Holiday Excursions...

This week, before Katherine and I finish our holidays and return to full-time work, we decided to take a few afternoon trips to various locations around Hong Kong...

Excursion #1: Walking to Victoria Peak

On Monday, we decided (on an impulse) to walk from our place up to Victoria Peak. It happens that we are very close to an entry point for a large series of hiking trails which all culminate at the Peak, so we decided to take advantage of that for the first time...

Scaling steps leading to the trail head

About a third of the way up, looking north toward Victoria Harbour

Perhaps 100 meters from the Peak, looking down on the Ap Lei Chau and Lamma islands

All-in-all the walk took us about an hour and fifteen minutes - quite reasonable. Once we did make it up, we enjoyed a pleasant dinner and then took a taxi back home (which we thought would be faster, but probably ended up taking longer than the other method we considered: Peak Tram + bus).

Excursion #2: Aberdeen

Tuesday we hopped on a bus heading south along the Hong Kong island coast and chose to alight (a term widely used in the Hong Kong transportation industry) at Aberdeen...

Strolling along the Aberdeen Harbour (you can see Ap Lei Chau on the other side)

Digging into Aberdeen's famous fishball noodles!

Here we have a bowl of fish broth with fish noodles (fish meat, flour, and seasonings squeezed into noodle form) with pan-fried fishball slices, pork dumplings wrapped with a skin made of fish meat, and a few veggies in an attempt to provide some balance. It was absolutely delicious, but if you don't like fish, I suppose you might not enjoy it. ;>

Excursion #3: Hong Kong Wetland Park and Yuen Long

Wednesday we decided to head to the Hong Kong Wetland Park (a place that Carson and I had visited together in May, but Katherine had still yet to see)...

The day started out quite misty, as you can see in this picture of Tsing Ma bridge taken during our bus ride (while driving on Ting Kau bridge).

Before heading outside to the bulk of the Wetland Park, we spent some time in their aquarium / zoo area. It may be hard to make out, but coiled above me on a piece of safety glass is a seriously giant snake (we didn't see a label for it - perhaps an anaconda?) that appeared to be digesting something (a section of its abdomen was much wider than the rest of it).


Once we got outside, we actually ran into another snake - but this one was much smaller and hiding in the dirt on a path we chose to walk along. It completely startled us when it quickly slithered off before we accidentally stepped on it! Needless to say, it all happened very quickly, so I didn't get a change to snap a photo.

The park has a vast array of life on display, including gorgeous lily ponds like this one.

Here I'm about to snack on a baby mangrove tree (the small bean-like object in my hand).

This is one of the best places in Hong Kong for convenient bird watching. On this particular day, we were very, very fortunate to see (alongside a breathtaking array of ducks, herons, egrets, cormorants, etc) a gathering of Black-Faced Spoonbills...

(This picture is a little odd because we used one of the provided telescopes to capture it.) The Black-Faced Spoonbill is endangered, with an estimated 2000 alive worldwide. A portion of their population like to winter in Hong Kong, it seems, and we saw the proof.


The park is adjacent to the Tin Shui Wai district, and you can see its highrise apartments looming if you look over your shoulder.

After exiting the park (just as they were closing), we took the MTR Light Rail (yet another cool form of mass transit, this one specific to the New Territories) to nearby Yuen Long for dinner...

Dumplings!

Lai mien (hand-pulled) noodles with beef!

Hand-shaved noodles (a first for me) with Taiwanese fishballs stuffed with beef!

A soda made from grapefruit and honey!

After dinner, we meandered around Yuen Long a bit, picking up a few items...

Salak (or "snakeskin fruit", as it is called in Cantonese)! I'd never seen this before and it was pretty tasty. The skin was much more like a shell - a bit brittle and very easy to peel.

Wintermelon "wife" cakes! The most famous bakery for these is in Yuen Long, so we had to get a fresh box.

A fun series of trips, to be sure!

New Year's in China!

