This last Thursday, I spent Thanksgiving for the first time away from home. Instead, I went to my cousin’s place in New Territories with my aunt and uncle. This was actually my first major holiday away from home, and I was surprised at the sheer awareness of this event in Hong Kong.
Everyone back home is told that the day is to celebrate thanks for when the Indians taught the Pilgrims about North American agriculture (and then the Pilgrims proceeded to take the land). This is celebrated with a big feast, though it is uncertain if there really was such a feast in Massachusetts, less that it was in November. In short, it’s the thought and the people that count, not the historical significance.
And I spent my holiday with family, just not immediate family. My cousins are all much older than me (a fact that often makes everyone forget that we’re in the same generation). So I spent the holidays with my cousin and his family along with my aunt and uncle. Back in California, one of my other cousins came down with her family from the north side to the south side to spend Thanksgiving with my family.
With the time difference, we ate in Hong Kong first, and my family back home ate some twelve hours after (though sixteen hours is the time difference). I guess I don’t hang out with this family over here, because things were a little odd.
So I’ve only met this cousin a handful of times, with my contact with him having been limited since he hasn’t lived in California for quite a long time and, well, I haven’t lived outside of California until some three months ago.
On the other hand, I’ve met my aunt and uncle quite a few times. This summer, I saw them twice—once in France, and once in Northern California. So they probably think I feel pretty comfortable around them—and I do, just that’s not a reason to let down your decorum. And so when the food came out and everyone started digging in, I waited patiently. There are always leftovers at Thanksgiving, and I understand that you don’t want to act so hungry as to be rude nor so full as to show dislike for the food in front of you. I was just waiting for the clashing cutlery to subside, when my uncle told me that I wouldn’t be served here and I would have to serve myself—which I was planning on doing, just after everyone who seemed so hungry got what they wanted first.
Misjudging my actions and then commenting on them in such a face-threatening matter I thought was a faux pas, but then again, I guess I’m just not like him and don’t hold the same exact ideas of politeness. That’s not to say that people don’t come from all different walks of life (culturally speaking) in my family. I guess my uncle just thought that I came from the same as him.
The next morning, I called my family back home. I told them I would call at 7:00 p.m. their time, which would make it 11:00 a.m. Hong Kong time. So from 9:00 to 11:00, I practiced the piano, relearning Christian Sinding’s “Rustle of Spring” and starting on Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.”
When the time came, I called with my breakfast in hand (bought from outside the medical library). They were surprised I didn’t call earlier, and though I did tell them 7:00 pm., they expected me at 5:00. After that little hiccup though, it was good to see my family again. I’d video chatted with them often enough, but it was still good to see everybody.
Copyright © 2009 James Philip Jee
This work may not be reproduced by any means without express permission of the author.
Showing posts with label New Territories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Territories. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Shenzhen Shenanigans
The day after Mid-Autumn Festival, we went up to Shenzhen. Admittedly, it was a spur-of-the moment decision, but for $20 HKD to get there, it was worth the daytrip.
Shenzhen is the first of China’s Special Economic Zones, sharing its southern border with Hong Kong’s northern border. From what I can gather, it was set up right around when China began opening up to the world. Back then Hong Kong was still a British Crown Colony and these zones were meant to stimulate international trade and investment.
My aunt and uncle, who are familiar with Hong Kong as of recent, told me of Shenzhen’s amazing transition. I couldn’t gather whether they thought it positive or negative, but they talked about gutting the mountains to reclaim the sea, skyscrapers popping up from the small fishing village that it used to be. Today, Shenzhen has an official population larger than Hong Kong SAR (8.6 million over 7 million), with many more unlisted and commuting people contributing to its makeup.
In just one of the many examples of China’s massive and impressive economic growth, Shenzhen has two subway lines crossing each other with about thirty stations total. Before 2011, there will be three times that many stations open on five lines.
Heading from Central District on Hong Kong Island, the journey to the border at Lo Wu took about an hour, transferring lines thrice. Alternatives to Shenzhen (that we did not take) were ferries from Sheung Wan and Central Piers, some of which conveniently go directly to Shenzhen Airport. From Hong Kong Airport, there are ferries direct to Shenzhen Airport as well for transfers free of additional security checkpoints.
