83484, 170651. 陳鏸勳

、莫世祥校注：《香港雜記外兩種》，廣州︰%南大學出版社，1996 年。

張曉輝：《香港近代經濟史(1840-1949)》，廣州：廣東人民出版社，2001 年。 盧受采，盧冬 著：《香港經濟史》，香港：三聯書店，2002 年。 Diocesan Boysʼ School. School Information: Origin. Website: http://www.dbs.edu.hk/index.php?section=aboutdbs&sub=origin La Salle College. School History. Website: http://lasalle.school.net.hk/ 蕭國健、沈思：《香港市區文化之旅》，香港︰萬里書店，2001 年。 劉&聲：《香港基督教會史》(增訂版)，香港︰香港浸信教會，1996 年。 饒宗頤：《九龍與宋季史料》，香港：萬有圖書公司，1959 年。 Ticozzi, Sergio. Historical Documents of the Hong Kong Catholic Church. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Diocesan Archives, 1997. 廖迪生：《香港天后崇拜》，香港︰三聯書店，2000 年。 魯金：《香港

趣》，香港︰次文化堂，1992 年。

14 劉建廷 土瓜灣

樓的災難，奪去了很多寶貴生命，包括一

邀請了現時九龍城區區議員何顯明先生為「板間 房」的存在進行深入分析。

名只有二十歲的青年。事件令不少港人感到黯然。

巿區零售

各界茅頭直指政府相關部門，顯然舊樓重建的問題

崗位。工人為了節省交通時間和費用，喜歡居住在

已經迫在眉捷。以下是筆者訪問九龍城區區議員何

就近工作的地區。然而，在寸土尺金的巿區中，他

顯明先生後，得出的結論及看法。

們的收入不足以應付普通單位的租金，最後只能蝸

香港地產業

居於板間房中。

收入。在

勃，而政府主要收益也是來自賣地的 樣的結構下，很多老樓房，老建築也難

免被強行拆卸及活化，但

也帶出了重建與歷史保

育之間兩難的爭議。政府亦為此提出針對性的方 案，將不少擁有文化價$的建築劃為保育區。然 而，舊樓房就'不過重建的命運。 過去經常出現不少因重建舊樓房而引起的爭端。很 多老街坊都不願意離開，而爭論點往往看似在於賠 償金額 ─ 雖然政府當時的賠償或許可以買到同區的 一個單位，但地方拆了，蓋上了新的大樓，也令整 個地方的地租地價上升，那

賠償的金額難以在將

飲等服務業發達，提供大量低收入工作

一般人眼中的板間房問題不外乎每尺租金昂貴和居 住環境差。若謹止於此，以資本主義而論，

可算

是「你情我願」的買賣，政府不應阻止。不過，何 議員指出，板間房最大隱憂是安全。一般板間房都 是業主自行間隔及裝修，

類對屋宇內部結構的改

裝有可能影響大廈結構，同時亦會改變走火通道的 設計，以致違反消防標準。另外，在同樣的樓面面 積下，由於板間房的住戶較多，用電量相對增加， 大廈供電裝置負荷極重，容易發生火警。綜合以上

來購買同區的物業。事實上，一些老百姓所想的並

原因，何議員才不希望有板間房的存在。

不是賠償額的問題 ─ 他們怕一旦離開故里，就失去

板間房的存在原因可概括為地理位置優良及地價高

了生活慣熟的地方和那種特別的人情；他們怕

個

小社區也從此消失。在種種原因下，政府推行的舊 樓重建也受到重重考驗。 雖說如此，一些老地區的確存在了不少建築問題。 現時板間房的盛行亦令樓宇結構負擔加重，導致舊 樓倒

。何議員表示舊樓結構問題一直存在，而他

亦多次去信政府部門要求跟進，奈何措施執行緩 慢。再者，很多樓房都是私人所有，在還沒有完善 法例規定下，執法的屋宇處只能發出通知或警告， 阻嚇力有限。加上，相關部門執法緩慢，引致土瓜 灣慘劇不幸發生。 當香港巨額建造新一座座摩天大樓，繼續追求經濟 繁榮發展，另一邊廂，許多危樓業主卻因為缺銀維 修，種下更多同類的都市陷

。

兩點。前者能以更發達的交通來解決，不過

需要

政府大量的財政支持，不然進步空間不大；後者情 況則比較複雜。九龍城區本身土地供應有限，加上 上世紀因為#德機場的運用，區內大廈高度有嚴重 限制，兩項因數令區內可提供的樓面面積極少。理 論上，當機場搬遷後，新建的大廈層數可大幅提 升，從而增加可住樓面面積，攤薄每尺樓價。 可是，從何議員收集得來的民意調"卻顯示居民極 度抗拒高樓的存在。當地居民先以屏風樓

