For Future Students

If any future exchange student would like to discuss further my experiences please feel free to contact me. It is my understanding that this blog will be shared by Miami University for students interested in studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Any one is more than welcomed to email me at boyerbl@muohio.edu. I hope you find this blog helpful.

The English Language

I have found it amazing how common the English language is. It is spoken in different degrees (Hong Kong and parts of China seems to be the worst) but it is nevertheless used as the default language. My trip to Cambodia and Malaysia had some of the best non-native English speakers. In general, when two people do not know what language to use, English is always the common one. Even the European exchange students use English to talk to each other. Unless they are the same nationality, English is used. I find that interesting because often English is no one's first language.

The other interesting thing I have noticed with the English language is how often it is used by children. There is a spot on campus that I often walk through to get to class that families often take their children to play. Most of the time I see little kids running around, shouting at each other in English. Just listening you would not know that they are Chinese. They even use their English names. The oddest occurrence was just the other day while I was on my way to class. I say Chinese parents trying to teach their daughter how to ride a tricycle. The little girl was having trouble figuring out how to move the peddles to make the tricycle go. The father and mother were explaining to her how to move her feet in Chinese using hand gestures. However, the little girl only responded in English and asked questions about how to do it in English. I find it interesting but not surprising that the little kids I see have less of an accent then students my age. The rate of development and the rate of outside involvement (i.e. globalization) real shows up here through the use of the English language.

My Absence

I know I have not written in a while. My professors wanted papers and for me to fill in some bubbles with a number 2 pencil. That is just about done. I have one class and one test left. Since I leave next Thursday, this means I have one more week to do fun and exciting things. I will also have the motivation to write since there is nothing left for me to write to my professors.

Trains, Boats, Buses, Cable Cars, and One Big Buddha

Last Sunday I went to the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island where the "Big Buddha" is. I went with Brian and a couple other of his friends from the States. There is a train stop at the base of the mountain that has a cable car that goes strait to the monastery. We, however, decided to take the long route which turn out to be a mistake. We first took the train from CUHK to the tip of Kowloon to find the ferry to Lantau. We discovered that the only place to get a ferry to Lantau was at the Central Piers on Hong Kong Island. So we took a ferry across to Central and then figured out which boat we needed. We waited 30 minutes until the ferry we wanted arrived. The boat ride was then about an hour long. Once we got to Lantau we had to take a bus to get to the monastery. This was another hour long ride. The reason the bus took so long is that Lantau is very mountainous. Even though the length of the bus ride was a little annoying, it was neat to go through the mountains and forests on Lantau. That day was very very cloudy and the mountains were so high we drove up into the clouds. We were pretty happy once we got to the monastery since it had taken us about four hours to get there. Unfortunately, since it was so cloudy we could not see much. There were stairs that you had to walk up to get to the Buddha, but you couldn't see the top of the stair case. Once we got to the top, we could only see the outline of Buddha, but that in its self was neat. Inside the Big Buddha was a museum. It had all kinds of neat artwork but everything was explained in Chinese, so I have no idea what it actually was. We then walked back down to the monastery to get lunch. It was all vegetarian but very good. We explored the temple nearby for a little bit before deciding to head back down. We did not want to spend forever getting back to CUHK so we took the cable car. The cable car ride was actually a lot longer then I had expected, about 45 minutes. By that time it had gotten so cloudy that if another car was coming the other direction you could only see it for a couple of seconds, not to mention for the most part you couldn't see the ground. Near the end we descended enough to be outside of the clouds. We got a very high birds eye view of the Hong Kong Airport which was neat. Once we got back on the ground we took the train back to CUHK.

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Ocean Park

So this past week I have done basically just school work, which is why there hasn't been much to say. With that said, I decided to take a break from work and go to Ocean Park last Sunday. Ocean Park is an amusement park on the south side of Hong Kong Island. The theme is sea animals which they had mixed in with the rides. I went with Chase, Jennifer, Natalie, Matt, and his girlfriend who was visiting him from the states. The park is broken into two section, which are quite far from each other. In fact the only way to get between them is by bus or a long cable car ride. We arrived around noon so we got some hot dogs which I thought were decent for park food. The side of the park we started on was on the side of a mountain, so the main path was actually a huge escalator and everything overlooked the ocean. The first ride we all wanted to get on was a roller coaster called The Mine Ride. It was short and not that intense, maybe a step up from Cedar Point's Mine Ride, but it was built on the side of a step mountain so that was pretty neat. The awkward thing about the ride was that everything around was an American western theme, so it had "Mine Ride" painted on a wooden shed in an old western font. The problem was they also wrote it in Chinese which, I thought didn't quite work out to have the same feeling.

We then headed up to the top where there was a seal exhibit and watched seals play in the water for a while. The park mascot is a cartoon seal named Whiskers, so the seal exhibit was pretty large.

Next we went through a jellyfish exhibit. Inside the building it was very dark and they light up the tanks with different colors of light to highlight all the jellyfishes tentacles and blobs. It was more interesting for the artistic presentation then the jellyfishes themselves.

Afterwards, we rode The Dragon. This was an old steel roller coaster with several inversions. The track was very, very rough. I think it was the first roller coast that I have been on that had the station higher then the vast majority of the ride. The station was at the top of the mountain and the track was all down hill. The last part of the ride was actually a lift hill. It was pretty fun, but left most of our necks in pain.

We then waited for the dolphin show, which was packed. It was pretty good and actually had a mix of dolphins and seals. There was a story line with it. From what I gathered there was a little girl talking to her grandfather about how great it is that humans and sea animals can play together. The problem was most of the show was in Cantonese so I was lost most of the time.

Since time was starting to get short we got on the cable car to head to the other part of the park. This was a long chair lift ride that ran along the side of a very steep mountain. It was a somewhat foggy day so we could not see too far out, but the ride was so long we couldn't see the other end of the ride either so that left us with a bit of excitement.

The other side of the park is apparently the "main" part, but did not have that many rides. Chase and Matt tried some of the games but were very unsuccessful. After exploring that side for a while Matt and his girlfriend went back to the other side of the park because there was a couple of rides they wanted to get in before the park closed. The rest of use wanted to go see the panda house. There they have four pandas. Two of them were out that day and were actually quite active. They wondered around their artificial indoor environment, climbed trees, and ate bamboo. The lighting was really bad so I did not get very many good pictures, but it was a neat exhibit anyways. By that time the park was closing and it was getting late. We left and caught the bus back to central. It was a nice break from school work.