At the border, we went through Hong Kong exit immigration (which I now know I can use the “Residents” line at) and Chinese immigration, where the woman thoroughly checked my passport and shifted her eyes between my face on my passport and my face in person.
Through customs, Shenzhen Railway Station is immediately to the left. A shopping mall is to the right. We went into the shopping mall, where they persistently kept trying to sell us fake Rolexes and the like. They went so far as grabbing arms to try to drag you into their shop.
From there, we took a bus to this beach area that a local recommended to us. There was pretty much nothing there but some street shops and a theme park that we could see the other side of without entering. We took the bus back shortly thereafter.
On the bus ride both ways, it was apparent that we were no longer in Hong Kong. The streets were three lanes wide in each direction and ran straight as arrows. Each light post on either side of the road had two Chinese flags all the way down each avenue (possibly because of National Day).
The buses themselves were operated differently. There were no money-collecting machines that I am so used to. The buses cost about ¥6 CNY and instead of paying a machine (or metal box), you paid the ticket collector, who in turn kept an eye on who entered the bus, announcing stops as crowds came and went.
Back to where we started, we took the Shenzhen Metro to a park called Window of the World, which I feel turned out to be kind of a waste of time.
Exiting the subway station, you come out of a glass pyramid (hey, that’s the Louvre!) and proceed towards the entrance. While corny, some would say that’s part of the appeal. Entering the park the first thing you see is the Eiffel Tower, which dominates the curb appeal of the property. After buying tickets, you ascend to the park and enter to the main stage, surrounded by different style columns.
Going around the park, it’s divided into different continents. The biggest section of the park is Europe (big surprise). That’s in the center where the Eiffel Tower stands opposed to the Arc du Triomphe as well as Venice, with St. Mark’s Square and Holland with a bunch of windmills. Elsewhere in the park were sites in Thailand as well as the Taj Mahal and a garden representative of Japan. I posed in front of the Sydney Opera House, flanked by “traditional” Maori dwellings. For America, there was a model of the main sites of Washington, D.C., as well as Niagara Falls incorporated into the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. For Africa there was an elephant and the Pyramids of Giza.
Leaving the park, we crossed the road to a mall in search of food. We found some average food and walked outside and saw the street vendors (who kept having to move their carts to avoid the police). With a friend’s assistance, I learned sort of how to eat sugar cane that cost me just ¥1 CNY.
After that it was back to the border and back to Hong Kong Island.
Copyright © 2009 James Philip Jee
This work may not be reproduced by any means without express permission of the author.
Shenzhen is the first of China’s Special Economic Zones, sharing its southern border with Hong Kong’s northern border. From what I can gather, it was set up right around when China began opening up to the world. Back then Hong Kong was still a British Crown Colony and these zones were meant to stimulate international trade and investment.
My aunt and uncle, who are familiar with Hong Kong as of recent, told me of Shenzhen’s amazing transition. I couldn’t gather whether they thought it positive or negative, but they talked about gutting the mountains to reclaim the sea, skyscrapers popping up from the small fishing village that it used to be. Today, Shenzhen has an official population larger than Hong Kong SAR (8.6 million over 7 million), with many more unlisted and commuting people contributing to its makeup.
In just one of the many examples of China’s massive and impressive economic growth, Shenzhen has two subway lines crossing each other with about thirty stations total. Before 2011, there will be three times that many stations open on five lines.
Heading from Central District on Hong Kong Island, the journey to the border at Lo Wu took about an hour, transferring lines thrice. Alternatives to Shenzhen (that we did not take) were ferries from Sheung Wan and Central Piers, some of which conveniently go directly to Shenzhen Airport. From Hong Kong Airport, there are ferries direct to Shenzhen Airport as well for transfers free of additional security checkpoints.
At the border, we went through Hong Kong exit immigration (which I now know I can use the “Residents” line at) and Chinese immigration, where the woman thoroughly checked my passport and shifted her eyes between my face on my passport and my face in person.
Through customs, Shenzhen Railway Station is immediately to the left. A shopping mall is to the right. We went into the shopping mall, where they persistently kept trying to sell us fake Rolexes and the like. They went so far as grabbing arms to try to drag you into their shop.