A little over a week ago I obtained my Chinese visa in preparation for a trip to Shenzhen. On New Year's Day, we took that trip!

We started by riding the KCR from Hung Hom to the HK-China border at Lo Wu. After clearing Hong Kong Immigration, we walked across a short bridge (spanning a small river) into Shenzhen and its own immigration and customs checkpoint. I flashed my visa (Karl) and strolled right through. Once on the other side, we took a picture to commemorate the moment...

(looking back toward Shenzhen's immigration and customs checkpoint)

We then hopped on a bus and joined a number of other family members (from Katherine's mother's side) for a wonderful reunion...

During the lunch that followed, I tried an interesting Indonesian drink: corn juice...

A thick (slightly thinner than egg nog) liquid that was positively bursting with corn flavor! ;> I'm not the biggest fan of corn (I know some of you reading this aren't either) and I can't say pouring it down my throat improved my opinion, but I'm glad I tried it.

Afterwards we strolled around one small section of the city (which is enormous - twice the land area of Hong Kong with a few million more people)...

...on our way to do some furniture shopping (not for ourselves, but for Katherine's parents)...


...in a building that was jam-packed with furniture stores of all shapes and sizes...


Once we were done there, it was time to head home. We took a taxi back to the border, crossed the China and Hong Kong checkpoints easily, and hopped back on the southbound KCR...

It was a really fun day and a great first trip into mainland China. I look forward to going back.

Though I only spent a few hours there, and only saw a very limited portion of the city, I do have a few comparative observations to share...

• Language: The dominant language was unquestionably Mandarin. Many people seemed to be able to speak and understand Cantonese, but it was not the language of first contact (as it is in Hong Kong). There was also much less written and spoken English.
• Demographics: Noticeably fewer non-Chinese. I think I might have seen only one or two people, other than me, who looked like they weren't ethnically Chinese. As such, I did notice people curiously looking at me more so than in Hong Kong.
  
• Architecture: Generally speaking, the buildings seemed quite similar in construction style to Hong Kong. (Each apartment unit, for example, had externally-mounted air conditioners, just like in Hong Kong)
  
• Layout: It felt wider and shorter, if that makes any sense. ;> Buildings had more space between them, so it was more spread out, and while there were highrises, there seemed to be a lot fewer than in Hong Kong.
  
• Transportation: Cars appeared to be the primary method of transport, not public transit, though it did look like they were rapidly expanding their subway system. Bicycles were also extremely popular, even on roads in major city areas (and highways!) - Hong Kong has very few bike riders by comparison. Taxis also seemed to be able to stop anywhere - including highways - to load and unload people (whereas, in Hong Kong, there are strict regulations governing that).
  
• Advertising: I didn't see any TV advertising, but the signs and printed ads around the city definitely seemed to have an emphasis on the use of women to attract business (much like in Hong Kong). I think this is perhaps more widespread in Hong Kong, but we did see something that we've never seen in Hong Kong before: ads for hospitals which used pretty nurses (as opposted to, say, good healthcare ;>) for bait.
• Smoking: There was quite a lot of it, and there seem to be no laws against it in public places, nor did there seem to be segregation of it (i.e. no separate smoking sections in restaurants).
  
• General feeling: In some ways more chaotic than Hong Kong and definitely more Chinese-nationalistic than Hong Kong. We saw plenty of bilboards and banners delivering Chinese government propaganda messages, something you definitely don't see in Hong Kong. It was also common for people to walk in the middle of streets and highways with little regard to traffic (and cross streets without heeding the crosswalk lights).
  

I think that just about covers it. I'll leave you with a sign, seen in a Shenzhen park, that I found particularly funny...

(If you do approach, the sisal hemp will attack you with the one end-all-be-all thorn that it has!)

Happy New Year, everyone! And congratulations to the Virginia Tech Hokies on a most excellent Orange Bowl victory!