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Siem Reap: General Impressions

The food in Cambodia was amazing. Every Cambodian meal I had was delicious. They used a lot of meat and rice, like the Chinese, but it was prepared differently. Nothing was fired and the meat was always somewhat spicy. It was not spicy like curry, it was just a hint for flavor.

The roads in Cambodia were absolutely horrible. One or two roads around the Old French Quarter were somewhat decent, but outside of that, the newest major road was barely chip and seal. The road we took into the country side was what I assume to be a high way. The government had started work on improving it. Construction was even more unorganized then back in the States. There were no lanes blocked off by orange cones, just piles of gravel dumped haphazardly in the middle of the road. Everyone traveling on that road would just have to figure out how to get around it. Later down the road it turned to dirt. Interestingly enough, the Cambodian government still had a toll booth on the dirt road. Whether the road was "paved" or not did not improved the condition of the road for the most part. Driving was often slow because there were so many pot holes and other giant imperfections. No matter where you were, I don't think there was much rule of the road. I don't remember seeing any traffic signs or lines on the road. It was more or less free for all.

The Cambodian people seemed pretty nice (unless they were trying to get money out of you). Our driver, Tong, was very polite and helpful. In the restaurants, the waiters/waitresses seemed to enjoy interacting with customers. At one, the waiter thought Wes and Francesca were related. We thought this was humorous as they look nothing alike. Wes pointed out to the waiter that they even have different ancestral backgrounds. The waiter then took interest in the fact Americans have diverse backgrounds. When I told him I was Scottish and German he asked if I could speak Scottish. He seemed very disappointed and confused when I told him Scots speak English. And on the topic of language, everyone seemed to speak English pretty well. Most had only had a slight accent and rarely were we ever asked to reword our sentences into simpler phrases. Even the children were nice (except for the ones described below). If we passed them while they were playing they would often wave and say "Hello." In the markets the vendors were less aggressive then in China or even Hong Kong. However, out at the temples, the vendors act pretty desperate. Typically, you would tell a vendor "I already have one" to get them off your back (telling them you don't want it invites them to try to convince you otherwise). On a couple of occasions the vendors replied "But you haven't bought one from me!" A common thing all of them would do is ask "Where are you from?" When I replied that I was American, they would also list random facts such as the capital is Washington D.C., the biggest state is Alaska, etc. It was almost always in the same order too.

The corruption in Cambodia was pretty bad and became very apparent. Cambodia is a democracy with freedoms, but still carries the burden of corruption like most other developing nations. Tong would speak freely on the subject when we asked him. At the temples you need a license to give tours. However, there were plenty of people without license trying to give tours to people. They wouldn't ask for money until the very end. To do this, they have to pay off the police. The same goes for selling things at temples, you have to pay the police. On a couple occasions I even saw the police standing with the vendor (my guess either making sure he gets his cut or was being paid a little extra for protection). At the Bayon temple we even had a police officer try to give us a tour. They are pretty aggressive and often catch you if you try to sneak away. Fortunately, we managed to lose that police officer and did not run into him again.

Often times you would see kids selling stuff, mostly at the temples but some on the streets of Siem Reap. When I say kids, I mean easily under 10 years old an no supervision what so ever. They would have simple and small items like post cards, bracelets, fans, and magnets. They were just as aggressive, if not more, then the adult vendors. At Angkor Wat one little girl was very aggressive and followed me around while I was looking for where Tong parked. Like everyone else she asked me "Where are you from?" which after responding that I was from the States she very rapidly said all kinds of facts about the states. She ended with "Your President is Obama. You know Obama? I am his daughter. I am Sasha! You need postcards!" Fortunately at that point I finally found Tong and the little girl left with out me having to reply to such an odd argument. Another argument the kids would use, and use frequently, is that they have to pay off the police. Sadly this is true. I never found out if what the children were doing was technically illegal (it would certainly be for the parents if this was happening in the States) but law or no law they system would work the same. The police are underpaid and everyone wants money.

On the topic of money, the way currency is used in Cambodia (or at least Siem Reap, but I have a feeling it is the same in most parts of the country) is quite interesting. Cambodian current is called the riel and is US$1 to about 4,130 riel. I was looking forward to having to have over 100,000 in currency on me. However, when I got to Siem Reap, everything was quoted in US dollars. In fact, the ATMs only gave out US dollars. The visa and the tickets to the temples, both from the government, were paid for in American dollars. It was the preferred currency. Even though cash registers everywhere were full of American bills, the American coins were no where to be seen. So if there were ever cents involved (for example I got ice cream for US$1.50) the change was given in riel. Everyone just rounded US$0.25 to 1,000 riel. By the end of my trip, I was used to using two different currencies in the same transaction.

The poverty in Siem Reap was pretty bad, or at least it seemed to us Americans. There were a lot of shacks. The poorest were out in the country side. Tong said that if we wanted to see poor people we would have to drive about 80km out of the city (he didn't think those living in shacks in the city were poor, he called them "normal"). The area around the river was the poorest we saw, and it was pretty poor. When we got off the boat a small group of children started to follow us. There were a couple adults not too far away yelling at them, and each time they yelled the children got more aggressive for money. One little girl seemed rather shy and didn't say anything. She just pointed to the empty water bottle I was carrying. I noticed she had a bag full of empty plastic bottles. I handed it to her and she seemed pretty happy. There was one little boy who kept asking for money. After we got in the car, he banged on the window asking for one dollar. Despite the depressing first impression, we did see a lot of hope. At one point we ventured out of the Old French Quarter to see what the typical life was for a local. There was a surprising amount of development hidden from the main road. There were apartment buildings (granted no where near the standard we are used to, but significantly better then a dirt floor). Schools were also everywhere. Even in the floating village, the most common building (aside from a house) was a school. Friday was the only school day we were there and the schools we saw open were overflowing with children. Cambodians are definitely eager to develop and are making progress on that front.

Siem Reap: Day Four

Our flight left Siem Reap at 8:30AM in the morning. We had Tong take us to the airport. There was only one other flight that morning so we got through check in, paying the departure tax (which cost more then the visa), and security pretty quickly. We got into Kuala Lumpur at 11:30AM and our connecting flight to Hong Kong did not leave until late afternoon. So we decided to get lunch at the Petronas Towers. On the way there my camera died so I have no pictures, but the two towers were very beautiful. On the way there we also pasted vary large and beautiful looking mosques. At the base of the towers was a very modern mall. I found the environment inside very interesting. It was a mix of Western and Islamic culture. Most women were wearing head scarves, yet in the center of the mall was a big promotional demonstration for make-up in perfect English. We found a Malaysian restaurant to have a quick lunch in. I had some sort of shredded beef which was one of the best meals I have ever had. The seasoning and spices they used gave it a very unique and delicious taste. Afterwards we headed back to the airport and caught our flight back to Hong Kong. Most of the day was spent traveling but the quick stop at the Petronas Towers was well worth it. It was too bad we didn't have a whole day to explore Kuala Lumpur.

