From Wooster to Hong Kong

For Future Students

2009-08-31T18:18:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-16T00:28:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T23:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Album -
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Ocean Park

2009-03-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Album -
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Siem Reap: General Impressions

2009-03-14T20:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-12T20:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-11T23:11:00.001-07:00

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).

Album:
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Siem Reap: Day Two

2009-03-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

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.

Album:
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Siem Reap: Day One

2009-03-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-03T22:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-02T06:35:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-26T00:29:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-17T05:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-12T23:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

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

Taipei: General Impressions

2009-02-05T03:49:00.000-08:00

First of all, the week I was there was the beginning of Chinese New Year. This meant that there were fireworks everywhere. While landing at night in Taipei I saw quite a few fireworks. It was pretty neat seeing them explode at eyelevel all across the city. During the week we heard sporadic fireworks. I am not sure if Taipei had any organized fireworks show, but the locals set off plenty on their own. They would set them off at night and during the day and it didn't matter where they were. Back home I am sure setting off fireworks in the middle of the city with lots of people around would land you in jail pretty quickly. There were even kids running around shooting them off. No one seemed to mind. Things would be exploding the street and bystanders would keep on walking as if nothing was happening.

Secondly, there are no westerners. I didn't expect to see many, but I figured there would be at least some since the west does a lot of business with Taiwan. Out side of the hostel, I don't think we saw any. The locals took notice. They weren't as obvious as the Mainland Chinese in Shenzhen but we were paying enough attention to notice. While on the train ride back to Taipei, there was a Taiwanese who took a picture of me. She tried to do it discreetly but we saw my picture on her camera screen as she was proudly displaying it to her travel companions (I think family). Chase complained a lot that the locals gave me a lot more attention then him. Pierre didn't seem to care at all, but it was probably because I was the only one with curly hair and facial hair.

The food in Taiwan was also very good. Before I left, everyone who had been there before said the food was great, but I the food surpassed all of my expectations. Everywhere we went, from Taipei to the costal villages, the food was unique and cheap. They even had milk as a common drink. A bottle of Dr. Milker brand milk costs about US$0.75.

Another thing that stood out to me was the police presences. Having been in Mainland China only a few days before, the difference stood out even more. There were few cops and security guards. I only say one group of them bigger then two and they were directing traffic. We approached them to ask for directions and they were very friendly and helpful. They seemed to make it their mission to help us out. Westerners are rare in both Shenzhen and Taipei, but in Taipei the cops where much more accepting of foreigners whereas the Shenzhen cops seemed paranoid of us.

One odd thing I noticed was the placement of some buildings. Along paths there were a decent amount of abandoned (or looked abandoned) buildings. While walking up a mountain to a park in Keelung, the path went through a restaurant. As far as I could tell the restaurant had not name (there was nothing posted in English or Chinese) and the building looked like it may have been abandoned at one point. There was quite a bit of activity with a woman singing and a couple of chefs cooking things for the handful of patrons. You had to walk through this place to get to the top which was kind of odd. Then when we went on our hike we pasted many private homes (some more of shacks). We were no where near a named road, just people living out in the forest along a national park path (or what ever the Taiwanese equivalent is). I was interesting to see a society that was so backwards they didn't even have a mailing address.

The weather for the most part was somewhat depressing. I think we had one clear day. The forecast called for rain everyday that we were there, but fortunately it was only a real issue once. It typically rained at night or while we were on the bus.

And finally, I must note the sanitation. It was pretty bad. There was trash everywhere. Garbage bags were not put in a central location, they would just put it where ever on the street when ever they needed to. Sometimes they would just leave the bags in the elevator. The beach in Daili was just plain disgusting. All kinds of stuff washed up on the rocks and no one ever cleaned it. Some places look more like a landfill because the beach was not rocks or sand, it was just garbage. However, the drainage was pretty good. Despite all the rain, there were hardly any puddles and on the streets caught a whiff of sewage about as often as any major American city.

Overall, it was a very good trip. We saw a lot and experienced a lot that westerns don't. Taiwan is quite a unique place.

Taipei: Flight Home

2009-02-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

We did not have much time on our final day in Taipei. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8am so we got up around 5. We checked out of the hostel and went across the street to catch the bus to the airport. It was another long bus ride, about an hour. When we checked in at the airport they told us that the flight we were on was overbooked so they were offering us business class seats on a Cathy Pacific flight that left 25 minutes later. We decided to take it and they gave us an additional NTD200 to spend on food in the restaurant. This made us very happy because the extra 25 minutes gave us time to eat breakfast and since we had used up all our NTD, the extra 200 gave us enough to buy breakfast. We then boarded the Cathy Pacific Airbus 330 and found our seats. There was very few people in business class and the configuration of the plan had no first class. Cathy Pacific has been given service awards and it really showed. The treatment we got in business class for that hour and half flight was better then first class in the states. All the flight attendants memorized our names and always addressed us by our last name. We were given a selection of fresh food which was also very good. It wasn't long before we were back in Hong Kong. I got back to my room at about noon and spent the rest of the day resting.

Taipei: Day Four

2009-02-03T02:41:00.000-08:00

This was our last full day in Taipei. We decided to spend it doing some miscellaneous things in the city that we were not able to do earlier. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so that limited what we could do. We first went down the street from our hostel to the Taipei Handicraft Market. It was actually more of a store that sold craft things relating to Taiwan and Chinese culture. It was mostly art and jewelry. After buying a few items we headed out to what is nicknamed "The Golf Ball Mall." (I don't remember the actual name, everyone there calls it The Golf Ball Mall). This was a very large mall that had a 10 story sphere on one side. Half of the sphere was on in the inside, half was outside. The stores inside were not anything unique but the architecture was. We got lunch in the mall and then headed back to our hostel for a while. We stayed there until dinner, which we decided to look for those famous soup dumplings (called xiao long bao). The restaurant that everyone recommended was Din Tai Fung. We showed up around 7pm and the place was packed. The restaurant was three stories high but very narrow. They gave us a number and told us it would be about an hour (we were 50 numbers away). We decided that was fine and looked at a menu to figure out what we wanted. While waiting an Italian man noticed us and started a conversation. We were the only Westerners there, which was probably why he was so excited. He said that he loved Din Tai Fung so much that he ate there everyday. He gave us recommendations on everything on the menu. He then introduced us to the owner, who has set up restaurants all over south Asia and has become a multimillionaire from his soup dumplings. He didn't speak much English but he was very nice. As soon as this happened we some how got a table despite having over 20 more numbers to go. Inside the restaurant was pretty nice. It wasn't over the top fancy but it was just a nice Chinese restaurant. The waitresses were very well trained, doing most everything for us in a very perfect form. They then started bringing out our orders. We got one order of pork, one of vegetable, one of pork and crab, all with soup in them. Additionally we had an order of pork and fried rice. Each dumpling order had probably around 8 dumplings. We also got a free order of spicy shrimp. When it was delivered we just looked at it and asked "Did we order that?" The waitress just said "It is free," bowed, and walked away. At this point we were all very confused but then a different waitress can over and explained that it is a new dish and they want feed back. After we had finished it, the owner came back with another waitress who asked how we liked it. We told her we really liked it and the owner seemed very pleased (he didn't say anything while at our table, but just smiled). There is no other way to eat xiao long bao then with chop sticks. They are relatively small dumplings so I could eat them in one bit, but barely. You pick them up with the chop sticks and then dip it in sauce (1 part soy, 3 parts vinegar, and some strands of ginger). You then hold a soup spoon under the dumpling when you bit into it so you can catch the soup that falls out. The xiao long bao (with pork) was probably the best meal I had ever had. There are no words to describe it. For desert we had these little dumplings filled with sesame. As odd as it may sound, it tasted just like chocolate. For all that amazing food our bill turned out to be about US$10. Afterwards we looked for a jade market, but it was not open that night. We headed off to bed since it was starting to get late and we had to get up the next morning really early to catch our flight.