From there, we took a bus to this beach area that a local recommended to us. There was pretty much nothing there but some street shops and a theme park that we could see the other side of without entering. We took the bus back shortly thereafter.
On the bus ride both ways, it was apparent that we were no longer in Hong Kong. The streets were three lanes wide in each direction and ran straight as arrows. Each light post on either side of the road had two Chinese flags all the way down each avenue (possibly because of National Day).
The buses themselves were operated differently. There were no money-collecting machines that I am so used to. The buses cost about ¥6 CNY and instead of paying a machine (or metal box), you paid the ticket collector, who in turn kept an eye on who entered the bus, announcing stops as crowds came and went.
Back to where we started, we took the Shenzhen Metro to a park called Window of the World, which I feel turned out to be kind of a waste of time.
Exiting the subway station, you come out of a glass pyramid (hey, that’s the Louvre!) and proceed towards the entrance. While corny, some would say that’s part of the appeal. Entering the park the first thing you see is the Eiffel Tower, which dominates the curb appeal of the property. After buying tickets, you ascend to the park and enter to the main stage, surrounded by different style columns.
Going around the park, it’s divided into different continents. The biggest section of the park is Europe (big surprise). That’s in the center where the Eiffel Tower stands opposed to the Arc du Triomphe as well as Venice, with St. Mark’s Square and Holland with a bunch of windmills. Elsewhere in the park were sites in Thailand as well as the Taj Mahal and a garden representative of Japan. I posed in front of the Sydney Opera House, flanked by “traditional” Maori dwellings. For America, there was a model of the main sites of Washington, D.C., as well as Niagara Falls incorporated into the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. For Africa there was an elephant and the Pyramids of Giza.
Leaving the park, we crossed the road to a mall in search of food. We found some average food and walked outside and saw the street vendors (who kept having to move their carts to avoid the police). With a friend’s assistance, I learned sort of how to eat sugar cane that cost me just ¥1 CNY.
After that it was back to the border and back to Hong Kong Island.
Copyright © 2009 James Philip Jee
This work may not be reproduced by any means without express permission of the author.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Two Tours and a Weekend
The weekend before last, we were offered two tours of the area: on Saturday was Kowloon and the New Territories; on Sunday was Hong Kong Island. Promoted through the Office of International Student Exchange (OISE) here on campus (the organization that gave us nifty university-branded tote bags as souvenirs), they were organized by a private company that, while good, failed to meet my expectations.
I’ve been on two main tours of this type prior to these: One was a day trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona from Las Vegas, Nevada, via bus, and the other was my two-week tour of China in which my family and I visited Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.
Day 1
Saturday, we were to be off at 9 a.m. One of the charter buses broke down before leaving, and as a result we didn’t get on the road until 10:30. Though the effects of this setback were not altogether noticeable, they compacted the day. They still took us to all the places on the schedule, giving us a little less time at each place to wander around and get a deeper feel.
The first stop was a bird garden near Mong Kok, a major shopping district in Kowloon. With the exception of a lively parrot, the birds were all small and in cages. Most of the birds were there for sale, along with cages and birdseed. What struck me the most about this bird garden, which I probably would never had visited had I not been directed there was its age—it was gracefully old, and not in the same way that any other building in Hong Kong would be old.
Their bathrooms had pooper stoopers. My mom’s friend, who happens to be a nurse, once told be that anatomically and physiologically speaking, pooper stoopers were more natural (and therefore better) for trying to osmoregulate, for they require the user to step over a hole in the ground and squat.
In my opinion, seeing the dampness of the ground (not sure if it was due to water), those pooper stoopers (a name of my own creation) were true germ spreaders. Beholding them reaffirmed my policy of not letting people put their shoes on my bed.
The Bird Garden was definitely worth going to, and after we walked around the surrounding streets, which had flower shops on them. They had roses along with many of the other standards, but what was in the most abundance were orchids, visible at every shop in every color.
After that was a viewing platform and visitors center for the Tsing Ma Bridge, which while not the most impressive of dual-level suspension bridges, was one of the first to link Lantau Island (home of the new airport and Hong Kong Disneyland) to the rest of Hong Kong. The top level is comprised of automobile traffic and the lower level, which is enclosed, is home to two lines of the MTR (Hong Kong’s subway system).