Siem Reap: Day Three

We woke up very early at 4:30AM. Tong picked us up outside our hostel at 5 so that we could go to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We bought tickets for the day which got us into not only Angkor Wat but pretty much all the other ruins in the area. We were dropped off at the ancient bridge that goes over the moat. We were told to walk about a kilometer and then find a high place to watch the sun rise. Since it was completely dark (they had no lights what so ever in the are) we had to guess where we were going. Once we got across the bridge we had to go through the gate which meant we had to go inside the wall for a while. It was kind of cool wondering around ancient ruins in the pitch dark (also a big tricky since there were a lot of steps involved). We made it to an area we thought was good for watching the sunrise but as soon as the light started coming up we moved around a lot to see it from different angles. There is really no way to describe it, pictures are the closest thing to doing it.

After the sun was up we went back to town for a quick breakfast and then came back to Angkor Wat to wonder around for a few hours. I don't know if there is much to say other then to look at the pictures. The temple had been modified several times and damaged in various wars from the time it was built to the Cambodian revolution just a few decades ago. Originally it was a Hindu temple but then it was converted to a Buddhist temple some years later.

The next place we went to was Angkor Thom. This was the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire. Angkor Wat was the major temple for the city (angkor means "city," wat means "temple"). Inside the walls of Angkor Thom were all kinds of other temples and ruins. The first temple we went to was the Bayon Temple. It had 54 towers (for the 54 provinces of the Khmer Empire) but several have since fallen down. It was a Buddhist temple and each tower had 4 unique Buddha faces each facing a different direction. After wondering around for a bit, Wes decided to go back to the hostel while Francesca and I looked around Angkor Thom some more. We saw the Baphuon Temple, which was a Buddhist temple they were working on reconstructing. Several decades ago, they took it all part to study it in depth and then do a good job reconstructing it. The problem is that while it was all in pieces, civil war broke out and the documents explaining how to put it back together were destroyed. So now progress is really slow and out side there are rows and rows of stone blocks they have no idea where to put. Next to that was the Elephant Terrace which was a big stone platform used by the public to watch public events such as parades. It was quite long and had many carvings (mostly of elephants) all along the edge. Then, on the end of that ruin was the Leopard Terrace. They believe it was used as a crematorium and the statue on top was for the god of death. The last thing Fransesca and I looked at in Angkor Thom was a series of 12 identical towers used as a prison. We then found Tong in the market near by to drive us down the road to see other places.

The next temple we went to was the Ta Prohm Temple. This was a Buddhist temple that was completely taken over by the jungle. It was also used in the filming of the movie "Tomb Raider." The temple was very interesting. A large portion of it was destroyed and many hallways were blocked off. Giant trees were growing on the temple, often up on top of the roof and their roots would flow over the side of the stone like waterfalls. Just down the road was the Banteay Kdei temple which was another Buddhist temple. It was an interesting temple, but nothing that unique. By this time Francesca and I were exhausted and had Tong take us back to the hostel. There we rested and got dinner at a small little place just down the road. Again it was very very good.

At 7PM we went to a concert performed by a Swiss doctor, Dr. Beat Richner, known by his stage name Beatocello (he plays the cello). Dr. Richner has worked at helping Cambodian children since the 1970s. In the 90's he started building children's hospitals which are now located in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. He plays every weekend to try to help raise money for his cause. 10% of the hospital's budget comes from Switzerland, 3% from Cambodia, and the rest come from donations. They cover all Cambodian children of free (including operations and medication) and never turn any away. He also insists on keeping the hospital up to Western standards. Over the past couple of decades his hospitals have reduced child mortality rates by about 90%. Dr. Richner was an interesting guy with a sense of humor but some how found himself being political near the end (which he claims he tries to avoid because the Chinese tend to get upset).

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Siem Reap: Day Two

At around 5:30AM Francesca and I decided to stop trying to sleep and just check in. The departure hall of this terminal was poorly set up. We had to wait in line to get to the area with check in desks and then wait in line once we found the desk we needed. Checking in was pretty quick and our boarding pass was just an ordinary receipt. We then had to make our way back through all of the masses of people to get to the other side of the hall to go through immigration and security. Once we got through all of this mess and found Wes on the other side. We had to wait another 30 minutes before they called our flight. We walked out on the tarmac to our plane and our flight was only two hours long.

We arrived in Siem Reap at 8AM (we passed through a time zone). The scenery was a lot different then I had expected. It was flat, light vegetation, and very dirty. All the roads I saw were dirt and I half expected use to land on a dirt runway. The airport in Siem Reap was actually very nice, but very small. There were only two other plans at the airport. When we walked into the airport we had to buy a visa. It was only US$20 and then we got through immigration. At this point we were pretty happy that they took American dollars. However, once we got into the airport lobby and looked for a taxi, we realized that everything in Siem Reap was in American dollars. In fact no ATM offered anything other then American currency. We got a taxi to take us into the city to the hostel we had pre-booked. Our driver was named Tong and said that he could dive us around for the whole day for $25. We agreed. Tong then took all the things off the car that identify it as a taxi and hid his company ID. At first I assumed it was because we hired him for the day, but I think it was because he was using the company car to make extra money on the side. In any case Tong was a pretty nice guy. He is a student at Phnom Penh studying history and his dream is to one day become a tour guide. Throughout the day he gave us lots of information on the history and meaning of things around Cambodia for free.

Our hostel was pretty nice. It was called Shadow of Angkor (frequently misspelled as Shaow of Angkor) and was on the eastern edge of the Old French Quarter. In the area were a lot of old French colonial buildings. It was also the nicest part of the city. Our room had three beds, a private bathroom, and most importantly an air conditioner. Cambodia was very hot and very humid.

After we got settled into our hostel we decided to go into the country side and take a boat ride down the river. While driving out to the river we got to see a lot of the farm land. We saw many fields of rice and lotus. The ground was very similar for both, somewhat flooded. The lotus is very important to Buddhist and it is also a vary tasty snack. We got to walk around a lotus farm and try eating it. The lotus fields had lots of life in it with all kinds of frogs and insects going about their business. The seeds taste somewhat like a sweet pea. There were also a lot of oxen and cattle wondering around.

