07-024 Exploring the Hidden Coptic Church in Hong Kong’s Industrial Heart

07-024

Exploring the Hidden Coptic Church in Hong Kong’s Industrial Heart

Everything began with a newspaper clip.

Although I am not a Catholic, I was raised in a Catholic background. I dare say, it is the Catholic church that led me to become a believer in God. My reason for becoming a Protestant instead is complicated. If you really need a reason from me, then I would say it is all part of God’s plan.

Despite the fact that most Protestant Christians have a generally negative view of the Catholic church, I do admire their liturgy and tradition, especially the veneration of saints and their relics. You can read my previous post on Catholic relics housed in the churches I have visited.

Newspaper clip from Kung Kao Po

In the beginning of June 2024, I received a copy of Kung Kao Po, a Chinese newspaper owned and operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. A notice inside drew my attention. It was an invitation to a series of lectures on the Coptic rite, an ancient liturgical tradition of Alexandria.

The Coptic Rite – Ancient Liturgical Tradition of Alexandria

The topics of the lectures are “History of Christianity in Egypt”, “Particularity of the Coptic Rite”, and “Mystagogy on Coptic Church Consecration, Mass and Ordination”. The lectures were held on three consecutive evenings. The first was held inside Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, a Catholic church in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The other two were held in St. Mark & St. Thomas Coptic Orthodox Church, which has just moved to a new venue. Each lecture was followed by the ceremony of the Consecration of the Altar and the Church.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church --
Venue of the first lecture

Also known as the Oriental Orthodox Church, this church is one of the three major Christian denominations before the 16th century. (The other 2 are Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic.) I have known about the Coptic church for a long time. I always wanted to learn more about them and also to visit their venue. The lectures provided me with a great opportunity for both. I signed up for the lectures in no time, and on one June evening, I was there.

The lectures were recorded and uploaded on YouTube. The lectures are mainly in English, except for the first few minutes of the introductory sections. If you are interested, I have put the links below. However, I am more interested in their church building.

• Lecture 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC-xoejyBWA
• Lecture 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNEgE3b1UW4
• Lecture 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiWeFMi2XzY

History of Coptic Church in Hong Kong

The Coptic church first came to Hong Kong back in 2004. Before that, there were already some Coptic Christians living in the city. They were worshipping inside their homes at that time. Since the establishment of the church, they started holding Coptic masses inside a commercial building in Sheung Wan, until recently.

The new church is situated in an unexpected place, Kwun Tong, a traditional industrial district of Hong Kong. The church is hidden inside an old industrial building. The name of the building is Hung To Industrial Building (鴻圖工業大廈), located at 80 Hung To Road.

St. Mark & St. Thomas Coptic Orthodox Church

Most factories in Hong Kong moved to mainland China decades ago. Many of the industrial buildings in the city were either refurbished or completely rebuilt into commercial buildings. However, that is not the case here. The Hung To Industrial Building is a typical old-fashioned factory building. It’s hard to believe there’s an Orthodox church inside.

Hung To Industrial Building

St. Mark & St. Thomas Coptic Orthodox Church is located on the 4th floor. But you won’t find its name in the lobby. The directory only lists the SMCOA Organization. The reason? It’s not exactly legal to have a church inside an industrial building. So, the principle here is, you’ll know if you need to know.

The lobby directory only shows SMCOA Organization

Just out of the elevator, you’ll find their church entrance on your left. But it doesn’t look like a church at all. It looks more like an office. It seems they’re aware of the rule of concealment.

The entrance to SMCOA Organization,
a.k.a. St. Mark & St. Thomas Coptic Orthodox Church

But once inside, one will immediately know they’ve come to the right place. On the right side is an array of Orthodox icons, with Archangel Michael guarding the door. And there are more icons on the other walls.

However, even though the location is an industrial building, the church is not particularly large. It only occupies one-fourth of the floor. There’s a design studio next door and the other two blocks on the same floor seem to be empty. According to information from the real estate agent, the unit is approximately 1,885 square feet in size and the transaction price was HKD 8.7M. The transaction was completed in December 2022.

