The 40-year-old meter reader said he left his home in Tsuen Wan and arrived on the island in the early hours to ensure he would secure the ideal position to enjoy the competition and take pictures.
“There are not many places to go in Hong Kong, but this festival is an annual tradition of the city,” said Cheung, who has been attending the event every year for more than a decade.
“My friends and I lined up early and we took turns to eat so we could have the best seats to enjoy the competition.”
The contest, the climax of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival or Da Jiu Festival, shortlisted 12 finalists this year – nine men and three women.
Participants will scale a 14-metre tall (46 feet) tower covered with 9,000 plastic buns, each of which carries a score according to their placement. They have to snatch as many buns as possible within three minutes, and the climber with the highest score wins.
Also waiting in line early for the tickets was mainland Chinese tourist Kaiseria Xu from neighbouring Shenzhen, who was on a one-day trip to attend the festival for the first time.
Xu, 23 and a master’s student in hydrobiology, said she arrived in Cheung Chau at 10am, and watched the Piu Sik – or floating colours – parade in the afternoon and tasted ping on buns before lining up at about 5.30pm for the competition.
03:04
A look back at the history of the Hong Kong Cheung Chau Bun Festival
A look back at the history of the Hong Kong Cheung Chau Bun Festival
She said she visited Hong Kong almost every week, mostly for shopping and visiting different landmarks. But this trip was a little different.
“I’m impressed by the festival and tradition. It’s worth waiting in the line for hours and staying up late at night,” said Xu, adding she would take a ferry to Central after the competition and catch a midnight bus home.
Tiga Wang, a 28-year-old Huizhou native who came to Hong Kong for work last September, also said she was glad to experience the traditional activities for the first time.
“I love the atmosphere here,” she said. “I even took a day off tomorrow so I can stay up late for the bun-scrambling event tonight.”
But not all tourists who flocked to Cheung Chau for the festival wanted to stay late amid concerns over the long wait for ferries.
“We are not going to stay till the evening for the race. There are too many people and it will be a long wait for the ferries,” said Yao Aiyou, an office clerk in her fifties who visited the outlying island with her husband.
The bun scrambling competition is said to have its roots in a ritual started in 1894 to appease the spirits of islanders killed in a plague and was revived in 2005.
The event was banned for 27 years after two bun towers collapsed mid-race in 1978, injuring 24 people.