Taipei: Day Three

2009-02-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

The third day in Taiwan we set completely aside for a long hike. Just east of Taipei are lots of trails. The one we picked to do was from Fulong to Daili which was about 10km long. We woke up early (8am) to get a quick breakfast and head out on the train. The train ride was about an hour and half and there were no seats left. The train, unlike the metro system, was not designed to have people stand. There were no bars to hold on to, we just stood in the isles. The train was packed with lots of other people also standing. Needless to say, it was a long train ride. The scenery did make up for it as most of the train ride followed a river out in the country side. When we got to Fulong we immediately started looking for the beach. Fulong was pretty small (one road) but had lots of people visiting due to the popular beach. We never figured out how to get to the beach but we kept seeing it while standing behind a fence. We really were more interested in finding food. We stopped in the visitors' center hoping to find a café but the only food they served was expensive desert (and oddly enough "Fried Toast"). We talked to the equivalent of a park ranger who was very helpful in showing us where we could hike and how to get to the trail head. We were given about 5 different maps all with different details and none of which were in English. We then walked down the one and only road in Fulong to look for food. We picked a small family restaurant and had the most amazing fried rice with pork. I got what I thought was just apple juice that turned out to my surprise to be sparkling. I was excited about it but Pierre thought I was crazy (it must be common in France). After paying for the meal (it came out to be about US$3) we started to walk the trail. The trail started off nicely paved with white lines drawn on both sides. It didn't take long for us to get into rural Taiwan. We saw lots of farms and run down shacks. There were not too many locals outside, but the one old lady we did pass eating a bowl of rice on her porch did seem friendly. As soon as we started going up the hill we saw the layered rice patties (I am assuming they were for rice, but nothing was growing in any of them at the time) along the hillside. The paved path then ended in what we first believed to be a dead end. It just became some ones parking area adjacent to a house with a wall then cliff. Thinking we missed a turn we walked back to the next intersection. There it seemed clear that the direction we were originally going was the correct one. So we turned around and went back the same direction again. We investigated the area around the dead end for a while until figuring out that what we thought was the gravel path to a different house nearby, was actually the path. The path literally went through some ones front yard. From there it started to become forest. I would describe it as semi-tropical and dense. The path then became a road as it passed a park. This park had rice patties separated by stone walls on flat ground. We didn't stay too long as there were lots of people. The trail then followed a stream which had waterfall after waterfall. At one point the stream joined another stream, both having a waterfall at the joint. The path left the river at a set of stairs. These stairs were really steep and went up quite a ways. There was easily a thousand steps which we had to take a break part of the way up. We passed a stone inscription. Apparently the popular thing for ancient Chinese generals to do was to inscribe things on rocks in hard to reach places. At the top of the climb the forest ended and the scene looked like a hilly meadow. Where the path starts to descend again was an observation point that overlooked the small ocean side village of Daili. After spending some time resting and looking out over the ocean we began the decent which took a lot longer then we had expected. The path cuts back and forth all the way down the mountain side. At the bottom was the ruins of an ancient inn that didn't look like much other then two squares of stone, but it was interesting. The trail ended in Daili at a temple. We didn't look at the temple since we had spent some much time at several the other day and this one didn't look that unique. In stead we went to the beach front. It was mostly stone and very very polluted. Trash was everywhere. We then got on the train back to Taipei. The train station was incredibly small and the train wasn't that big either. It was a long train ride home (I think about 2 hours but we were stuck at one station for a while). We were so exhausted we got some pizza and went to bed.

Album:

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Taipei: Day Two

2009-02-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

On the second full day in Taiwan we decided to go to one of the outlying cities, Keelung. We went to the train station, which was conveniently located across the street from our hostel, to figure out how the train system works. The station was pretty simple but had a sense of grandeur at the same time. The board displaying the train times seemed out dated as panels flipped rapidly to change information. We eventually bought our tickets and went to the platform to wait for our train. All the platforms were underground, and after our train left we were still underground for quite some time. When we emerged, we were in a much more rural part of Taiwan. I saw shacks with small vegetable gardens around them and lots of other rural poverty. Probably the strangest thing I saw was a half completed high rise that seemed abandoned for some time. Surrounding the building was shacks and lots of vegetation. The exposed steel framework looked rusted and it was clear construction stopped long ago. We reached Keelung after a little more then an hour train ride. Keelung is a shipping port on the northern tip of Taiwan. It seemed small for a city but there was plenty of activity. We wondered around for a bit. We went through a very crowed street market that sold mostly food. A scoop of snails or a tentacle on a stick were common items sold. We then went to lunch at a very small local restaurant. None of them spoke English and there was no menu so it took some creative communication methods to order. After trying to talk to each other in our native languages we ended up going to another patrons table and pointing at what we wanted. We each got a bowl of rice with minced meat (I'm fairly certain it was pork). It was NT20 each which is about US$0.60. It was very good. We then headed up the hill to a park that overlooked Keelung. It was an interesting view but nothing sensational. We didn't stay too long before deciding to try to go to the limestone cape in Yeliu. We had no idea how to get to Yeliu. We assumed by bus but all the bus schedules were in Chinese. After spending some time trying to figure it out we eventually just got on a bus that had a destination in English written on it that seemed close to Yeliu. The driver didn't speak English either so we looked at a map posted in the bus. That map was also not English so we tried to match it up with ours which was in a language we could read. We didn't make any progress as the map posted didn't have enough features for us to identify where we were going. Fortunately there was a woman on the bus who spoke English and recognized our problem. She told us that we got on the right bus and then told the driver to alert us when we got to the Yeliu stop. The bus traveled through the country side and stopped at all kinds on little towns. I wondered what it would be like if buses ran regularly through the country side in Ohio. It was about an hour before the bus driver started shouting to use in Mandarin that this was where we wanted to get off. Yeliu is a small harbor village. It only had a couple of streets but they were long and followed the shore line. It took us a little time to figure out how to get to the limestone cape. It's official name is the Yeliu Geological National Park. There was a long building that was a market we walked through. It turned out that was a mistake. It was a lot longer then it looked, poorly ventilated, smelled like fish, and at the end was the exit to the park. So we walked back around the building and found then entrance and paid the small fee it get in. Inside there were a ton of people walking around the strange limestone formation. The limestone formations are rather hard to explain. They seemed like giant mushrooms. I wondered around a bit looking for places there were not a lot of people and just generally relaxing by the ocean side. We stayed until dark at which point we walked back to the bus stop to figure out if there was a way to go straight from where we were to Taipei. The few signs were in Chinese so that didn't help. I managed to find an Indian man how spoke English and he seemed pretty confident that where he was standing was where the bus to Taipei stops. It wasn't long before a bus came but it was too full for Chase, Pierre and I to all go. We waited about 10 minutes before two buses came at once for Taipei which we had no problem getting on. It rained the whole way back to Taipei and took well over an hour. The bus stop we got off at was right by our hostel and we ate a quick dinner at Burger King since it was so late and then went to bed for the night.