風，阻

風景為由，令能提供大量居住單位的建築項目落 馬; 當發展商用高而窄的大廈為替代方案時，又被 「

籖樓」有礙觀瞻一借口

回。之後我們從規劃

處給何議員的圖紙上得知，區內未來數年將落成的 新建築，大廈層數全都不超過二十層。對比香港其 他地區動輒六十層以上的新形住宅，如此低的地積 岑侑蔚

九龍城區是香港舊區之一，位於巿區，人口密集，

比率實在令人側目。不過，既然民意如此，議員和 政府也只好徒呼奈何，束手無策。

房屋問題一直存在。筆者為本文搜集資料時，網上

最後，何議員作出總結，政府希望能用小型單位來

正盛傳一段名為"King's Cube"的模擬售樓短片，反

取代板間房。雖然不到二十層的新大廈還不算高，

映深水

但對比原來只有數層的舊樓，新樓宇仍然能提供樓

區的居住問題。考慮到兩區的相似性，為

更深入瞭解同類問題在九龍城區的狀況，筆者特意

價相對較低的單位，使勞工階層有望負擔得起。

15 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

FoodCycle FoodCycle? Is this a familiar name to you? As one of the student-led projects of the College, FoodCycle Imperial was set up in May 2009, providing consistent meals to the Notre Dame Refugee Centre serving primarily Congolese refugees and asylum seekers on Mondays. The Chief Editor has talked to the dedicated fellows of FoodCycle Imperial, Ivy Wong and Faith Chung and learnt more about FC.

What is the aim of running FC and how does it work?

What is the structure of FC and what is your role in FC?

We have two aims that work simultaneously: reduce surplus food waste, and to redirect that food to people suffering from food poverty. We do this by collecting surplus food from food retailers / cooperation like Whole Foods and local markets, and with the help of enthusiastic volunteers, cook nutritious and tasty meals to those who are in need.

FC is widely spread in the UK, with 4 hubs in different London universities (including Imperial), and 9 other hubs in universities like Cambridge, Durham, Bristol and more. Our parent charity's central office that is based in London supports us all, but most importantly FC is powered by volunteers! There are 6 of us who are Hub Leaders at the Imperial Hub, and our main roles are making sure the logistics of the club runs smoothly as well as organizing the cooking sessions and fundraising events for volunteers.

There are more than 10 FC Hubs in the UK that function along those aims; different Hubs collect from different food donors and serve different communities.

How was it set up at Imperial?

The Imperial Hub was one of the first 2 Hubs that started in FC (the other is the LSE Hub).

FC was the brainchild of Kelvin, the current CEO of FC; he was inspired by what the Campus Kitchen Project did in the US, an organisation empowering students to tackle food waste and food poverty working from within school campuses, and brought the idea over to the UK. Kelvin used old-school methods, chatting and sharing his vision, in getting the initial bunch of Imperial students inspired to join the FC movement, and through distributing flyers and spreading the word around, the numbers expanded.

16 What is the cost of running FC? Most of our weekly expenses are kept low due to the generous food donations from supermarkets, markets and cafes. Also, most Hubs cook out of kitchen spaces that various centres and places kindly offer for free to use.

New hubs require more sunk costs to pay for equipment; other annual expenses required to run each Hub include support from the central office in terms of marketing, IT, training, insurance and Hub managers.

their partners) raffle ticket and auction ticket winners. The event was a huge success and we managed to fundraise slightly over a £1000 pounds. It was such a pleasure working with our usual food donor Whole Foods Market (Kensington), who sponsored the venue for fundraising as well. The diners had a fabulous time and the event ended with the muchlooked-forward autograph and photo taking session with Tom Aikens.

Did you encounter any problems? What has kept you moving in those difficulties?

Where do you get financial support from?

How do you obtain sponsorship?

Each Hub is suggested to fundraise about £2500 each year, which goes back to the central funds kept within the parent charity.

Grants and competitions contribute to that as well. The central fund sustains the running of most of the Hubs.

Are there any great and fun experiences?

One of our fundraising events that we organised last year was a charity dinner. The chef was Tom Aikens, a Michelin star chef, who cooked a three-course dinner for 4 (and

Each week is a mini challenge – you never know what problems can crop up and as Hub Leaders, we learn to think on our feet to overcome them. We've had volunteers canceling on us at the last minute, realizing that the market was closed only too late, problems accessing the kitchen either because getting it unlocked wasn't easy or other groups obstruct our access, etc etc. Term holidays are the most difficult because most of our volunteers are away and ensuring that food is still served can be a challenge. Because of the responsibility as Hub Leaders, balancing that with university work can be struggling at times for us personally too.

