Even the dogged pilgrim can pass without noticing the two monuments honouring the first man to conquer the Yangtze River.
Grave plot 8496, in Section 12 of Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley is difficult to locate among the sombre rows of tombs. The pollution-belching traffic heading into Causeway Bay along Wong Nai Chung Road has left its mark. The headstone is streaked with a black residue, like a weeping mourner's mascara, and the name of the deceased has been smudged by decades of wilting summer heat and sulphur-laced rains.
After two afternoons of searching, I locate it and scrape clear the obscured words on the headstone's inscription. The grains blunt my fingernails and turn them black, and I soon give up, satisfied anyone determined to pay their respects will be able to read the epitaph.
Along with dates, the grave inscription reads: 'In memory of Captain Samuel Cornell Plant; Upper Yangtze River Inspector of the Chinese Maritime Customs. The first to command a merchant steamer plying on the Upper Yangtze River (1900).
'Also in Memory of Alice Sophia Plant, Captain Plant's wife and devoted companion throughout his 20 years of toil on the dangerous section of the Yangtze River between Ichang and Chungking.'
I prop flowers against the grave and on the card I write, as instructed: 'To Cornell and Alice. Remembered by the family with great pride.'
I snap a picture, pat the headstone and head to the mainland, to search for the second monument to this remarkable riverboat captain, who is still remembered, albeit modestly and by contrasting communities located worlds apart.