Album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277389&l=526ab&id=7725102
(second half)

Taipei: Day One

2009-01-31T21:03:00.000-08:00

We spent the first day in Taipei visiting obvious attractions. Our first stop was the Guandu Temple, which was on the outskirts of the city. We took the MRT train to the Guandu stop. Once we got there we really had no idea which way to go since the signs were not very good, so we just started following the mass of locals that were heading in one direction. We went through some windy narrow roads with run down buildings. There were festive decorations all around for Chinese New Year and some little street vendors trying to sell stuff to the people walking by. One lady sold some ice tea to Chase. She spoke almost perfect English which seemed out of place. We eventually made it to the temple which was tucked away among all of the other buildings. The Guandu Temple was quite large. It wasn't scaled up, it just sprawled. There were all kinds of little buildings, shines, and hallways that seemed thrown together. It was very ornately decorated and was very complex. There was a path through the temple that you are suppose to take but we kept getting lost so we gave up doing it the proper way. There were also too many people there for us to really see where we were suppose to go. It was still the Chinese New Year so there were a lot of praying and offerings. The temple itself was actually on the side of a mountain. On top was a garden area and underneath were caves that lead to more shrines. After a while it got overwhelming and we decided to go some where else. We wondered to the nearby market but didn't see anything of interested so we walked along a river which we thought would led us back to the MRT station. It took us a while but with the help of a couple of police officers directing traffic we got back to where we wanted to be. The next stop was the Taipei Confucius Temple, which is modeled after the temple in Confucius' home town. There was significantly less activity at this temple. It was more spread out with lots of little gardens segregated by walls and gateways. It was very peaceful and enjoyable. We went across the street to get lunch at a bakery. The food was very good. I had a large round piece of bread with slices of meat on it and glazed. It was sort of like a cold glazed pizza. I also had a piece of what could best be described as chocolate cake, which was also very good. We looked at another temple next door but it was not that unique and very busy with Chinese New Year activities. We then headed back to the MRT to go visit Taipei 101. Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world (the Burj Dubai will beat it soon). It is suppose to represent a giant bamboo sticking out of the city. The eight section are for good luck (8 is a lucky number). There was nothing of real significances near Taipei 101. Like the rest of the city, everything is spread out and there is no center of anything. Just outside the door was a market, but I am assuming it was just for New Years. Inside was a huge upscale mall. It took us a while going up and down many escalators to find where you buy a ticket to go to the observation deck. We had to wait in line and go through light security to get into the elevator. This elevator is the fastest in the world. We went up 84 stories in 32 seconds. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we couldn't see much, but you could definitely tell you were very high up. With no other skyscrapers near by, it was hard to imagine you were still in a building. The observation level was two floors. The outside walls were all windows but everything else was jewelry for sale. After a while it got dark so we decided to go back down. We went to go have dinner at a restaurant known for its soup dumplings (it is dumplings with soup in them), but it was closed so we wondered around for a small local place. We found one where the workers didn't know any English, but the menu had pictures and enough English words to understand what animal the meat was coming from. It was very good. We then started heading back to our hostel. On the way we pasted the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. It was really awesome at night. The grounds were spread out and surrounded by a wall. The monument in the center was a giant white building that was light up. Visually it was very beautiful.
Relevant albums:
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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277389&l=526ab&id=7725102

Made it to Taipei

2009-01-28T05:25:00.000-08:00

I have found a computer with internet connection in my hostel. I doubt I will have another post while in Taipei but at least I can get some stuff down before I forget. Pictures will come when I return in Hong Kong. I will also spell check when I get back.

So my flight out of Hong Kong was in the early evening at 6:15 on Dragon Air. I am traveling with Chase and Pierre. The flight was only an hour and 15 minutes but they made it very nice. It was a large Airbus 330 and they served dinner (chicken and rice, it was very good). We arrived in Taipei and got through customs and immigration with no problem. Taipei International Airport is not very big and seems a little behind the times. We managed to find the bus service that would take us into the city near where our hostel was. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long. During the ride we realized that the city is very spread out. There is no cluster of major buildings like most other major cities I have visited. There were decently high buildings everywhere with an occasionally tall building sticking out in seemingly random places. Once we got to the bus stop it was not that difficult to find our hostel, The Holo Family Taipei Traveler's Hostel. To check in we had to go to the 22nd floor of the building. The building it is in is perhaps 25-30 floors with all kinds of other businesses and apartments. The hostel itself is scattered throughout 10 floors. Due to room constrictions we managed to get a really good deal. Our room is a lot like a lower end hotel. We have it to ourselves with two beds and a private bath. The owner of the hostel (I'm guessing Mr. Holo?) is quite an interesting character. He is so calm and relaxed. He calmly clapped when we first arrived and then did it again the next day when we booked the room again. He had forgot who we were and thought we had just arrived. We had to show him the receipt from the night before to show we were here and he was shocked when he found his signature. He often tells us strange things too. He told Chase today while rebooking that he need to put his luggage aside to get the room again. The request didn't make any sense and a woman (his wife?) told us just to ignore him.

Since we arrived somewhat late, we just walked around a couple of blocks. Taipei seems a lot different then Hong Kong. There are some main streets, but most are smaller and pedestrians wonder around in them a lot. Traffic laws are interpreted creatively. On the first night we watched a van run a red light by honking and waving his hand at opposing traffic. In Hong Kong there is very little if any honking. Here is really common. Some road seem like alleys but will have a random 7-11 store in the middle that is open late at night. We then went back to the room to figure out what we wanted to do for the next day

Off to Taipei

2009-01-25T21:08:00.001-08:00

I will be leaving for Taipei in a few hours. I will not be back until Saturday. Look for new posts then.

Shenzhen: Where the Real is Surreal

2009-01-25T06:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Chase and I decided to go to Shenzhen which is the city just on the other side of the boarder in mainland China. It was the first of China's special economic zones (SEZ).

