January

It’s hard to believe it’s already been a month since I arrived in Hong Kong. Most of my posts have been about places I’ve seen, so I’m going to write a bit about what I’ve been up to daily.

This might surprise you, but I’m actually taking classes here. Two Mandarin classes, a marketing class, an Asian economic development class, and an information systems management class. It sounds like a lot, but I don’t think it will be too bad. Luckily I only have class three days a week, which leaves me a nice long weekend to go out, explore the city, or just lounge around.

I went to my first judo class today here on campus, which was a lot of fun, and I’ve been going to jiu-jitsu about twice a week (more on that later). I’ve also been attending Social Putonghua and Social English workshops, which are these casual dinner events where all kinds of students get together to eat and talk to each other in whatever fragmented language they’re there to improve. It’s a really great program, and the food’s good too.

Something that impresses me about CUHK students is how multilingual they are. There’s a large number of students here from Mainland China (one student estimated about a third of the student population). They have to read and write in English for class, as well as learn to speak Cantonese to get around in Hong Kong. The local students, on the other hand, are required to learn Mandarin as the new official language in addition to English. Struggling with unfamiliar languages is just a part of their lives.

In other news, I’m very happy because I made budget for this month! I won’t tell you what it is was, but I made it. February may be a different story though.

Lantau Island

Another day trip! This time to Lantau Island, the other big island in Hong Kong (see the map from my “Transportation” post). To get there, we had to cross Tsing Ma, some really long bridge from Kowloon to Lantau. According to our tour guide, if you took all the cable wires on the bridge you could wrap them around the world 4 times. What a relief!

After reaching the island, we had to switch to special Lantau Island buses with these expert bus drivers. The roads on Lantau where we were going were so narrow and steep that I guess your run-of-the-mill bus driver just wouldn’t cut it. It was a pretty crazy ride, I’ll admit: two-way bus traffic on a single lane dirt road with some pretty steep drops thrown in for good measure. Great facial expression from our tour guide.

Tai-O, a sleepy fishing village that looks like it has’t changed in the last thousand years, is situated on the western side of Lantau Island. I’ve been to traditional-looking places in Asia before, but this place was ancient. Houses that looked too low for me to stand up in balanced on stilts over the river, each with their own little boat and ladder. I was surprised to see that these kinds of places still existed in Hong Kong, after seeing all the tall apartment buildings crammed together in the city. It’s kind of sad that Tai-O has become a bit of a tourist attraction, but I guess it’s good business for the local merchants.

After lunch, we got some soft tofu dessert (dou4 fu3 hua1) from one of the street vendors. I’ve never seen it made before, but she had a big wooden tub of tofu and skimmed layers of it into a bowl, then mixed it with a sweet gingery syrup. Delicious.

A merchant uses an old-fashioned scale and weight to sell dried fish in Tai-O.

I saw this huge dried shark skin at the market. It was this big:

Walking a bit up the hill brought us to a more grounded residential area. It really was quaint; kids riding their bikes on the street with their dogs following along.

On our way out, we passed by this mini-museum of sorts so I checked it out. I found a few mannequins with strategically-placed “Do Not Touch” signs depicting what Tai-O fisherpeople may have looked like in ancient times. Basically blonde with blue eyes. Hint: one of them is not a real mannequin.

We took the bus to Ngong Ping, the village of the Big Buddha. The 250 ton bronze statue sits on top of a pedestal above the village, its size imposing even from a distance.

A look from the entrance of the “Stairway to Buddha.”

Me and Shirley, 268 steps later.

Surrounding the Buddha are several smaller statues that face him, each beautifully carved with a unique pose.

We took some time to check out the village, although it was mostly food stands and gift shops. Here’s a nifty bathroom sign. Someone must have been laughing when he drew the crippled guy, how awful.

Our day was nearing its end so we hopped on the Ngong Ping Skyrail, a 20-minute cable car ride that took us down to our bus in Tung Chung. Let me tell you, being trapped in a box with 10 friends while conjuring emergency procedures for use in the event of a sudden death-drop is some of the best fun you’ll ever have.

Rear view:

Great candid from Shirley’s camera:

I think this one gets my vote for best picture of the trip so far:

Macau

Yesterday we went on a tour to Macau. See?

Macau is China’s other Special Administrative Region, along with Hong Kong. It was actually administered by Portugal until 1999, so most street signs are in Chinese, English, and Portuguese. Its economy is largely based on gambling and tourism, and recently exceeded Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenue, although I have to say the LV Strip is much prettier.