A Wedding Amongst the Stars

Being the warden of an HKU residence hall expands your social calendar in ways you might not have expected. Case-in-point: Katherine and I were invited, by the father of the groom (who happens to be a senior alumnus of our hall), to attend a wedding reception and banquet of unimaginable proportions. It took place yesterday evening in one of Victoria Harbour's most recognizable landmarks, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre...

Here Katherine and I were admiring the harbour view on our way up to the Grand Hall (on the top floor, where all the festivities were held).

The reception area was adorned with massive photographic panels showcasing the happy couple in some of their favorite spots around Beijing (where they began their courtship)...


The reception area itself seemed quite large, but it was nothing compared to the banquet hall...

This was taken from the reception area just before we were ushered into the banquet hall. The large wooden panels you see were actually a solid wall when we arrived, but they rotated (like massive, vertical venitian blinds) into this open position to let us know that it was time for the banquet to start. Very much an "ooh" moment.

On the inside we met up with a few hall alumni...


...and thoroughly enjoyed their company. In the background of the second picture above, you'll notice two large (10+ feet tall) video walls. The hall is so massive that there are areas which really can't see the stage clearly, so the video walls were necessary to keep everyone involved.

There were at least 160 tables, each seating 12 people, which means about 2000 guests were invited (of which it was estimated that over 1300 actually came). It was a night that was artfully crafted for the Hong Kong elite, with a line of paparazzi greeting everyone as they walked in (and, yes, that means all the Hong Kong tabloids took pictures of Katherine and I as we strolled together - though we didn't make any of the articles in this morning's news ;>). Entertainment stars, business tycoons, both Hong Kong and mainland Chinese high-ranking government officials...and the two of us. ;> It felt much how I imagine something like the Oscars ceremony feels - larger than life - and we were honored to take part in it.

Midway through the proceedings, the groom put on his own concert (complete with glow sticks and lighters waving in the air), serenading his bride with a famous Cantonese pop ballad...

That's just the kind of night it was. Of course, it also had all the hallmarks of any standard Chinese wedding banquet, like a first course of roast pig...


The smile garnish is a reference to the Cantonese pronunciation of the word "roast", which sounds almost exactly the same as "smile" (but uses a different character). Very cute.

We were there from about 7:30PM until after midnight, and it was an experience we won't soon forget.

A belated Merry Christmas to all of you!

No stopping at the border!

As mentioned in my last post, about a week ago Katherine and I went to drop off my Chinese visa application. Today it was ready to pick up, so we went to Wan Chai and grabbed it...

Snazzy! To personalize this experience for you, though, I will no longer refer to this object as "visa" - instead, he will be known as "Karl". Let's see what we did together tonight...

Karl and I reminiscing outside the place where we first met.

Karl and I sharing some some coconutty, waffle-like "gai daan zaai" from an extremely popular street vendor.

Oh! Karl notices a Filipino restaurant - something neither of us has ever tried!

Karl and I share a bounty of Filipino dishes.

Goodnight, Karl.

A full week...

This week has been nearly non-stop for both Katherine and I, so I thought I'd round up all the action into a single digest. Let's walk through it day-by-day...

Monday: During a conference at the Chinese University of Hong Kong the previous weekend, Katherine met Jennifer Heung and her sister Angela. Jennifer is an assistant professor of Anthropology at Saint Mary's College who independantly discovered our film, purchased it, and now uses it in her curriculum. Katherine uncovered this when she overheard Jennifer tell other conference attendees about a "great Hong Kong code-mixing documentary". When Katherine inquired further, thinking that she was going to get a lead on some new material for her own classes, she found out that Jennifer was referencing our own work. Amazing! On Monday, we took Jennifer and Angela out to dinner and then to a nearby dessert shop that we hadn't tried yet...

Angela is on the left, Jennifer the right

I decided that this would be a great opportunity to show you a Hong Kong dessert shop menu, so here are both sides from this shop...