Once we got through immigration and customs we were immediately underwhelmed. Shenzhen was rather bland. It was flat, very static and uninteresting buildings, and very few people. To be fair to the later, it is the start of Chinese New Year so a lot of people had left already. There were a few shops just across from the station that we decided to check out. In one of the convenient stores Chase and I got dumplings and meat on a stick. Not exactly sure what it was but it was good. We also walked into a KFC to see what it was like. It was at that moment that I realized there was not a single thing in English, anywhere. This continued throughout the day. Almost no one we can across spoke even a little English. We decided to try to figure out if there was somewhere more interesting to go to in the city and to find a market. Back in the station we found a couple of pamphlets for visitors but they were very poorly done. We managed to get two maps (both with completely different information on them) that were not helpful at all. One had too big of a scale, the other was too small. The larger one had a map key, but only sort of matched some of the symbols and colors on the map. The other had no key at all. So we decided the best thing to do is go somewhere else in the city and wonder a round for a bit. The Shenzhen subway had two lines and we felt that where they intersect might be a good place to start. On the subway I began to realize just how much of a police state China is. On each train there were multiple police officers going up and down the train constantly. Each station had more. On the surface and on the streets they were everywhere. We saw all kinds of combination of security guards, police, and military personnel constantly. There was one police officer whose beat was apparently just the seating area of a McDonalds. It was almost humorous when they took notice of us. I remember passing by a group of military officers and one of them saw me. His posture immediately changed. He had somewhat of a stern look but it seemed like he was thinking "A Westerner! Finally some excitement!...wait, what am I suppose to do? I'll just stand over here and watch." Once we got to the stop we went up to the surface.

The exit we got out on was in a Sheraton Hotel which seemed very out of place. It was a sleek solid black building with fountains out front. Surrounding it was bland, run down towers. However, in the streets there was a New Years market which was something Chase and I were looking for. While walking the street all the booths reminded me of the vendors at the Wayne County Fair (although a lot less formal and significantly more crowded).

Many of the shops were selling New Years decorations which were just as cheap and commercialized as many of our holiday's decorations have become in the States. One of the vendors was selling fried baby birds. Chase bought a dozen for 10RMB (about US$1.50). I tried one, the seasoning was really amazing but the chick itself was not. At one point a girl probably about our age came up to us and said in decent English "Excuse me, you are the first foreigner my mother has ever seen. Can she take a picture we you?" At first I thought that would has to be impossible in such a large city. But then I glanced around and realized that so far Chase has been the only other Westerner I had seen. We agreed and made the mother was very excited. Once we made it down one street of vendors we wondered into an adjacent mall. Again, it seemed out of place. It was really fancy. At one part there was even a live band with a rather large audience. Chase and I grabbed a quick lunch at a Pizza Hut. The menu had some English but the important thing was we knew what we were ordering. The waiter greeted us in English which surprised me and I started giving him my order in English. However, greetings were apparently as far as his English went so we ended up ordering by pointing at pictures. The prices were comparable to back home but this Pizza Hut was super fancy and played classical music. After we finished eating I was determined to buy something from the market. There were all kinds of interesting and unique trinkets. There were also the obviously mass produced items but I wasn't very interested in those. As I started looking at the items I was surprised none of the shopkeepers were paying attention to me. They just ignored me while I looked through their wears. One man did show me a kaleidoscope but didn't pressure me beyond that. After looking a few booths I created a list in my mind of the things I would try to buy and whatever I could get at a decent price I would go for. So I ask one of them how much an item was. The item was a box that contained a set of colorful blocks with pictures and Chinese written on them. The box was worn and the blocks were dirty, but it looked pretty neat. When he gave me the price I didn't understand a word he said, but he held up two fingers. Chase and I debated a little bit on what he meant. We guessed it was either 200RMB for the set or 2RMB for each. I then tried to ask him what they were. He made a gesture that suggested writing or rubbing. I'm not convinced he understood my question since I had trouble thinking how that applied to the blocks in question, but I decided to go ahead with the bargaining. The first step was to establish what two meant. I didn't get very far until Chase came up with the idea of using his phone to type numbers. He typed 200 (so it was for the set) and I then type in 50. He shook his head and turned away. So I moved on and went to his neighbor and asked about an old booklet that had Chinese and drawn pictures in it. After a couple of numbers went back and forth we quickly settled on 65RMB. The man was so excited (I know I paid too much for it, but they know I have more money then their average customer) but it was my first choice item to begin with. With that transaction, the whole side of the market immediately went hyperactive. A white man was buying things! It was less then a second that the first man with the blocks was poking me waving a cell phone with a number on it. It was still too high so I offered lower and he shook his head again and walked away. In the mean time, the man I bought the booklet from gave me change. By that time I had a second offer. My guess is that he wanted to negotiate tough by walking away but was worried he would lose the Westerners business. I continued to negotiate on the blocks but for the rest of the time his partner (perhaps son?) participated too. I found the whole thing humorous. The older man acted tough and would walk away from my offer, but the younger guys would immediately show me his cell phone with a lower number. This went on for a while with every one communicating only with numbers on a phone. When we finally agreed on a price they were ecstatic and I decided I had spent enough money for one day. All the other shop keepers were showing me all kinds of stuff, but the prices were rapidly skyrocketing. I just walked away. The problem was that even though the vendor on the other street did not see me buy anything, they saw I was carrying things that were obviously purchased at the market. The very last vendor did manage to nab me, but I only showed a little interest because he did have some pretty neat things and I didn't want to buy anything more. As I walked away the man came back to me and wanted to see the things I purchased. I let him see, as at the time Chase was distracted by a child playing some sort of instrument and I wasn't going anywhere soon. The man then showed me some posters I had not seen before, mostly propaganda posters of Mao. I decided since I was in China I should get one. His offer was so cheap I felt like I shouldn't even bargain lower and took it. At that moment I decided to stop buying things again. We decided to go back to the subway and try another station. The one we came out at had a mall attached to it underground. This mall was very tight and compact. Each store was probably about the size of half a small dorm room. The stores seemed to go on for ever in a rather labyrinth like manner. It took us a while to figure out how to get out. Once outside, we found it drab like before and didn't spend much time there. I did however, buy a piece of amazing chocolate cake for only 4RMB (.60 cents). We then headed back to the station to get back into Hong Kong. When we got there we decided to eat at a local restaurant before leaving. The food was very good, but we got poor service. I don't think the poor service was because they were poorly trained or that they didn't like us. It was more of they didn't know what to do with us. This was a theme that seemed to have been carried on through out the day. When ever I tried to wave down the waitress she seemed to have a panic attack, run to talk to her manager and then the manager would just look very confused while they both walked away together. After we paid we walked across the street into the station to go though immigration and customs. I wasn't sure if I should declare the items I bought so I asked the guy at the declaration desk about the rules. This led to another bizarre encounter. The guy asked to see my items. I showed him them and asked me to open the box. He picked up one of the blocks and looked at them. He put it down and immediately asked for my passport. I gave it to him and we quickly ran off and talked to another customs agent. At that moment I realized that the box probably looked like something drugs would be smuggled in, so I had a feeling that it was going to be a while before I was going anywhere. The guy came back with two additional agents, a girl and an older woman (I'm guessing she was both of their superior officer). The guy didn't stay much longer but the other two women looked through my three items very extensively. I have a feeling the guy didn't know much English, the girl did, and the woman was the one who made decisions. I was asked all kinds of questions about the items. They wanted to see receipts and I explained that I bought them in the market so I didn't have any. Thankfully they never asked what the items where because to be honest I had no idea. For a while they seemed really serious. The older woman went through every detail of the items, pointing out imperfections, nicks, and read every bit of Chinese on the blocks, poster, and the entire booklet. Then the mood started to change. The older woman just seemed confused the girl laugh several times. I think she found it humorous I bought a Mao poster, asking at one point "Do you like Mao?" I responded with the safest thing I could think of at the time "I find him...interesting" which resulted in her laughing again. The woman took charge and the girl started making small talk with us asking about why we were in Hong Kong. At that point I knew eventually I would be able to leave. The girl explained to us that what they were concerned about was the value. While I was entangled with customs, Chase picked up a pamphlet that explained the rules. If I would have done that first I would have known this was a waste of time but one of the rules was that customs could confiscate anything that is deemed a national relic. Despite not knowing exactly what I bought, it did make me feel a little better that customs took that much time and personnel to decided if it was that special or not. Eventually I was let go and didn't have to fill out any paper work. The whole day seemed so surreal. I doubt that I am even coming close to conveying the bizarre world that is Shenzhen.

Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2275760&l=16fb7&id=7725102

ifc

2009-01-23T07:59:00.001-08:00

Earlier this night I explored the area around the International Finance Center (ifc). Most people know 2 ifc as the building Batman was at in Hong Kong. 1 and 2 ifc were connected by a giant mall in the shape of a square. At opposite corners were the two buildings. A third tower stood at one of the other corners which contained a Four Seasons hotel. This whole complex took up about 4 blocks right up against the water. On the roof of the mall there were bars and lots of public space. As everywhere else in Hong Kong, this area was very green with grass and trees all over the place. It also contained plenty of the other common theme in Hong Kong, colored lights. The ifc buildings were not open to the general public with security guards at the doors to the building from the mall area. One could probably spend a whole day at the ifc.

Album containing mostly artistic shots:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2275447&l=b092c&id=7725102

Demand to Serve

2009-01-21T06:10:00.001-08:00

Today I went to Sha Tin to the New Town Plaza mall with Chase to buy a few supplies for our trip to Taipei next week. All I needed was a bag and he was looking for a camera. This was the first time I actually spent any time shopping in New Town Plaza. Most of the sales representatives spoke broken English and at times passed us on to someone with better English. However, the thing that stood out most was the fact they demanded to serve you. Back home most sale representatives will be nice and some will be helpful. In Hong Kong they are rather forceful. Not forceful in the way street vendors are in demanding to sell something, but just forceful in being helpful. For example, at one store Chase was looking through a rack of various items and when he was done he began to put them back. One of the employees quickly rushed over and said that she would put them back. When I was looking at some bags at the Columbia store, one of the zippers got stuck while one of the sales clerks was walking by. He quickly told me he would do it and opened it for me before I could respond. Another odd service was at McDonalds. You go and order your food, wait for it, and then go sit down. However, there are no trash cans or places to put your trays. Why? Well there are men and women dressed in suits to take those away and clean up your table for you. Yes that is right. McDonalds in Hong Kong hires people to dress business professional to clean up after guest who eat in their fast food restaurant. The same thing happens in the canteens (only they are not dressed as nice). I have gotten in the habit of just abandoning things like that because by the time I push back my chair they have the table cleaned (they really pay attention and are really fast at serving customers they think are in need). They never ask if you need help, they just do it. To most back home this probably sounds like pushy or impatient employees, but a lot of these instances came off as having good intentions. It is interesting to note that most people would at first find it a little insulting to have someone do everything for you. However, it is insulting to them if they cannot serve you. They rush to go out of their way to serve the customer without asking (I assume asking for help is a sign they are not doing their job and thus somewhat insulting) and they wont accept tips.

Albums

2009-01-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

I managed to get a public link to my Facebook albums. Here are the links...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274024&l=45703&id=7725102
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2272635&l=28b68&id=7725102
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270972&l=7440c&id=7725102
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270077&l=01b3c&id=7725102

10,000 Buddhas and a McDonalds

2009-01-19T01:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday Chris, Jacque, Jesse, and I decided to do something touristy. We wanted to visit the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. Chris had a guide book to Hong Kong that said we needed to get off of the train at the Tai Wai stop. It then said that we just have to follow the signs to get to the temple. This was perfect since Tai Wai was only 3 stops down from University (the stop on campus). When we got off at Tai Wai we started looking for signs to the temple. We found a map of the local area around the station, but Temple of 10,000 Buddhas was not on it. Not too far away there was a temple called Che Kung Temple. We wondered if that might be another name for the 10,000 Buddhas, so we wandered over that direction.

Che Kung Temple had a walled court yard with gates to the outside. On one side of the courtyard was a building that contained a shrine. We noticed a lot of commotion inside the court yard as people were praying. We were not sure if we should go in (or were allowed) but the man at the door encouraged us to go in. He didn't speak English but was very excited and waved us in. Once inside, we noticed almost everyone burning incense and praying. Although there were variations on how it was done, it seemed common to take the incense stick between your hands, which were clasped similar to how Christians pray, hold your hands up to your forehead and then bow multiple time in succession. There was no leader, and it seemed each individual prayed separately in their own way at their own time. It didn't seem like a family event, there were no children but we did see what looked like couples having their fortunes told. There were chimes hit a certain number of times followed by a big drum being hit a certain number of times. We walked cautiously in the building with the shrine. Inside was a giant statue in armor which was too tall for me to see his face. This is what people were praying to and leaving offerings. At this point we decided that this was not the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas and decided to wander down the path. There was a map we found that had a suggested walking trail (mostly for tourist) that we determined had to eventually lead to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. It didn't take us long to come to another shrine.

I am not sure what it is called but it was all outdoors and a lot smaller. It also was not on the map. There were fewer people inside but we did see a shrine to what I later determined to be Avalokiteśvara which is a figure in Buddhism. Again there was incenses everywhere. There were pots all over the place that had many sticks of it burning. We decided to continue on to the next place the map suggested called Tsang Tai Uk. We didn't know what it was, but we knew we just wanted to see it. When we turned the corner that was suppose to have Tsang Tai Uk we didn't see anything but tennis courts. They were called "Tsang Tai Uk Temporary Recreational Park." Everyone felt that the tennis courts was it and just sat down for a break. However, I decided to go a little further down the road to see if I could find anything else.

After turning the corner I found the Tsang Tai Uk, which is a mid 19th century stone village. It is still being used as residence and was not that exciting. We then continued on and crossed a canal. On the other side was the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. We decided to look around in side since it was air conditioned and only HK$5. Inside we saw all kinds of art and displays from various cultures within China. There were also historical displays on the development of Hong Kong. After spending some time inside we left and crossed the street to get our bearings. We then realized that we were next to New Town Plaza which is the ridiculously large mall that contained the Sha Tin station. We had walked from one train station to the next and still hadn't found the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. Chris's book mislead us. In any case by this time we were very hungry and just wanted food. So we went to a McDonalds inside the mall. This McDonalds was packed. We got a quick bit to eat which was nice since it was the first time I had ice cream and a hamburger since getting into Hong Kong. Afterwards we debated about whither or not we should continue looking for the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. We found a map of the Sha Tin station area and discovered that the Temple was on the other side of the station. In fact we could see on the mountain side from the train station. So we walked that direction.