The area around the river seemed depressing. Everyone lives in shacks and there seemed very little economic activity. The ground was all dirt. Cambodia has a wet and dry season. It is currently the dry season and during the wet season the river rises quite significantly. This means it is very difficult for anything to grow and erosion seemed common place. All the shacks were built up high on pillars. We found our boat and started down the river. We were the only three people on the boat in addition to the boat driver and his son. His son would help dock the boat and help fix the engine every time it went out (not the most reliable motor). Going down the river we saw all kinds of daily life. Some people were fishing, some were transporting produce, while others were on their way to school. Most of this was done in small boats about the size of a canoe. The water was very muddy but there appeared to be little garbage in the water. Along the edge of the river near the shacks, however, there was plenty of trash. It seemed like those that lived there would just toss refused out the door and not worry about it. At the end of the river was Cambodia's giant lake. One the lake was the floating village. This was a decently sized village made up of entirely boats. This was to enable the fishermen to be close to the fish while not being troubled by rising and sinking water levels. There were houses, churches, schools, restaurant, police station, and even a basketball court and a vegetable garden, all floating on the lake. Here is a video of us overtaking a school that was being moved.We docked at the restaurant. Inside they had a little shop and a section where they raise fish and crocodile. Killing crocodile for their skin and meat is very common in Cambodia. We were not hungry but I did buy a small Cambodian flag. After we looked around (it was three stories high so the top was a good observation deck) we got back on the boat and head back to where Tong was.

Tong took us back into Siem Reap which by that time we were hungry and wanted some authentic Cambodian food. We went to this restaurant that was hidden but somewhat upscale. Even though it was pretty nice compared to most of the other places in Cambodia, the meal was still cheap. I ordered Lok Lak (I think that is how it is spelled) beef. It was very very good. We ended up sharing everything so I also had some very good vegetable dishes and chicken. Afterwards we went to a cultural center, but there was not much going on there and it was very touristy so we left early.

We then went to an artisan school for woodworking and masonry. This place was not touristy at all but they let outsiders come in and look around. The older man (who I am guessing is the headmaster) was quite happy to show us around while Tong translated for us. The main part was a big hut which had a bunch of students working on giant wood carvings. There were a few students working on smaller figurines, but for the most part the carvings were of panels with carvings of temples such as Angkor Wat. These were easily over 5 feet in length and 3 feet wide. Just outside was where the masonry students were working. They were working on all different size statues in various stages of creation. One of the finished statues of an ancient Cambodian king, which was a little smaller then life size, took over a month to make. Lying around in the rubble were bits and pieces and statues that were student mistakes. I found a small head of King Jayavarman VII (the Great Buddha king who converted the ancient Khmer Empire from Hindu to Buddhism) and asked the old man if I could buy it. He kept trying to tell me it was a student mistake, but I still thought it was done pretty well as it was about finished. He ended up agreeing to sell it to me for US$10. This was a pretty good deal since I couldn't tell it was a mistake and the other ones started at well over US$100.

On our way back to the hostel we passed by a monument to the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields is where Pol Pot tortured and killed a significant portion of the Cambodian population to solidify his power. Today, Cambodia is a democracy (but has a corruption problem) and is trying to move on from the Pol Pot area. The monument had a bunch of bones collected from the Killing Fields and had a few exhibits to show what a horrible situation the Pol Pot reign was. The signs that explained what happened were very condemning of the era.

Right next door was a Buddhist temple which was holding religious activities. There were monks chanting and many people were sitting in and around the temple. We went into the temple and sat in on the chanting. Before we could go in we had to take off our shoes and then sat quietly and watched. I am not sure what was going on but in front were older monks facing a big statue of Buddha. They were the ones doing the chanting. On one side were the younger monks, who were playing with cell phones for most of the chanting. It was somewhat comical.

Afterwards, we had Tong drop us off at our hostel and told him that we would hire him again tomorrow. We wanted to wander around the area near our hostel as there were many shops and restaurants near by. There was a small shopping complex one block down. It was basically a warehouse with all kinds of little independent shops inside. They sold similar things to the markets in China (artwork, fabrics, carvings, etc) but all Cambodian related. In the center was a wet market which smelled horrible (no ventilation). We ended up eating at a place called Cambodian BBQ which was recommended by Lonely Planet. There we ordered crocodile, kangaroo, and chicken. Crocodile is a lot like chicken, but the kangaroo was amazing. The meat looked a lot different from other meats and had a very different taste. Part of it could have been the seasonings they used, but it was still very good. Even though it was not that late when we finished we were still very tired from not having sleep the night before, the extreme heat, and all the things we did during the day.

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Siem Reap: Day One

Francesca's and my flight left at 8:30PM on Thursday night. We were flying into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to catch a connecting flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. There we were going to met Wes who had flown into Kuala Lumpur the day before. It was a four hour flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and arrived a little ahead of schedule at 12:20AM. We flew Air Asia which is a relatively new airline with almost its entire fleet being Airbus 320s. It basically had a whole terminal to itself in Kuala Lumpur which is its main hub. The terminal was pretty new (less then 10 years old) but was essentially a warehouse. There were no jet bridges. We climbed down stairs and then walk on a covered path to the arrival hall. Despite the fact that we were just transferring and not going into Kuala Lumpur we still had to go through immigration and customs. We were then outside the airport and had to walk less then 100 feet to the door to the departure hall and went back inside. Our flight to Siem Reap did not leave until 7AM so we had about six hours to kill. Francesca and I were both very tired so we decided to try to catch some sleep. The problem was there were no seats in the lobby. We had to sleep on the floor in the corner. There were a lot of other people doing this too. I don't think I slept at all since it was very noisy and bright, not to mention the tile floor.

Changing of the Seasons

For the first 40 days I was in Hong Kong, it did not rain once. In that time period we only had a few cloudy days. It seems that now the reversal is almost true. I have been told that spring usually comes about mid March, and I am starting to see it. For the past couple of weeks it has been pretty cloudy. Yesterday it was so foggy that you could not even see the silhouettes of buildings just a few hundred feet away. Every now and then it will rain, but very lightly. Today was the first heavy rain of the year. It was much like a very violent storm back home. Started with intense winds, then heavy rain. Lightning and thunder soon followed. After about 20 minutes the storm calmed down and is now just raining. The temperature has been changing rapidly recently. One day it will be unbearably hot, then next somewhat chilly. Still, much preferable to the conditions back in Ohio.

New Territories Rotary Club meeting

Monday evening I attended a New Territories Rotary Club meeting. Before leaving for Hong Kong the Fairfield Rotary Club back in Ohio asked if I could represent them at a Rotary meeting while in Hong Kong. I was to exchange banners on their behalf (Fairfield's banner for New Territories' banner). Earlier on in the semester I managed to track down the Rotaract Club at CUHK (the University level extension of Rotary) and ask if I could attend a meeting. They said that was no problem and the president of Rotaract, Joanne, offered to take me to their parent club's (the New Territories chapter) meeting.