But the church area is actually larger than that because there’s also a balcony. They built a rain shelter on top and converted the balcony into an open kitchen for activity usage. The church has uploaded a tour video on their Facebook page. The area behind the nave is the balcony. And the sanctuary is on the other side of the nave, right behind the curtain.

Coptic Icons and more

When talking about Orthodox churches, many people immediately think about icons. Yes, as you can see from the video, there are icons everywhere inside the church. Below are the icons hung on one side of the walls. Some of them are Coptic saints, and their icons cannot be found in churches of other denominations. I apologize that when I was there, the church was fully packed, and I was unable to take photos of all icons there.

Icon of Isaiah

Icon of Elijah

Icon of St. Anthony & St. Paul

Icon of St. Abanoub

St. Rebecca & Her 5 Children

This icon is only venerated by the Coptics

St. Demiana & The 40 Virgins --
Another icon unique to Oriental Orthodoxy

Icon of St. Athanasius

Icon of the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya

Icon of St. Mina

Icon of St. George

Icon of Archangel Michael

All icons in the church are blessed. There are leaflets hanging underneath each icon. They explain the lives of the saints. The leaflets are in English and Chinese. They are possibly the only Chinese publications of the Coptic church.

Chinese leaflets explaining the icons

The most distinguishing icon in the church is probably the icon of The Twenty-One Coptic Martyrs of Libya. These men were killed by the terrorist group ISIS in 2015. After being captured, they refused to denounce their religion and were beheaded by the terrorists. Their executions were recorded and shown on the internet. Their sacrifice reminds us that martyrdom does not only belong to the Middle Ages. All Christians should be prepared to sacrifice for our God at any time.

The votive candle rack is on top,
and other religious items are inside the cupboard

It is also the only icon to have a votive candle rack placed in front. The rack is placed on top of a cupboard. Inside the cupboard are some bottles of chrism and stoles for the priest. Next to the cupboard is a stand with some icons on it. It is a small church, and those seem to be the only religious items for sale.

A stand selling icons

Coptic souvenir to bring back home

I have never visited Egypt. This is my first time being in a Coptic church, and I am not sure when I will visit again. I decided to bring some souvenirs back home.

The day also marked the Consecration of the Altar and the Church. The church was visited by Father Dawoud Lami from Egypt. I spoke to him, and he was so kind that he gave me a free icon of the patron saint of the church. It is an icon of Saint Mark, with the church logo and address printed on it.

Souvenir from the church, the icon of St. Mark

I also bought an icon of The Twenty-One Coptic Martyrs of Libya. The icon reminds me of the daily sacrifice to Christ. It is also a special icon that is unique to the Coptic church. I am happy to bring this special souvenir back home.

Icon of the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya

Visiting the Coptic church was truly a unique experience. And visiting an Orthodox church inside a factory building doubled the uniqueness.

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04-025 Payphones

04-025
Payphones

I recently came across an article describing Hong Kong as the perfect portrait of a cyberpunk city. Having lived in the city for so long, I was not aware of the term ‘cyberpunk.’ ‘What does that mean?’ I wondered. Out of curiosity, I checked Wikipedia. To my surprise, without realizing it, I have actually watched quite a number of cyberpunk movies. Some of them are even my favorites! Blade Runner, The Terminator, Ready Player One, just to name a few.

To gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of cyberpunk, I rewatched the 1999 cyberpunk classic, The Matrix. I had watched this movie before, but it was a long time ago. I could hardly remember its plot. For me, it was just like watching a new movie.

The Matrix is really a good movie. It perfectly captures the essence of cyberpunk. Is Hong Kong cyberpunk? Now, I have an answer. And my answer is, sort of. It is very cyber and it is quite punk. But we do have some beautiful countryside and comparatively fewer homeless people.

Phone booth in The Matrix

However, the movie reminded me of an interesting piece of news. It was about New York City removing their last payphone back in 2022. Payphones serve as the teleport between the ‘real world’ and the Matrix in the movie. I wonder how Keanu Reeves would come back from the Matrix nowadays, as there are no more phone booths on the streets of New York.