Keeping calm and remembering that we're not alone helps us overcome weekly obstacles.

Other leaders are usually just a phone call away and most times, brainstorming for solutions with volunteers help a lot too. The more experience we get leading, the easier it is to overcome the problems. Planning ahead sees us through holidays. And personally, by remembering our passion for FC and why we wanted to get involved in the first place is what keeps us going!!

What is the next step of FC? Right now we are searching for a new centre to serve to, one that is located on the West side of London because the communities in this part of London are not captured well by FC and it is relatively close to our location. We have a couple of leads now and aim to start working closer with the chosen centre and start cooking for their community at the start of 2012. Hopefully in the long term, we can establish ourselves in that community and get the locals involved in the FC movement too.

17 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012 It sounds awesome and I am interested, how can I join you?

We have a really great online system for people to sign up, get event tickets and book volunteering dates! Please visit http:// foodcycle.org.uk/, if you are new to Foodcycle then click the orange “volunteer!! Click here” at the top and follow through a short video that ensures you are food and safety trained then after filling in your details you are ready to volunteer! There are plenty of opportunities for people who would like to contribute more towards FC too, in the areas of fundraising or becoming a Hub Leader. For any enquires, please do not hesitate to email us at imperial@foodcycle.org.uk.

Editorʼs Smartbox:

Volunteering Hot Pick for this summer Access HK – spreading your love by teaching English in HK Established by students from overseas universities in 2001, Access HK is offering a summer volunteering opportunity for enthusiastic and passionate university students: a 3week English-teaching programme for underprivileged students in primary schools. No previous experience is required and training will be provided. To learn more about Access HK please visit www.accesshk.org. The application of the program is closing soon. You can show your initial interest by contacting Calvin Chan (first year Materials Engineering) at +44(0)7570 960303 or emailing admin12@accesshk.org.

Hong Kong

18

Internship Experience Chris Chau Pharmacology and Translational Medicine (2nd Year) Although itʼs holidays, an experiences actually like career field.

hard to say goodbye to summer internship can give you valuable and a real insight into what itʼs working in a particular job or

To take my interests in pharmacology further, I worked as a laboratory assistant at Dr. Aixin Yan's Laboratory in the University of Hong Kong for 8 weeks during the summer of 2011.

Her lab focuses on the transcription regulation of facultative anaerobes in their responses to O2 deprivation. In those two months, I had many opportunities to carry out and observe different experiments that were basic yet essential in a lab. My main duty was to help a postgraduate student on her project and carry out experiments such as (apologies in advance: the technical terminology comes in) β-galactosidase assay and real time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in order to study regulation and physiological role of several outer membrane proteins. Experiences such as using a pipette to acquire precisely 0.5μl of a solution (1/12000th of a teaspoon!) significantly improved my lab skills as well as data analysis. At first, I was unfamiliar with some experiments as they were not common for my course. However I was glad that all lab

members were very helpful and willing to teach me the principles behind each experiment. We also had a lab meeting every week for lab members to share some of their updates on their own projects and literature reviews.

These weekly meetings provided me with a substantial amount of information on new breakthrough researches which granted me additional knowledge in answering exam questions.

Observing how professional scientists and researchers work taught me how to plan and design experiments, including aim of the experiment, methods of carrying it out, calculations of required materials, difficulties that are likely to arise and data analysis, in a more detailed and well-thought manner. .

The application is not particularly hard! Just go and read about information of the lab on websites to see which one of those youʼre interested in, and then email the professors to ask for an opportunity. The real scientific world is completely different from the college life weʼre used to being in, and I think itʼs a great option for life science students to get to know more about what they are getting into before they graduate. Go for it and spend your summer in a meaningful way!

Left: Lab bench, standard in terms of messiness Right: Gel photography from experiment, showing positive results

19 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

Ronald Lee Aeronautical Engineering (3rd Year)

Monday mornings can be utterly challenging at times, especially when you are a student on his/her summer holidays and realise that 5 days of mundane and routine internship awaits you. Obviously the splendid work-free weekend you just had didn始t help with the matter, yet strangely such scenario was never relevant to me while I was enjoying a rewarding summer engineering internship at Cathay Pacific. Needless to say, as an aeronautical engineering student, the valuable opportunity was more enjoyable than I previously imagined.