After an uncomfortable ferry ride from HK, we went to our first tourist site… some church. I must have fallen asleep on the bus while the tour guide was talking about it, but it was a nice church. Here it is:

Our next stop was A-Ma Temple, the oldest major temple in Macau. It’s your traditional Chinese temple in that most of its visitors come to pray for good luck, burn incense, get their fortunes read, and offer money to idols of the Buddha and various Chinese folk gods and goddesses.

Those spirally cones are actually winded strands of incense that can burn for weeks and drop hot ash on the unwary tourist. I ventured to take a closer look and luckily didn’t get burned. Spirally…

Before leaving, I took some time to agonize with this lion-dragon statue.

It was getting towards lunchtime so we headed over to the Macau Tower, a great place to…

We ate in the 360 Cafe, a revolving buffet on the 61st floor with a view of the city and the occasional bungee-jumper. Stacked with every kind of cuisine from around the world, this was probably the nicest buffet I’ve ever eaten at. Unfortunately the moving tables were more than a bit disorienting and didn’t make eating it very fun, but I was still able to enjoy some really good duck and a Cha Siu Bao.

After lunch we had some time so we played around in the tower. The glass floor shows how far you’d fall.

Our last stop of the tour was the Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of the most famous tourist sites in Macau. It burned down during a typhoon, and the front portion was later renovated. Tourists can take stairs from behind to the top window.

After the tour ended a few of us decided to wander around Senado Square, which is kind of like a Santana Row: a gorgeous, upscale place in the middle of nowhere (just kidding, I love you San Jose!). I had a Portuguese Egg Tart and it was stupendous. Yes, that is a fancy McDonald’s in the second picture.

After the tour ended we figured we should at least check out a casino, since we’re in Macau. Most tables play either baccarat or sic bo (in Cantonese “dai siu,” literally “big small”), which is a dice game that I’ve seen in a lot of Chinese movies but never in real life. On our third casino, we finally found some blackjack and roulette tables, and Erwin won a big wad of cash. I didn’t feel like gambling, so we left.

An uneven, sleepy, but otherwise fun day. Rough ferry ride back and we’re done.

Victoria Peak and Avenue of Stars

Saturday the exchange students went on a bus tour around a few touristy areas of Hong Kong, most notably Victoria Peak on HK Island and the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui. It was a lot of fun, although I can see now why so many people choose to take the subway instead of driving – traffic sucks.

Victoria Peak is the most famous sightseeing spot in Hong Kong and the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island. It also appears to be a place where very rich people live above and apart from the rest of the busy city. On the top of the mountain is the Peak Tower, which has several nice restaurants, stores, and museums that we didn’t really have time for. Several escalators take you to the lookout point and its amazing view of the HK Skyline and Kowloon Harbor. Notice also how bad the pollution is in HK against the clear blue sky.

Turn around at this point, and there’s a terrific view of the Pacific Ocean to the south. That’s all of Hong Kong Island, from one border to the other.

After leaving the peak we took a windy walk along the Avenue of Stars, which is similar to our Hollywood Walk of Fame back home. It was a nice way to end the day, and then I saw THIS:

How awesome is that? You know how much I love Bruce Lee. There’s a picture of me doing the pose with him too, but that’s for another day.

And you know what else? I totally have Andy Lau’s hands! What a day full of happy surprises!

Lan Kwai Fong

I’ve heard of Lan Kwai Fong before as a popular clubbing area for tourists, but I had no idea it was known as the place to party in Hong Kong. After about a day of being asked “Were you at Lan Kwai Fong last night?” there wasn’t much to do but check it out for ourselves.

Not much more than a back alley of two small streets, LKF is made up of a dozen or so small clubs and bars, many of which are semi-indoors. You can pretty much wander in and out of them with no cover, and the streets are teeming with foreigners and locals alike. The higher end clubs are usually upstairs or underground, and cover there is about the same as you’d pay anywhere in the States.

The two streets of Lan Kwai Fong – that’s about how small the area is.

Everything I’ve had in Hong Kong has been cheap so far except the drinks, which go for about the same if not more than what you’d pay in Vegas. Since we’re going to be doing this for a while, we usually start the night off at our favorite club, 7-11.

We’re a pretty bunch, I tell you what!