This is what we thought was the entrance to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. It looked very nice and religious. A short walk up the hill we found shrines to Avalokiteśvara and Buddha. We continued almost all the way up until we got to some buildings. Inside one there were monks gathered around a couple of tables chanting. In most of the buildings it seemed to have pictures of people (I assumed deceased) much like a mausoleum. There were lots of Chinese around us praying and leaving offerings. Nothing was in English. When we got to one side of the top we looked at the compound right next to us and could see statues of golden monks. It was at that point we decided (yet again) that we were not in the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas, but this time we knew where we had to go and were very confident about it. The only problem was that we had to go back down the mountain in order to get on the right path to climb back up the mountain.

The path up the mountain was long and very steep. Statues of monks covered the entire path. The top was rather awesome. There was the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas, more statue monks, giant statues of other Buddhist figures, a tower, and other structures.

Inside the temple, there were Buddhas covering the wall. Each little statue was unique. We climbed the tower that was nearby for an amazing view of the temple and the city of Sha Tin. The path we took didn't end at the temple, so we continued on up the mountain. There were still statues but they became more diverse. Some were of female figures while others seemed more warrior like. There was another small shrine to Buddha and another mausoleum. After that we were so exhausted we all just wanted to go back to CUHK.

Pictures

2009-01-17T04:48:00.000-08:00

Some people (who do not have Facebook) have ask to see some pictures, so in no particular order here are some of my favorites so far...

Common scene in Central...lots of people, lots of signs, and very tall buildings

This is the skyline of Hong Kong at night.

The view from on of the academic buildings
Back side of Hong Kong Island near the Stanley Market
Some of the friends I have made on Victoria's Peak. To put names to faces starting in the back row: Me, Jacque (American University), Chase (University of Alberta), Chris (Penn State), Jesse (American University). Front (all from University of Miami): Jennifer, Charlie, Francesca, Natalie.

Sanitation

2009-01-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

There is a stereotype out there that assumes developing countries, like China, are very dirty and unsanitary. Hong Kong has shown no sign of that yet. It is probably the cleanest city I have ever been too. They have strict littler (and spitting) laws which makes the streets clean to begin with. Apparently spitting is a common Cantonese habit (I hear my local flat mates clearing their throats ever evening) so the government had to crack down to keep the street walkable. There are armies of people that go around a clean everything and anything. Yesterday, while in Central, I watched a group of about five go down the street to clean things. They washed the street signs and even the metal guard rail that was between the sidewalk and road from the base up. On campus there are always people washing windows and sweeping. There is a lady that mops my flat and cleans the bathrooms several times a week. It is also not uncommon to see public hand sanitizers or plastic covering the buttons on the elevator (they change those out). Everyone keeps their cars super clean as well. I haven't seen a really dirty car yet (trucks excluded). I even saw someone get a bucket of water to wash their car while parked on campus. One positive side affect of eating pigeons is that there are few in the city. I have really only noticed one flock and by flock I mean less then five. There is not bird poop on anything. It is common to see posters about sanitation (wash your hands frequently and wear a mask if you are sick). A lot of that is left over from SARS and avian flu. They even have an avian flu alert levels similar to our terror alert levels.

Weather

2009-01-15T19:34:00.001-08:00

Since everyone back home is talking about how cold it is and how much snow there is on the ground, I think I should also talk about the weather. Just like everywhere else, Hong Kong is having a cold spell. One night they even warned us to dress warmly because it was going to be "freezing." So what is freezing weather in Hong Kong? It needs just about a light jacket. This morning I wore a jacket to go run an errand, but regretted it because I started to sweat. During the day it is pretty warm here. The first couple of days people wore shorts, but then it got a little cooler. At nights the temperature shifts quite a bit into that "freezing" zone, which most jackets can handle. In fact, there is no heating on campus, my flat, like most other buildings, has only air conditioning. Furthermore, it has been sunny almost every day since I have arrived. A couple of days there were a few clouds, but not enough to make any sort of difference. There has been no rain, but some mornings it gets really hazy in the valley areas. I have been told spring starts in late February, but seeing flowers blooming is not uncommon.

Blinkin Park and Other Apparent Contradictions

2009-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

The first round of Blinkin Park was the past couple of nights. Blinkin Park is a singing contest analogous to American Idol. Charlie and Jacque entered as a duet and sang "My Love" by Justin Timberlake. Needless to say, it was the only English song of the night. As I sat there watching the performances, I could help to notice some ironies that seem like contradictions to how many of the other Chinese have been acting. For the most part the locals are not out going at all. My roommate, Martin, and I are the only Westerners in out flat and there 5 rooms. The locals that live in my flat hid from us and spend as little time as possible in the common areas. Once my door was open and one of our neighbors came out and as soon as he noticed my door open he raced back to his room and slammed his door. I have only talked to one of the flat mates briefly. It is so bad neither Martin or I could tell you with confidence how many people we live with. Everyone else is having similar experiences. Westerners might be somewhat intimidating to the locals, but the thing is they don't even socialize often with each other. Sure you see some groups of Chinese friends around campus, but never outside of school. No one goes "out" and no one stays up late with friends. The campus bus system stops running a little past 11pm and Hong Kong's train/subway system stops running at 1am. Aside from not socializing, similar patterns emerge in class. The locals are terrified of speaking. In a Western classroom students are highly engaged by asking questions and giving their opinions. But here that is never done. In one of Jacque's classes taught by a Western professor, the professor asked the class to introduce themselves. All the locals promptly got up and left the classroom.

There is also an issue with conformity. You read about how China is a "collectivist" society (versus an "individualistic" society like America) but you never really understand it until you spend some time in the society. Every day, at lunch time in the canteens, groups of students will come in and perform. It is sort of like a dance (there is stomping and clapping for example) but not really singing (more of a chant). The thing is though, every single person is doing the same thing. Some times the girls and guys will do different things (the groups are mixed) but otherwise it is very uniform. They always where the same thing but its different each day. It reminds me something the military would do (they make no eye contact and are very serious the whole time). I never understand what they say since most of the chant is in Cantonese, but the name of the group frequently comes up. They yell it over and over upon marching into the canteen, marching out, and often during. I have even seen them around campus practicing walking in unison. For the most part, the Chinese place very little value in "standing out."

So why would they make such a big deal out of a signing contest which emphasizes outgoing individuals? They had giant posters and banners made to advertise the contest, built a stage, and the first round was over several nights. The short answer is I'm not quite sure. The locals who sang certainly had less flare then Charlie and Jacque. Their performance was about what you expect in the states. They dressed up and had a dance planned out. The locals didn't move much and sang much slower songs. One guy even had his hands in his pocket. Granted, back home there are lots of people who would feel too nervous to go on stage and try to sing, but none of the locals went all out and tried to just have fun with it…or at least that is how it looked to me. Charlie and Jacque most definitely stood out.