We meet at the train station on campus at around 6:30pm. Accompanying Joanne were two new Rotaract members Gabriel, and Kate. The meeting was at the Sheraton Hotel all the way down in Kowloon. This was a very high end hotel. When we walked into the conference room where the meeting was held there was a round table of old Chinese business men having a serious conversation. It was the board meeting for the chapter and to me it fit the stereotype of intense, powerful Asians conducting business. The rest of us took a seat at on of the other table while we waiting for the general meeting to begin. I have been to Rotary meetings in Wooster and Fairfield, but this was very different. It was a lot smaller and extremely formal. There were only two rows of tables and at the front was the podium flanked by seats reserved for officers. Behind the podium were the all the major banners for the club (Rotary International, the Four Way Test, etc) which then had all the banners that were exchanged. I saw banners from Singapore, Philippines, Texas, California, and Taiwan. The tables were decorated for a formal affair. Even the chairs had, what I guess you would call a chaircloth. Waiters would bring you snacks (still really fancy food) and drinks. The snack was a dumpling (vegetables and maybe prawn? Didn't really taste like sea food) and what I think was some sort of fried fish. The meeting started on time but was all in Cantonese. Fortunately Joanne tried to translate most of it for me as it was happening. This was also done in a very formal manner. The president had worn some sort of ceremonial piece that went over his shoulders. It looked like it had a bunch of name plates on it, perhaps past presidents. His name was Dr. Peter Pang (pronounced Pan) and was a plastic surgeon for Hong Kong celebrities. The two other Rotaract members gave a short presentation on a fund raiser they recently had (they made over HK$11,000) and then it was my turn. I just gave a short explanation of where I came from and why I was there. I mentioned that I was not officially in Rotary but have been working closely with the Fairfield chapter to bring their Ethical Business Guide to the Internet. I then gave the Fairfield Rotary's banner to the president while he gave me one of theirs.

The guest speaker for that night was Dr. Rebecca Lee who described herself as a scientist, adventurer, and Earth fighter. She talked a lot about her trips to the North and South Poles and what she saw as the effects of global warming. It was all in Cantonese but Joanne again translated. It was a bit awkward because Dr. Lee would tell a joke, everyone would laugh but me, and then Joanne would translate, and I would find it funny after a delayed period of time from the original joke. In any case, she had lots of interesting pictures of what it is like to live in these places for an extended period of time. Then right before the meeting ended we sang Happy Birthday to the president-elect in both English and Cantonese.

After the meeting was over, there was a dinner. I was told this would cost HK$300 and the Rotaract members were interested in getting home since it was late on a Monday night. However, the other member insisted that we stay and waved the fee for us. We all sat at a round table and helped ourselves to the various dishes. There were all kinds of food. One dish was a whole fish with the head, fins, and everything. People would just scoop up the part they wanted. There was also a dish that looked like fried chicken but after biting into it I am really not sure what it was, but it definitely was not chicken. The one thing I found interesting from dinner was how much Joanne was going out of her way to make sure I was fine. She kept moving my plates and glasses around when ever it looked like I might bump them or get sauce from another dish onto another (the way they serve food invites a mess, and I believe to some extent it is a sign of a meal enjoyed). Back home I probably would have gotten annoyed quickly but in China serving the guest is very important so I did not interfere. I did not get back to my room until about 10:30pm.

The Rotary meeting was defiantly a lesson in the culture of Chinese business. Right before I had told Joanne that I was going to follow her lead since I was unsure of what I should do. Her response was that she did not know either. She said that these meetings are very intimidating for the Rotaract members. She mentioned that she does not plan on joining Rotary when she graduates because it is so intense. They are also very strict about who can get in. They only let a very small number (2-3) in each year and have limits on certain professions. For example, the club can only have five doctors for every fifty members. Everything is so formal and positions are important. In fact my presences apparently caused some controversy. I was pretty comfortable and relaxed most of the meeting and I thought they seemed to enjoy having me. However, Joanne later explained that this was not quite what really happened. Originally, the president-elect was suppose to introduce me but then he became concerned when he found out my position. He asked Joanne (in Cantonese so I did not know this at the time) whether I am either a Rotaract or Rotary member. When Joanne answered that I was neither, his response was "Well then how am I suppose to introduce him?" and ended up not introducing me at all. Joanne also said that she had never seen Rotary so unfriendly before. To me they seemed fine, granted they did not really talk to me at dinner but I just assumed that was because they were discussing things in Cantonese that related to the club (they were as Joanne translated part of the conversation) and did think I was interested in the conversation. Apparently some of the member were suspicious of me because I was not an official member. I just took it as a lesson that it takes a lot of effort and experience to get a have decent read on what Chinese are really thinking. I am glad I went and look forward to presenting the New Territories banner to the Fairfield Rotary.

Granny's Dragon

Granny passed away while I was in Yangshuo. I did not find out about this until I returned to my room in Hong Kong. I purchased this dragon for her knowing that Granny had an interest in dragons. Asia and the Pacific was a major part in her life and she was quite excited that I was going to Hong Kong to study for a semester. The lady I bought it from claimed it is pure copper. While that fact it questionable, it is a solid piece of metal (it weights a lot for its size). The real odd thing about this dragon is that, from what I understand, I probably purchased this dragon within a few hours of her passing.

Yangshuo: Day Four

One our last day in Yangshuo, we decided to split up. Chase, Mandy, and Kalen wanted to ride scooters to a place that was advertised as having "minorities." I on the other hand wanted to relax in the city and explore a couple of the extremely well maintained parks in the town. Before splitting up we had breakfast together at the same restaurant we went to the day before. We were the only patrons there and the whole staff was watch Brittney Spears music videos at 11am. After breakfast Chase, Mandy, and Kalen found the tour guide from yesterday and hired her again. I spent the rest of the day wondering around the town, watching boats as they came in on the river, and looked through all kinds of neat little shops that were hidden. At one point while I was near the pond, one of the local fisherman came out with his birds to catch fish. He had maybe 8 birds that he released into the pond. Each one had their necks partially tied so they wouldn't sallow the fish. These birds swam very well. While floating in the water they would all of sudden duck down into the water and shoot across the pond. Their bodies moved as if they were a seal or some other water mammal. They could stay under water for quite some time and go under and around rocks and crevasses. The fisherman, an old man, would stand on his little bamboo boat and direct the birds. He would tap (or hit) them on their head to make them dive. Then he would bounce up and down on the boat an yell. I'm not sure what that command was but it seemed to help get the birds back. We met back up at around 6pm and then got a quick dinner before having to leave for our bus.