I have written several posts about telecommunications in my city. I have talked about terrestrial TV, cable TV, satellite TV, and radio broadcast. I have also briefly mentioned our internet service and introduced various streaming and OTT video platforms that are popular in Hong Kong. Now, I think I should also spend a few moments talking about the very basic form of telecommunications in my city, the landline and payphone system of Hong Kong.

Who invented the telephone?

Most people in the world would say Bell. The French may disagree. But anyway, the year is always 1876. And just one year after the invention, there was already phone service in Hong Kong. This sounds very advanced, right? Not quite! In the first decade, phone service was only for the elite of the city. Back in 1890, there were only 52 phone users in the entire Hong Kong, and service was only available on the northern coast of Hong Kong Island.

In general, most people had no access to the telephone system at that time. The general public may have heard about the telephone but did not understand the working principle behind it. They called the telephone a ‘mysterious voice machine’ introduced by Westerners.

In 1905, telephone service finally reached Kowloon. But it was not until the formation of Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) in 1925 that the telephone became more and more popular.

First Generation of Payphones

The first payphone was introduced on New Year’s Day in 1920. It was installed inside the sedan chair depot adjacent to the Peak Tram station. However, it was not placed inside a phone booth but in a room called a ‘pay station.’ This was because coin-operated telephones had not yet been introduced. The pay station was staffed by telephone company attendants who collected immediate payment for calls placed.

The First Phone Booth

Over the subsequent decades, an increasing number of payphones were installed throughout the city. In 1953, the government of Hong Kong decided to regulate payphones. By the end of the year, 15 trial phone booths had been installed on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, with the farthest one located in Shek O, the southernmost tip of Hong Kong Island.

After a year of testing, the first official phone booth was opened on 16 January 1954 on Wyndham Street, Central. At that time, the charge for a phone call was 40 cents, which was considered very expensive.

The Boom of Payphones

Public payphones were installed steadily over the next decade. By 1965, there were still fewer than 200 payphones in Hong Kong. However, starting from the late '60s, the number of payphones increased dramatically, mainly due to the population increase as many people fled from mainland China during the Cultural Revolution.

Cost of Making a Phone Call

Even though regulated by the government, there was no fixed fare for payphone use. In the city center, the fare was typically 30 or 40 cents per call. In the New Territories, due to longer distances and higher installation and operating costs, the fare could be double, at 60 cents per call. In 1968, the fare was standardized to 30 cents per call, regardless of the payphone’s location. The fare increased to 50 cents per call in 1975 and further increased to HKD 1 per call in 1983, where it has remained frozen until now.

Decline

Like many other places in the world, due to the popularity of mobile phones, the use of payphones in Hong Kong has been declining since the late '90s.

The most significant decline of local payphones occurred in 2016. In the last week of 2015, Shinetown Telecom, the sole provider of payphone service in metro stations of Hong Kong, announced that they had decided not to renew the service contract with MTR upon its expiration. The contract expired in early 2016, and all their 400 payphones were removed gradually in the following months. ‘As there are ten million mobile phones in use in Hong Kong, fewer people are using the payphones,’ said the spokesperson. Since no other service providers were interested in replacing Shinetown’s role, MTR stations became the first payphone black hole in the city.

Shinetown decided to quit in 2016,
leaving the entire metro system of Hong Kong
in a payphone black hole

Other payphone providers were not faring well either. PCCW-HKT, the largest telephone and internet provider in Hong Kong, reported that more than half of their payphones earned less than one dollar per day, and some even less than one dollar in an entire year! In 2016, they had around 3100 payphones installed in the city. Half of them were in roadside phone booths, and the other half in public facilities or government buildings, such as hospitals, prisons, sports stadiums, shopping malls, etc.

Discussions about reducing the number of payphones began in 2017. In 2019, the government decided to remove half of the roadside phone booths.

