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Having
traveled to both poles and Mount Everest, and being the
first Chinese woman to do so,
Rebecca Lee Lok-sze is one of Hong Kong's most accomplished
explorers and environmentalists.
But now that she is on the verge of retirement, her final
goal, of setting up a polar museum in Hong
Kong , seems further away than many of the places to which
she has so intrepidly traveled.
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"Whenever I introduce
the plan to people, many of them including both government
officials and
business corporations say that it is a very good idea,"
says Dr Lee, who established the China Polar
Museum Foundation in 1997. "However, not many people have
been actually giving support to the
project. They say that the project does not comply with
economic planning principles and they
cannot see an immediate benefit from building such a museum
in Hong Kong .
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"Some corporations
say their companies do not have special funding for this
kind of project. In the
worst year, 2001, our organization only received $3,000
in donations throughout the whole year."
When Dr Lee established the foundation in 1997, she had
high hopes that the city could build its
own museum to display the information and specimens she
and her China Antarctic Expedition
team collected from the "three poles" – the name given
to the North, South and Everest set.
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"We have quite
a number of history and science museums in Hong Kong but
why not a polar
museum that can help our next generation better understand
this world and the role of the three
poles in the context of environmental protection," she
says. "I keep telling myself not to feel
disappointed because I have tried my very best to promote
this idea all these years. Maybe I am not
good in selling my idea to attract donors and the government."
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The purpose of
the foundation was to advocate the construction of a polar
museum in Hong Kong ,
to raise awareness of the role the three poles play in
assessing climate change and man's impact
on the environment, as well as to promote interest in
environmental science and support polar
scientific research.
"I was fascinated by the
polar environment when I first visited the Antarctic in
1985. I went there to |
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take commercial footage for
one of my clients," says Dr Lee, who became a full time
explorer and
environmentalist in 1990 after running a successful commercial
design and advertising company.
She also once owned several properties, including two
flats in the Mid-Levels, and was seen by
many people as a highly successful career woman.
After returning from her first trip, she made up her mind
to further explore the coldest areas of the |
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world. The expeditions were
not only time-consuming, but costly because they required
special
equipment and transport arrangements. So Dr Lee sold her
properties, one after another – and
finally her businesses – to finance her expeditions to
the three poles.
It typically took Dr Lee about five days aboard different
types of transport to get to a point where she
could set out on foot to make her observations.
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The mother-of-two has traveled
five times to the Antarctic, eight times to Arctic and
three times to
the Everest region. Her last expedition was in 2002, when
she spent two weeks in the Arctic . Her
record was spending half a year in the Antarctic in 2001.
Her role to polar discovery began in 1982, when she sent
her two teenage daughters to study in
Britain . "I wanted to train them to be independent and
able to live without me. Three years later, I |
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told them of my dream to visit
the three poles and they understood well that the expedition
means so
much to me," she says.
"Many people may have
thought I was crazy giving up the lucrative advertising
business, a cosy
home and a stable income to travel all the way to the
three poles which are cold and dangerous. But I
was thrilled every time I visited those places and helped
the mainland scientists with their research.
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"The expeditions have widened
my view about this world. Most importantly, I feel I have
a role in
helping scientists in their research to protect the world
from further pollution.
"I don't have much money
now, but I feel happy because I have fulfilled my lifetime
dream. What is
the point of keeping all the property and savings if I
have to miss out on the best parts of life, such as
traveling to the three poles?"
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Her travels have not been
without risk. She once nearly died when a boulder fell
from a mountain
during her trip to the Everest region in 1992.
"I and my expedition team were walking up the mountain
at the time. I thought I would die because
I did not have time to escape," she says.
The boulder was suddenly blocked by a tree trunk. "I am
pretty sure that saved my life," she says.
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But the brushes with death
have done little to defer her from embarking on further
adventures. "If
you die, you die. There is nothing to be scared of," she
says.
When Dr Lee stays in Hong Kong, she is often seen carrying
a heavy briefcase in and out of her
office in Wyndham Street, Central, which is the office
of China Polar Museum Foundation.
Inside are the notes she will distribute to students who
attend her lectures on the three poles.
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Over the past 10 years, the
environmentalist has been invited by numerous secondary
schools and
educational institutions to give lectures to more than
300,000 Hong Kong students.
"As a matter of fact,
I am getting tired running here and there and really want
to retire. I have reached
retirement age and want to pass this job to some young
environmentalists to continue the
educational work in Hong Kong," she says. "I want
to use my spare time to do something else, such |
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as practicing my painting
and spending more time visiting my daughters who are now
living in the
UK." |
