Imagine going on vacation in Hong Kong in May. You arrive and see many people standing around a white tower, but the tower looks very uneven. You take a closer look, and you see small circle-like objects making up the tower. Then, you see that some humans are climbing it. You ask someone what is going on, but he just ignores you and continues cheering for a random climber. You also notice that the climbers and taking the buns and putting them into bags. The crowd is shouting things like, “Get to the top! They are worth more!” and ”Come on! Just grab as many buns as possible! there is almost no time left!”
Suddenly, there is a horn blast, and the climbers stop. Then, some people look inside the climbers‘ bags and starts counting and adding up random numbers. Then, someone announces that there is a winner and that winner is elated. You have just witnessed the Cheung Chau Bun Festival.
This year in May, many people in Hong Kong went to watch an annual event: the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. Every year, competitors climb a 14-meter-tall tower that is entirely made of buns and try to grab as many buns as possible. This climb is part of a larger festival in the middle of the May to celebrate Buddha’s birthday.
All of the competitors are given three minutes to collect as many buns as possible from the bun tower, and the higher the buns are, the more points they are worth. The competitor with the highest amount of points will be declared the winner. Many people traditionally believed that collecting the buns as the top would bring you good fortune for the rest of the year. This year, there were twelve competitors. There was also a tie in first place, with both ice-climbing athlete Janet Kung and firefighter Kwok Ka-Ming getting the title of Bun King and Bun Queen.