Maintenance costs for in-building payphones are much lower than those for roadside phone booths, and there are landlines in the buildings that needed to be maintained anyway. However, this does not mean that in-building payphones were spared from reduction. For instance, before the pandemic, there was an array of payphones in the arrival hall of the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal. The terminal underwent renovation during the pandemic, and after the renovation, the payphones were no longer present.

Locations of Payphones

The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) provides a list of phone booth locations on their website. The list only includes those phone booths installed in public areas.

At the time of writing, there are 718 phone booths installed in the public areas of the city. PCCW-HKT has installed 708 of them, and the remaining 10 are installed by HGC. Although the number of public phone booths has been reduced by half in recent years, they are still ubiquitous in the city. You can download the list from the OFCA website and should be able to locate one near you. However, there is no guarantee that the phone inside the booth is operational.

Many payphones in the city are in a despair condition

As mentioned above, other payphones are installed inside public facilities. The services are mostly provided by PCCW-HKT, except for the HKBN payphones installed at the Hong Kong International Airport. But their numbers and locations have not been disclosed. It is also challenging to find one. Nowadays, almost all websites or floorplans of a facility will not mention payphones anymore. Finding a payphone inside a building is like encountering an old friend on the street.

Design of Phone Booths

As a former British colony, many might think that we use the same red wooden phone booths as in the UK. Not quite! Even during the colonial era, our phone booths had no standard color. We do have some red wooden phone booths, but there are also green ones.

I remember when I was young, the phone booths I saw were orange in color and made of aluminum and plastic. Due to the humidity in Hong Kong, most of the phone booths are not made of wood, and most of them do not have doors.

Nowadays, PCCW-HKT’s phone booths are blue, while HGC’s phone booths are green.

Latest design of PCCW-HKT phone booth, with a door

Another identical phone booth but this one takes credit card.
Don't be misled! The card reader is not working anymore.

PCCW-HKT phone booth with a similar design, but no door

Do you know what is the usage of the rack on the right side of the phone?

 

Older design of PCCW-HKT phone booth can be found in some rural areas

The rack, this time on the left side of the phone, is for the phone book.

A proper phone booth should provide illumination at night.

This phone booth is in old design
but the payphone installed inside is a new model.

Non-enclosed phone kiosks exist here, but are not so common

HGC phone booth is bigger in size but without a door

Emergency phone kiosk on mountain trail

In-building payphones are simply hung on the wall without a booth. However, there are exceptions. The most notable phone booths are the two British-style wooden phone booths installed inside Western Market. They are authentic phone booths, but because they are located inside a shopping mall, they are not listed on the OFCA list.

New model PCCW-HKT payphones installed inside a hospital

Older model of PCCW-HKT payphone found inside a park

Private payphone inside a herbal tea shop in Causeway Bay
This kind of payphone is very rare now

British style red wooden phone booth inside the Western Market

There are 2, one on the left and one on the right

Inside the wooden phone booth looks like this

Both phones are installed by PCCW-HKT

The one on the left is number PP14166

The one on the right is number PP14165

Similar red wooden phone booths can be found in Hong Kong Parkview and Fairview Park. They are installed in private areas, and the service is provided by PCCW-HKT. Again, you will not find them on the OFCA list.

Hong Kong Parkview, a luxury condo located inside the hill

Hong Kong Parkview is also an area with many Westerners staying

A distinguishing red wooden phone booth is located right outside the supermarket

It says TELEPHONE at the front

And you can still find the crown on it!

The booth is totally British!

The rack for phone books is still there! Impressive!

Even though not too many people are using payphone nowadays,

there is still a lamp inside the booth and it is on. Wonderful!

Another British style red wooden phone booth found inside a farm

The booth is real but the phone inside is fake

Models of Payphones

I managed to find six different models of payphones in the city. However, I am not an expert on phone models, and information about payphone models is also scarce on the internet. I will just show their photos here. I suspect they are British-made, but they look somewhat different from those I found in the UK. If you know their models and the names of their manufacturers, please let me know.

The most common one is this white-colored new model used by PCCW-HKT. Most of the payphones installed in roadside phone booths are of this model.