The bus was a sleeper bus. It had three rows of bunk beds with two aisles. The beds were not very comfortable. They were at an angle so your head was above the feet of the person behind you. It wasn't a continuous angle either. It slanted a little then leveled out, then slanted a little, then leveled out. They were short and narrow too. I can't imagine the beds being longer then 6 feet and the bed was about as wide as my shoulders. They also sold the aisles. There were people sitting and sleeping in the aisles where people walk. This was illegal as it was over boarding, but we were in China. At one point we stopped and there was a lot of shouting from the driver. The people in the aisles quickly got up and ran off. We drove for about 20 minutes before picking them up again. Apparently they had a van waiting to drive these people a certain distance. There must have been a security check point or something that the bus was not able to pay off.

In any case, I did not sleep on the ride home. It was suppose to be 10 hours to Shenzhen but it took 11 (everything leaves on time, nothing arrives on time in China). The ride was through the night but I was still able to see a lot of China most people don't. It is the part of China that tourist don't go to. There were rows after rows of concrete slab buildings. All exactly the same which perhaps some Chinese writing on them. Each building had a metal door in the front like a garage door. That was it for the first floor and it wasn't much wider then that door. There were no colors. If I had driven through this place during the day it would have looked the same. Gray is gray. There were some people outside. All seemed depressed and disconnected. The streets were absolutely filthy. Many of the streets could have just as easily been a garbage dump, but the concept of "garbage" seems to have been lost. At one point we stopped for a bathroom break. The place the bathroom was located was disgusting. It was a simple square cement block building with a wall in the center to divide between men and women's restrooms. Inside there was no lighting or ventilation. Instead of toilets there was one continuous ditch with very short walls to create "stalls." There was the sound of water which I assumed was to run through the ditch, but the smell suggested it has been years since it had been cleaned.

The bus finally made it to Shenzhen and it was early Tuesday morning. The problem was the bus basically dropped us off outside of the main city along the highway. They told us this was our stop and we got off and they disappeared. Fortunately we were near a regular bus stop. We walked over to that stop and had Mandy translate the bus schedule. We figured out what bus we needed to get back to the boarder crossing. It was another hour before we were back at the boarder. At that point I was pretty happy to be back in Hong Kong.

Yangshuo: Day Three

We planned on meeting outside the hostel at 11am to head out for breakfast. Since we could only fit four to a room the French were in one room while the rest of us where in another. Nolwenn, Marie, and Adrien also were leaving that night since they has classes on Monday they did not want to miss. So they were going to check out at 11am while we gathered together. However, we encountered another problem with the staff at the Yo Yao Hotel. One of the staff members checked them out by looking at the room to see if anything was wrong. They found that part of the toilet seat was broken. The French knew about this but only discovered it late the night before which was the first time they used it. The staff was refusing to return their deposit (50 yuan) due to damages. The real suspicious thing was that when the room was inspected, the staff member went straight to the toilet and looked at nothing else. After a long long session of arguing (mostly through Mandy since the staff could only speak broken English at best) a older man came in. We assumed he was the husband of the lady we were arguing with the most and the owner. He seemed to be more co-operative then anyone else we had dealt with at this hotel. He just said that they should pay what ever they feel like they should. The French decided to split the deposit and take only 25 yuan back. The rest of us decided we should check out too as we have been annoyed enough with this place.

After successfully checking out of the Yo Yao Hotel, we went down the street a little ways to a restaurant we saw that had dumplings to get breakfast. It was very good and again cheap (12 yuan for 12 dumplings). While eating breakfast various locals would come by and try to sell us stuff. For the most part we would turn them away. But one local was trying to offer to be our tour guide for the day. Since we didn't have much of a plan yet we agreed to hire her. She charged us 50 yuan for the whole day split between the seven of us (that would be about US$1.10 each). We then rented bikes (ranging from 10 yuan to 20 yuan for the whole day) so we could go out and see stuff in the country side.

Our tour guide, Linda, took us outside of the town. This was the first time that we had left the few blocks that tourist usually stay in. The town of Yangshuo was a little bit bigger then I had assumed but it was still fairly small (maybe a tad smaller then Orrville). In any case, it did not take us long to get into farming land. All of Yangshuo and the surrounding areas are noticeable richer then most of China. It is still very poor, but at least everything is well maintained and people at the very least seem to have something to do to stay busy. The farming in the area seemed very traditional. All the farms were perfectly well kept with everything planted in very nice rows. The amazing thing was that it was all done by hand. There were no tractors, no machinery, just men with simple gardening tools. All the plots were way too small for any modern day equipment to be practical. A lot of the famers were trying to sell their goods either in town or along side the road. The popular one was oranges but it didn't look like much else was in season (a couple of places did have strawberries). The condition of the roads varied greatly, and often had no subtly transition. One minute you would be on recently paved road that obviously had a lot of time and resources put into it (not like the chip and seal stuff we have in the country back home) and the next minute you would be on a dirt road with no gravel. Most of the houses were small two story brick buildings. The brick was the local imperfect hand made type, and the few buildings we saw under construction seemed to be progressing very slowly (I think they were all individuals building the houses). Farm animals seemed to roam about freely. I saw plenty of oxen go between houses and on into fields. They seemed well trained though. At one point we passed a local taking 3 oxen (including a calf) down the road. He walked with one of the oxen while the other two followed and didn't seem to care that we were riding by them on bikes. Chickens were a common sight too. They seemed just as comfortable hanging out with humans as they did themselves.

At one point we came to a Buddhist temple, Jianshan Temple. There wasn't anything unique to this temple but since we had a guide with us she explained a lot of things, like how to pray. You kneel before the statue and bow three times for good luck. Each time we bowed a monk near by would bang a gong. It was pretty neat to finally understand what was going on.

We continued on to look into some water caves near by but ultimately decided to head back to Yangshuo since it was getting late. We needed to grab dinner in time for the French to make their bus. We dropped our bikes off and on the way to the restaurant we checked in to a different hotel. It was not a nice as the night before but we got two rooms with two large beds each and a private bathroom for each room at a cheaper price so it was not that bad. We ended up eating dinner at the same place we had breakfast at since it was so good. The staff there really liked us as we were able to talk to them about celebrities (they really liked Brittney Spears and Michael Jackson) and we helped them with some English translations. After dinner Nolwenn, Marie, and Adrien left while Kalen, Chase, Mandy and myself wondered around town to enjoy Yangshuo at night. Night is when the markets become real active and the street is accented with all the neon lights. After a couple of hours checking out different places were went to bed.

Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2282959&id=7725102&l=8c380

I also added video to the last post. I have been experimenting around with it on my camera and by no means is the video that amazing. I missed videoing a lot of the cool stuff.

Yangshuo: Day Two

Despite being scheduled to arrive in Guilin at 6am we pulled into the station at 7am. It was somewhat annoying as the staff on the train kept waking us up telling us "20 minutes" about every 30 minutes starting at 5am. While getting ready to leave we realized that the cabin next to ours was occupied by three French exchange students from CUHK: Nolwenn, Marie, and Adrien. We had known that there was a possibility of running into them in Yangshuo but we had no idea they were in the cabin next to us. So all seven of us decided to sick together. When we left the station the first thing we had on the agenda was to figure out where the docks were so we could catch a boat to Yangshuo. That was solved rather quickly since there were people just outside of the station wanting to sell us tickets. Mandy was able to negotiated the price as she spoke Mandarin. After they refused to accept our price we left, and about 2 minutes later they came back and agreed to the price. They took us to this makeshift box office set up inside the lobby of a hotel where we paid and got our tickets. The lady then took us around the corner to a restaurant where we could get breakfast. It was 3 yuan (US$0.40) for a big bowl of rice noodle soup with chunks of pork (they were tender and legitimate parts of the pig). We were then taken to a small bus which picked up a bunch of people to be taken to the dock.

The docks were about an hour drive away and a tour guide talked every second of the trip. I didn't pay attention to the tour guide at all since it was all in Mandarin. We were then dropped off at the shop area near the docks while we waited until our boarding time. Here we noticed Guangxi is much colder then Hong Kong. It was not freezing but jackets did make a difference. After waiting for a while it was time for us to be rushed to dock where our boat was waiting. The boat was not too big. Inside were seats and tables, while a stair case lead up to an observation deck. We were the only group of Westerners and every now and then there would be a tour guide making an announcement about something we were passing but it was all in Mandarin. We headed down the river in a convoy of three. The mountains were quite amazing and really only pictures can describe (unfortunately it was hazy that day). Along the way we saw lots of rural Chinese going about their daily lives. Some were washing their clothes in the river, others were herding oxen, and some were making bricks. Bricks seemed to be a common industry in the area and it was all done by hand. They were digging with shovels, backing in wooden shacks, and just stacking the bricks (all imperfect by our standards) along the river side for someone to pick up later. Every now and then a merchant would attach himself to our boat and try to sell us stuff. They had simple bamboo boats (4 or 5 long pieces of bamboo tied together) and would row out to us and tie their boat to the side of ours. They would then walk up and down the side of the boat just outside the window and try to sell us things ranging from fruit to fans to jade. None of the crew of our boat seemed to care that merchants kept boarding the ship. At one point there was a merchant on each side of the boat selling the same things. It looked like a couple of the passengers were having fun playing them off each other. The boat ride was suppose to take 4 hours but it ended up being well over 5.

By the time we got to Yangshuo we were all ready to find a place to put our bags and rest a little bit. The problem was the dock was some ways from the town. The one street that went to town was packed with vendors trying to sell all kinds of things. At the docks there were a couple ladies trying to sell us rooms for the night at different hotels. They followed us all the way down the street before we agreed to check one of them out. It was the Ya Yao Hotel. It was pretty nice inside, looked a lot like a nice hotel back home. We had our own beds and our own bathroom, all for about US$4.10 each per night. Once we got settled in and took a little break we decided to go explore the town. Before we left the lady who had brought us to the hotel tried to sell us tickets to all kinds of stuff locally. We were not sure what we wanted to do yet and it took some convincing to get her off our back so we could go out and explore the town. Yangshuo seemed like a festive town that was very well maintained. The streets were stone and the buildings were all very clean. A couple of streets down from our hotel was West Street which was where all the bars, restaurants, and shopping are. It reminded me of Park City or some other American mountain resort town, but with a strange Chinese feel. It had all the nice quaint buildings but with neon signs out front.

One of the first things we did was to buy tickets for the Impressions Light Show that evening. This show is famous across China as it is directed by the same guy who directed the opening show at the 2008 Olympics. We went to a travel agency called "Panda Travel Service" to buy the tickets. Before we could we were asked a strange question "Do you have a tour guide?" We said no. Apparently if you have a tour guide you cannot purchase the tickets from them. After eating dinner at a brick oven pizza place (I know sounds strange in China but it was very good) we wondered around some of the shops. They had lots of art work, clothing, trinkets, and pretty much what ever else you may be interested in. We then met back up at the Panda Travel Service building to board the van to the show, but there was a problem. Apparently the lady we bought the tickets from had called our hotel to make sure we did not have a tour guide. The lady at the hotel claimed we did. After a bit of argument it was finally figured out that the lady at the hotel had lied (the travel agent said that she has done this before) because she was upset we did not buy the tickets through the hotel. We were a bit annoyed but in any case the van was leaving and we could go. The show was just outside the town. The stage was the river with the back ground being the mountains which were lit up. The show is hard to describe. There were a lot of performers singing and dancing, but all accented by light. Most of the performance was on the water, either on rafts, along the edge, or on this platform that was like a dock that could pivot across the water. Afterwards the van took us back to town and we grabbed a quick snack before bed.

Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2282957&id=7725102&l=7b9f9

Yangshuo: Day One

Over the last weekend I decided to take a trip into south China to a town called Yangshuo in the Guangxi Province. I went with Chase, Kalen, and a local Chase knew, Mandy. We left CUHK on Friday to go to Shenzhen to catch the train to Guilin. The train was a night train meaning that most of the trip was done through the night. It was scheduled to leave at 5:50pm and arrive in Guilin at 6:00am the next day. The train station was very busy and had to wait in line for a while before we could purchase tickets. We got the highest class of seats, soft sleeper. This meant that the four of us would get a cabin to ourselves and each of use had a bed. It was a very small cabin and the beds were bunked but it was a lot more comfortable (and safer) then any of the other classes. On the train there were a few other foreigners but it was mostly locals (and a lot of military officers) traveling. There was a restaurant car on the train which we spent some time in the evening in. The food was cheap but questionable. All of us tried to go to bed pretty early but it was difficult on the train. One thing that was obvious while taking the train across the country was how many people there are. We rode for several hours outside of the city before I lost sight of a high rise. There were also numerous slum villages of just shacks which I did not see much of since the sun set soon after leaving Shenzhen. Many famers had plots of land that were just the space between the nearest building or road to the rail track, often being only a few feet wide. I saw very little space being wasted.

