Bang, crash, tumble & splash: building a floating dock
Recorder:
Zoom H4N
Location:
Whampoa, Hong Kong
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63dfcb443700f09e09cc0d1c/63e23137fc264b23ddb4f297_Whampoa%20Dock%20Full-min.png)
Photo:
April Melnick
By:
April Melnick
Posted:
February 11, 2023
Sea breeze.
Gentle sun.
Empty harbor front.
Hazy view of the now defunct Kai Tak Airport in the distance.
My destination is To Kwa Wan, a neighborhood I visited once, with a friend. Far away from the madness of places like Causeway Bay. I'm ready for a long day of walking.
An hour after I left the hostel, I stumble upon the event of the early afternoon.
A semi-truck, filled with stacks of brown plastic cubes.
Workers tossing the cubes from the back of the semi, to the front and off into the water. A legitimate cacophony witnessed by the neighborhood senior citizens and I.
I stop to listen. Lean up against the guardrail. Recorder in hand.
A sideways glance at the person standing next to me; they are watching the event intently. I get the sense they have been planted here from the moment the semi-truck arrived. Hands clasped behind their back. And they will stay until the last cube is fitted in to place.