The newest model of PCCW-HKT payphone

A close-up photo showing the panel

It takes coins, PCCW smartcard and credit card

But PCCW smartcard was discontinued and credit card payment was disabled

The more rectangular-shaped payphone in silver color is an older model. Only a few of them can be found inside roadside phone booths of PCCW-HKT, but they are more commonly found indoors.

Older model of PCCW-HKT payphone

It seems to be the same model as the Mercury payphone in UK

This older model payphone has less button than the new model

It takes coins and used to take credit card

But credit card payment was disabled
and most of the card readers of this phone model are sealed

Another less common model is this one in a brownish color. It accepts coins and magnetic phone cards. PCCW-HKT has stopped selling magnetic phone cards for many years, so the card reader is obsolete. However, you can still use coins, if you can find any.

Payphone model that takes coins and PCCW stored value phonecard

However, stored value phonecard was discountinued for more than a decade

The card reader does not read credit cards

But a number for operator assistance is available
for making credit card calls to Japan, USA and Canada

Not sure if this number still works

Most of the public payphones are made of metal. They are tough and durable. This yellow-colored plastic payphone is not. It used to be very common in the past; they were placed in restaurants, supermarkets, and newsagents. Before mobile phones became popular, there was always a high demand for payphones. Some shops would rent these yellow payphones from PCCW-HKT and place them in their shops to earn extra money. They are very rare now, and I only managed to find two in the city: one in a Chinese herbal tea restaurant in Causeway Bay and the other inside the British-style wooden phone booth in Hong Kong Parkview.

Yellow colour plastic payphone and the rack for phonebook underneath

The model is "Payphone 100" by Landis & Gyr
It takes only coins

After lifting up the handset, the 7-segment LCD display shows "d1AL"

When a free call is dialed, the display will show "FrEE"

Another rare model is this HGC payphone. There are only ten: two in Central, four in Tsim Sha Tsui, and four outside the Shenzhen Bay Border.

HGC payphone
It is the same model as those previous Shinetown payphones installed in MTR stations

The phone uses dot matrix display

The last model is this unique blue-colored payphone provided by HKBN. HKBN payphones can only be found at the Hong Kong International Airport. Although their operation is the same, they are not traditional landline phones but IP phones. HKBN is not a telephone provider but an internet provider. This is the only payphone that accepts credit cards.

HKBN payphone

Payphone User Guide

It doesn’t take a genius to use a payphone. However, all payphones provide instructions on how to use them. Below, you’ll find different versions of user guides that I’ve come across in the city. The differences mainly depend on the service provider and the type of payments that the phone accepts.

PCCW-HKT payphone User Guide

The guide is for the new model payphone that takes coins, Smartcard & HELLO Phonecard

Another version of PCCW-HKT payphone User Guide

This guide is for the older model that does not take Smartcard

Also for the PCCW-HKT payphone,
this guide is for the payphone model that takes magnetic stored value phonecard

For phone kiosk, due to limited amount of space,

the user guides are mounted on both sides of the payphone

Many PCCW-HKT phone booths still show this sign
Not sure if the number still works

Instructions on how to use the "Payphone 100" can be found on the phone itself

The lower part of the instructions listed out all free call numbers

HGC payphone User Guide

Evolution of Phone Booths

PCCW-HKT has made many efforts to counter the decline of payphones. Since PCCW-HKT is also an internet provider, they have converted many of their phone booths to provide Wi-Fi service since the mid-2000s. This was successful for a while. At the time of 3G, mobile data was scarce. I saw people standing around the phone booths, holding their mobile phones, watching YouTube. Not anymore. Not after the launch of the 4G network. Definitely not in the 5G era.

PCCW-HKT Smart Kiosk

Recently, I observed another evolution of phone booths. PCCW-HKT has replaced two traditional phone booths with ‘HKT Smart Kiosks.’ The kiosk has an information panel that provides weather, transport, and news information. It also offers free Wi-Fi, USB charging, and, of course, phone service. The dial buttons have become a touch panel, and instead of accepting coins, the kiosk only accepts digital payments. The smart kiosk looks fantastic, but unfortunately, I have never seen anyone using it.

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