French Dinner?

Earlier this week I was invited by Pierre to his French dinner night. He and some of the other French exchange students were cooking French food and had invited some non-French exchange students such as myself. We had baguette, ratatouille, red wine and crepes for dessert. The French students claimed it was not as good as the real thing due to the limited choice in supplies but it was still very good.

I did realize a cultural phenomena that I had not considered before. In terms of understanding culture I have been focused on how Westerners relate to the Chinese. I had not considered the difference among Westerners themselves, let along the dynamic of a multicultural group trying to survive in a culture not represented by the group itself. That night countries represented were France, United States, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Canada and China. All of us were getting along and exchanging stories of their home country.

This night also led me to another realization, perhaps even more practical. The world is very much globalized. There are all these students of many nationalities at one school. Furthermore, we all know that we can go to Hong Kong and find multinational business men. We can shop at IKEA or get food from McDonalds. Despite the dinner theme being French food, there was nutella from Germany, the wine from Australia, and the jam was Smucker's, right down the road from my home in Wooster. A very small big world we live in.

NAFTA across Lamma Island

I spent my Saturday hiking on Lamma Island, which is just south of Hong Kong Island. The group was Chase, his friend who was visiting Kalen, Chris, Antonio, and myself. Chase dubbed it the NAFTA hike since he and Caleb are Canadian, Chris and myself are American, and Antonio is Mexican. We left at around 11 to get to the piers in Central in Hong Kong. After we found the pier with the ferry we needed we had about 20 minutes to eat so we grab something quick from the nearby Subway. We then just barely made it back to the ferry in time. The boat was decently fast but the trip still took about 45 minutes. We docked at Sok Kwo Wan, a little village on Lamma Island.

There was one "street" which was more of a very narrow path. All down this walkway were restaurants with the building containing the kitchen on one side of the street and the seating area on the other. Awnings hung from the building across the walkways and connected to the tent like structures making the eating area. It was all very lively with some many people walking up and down the path and all kinds of sea food still alive waiting for someone to pick them for lunch. We did not spend much time in Sok Kwo Wan as we wanted to get our hike underway. Not too far from the village were some Kamikaze caves.

During WWII Japanese soldiers would hide in these caves. We wandered through one but it did not go too far. We then continued on our way. We walked for a while before coming to a point on the path where a smaller trail split off. We decided to go see what was down there. After walking quite away from the main path we eventually came to a beach.

There were only a couple of people on the beach and it was very clean so we rested for a while. Around the beach were squatter huts that the government had posted signs that they were going to remove. This did not stop one man from sitting at the door way and stare out to the sea. Once we realized that we spent too much time on the beach we headed back to the main path. It was not too long before we came to another little village, Hung Shing Ye.

This seemed to be the place people wanted to go. It was a much bigger beach and had lots of trees that provided nice shade. We stayed there long enough for a bathroom break as we were not interested in all the people. The path continued on through a more forested area until ending at Yung She Wan. Yung She Wan was like Sok Kwo Wan but a little bit bigger.

There were a few "roads" but most of type of stores were the same, sea food. There were a couple of bars and the only motorized form of transportation was a golf cart like vehicle so it seemed like the Chinese version of Put-In-Bay. We made it into Yung She Wan just in time to catch the ferry back to Hong Kong. All in all it was a good hike, even if the day was a bit hazy.

Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2280725&id=7725102&l=0e542

To the Horse Races

Last Wednesday I decided to go check out the horse races. In Hong Kong they do not have major professional sports, but the closest equivalent are the horse races. There are two stadiums in Hong Kong, one on the island, Happy Valley, and one just down the road from the university near Fo Tan. Happy Valley has races every Wednesday night while the Fo Tan races are on Sundays. Happy Valley was a bit of a walk from the train station but it was pretty packed. The vast majority of people there were Westerners and the announcer had a distinct British accent. My guess is that most of the people there were businessmen as a lot of people were dressed well (in suits). There were about 3 races a hour and everything was pretty relaxed. The thing that really surprised me was that all the food and drinks were priced the same as what you would find outside the race track. I guess I am just used to price gouging. I did not bet at all but one of the Europeans I was with did win a 1 to 50 odds. The race tracks are a popular place to relax and socialize, not too many people were real intense about it.

Ping Shan Heritage Trail

Yesterday I went on the university sponsored Heritage Trail in Ping Shan. It wasn't a big group who went (less then 30). I must admit that there aren't too many good pictures so I am only posting the link to the album. Ping Shan is a small town (by Hong Kong standards so the high rise apartment buildings were still there) in the northern part of the New Territories near the boarder with Shenzhen. It was basically a walk with several historical buildings led by a tour guide. It started at the top of the hill at the old colonial police station that the British built shortly after first taking control of the area. Today it is the Tang Clan Gallery with artifacts dating back to the beginning of British occupation. Then we headed down the hill to a restaurant to have a hot pot. A hot pot is essentially a pot with all kinds of food (mostly meat) in it over a hot plate. Most of the meat was cut traditionally (no bone removal). A lot of it was unidentifiable. At one point I ate something a Singaporean just described as "skin." It was not very good. After lunch we visited the Hung Shing Temple. It was in honor of a water god and was very small and very old. It was neat to see something smaller and less worn. Next on the trail was the Kun Ting Study Hall. Attached was the Ching Shu Hin which was the guest house. Both were mainly stone and brick and had lots of nooks and oddly shaped rooms. All the rooms were very small by modern standards. We then came to the row of ancestral halls. The most prominent was the Tang Ancestral Hall which was about 800 years old (but restored in the 90's and the vast majority is modern that looks old). Only two of the halls were open to the public (Tang being one of them). The Tang Ancestral Hall was a few inches taller then the neighboring ones. Since it was the first, each additional hall had to respect the oldest by being shorter. Inside there was three chambers in succession. The first two were open court yards used for meetings, celebrations, and classes. The third had the shrine to the ancestors. Only the first born son could be added. Next we walked to the original well. It was about what one would expect, a hole in the ground. However the water was very polluted. Then we walked to the Yeung Hau Temple. This, again, was a small temple. It was interesting because it wasn't near any buildings and was only a few yards deep. We then walked through a walled city. Very very tight walkways and most of the city has been removed or crumbled beyond repair. The final stop was the Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda. It used to have 8 sections but it was knocked over about 100 years ago by a typhoon so now there is only 3. We were disappointed because we could not climb it. It was then late in the afternoon and we headed back to CUHK.

Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2278962&l=9964c&id=7725102