Also visible from the viewing platform was the Tin Kau Bridge, which, as a self-anchored suspension bridge (more accurately a cable-stayed bridge), I found much more visually appealing.
From there it was on to the Wetlands Park in Hong Kong. It housed one of those kid-oriented conservation-focused museums. This one was particularly focused on swampland, demonstrating its benefits as a buffer to tidal waves and other inclement weather. Out in the park was a good place to take hikes around, but the blasting heat and humidity of the day inhibited any such desires.
For those who don’t know, the territory of Hong Kong SAR is only 25-40% developed. (And my hometown of Thousand Oaks, California, attempts to brag about its 30% open space!) The parts that haven’t been serve as wilderness and often as permanent open space. It’s really quite nice to have such open areas to relax so close to a massively crowded city.
This particular park that we went to sat on the northern border of Hong Kong (with mainland China). As such, you could see the major development of Shenzhen, which is quite visibly built up to that border.
From there, we went to a Taoist temple on the east side of Kowloon. Excluding myself, not having found out about this until after departure, they were providing people with this traditional fortune-telling mechanism. (I’d say game, but it’s not really considered such.) I never found out the name, but to do this, you have a whole bunch of sticks in a cylindrical cup and you shake it in the temple in front of the Taoist gods to find out your luck and or fate. When one falls out, which can take such time, they help you interpret what it means.
In the last stop of the day, we went to the Chi Lin Nunnery in Diamond Hill, another district of Kowloon. It had a major garden complex that, minus the tourists, would provide quaintness and serenity until one realized the giant skyscrapers in the background. Otherwise it was a really nice place. I think it was definitely a highlight of the trip.
I went to bed tired. The majority of the group was exhausted. It had been a good day, but the worst part was that some of us had to do it again the day after.
Day 2
These two tours, one day after another, were run by the same Black Castle Tour Company. With three tour buses each day, there were three tour guides. For Saturday, we went on the bus with the guide on summer vacation from PhD studies in the States. His English was quite terrible. Sunday, we decided to try a different tour guide. This time, we got a local woman who had better English and made an attempt at telling jokes. The content was good, the execution average, and the reaction dead. Oh well.
This day was set back a little later. Our first stop was a museum that opened at 10 a.m. on Sundays, so we got onto the buses at 9:30. On one hand, the buses didn’t break down, so we were on time. On the other hand, Starbucks on campus doesn’t open on Sundays, so I was coffee-less unfortunately that day. But that’s beside the point.
The museum we went to was that of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who is frequently credited as the founding father of modern China. While interesting, the museum housed few authentic artifacts and the museum’s tour guide simply read off the story boards on the walls.
The next stop was Aberdeen, a fishing village (formerly full of pirates) on the south side of Hong Kong Island, about 10 minutes from my dorm by bus. There we went on boat tours of the bay in what we were told were Sampan (literally “three pieces” of wood), though ours were noticeably more posh than the examples on Wikipedia.
Like many other places in Hong Kong and China, the most notable part of this boat ride was the contrast between new and old that was presented to us. Right next to the large commercial fishing boats were smaller houseboats, that according to the tour guide were dying out as more people preferred living in the local high-rises.
Next was Repulse Bay. Other than being a really nice beach (not littered with trash like the nearby Deep Water Bay Beach), it was notable for its collection of Taoist and Buddhist sculptures, including a Buddha whose tummy has been blackened in the name of good luck.
After was Stanley. I had been to Stanley once before, though I didn’t blog about it. It’s a nice little town (with skyscrapers) on the south side of the island. It’s home to many ex-pats and Stanley Market, which reminds me so far the most of American Chinatowns of anything here.
My favorite parts of Stanley, though, are the Murray House and inhabiting Hong Kong Maritime Museum (which I have not visited) and two temples, one claiming to be the oldest building in Hong Kong and the other with a giant Guan Yin (a Taoist goddess turned Buddhist bodhisattva) statue that looks over the area.
From Stanley, we were off to the Naval Museum on the northeast side of the island. The buildings themselves were built by the British as a lookout for the colony. It had decent exhibitions of the naval history of the Ming and Qing dynasties (the last two) as well as decent views of Victoria Harbor.