Interview for the internship, which on the day was subdivided into group and personal sections, took place about one week prior to the July starting date, and the phone interview took place almost three months prior. Quick thinking is absolutely essential in both the phone interview and group interview sections, with both stages conducted by a senior engineer who challenges your technical knowledge as well as your understanding of an airline始s operation. Unorthodox scenario-based questions, such as setting an aircraft fleet maintenance schedule for ensuring safety and profit maximization, are to be expected during the group interview while the phone interview focuses on testing your knowledge of your engineering course. Exhibiting great organisational and leadership skills during the group discussion is seriously encouraged to make your presence known. Albeit a demanding group interview, the personal interview that follows is more relaxing in comparison as the senior engineer and you are joined by a member of the HR department

for a chat about your interests and expectations. The format of the interview process might change from time to time, but as tacky as it sounds, passion for the subject is quintessential and significantly determines the success of your application.

During the eight week long program, each intern was assigned to a different department under the Engineering sector, each differing considerably in terms of functions and duties involved. Jobs include reliability data processing, cabin logbook analysis, maintenance part tracking, preliminary administration for aircraft induction and numerous others. Although many people, including myself, expected the internship to be more coherent with an aeronautical engineering degree, what it really offered was a true experience in the aircraft maintenance and airline industry. Nonetheless, your duties would certainly be related to aircrafts in one way or another. Instead of analytical and designing skills, the duty of a CX engineer draws more from his/her problem solving skills, the knowledge of the internal maintenance system and the procedures involved.

Consequently, interns would spend a considerable amount of time at the beginning of the program learning the essential parts of the maintenance system and relevant procedures to his/her area of work.

Effectively, this prepares the intern in a way well beyond that is required to get him/her through the rest of the program. Although you may be disappointed by the content this internship has to offer in the first place, your

20 gradual appreciation of the engineering work and effort that went in to ensure sustainability within a constantly growing fleet of aircrafts becomes overwhelming. Regardless of the projects you are working on, one thing for sure is that you will be constantly challenged and fascinated. Even without the complex mathematics people usually associate with engineering, the internship never fails to test oneʼs problem solving skills, and the subsequent sense of accomplishment is what defines the fulfilling experience this program offered.

Besides the specific projects you are given by your department, various special sessions and visits were also scheduled during the internship, which would keep your 8 weeks constantly enriching and engaging. Even if your work at the Engineering Sector fails to impress, visits to airport restriction area, touring of HAECO facilities, professional flight simulator sessions and cabin crew training on defects logging should certainly interest you.

Sessions like these were evenly distributed across the 8 weeks to ensure great variety throughout the program, and the most interesting of them all could be found near the end of the internship when interns each spent a day shadowing the engineers at the Integration Operation Centre (IOC). The IOC is the heart to CXʼs operation, a centre where a group of highly experienced senior engineers oversees the operation of the airline and provides live assistance to pilotsʼ distress calls, maintenance emergencies and crew organisation. Fast paced solution delivering is essential to the operation of IOC, and when the engineers whom you are shadowing got caught in the middle of an onboard electrical failure, it becomes the most exhilarating experience you can possibly ask from an internship.

Relishing your time can sometimes become slightly difficult when presented with a new working environment, unfamiliar people and challenging work at the same time. Integrating into your department is therefore very important and fortunately, everyone at CX treats the interns with great courtesy and stays true to their new business motto of “People make the airline”. Every member of my team was always extremely patient with me and trying to get me involved in all possible ways,

whether on or off work. Novelty of being a member of CX quickly wore off as a result.

Ditching lunches in favour of a free football or badminton session at the companyʼs sporting facilities with other colleagues became something very common by the end of the program among the interns. The sport centre and its free sessions are only some of the perks you can expect from your employment, not to mention the free HAS bus rides or the airport restriction pass that can get you pretty much anywhere within the airport complex (Great news for plane spotters). For me, however, the best thing that I was able to take away from this internship was definitely the friends that I have made, be it the interns or the colleagues that share my interest and enthusiasm for the subject.

Obviously the internship program is not flawless, but minor problems such as long travelling hours or a few program organisation hiccups are never going to overshadow the quality of the program. Rarely can university students find their summer internships enjoyable yet relevant at the same time.

Experience like this doesnʼt come easily and on top of the enjoyable 8 weeks, the program can potentially offer you further advancements in your engineering career. Validating your career choice is important and what is a better place to start than a world renowned airline?

Even if you are not taking an Aeronautics degree, I will nonetheless encourage you to give this a try. Remember, passion is always the key.

21 | PASSTIMES Spring 2012

Nigel Phan Electrical and Electronic Engineering with Management (4th Year) President of the Imperial College Consultancy Society Over 20 applications and five final rounds of interviews led me to an internship offer. What can be seen is the competitiveness one can expect when applying for front office positions at investment banks, accountancies and consultancies in London.