Language Barrier

2009-01-13T01:13:00.000-08:00

Although Hong Kong is officially a bilingual city (English and Cantonese), English is still a challenge to some locals. To a visitor the language barrier would not be much of a hindrance. Bargaining doesn't really require complex phrases and ordering food can be done with pointing. However, for more complicated issues that are involved with living here, language becomes an issue. The other day the shower head broke in my flats bathroom and so I went down to the building manager's office to report it. The problem was the manager didn't know what I was talking about. At first she thought I had locked myself out of my room. It took a little effort to convince her I didn't need keys. Then she said something I didn't understand and kept pointing at the computer (Perhaps she thought I couldn't connect to the internet). Finally she got on the phone and called a resident tutor (our version of RA) and I talked to her. The RT's English was much better and then she conveyed the problem to the manager. When I returned to my flat later that day there was a new shower head installed.

The problem is everywhere has processes. It is not just China, it is back home too. I am frequently reminded of freshman year trying to learn how all the dinning halls work. Miami makes it convenient by making every dinning hall different. The difference is back home if you are confused about a process you can ask and if you do something wrong you are corrected in English. At the dinning halls here you tend to guess what you are suppose to do and then get yelled at in Cantonese. So far I got down that you order and pay for your food at the first counter. But then you are given a receipt. Everything on the receipt is written in Chinese except for a number. I understand that the number corresponds to an order. The tricky part is redeeming your food. Sometimes you get multiple receipts, that’s for a drink order or other side order. There are also different counters to get your food depending on the canteen and what they serve. Some times you turn in your receipt and then they give you your order and sometimes you have to wait until the food is ready and then you trade in your receipt for your food. The servers are very busy and I can understand how they might get frustrated with a foreigner trying to do the wrong thing, especially since they correct you in Cantonese or very bad English. There have been several times when I was at the wrong place to get my food and I don't think the server understood that I had no idea what was going on. I am eventually learning but it’s a very odd way to learn.

Food

2009-01-11T20:37:00.000-08:00

I doubt this will be the last entry on food but it is one of the big obstacles to living in Hong Kong. It is not that most food is strange (a lot of chicken and pork with rice), its that eating it frequently make the diet unusual. American stomachs are not really made for Chinese food three times a day. It took a little over a week to get my stomach to settle. Chinese food back home in the States is not really Chinese food. Some of it is close, like sweet and sour chicken (only its better here). However, there are no egg rolls (spring rolls are rare) and no fried rice. There may be a regional difference that I have not discovered yet but there are also few noodles. The food on campus is very cheap (about US$1-3 for a meal) but like any where else, is no where as good as off campus. Most food on campus is bland. The drinks are something that one would not expect to be different. There is pop, both Pepsi and Coke, but is not as common and there are not many choices. In Hong Kong cold drinks cost a lot more then hot drinks (often double) and I am not sure why yet. Tea is very common and milk is no where to be found. In general though, meals do not require a drink. At restaurants and at the dinning halls (called canteens) maybe one in five people actually order something to drink. Another very uncommon sight is napkins. Very few restaurants provide them and they cannot be found in the canteens.

There are some places that have attempted western food, and their success is comparable to Americans' attempt at Chinese. One of the canteens advertised a special on French food. The "sandwich" was a hot dog. On the tour the other day they feed us spaghetti. The noodles were right but the sauce was more of a strange paste. One night we did try Mexican (the only Mexican place I have seen so far). It was very much a juxtaposition of culture. Americans ordering Mexican from a Chinese. It was sort of Mexican, the chips were greasy and I am not sure how that happened.

Some might be wondering why I have tried to revert back to western food so quickly. The answer is when your stomach feels like it is going to kill you for eating such foreign things so frequently, you need something every now and then to ease yourself into the cultural. It is probably cheating but I think I understand what "American" food is much better now.

Everything is a Mall

2009-01-10T18:55:00.001-08:00

On Saturday the university hosted a tour of Hong Kong for all the exchange students. It was by bus and left in the afternoon. The first destination was Victoria's Peak which is the mountain top that over looks the city of Hong Kong. On the way there we drove by Jackie Chan's house. The drive up the mountain was long and twisting but it was really cool to see all the vegetation and the city. Once we got to the top we were all surprised to realize that the look out point was on top of a mall called the Galleria. This mall was really upscale. Everything was polished stone and very sharp looking. The stores were not unlike shops you would find in the US: shoe and clothing stores, McDonalds, Starbucks, electronics, etc. However, the view from the top of the mall was pretty amazing. You could see most of the harbor and the sky scrapers seemed to be spread out everywhere. It was strange looking down on some of the worlds tallest buildings. Next we drove about 30 minutes to a place called Stanly on the back side of the island. It was a water front area that had a port for some fishermen and market. It was rather touristy but a really cool area nevertheless. The parking spot was high up on a hill and there was a steep descent to get the water front. To go down the hill you must first go through a mall. Not as upscale as the Galleria but still very nice. After leaving we got dinner at the University of Hong Kong (I don’t know why) at which they attempted spaghetti. Finally the tour ended at the Avenue of Stars and we watched the Symphony of Lights again.

At first glance it would seem that the tour just took us to shopping centers in hopes of us spending money. However, almost everything feels like a mall. There are few train stops that you can't do most of your shopping (groceries, clothes, etc). Even a lot of places down town have that same feeling. There are elevated covered walkways all across the city creating two levels for window front stores. With so little space the people of Hong Kong seem to have just merged everything together.

Lan Kwai Fong

2009-01-09T19:15:00.001-08:00

Considering it was a Friday night, Jesse, Jacque, Chris, Charlie and I decided to go to a district in Hong Kong called Lan Kwai Fong. Lan Kwai Fong is a bar district that westerners go to. The streets were pretty much shut down with people walking everywhere. All the bars were very small and very upscale. The vast majority of the people there were Americans and Europeans with the average age probably somewhere near 30. My guess is that most of the people them are young business professions working on an international career. Hong Kong has no open container laws so a lot of the bars were essentially a window to the sidewalk and every one walked around on the streets with a drink in their hand. Unlike certain places back in Miami, no one was binge drinking. It was a party atmosphere but no one was crazy. Later we headed to a night club called Cliq, where a party for university students was being held. The building that it was in had five different clubs that you had to line up for and had dress codes. Once we got in (free cover for students) we walked through a fancy lobby to the elevator that would take us to the club (each had its own elevator with an attendant). I had never been inside a legitimate upscale night club before but the inside was what I somewhat expect. It was mostly black with all kinds of lights that spun around and did various other things. There were also a lot of TV screens that played trippy video on a long loop. The drinks were expensive but I had one just for the experience. It was really interesting watching how differently the locals acted to the westerners. The best way to describe how the locals were behaving would be a middle school dance, where all the guys are on one side and all the girls on another with no one knowing what to do. The westerners were a lot more relaxed and could mingle with anyone. The cultural clash was quite amusing as some locals would run (literally) away when a westerner got near while others would get all excited. Chinese society is definitely not one based on social mixers.

