Posted by:
reinventinggrace
(
)
Date: July 11, 2019 02:11AM
Hong Kong RM here, 1987 - 1989.
The temple is in Kowloon Tong, one of the quietest parts of Kowloon (the mainland half of the city, opposite "Victoria" on Hong Kong Island).
I've been curious about the silence of the Hong Kong temple.
Hinckley announced it, said it would be a multiuse building, with mission home, mission office, chapel, car-park, and temple. It's a very classy looking building, looks like a train station, radiator grille, or something like that, well done in marble. Everyone was proud of the economy of the decision -- bulldoze the mission home and chapel, not buy new land, and stack everything up Hong Kong style.
Hinckley had a soft spot for Hong Kong, he, his wife, and all of his children came there one year for his birthday or something. Fall 1987.
So, 10 years after the temple opened, without much fanfare, the church had purchased a large plot of land across the street from the temple complex,
And built an ugly, sprawling building with surface parking (There is no surface parking in most parts of Hong Kong).
Here they are. Temple is looking sharp. New building is hidden in trees.
https://goo.gl/maps/f71cCPD1AA51LUhB9I understand the secrecy, the not wanting to admit that Hinkley's experiment failed. But I'm surprised about the lack of gossip. Mormons love to gossip. I googled the question a couple years ago and got nowhere.
The interesting thing is that, presumably, the mission home, mission office and chapel have been mothballed in the Hong Kong temple for 5 or 10 years. And now they're remodeling. Will they leave it vacant? I can't imagine they'd to a major shuffling of spaces, since there's not likely much demand for more sessions, and it would have to all flow together somehow.
Maybe the temple president and matron will get big new offices.
I think my mission president and wife, Charles and Helen Goo, were temple presidents a few years ago. There's 30 year mission reunion next month, but I can't attend (would probably attend for fun if I was in Utah), so if I ever see them again I'll pop the question.
Thanks to Levi for posting an interesting topic. Perhaps there should be an "off topic" room for folks who want to discuss governments, economics, etc.
RG