I spent most of my penultimate year researching for companies and positions, practising my psychometric tests and preparing responses to typical interview questions. Make no mistake about the amount of preparation one can perform for the recruitment process to ever so slightly improve the odds. Nonetheless, I was very glad to be able to cap off a busy academic year with an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All UK interns were generously treated to a three day offsite trip where we attended classes in the afternoons and social events in the evening. IT and office induction days wrapped up the training week and by then I had met dozens of graduates and fulltime staff. I could already feel my professional network expanding and the possibilities that were opening up for me.

Within PwC, I interned in Assurance (Insurance & Investment Management) and spent my first week with an insurance syndicate that underwrites for the Lloydʼs of London market. I still remember sitting in awe of the new More London premises when my project in-charge rang me; within a few minutes I was in an expensed taxi headed to the clientʼs office.

Audit and insurance are highly technical and regulated industries which require lengthy formal training. Imagine my shock when the in-charge

informed me that the deadline for our deliverable was a matter of days away and she was glad to have assistance from someone who she thought had six months to a yearʼs experience. Clarifying that it was my first day did not prevent me from being neck-deep in jargon and technical terms about premiums, claims, reserving and actuarial models over the next few days.

Once you figure out the main and reliable resources (be it a tutor, the FSA handbook or the internet), everything became quicker and easier to learn. The next four weeks passed smoothly in that respect. I had another stint working for a Lloydʼs managing agent and also one for an asset management firm. I learnt how regional offices cooperate to perform an international audit, and witnessed the effects of natural and financial catastrophe on balance sheets and performances.

Despite only being an intern, the work and respect I was given over the internship were very fulfilling. I had enormous amounts of client exposure (almost all of my time was spent at client sites) and I was even given the opportunity to perform one-on-one interviews with senior client staff. I also held independent responsibility over critical portions of each project.

Since the completion of my internship at PwC, I was very grateful to be given a full time graduate offer.

However, after some consideration to my career, I decided to instead accept an offer from consulting firm McKinsey & Company for their Business Analyst Programme. In the long term, I hope to start up my own company, be it a business venture or non-profit organisation.

In closing, I would like to share some advice and tips that I found helpful: •

Your CV/Cover Letter should demonstrate how your experience relates to the skills required by the position you applied for. For example, instead of stating your achievements, try explaining the obstacles and challenges you faced in doing so and how you overcame them.

•

Do not be afraid to embellish stories for competency questions but keep it believable and consistent. Use particular examples from your CV rather than generic group projects to provide more credibility.

•

During the internship, be independent and resourceful. Try finding out answers by yourself before approaching senior staff. Team dynamics and fit are very important in determining if you could be converted to a graduate offer and you need to be mindful of this during social interaction.

I wish you all the best of luck in your applications.

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Best Regards, You.

! ! Imperial’s Echo Dominic Lo

ʻI have booked the room, could you please…ʼ ʻOkay sorry Iʼm leaving now.ʼ I stopped playing my Rach. 2* immediately and once again, I was kicked out from the practice room after sneaking into one of the empty room at Blyth*.

Reading the college timetable, it is hard to find any free timeslots for me to play music.

Countless lectures, tutorials, and many more stuffs have taken up most of my time.

Well, what can I expect at Imperial? Some free time every week to relax in the piano room?

Itʼs really painful when you try to maintain a balance between studies and interests, especially in this competitive university. Maybe I should focus more on my textbooks, maybe I should give up on playing the piano.

Every week, I still receive emails from MusicTech reminding me the DJ class, which I have dropped already, is still going on. I feel like a loser when all those people are still practicing.

How do they manage to do that? How can they be so persistent? Theyʼre just producing echoes around the college corner, where no one can hear!

Not only DJers, musicians here always hope to talk to us as well. Lunchtime concert is hostedevery week in the Read Theatre,

random gospel choirs are preaching to us in Sherfield, even rock bands are trying to catch our attention somewhere in the Beit basement!

On a night, the ICSM Orchestra* held a mini concert in the St. Stephenʼs Church, which I attended as an audience. The performance was not the highest standard (Iʼm just being honest), but as I knew they had only less than a month to prepare a 1-hour programme, and they have been devoting hours every week for the rehearsals.

How nice it is to discover so many scientificmusicians here, who dedicate their time and lives for music. They just make the sound, they just play the music, and these make them REAL musicians.

Itʼs a good time to book a room now, so no one, not even myself, can ever stop my music again.

Don’t give up, just make an echo, even if no one appreciates it.

Passtimes Spring Edition 2012

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