Classes

2009-01-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

My first class was on Tuesday…or I think its my class. The registration here is very different from at Miami. There is limited online registration, but for the most part you just show up to the classes you want to take and later in the week submit and Add/Drop form. CUHK has three Add/Drop periods to get registered for class, each about a week long. There is also a different system for business classes as there are for regular classes so its one big guessing game. The class times are also different. It is all at once, so this class (Global Enterprise Management) was a little over 2 and half hours long. As the week went on I realized that class in CUHK are very different from home. There is little interaction with students during lectures and attendance is not all that important. There are text books but they are not used like they are back in the states. So far none of my classes really have a formal text book and most readings are bits and pieces that can be found in the library. The assumption is that you go to the library to find your readings and make photo copies if you want.

First Weekend

2009-01-06T23:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the first full day that we spent in Hong Kong. Starting at 11 we had orientation and other meetings that we attended. Throughout the day I started meeting more people. Later in the afternoon we were all anxious to get phones so we could communicate with each other so we decided to go to the Sha Tin Mall. It was Francesca, Natalie, Charlie, Jennifer, and Chris. Carlos came too even though he already had a phone. This mall was ridiculous. It had 10 floors with three "phases" (I think they were phases of development?). It was packed with people and sprawled for ever. I had never felt claustrophobic before but the ceiling height in most places was probably close to 7 feet. Everywhere there were TV screens and projectors. Other then the mentioned above, it looked like a mall would back home. It had a modern sleek style and was very clean. In one of the many junctions there were even still Christmas activities. Due to the size, it took us a while to figure where a cell phone store was. At one point we went down escalators thinking we were going from the third floor to the second, when in fact it took us straight outside to the first. We eventually found the place we were looking for. The phones there were incredibly cheap. First we had to purchase a SIM card which was HK$100 and came with a ridiculous amount of minutes. Then we purchased a phone which was HK$390. That was it! No need for a plan or all the other crazy stuff that comes with purchasing a cell phone in the States. Texting was free to phones in the network (Vodafone) and HK$.7 outside. The phone just has an account balance that you can add to when ever you want. After everyone got a phone we decided to find food. The first few places we went to had very long waits. We decided to look at a restaurant that was very fancy and thus had no wait time. Once we looked at the prices we realized that even though it was rather upscale for the area, it was relatively cheap for us. We ended up getting a ton of food and a round of Chinese beer for HK$110 (less than US$15) each. The best way to describe how it worked was family style. We ordered several dishes and then took portions to our own plates. One of the appetizers we ordered was jelly fish. It had a light sesame seed sauce on it and that is all I tasted. I do not recommend it. Very chewy and very bland. After that we headed back to our rooms for the night.

Sunday was our first day of really exploring. I went to Hong Kong Island with the same people as I did to Sha Tin plus Jesse, Jacque, and Matt. We were going to meet Carlos in Hong Kong since he has an apartment in down town. Since CUHK is just outside of Sha Tin which is about an hour train ride from the island. We all wanted to take the Star Ferry across the bay so we got off of the train at Kowloon which is the peninsula side. Hong Kong itself is huge. There are a significant number of relatively new super high rises. There is also a significant number of Starbucks. On our way to the Star Ferry we walked on the Avenue of Stars and found Jackie Chan's hand prints. The ferry was cheap (maybe US$.25) and was really rocky. The turn around time on both sides was very fast but the ride was interesting. Once in Hong Kong we started to wonder around to find food. One of the first things we came across was a demonstration for lesbian rights. Several blocks where closed to traffic as people just sat around in the street and activities accrued on a stage (mostly singing and dancing). Unlike the shopping centers, everyone was spread out and the number of people was probably not that great (1000?). Jesse had a guide book that recommended a restaurant which we found. It was very good and again very cheap. I got lamb, rice, soup, and a coke for about HK$50. Once we found out that Carlos could not meet up with us that day we just started wondering around. We found an out door escalator that looked pretty long so we got on it. Once we started riding it we looked it up in Jesse's book and found out it was the world longest escalator. It went for ever through the city and had its own exits. The main part of Hong Kong is on the side of a mountain with Victoria's Peak being the top (not many buildings that far up). Part of the trip went through a district that was called Soho and seemed very western (pubs and burgers). At the top of the escalator we were in a very jungle like area. In fact it was right next to the botanical gardens. We walked through some of the gardens which were very well kept. In one portion it was like a zoo and had monkeys, lemurs, turtles, and other animals you might find around the area. On the walk back down to down town the side walk was more of a platform at some points being maybe five stories off the ground and twisted and turned in and over itself. On the way down we stopped at a bar in Soho to rest which was priced about the same as back home. Once we got back to the bottom it was starting to get dark so we decided to go back across to the Kowloon side so we could watch the Symphony of Lights. The Symphony of Lights is a light show with many of the buildings in Hong Kong. The skyscrapers had multicolored lights running up and down the sides and many had lasers and spot lights on the roofs. Once the show started all the lights were synchronized to music. On some days they even have fireworks. After the show was over we head back for the night.

Delayed Introduction

2009-01-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

So, this is the sixth day of my trip and I finally have time to write something down.

I suppose I should start with my flight over to Hong Kong. I was pretty happy to leave Cleveland as there was snow on the ground and it was very cold. The flight to Newark was nice because it was very short. I found my flight to Hong Kong after misreading several signs but had plenty of time. While waiting for boarding I over heard two students talking about CUHK and I joined in. It was ironic because the girl's, Francesca, home school was the University of Miami and the guy, Danny, was from Miami, Florida. Later I met another girl, Jennifer, who was also from the University of Miami who is their chapter of AKPsi (not the last person I met in AKPsi from a different school). All of us were seated scattered throughout the plane so there was not much discussion on the flight. The flight itself was just shy of 16 hours long. It went over the North Pole which at this time of year is dark 24/7 so there was nothing to see outside. The movies in the seats kept me entertained for most of the flight (and a prescription of Ambien). One thing to note: while flying over China there was very little lights unlike in the States. We flew over the coastal region and there were as many lights in the water as there were on the shore. Those in the water were cargo ships waiting to dock. Big difference from New York were the dock by Newark was empty.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong we all met up and guess what we had to do through immigration. No real problems, just bored Chinese bureaucrats. We managed to find the CUHK student who was to pick us up from the airport. There we met many more exchange students. The email call what was to pick us up a "limousine" which we found out meant a very small bus. The driver stacked all of our luggage in a big pile by the door so we couldn't see the door or the driver. The drive from the airport to the university was short but the lights from all the buildings were impressive. The first thing we all noticed when we arrived at CUHK was the fact that the campus is literally on a mountain. All the roads were windy and very steep. Their equivalent of an RD met us at the hostel (what they call a dorm), had us fill out paper work and gave us our key. I went up to my room on the 5th floor (of 10) and settled in. I briefly met my room mate, Martin, who is from Denmark and was on his way out. He had been here a couple of days and was a little more adjusted then I was. I unpacked and went to bed.