Tuesday: Katherine's parents asked us if we would like to join them on a trip to Shenzhen to visit some extended family. We hadn't been to mainland China since moving to Hong Kong, and I have never been, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity! In order for me to go, though, I needed to secure a Chinese visa. For that, we went to the Wan Chai branch of "China Travel Service" and submitted my application with a few required documents (passport, Hong Kong ID, and picture). In return, they gave me a receipt, which I'll use to claim both my passport and new visa once the processing is complete...
Afterwards we decided to head to Ebeneezer's Kebab, a local Indian + Middle Eastern fast food chain (with a branch in Wan Chai) that came highly recommended to us by one of our Hall residents...

I was famished, and couldn't wait to pose for a picture, so I just ripped into my chicken kebab pita wrap with cougar-like ferocity...

Wednesday: Wednesday night was the School of English end-of-semester party (and a farewell party to some faculty who are moving elsewhere for the next phase of their careers), so Katherine and I got gussied up and spent a few hours there. After it was over, a subset of the attendees went out for a little dessert, but we didn't bring our camera. :(

Thursday: A day of rest! Or, at least, a day we didn't go out. I was on a work-related conference call until midnight, so I suppose it wasn't exactly "restful". ;>

Friday: Dinner (Shanghainese) and a movie ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") at Cyberport with Katherine's brother. Also a day we didn't bring the camera out. :(

Saturday: We started Saturday by having our residental tutors (somewhat like RAs - they are graduate students or HKU staff that live among the residents and provide hands-on guideance) over for brunch. Two of the tutors couldn't make it, but we had a great time with those who did...

After brunch, Katherine and I took three of our residents (one from Xi'an, one from the Phillipenes, and one from Macau) to an eye-opening and heart-wrenching exhibition in Sham Shui Po which focused on the unimaginable lives of "cage-dwellers". First, we toured the museum-like exhibits...
...and then we joined a walking tour of Sham Shui Po to learn more about its facinating history...

Sunday: The winter solstice and Dongzhi (a Chinese holiday) meant a day focused on food, friends, and family! First we had one of Katherine's best friends, along with her family, over for lunch...
...and then we went to Katherine's parents' apartment (the old one - they haven't yet moved into their new one) for a feast...

(and this didn't even include the two fish Katherine's mother was still steaming!)

With a very satisfying week in the books, there was nothing else to do but collapse...

Unpacking...

...at least, photographically. :> Katherine and I safely returned to Hong Kong about a week ago and I'm just now going through all our pictures, so I thought I'd throw a few up here to briefly chronicle our time in the States (and a few events that have occurred since our return).

Let's start with this little video - taken by Katherine - which will give you an idea of what it is like to fly out of Hong Kong. You'll be able to see parts of Lantau Island, Kowloon (including the old airport landing strip), and some outlying islands.

Here's a mid-flight shot Katherine took of a secret world between the clouds. :>

Katherine, now in San Fransisco, catches up with two of our old Ann Arbor buddies: Tony and Hermann!

Katherine catches up with another Ann-Arborite-turned-San-Franciscan: Mei!

Sunset on Fisherman's Wharf (while having dinner with Mei).

Now it's time to leave San Fransisco and head to Virginia, where you'll find me...

Having a lovely lunch, prepared by my mother, with my aunt and uncle.

Filling my Thanksgiving plate alongside my sister.

Snatching delicious vittles from my second cousins.

Observing Thanksgiving participants while they enjoy some filmed entertainment.

Telling secrets!

Ready to cheer on the now-ACC-Champion Hokies (before their dismantling of UVA)!

The day after the VT vs UVA game, Katherine and I hitched a plane back to Hong Kong...

...where we saw the sunrise on the icy rivers of Alaska.

A day after we returned, Katherine attended the International Assiciation for World Englishes conference at CityU, where we met up with our good buddy Daniel Davis (who is a professor at the University of Michigan) for lunch in Kowloon Tong.

A few days following that, we met up with Michael Meyler, a conference attendee from Sri Lanka who is a good friend of Dushy's, for a hot pot dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui.

And to close out the week, before watching the ACC Championship game, we went to get the keys to Katherine's parents' new apartment!