With that we were taken back to the university. Not quite as tired as the day before, we went to bed to get up for classes
I’ve been on two main tours of this type prior to these: One was a day trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona from Las Vegas, Nevada, via bus, and the other was my two-week tour of China in which my family and I visited Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.
Day 1
Saturday, we were to be off at 9 a.m. One of the charter buses broke down before leaving, and as a result we didn’t get on the road until 10:30. Though the effects of this setback were not altogether noticeable, they compacted the day. They still took us to all the places on the schedule, giving us a little less time at each place to wander around and get a deeper feel.
The first stop was a bird garden near Mong Kok, a major shopping district in Kowloon. With the exception of a lively parrot, the birds were all small and in cages. Most of the birds were there for sale, along with cages and birdseed. What struck me the most about this bird garden, which I probably would never had visited had I not been directed there was its age—it was gracefully old, and not in the same way that any other building in Hong Kong would be old.
Their bathrooms had pooper stoopers. My mom’s friend, who happens to be a nurse, once told be that anatomically and physiologically speaking, pooper stoopers were more natural (and therefore better) for trying to osmoregulate, for they require the user to step over a hole in the ground and squat.
In my opinion, seeing the dampness of the ground (not sure if it was due to water), those pooper stoopers (a name of my own creation) were true germ spreaders. Beholding them reaffirmed my policy of not letting people put their shoes on my bed.
The Bird Garden was definitely worth going to, and after we walked around the surrounding streets, which had flower shops on them. They had roses along with many of the other standards, but what was in the most abundance were orchids, visible at every shop in every color.
After that was a viewing platform and visitors center for the Tsing Ma Bridge, which while not the most impressive of dual-level suspension bridges, was one of the first to link Lantau Island (home of the new airport and Hong Kong Disneyland) to the rest of Hong Kong. The top level is comprised of automobile traffic and the lower level, which is enclosed, is home to two lines of the MTR (Hong Kong’s subway system).
Also visible from the viewing platform was the Tin Kau Bridge, which, as a self-anchored suspension bridge (more accurately a cable-stayed bridge), I found much more visually appealing.
From there it was on to the Wetlands Park in Hong Kong. It housed one of those kid-oriented conservation-focused museums. This one was particularly focused on swampland, demonstrating its benefits as a buffer to tidal waves and other inclement weather. Out in the park was a good place to take hikes around, but the blasting heat and humidity of the day inhibited any such desires.
For those who don’t know, the territory of Hong Kong SAR is only 25-40% developed. (And my hometown of Thousand Oaks, California, attempts to brag about its 30% open space!) The parts that haven’t been serve as wilderness and often as permanent open space. It’s really quite nice to have such open areas to relax so close to a massively crowded city.
This particular park that we went to sat on the northern border of Hong Kong (with mainland China). As such, you could see the major development of Shenzhen, which is quite visibly built up to that border.
From there, we went to a Taoist temple on the east side of Kowloon. Excluding myself, not having found out about this until after departure, they were providing people with this traditional fortune-telling mechanism. (I’d say game, but it’s not really considered such.) I never found out the name, but to do this, you have a whole bunch of sticks in a cylindrical cup and you shake it in the temple in front of the Taoist gods to find out your luck and or fate. When one falls out, which can take such time, they help you interpret what it means.
In the last stop of the day, we went to the Chi Lin Nunnery in Diamond Hill, another district of Kowloon. It had a major garden complex that, minus the tourists, would provide quaintness and serenity until one realized the giant skyscrapers in the background. Otherwise it was a really nice place. I think it was definitely a highlight of the trip.
I went to bed tired. The majority of the group was exhausted. It had been a good day, but the worst part was that some of us had to do it again the day after.
Day 2
These two tours, one day after another, were run by the same Black Castle Tour Company. With three tour buses each day, there were three tour guides. For Saturday, we went on the bus with the guide on summer vacation from PhD studies in the States. His English was quite terrible. Sunday, we decided to try a different tour guide. This time, we got a local woman who had better English and made an attempt at telling jokes. The content was good, the execution average, and the reaction dead. Oh well.
This day was set back a little later. Our first stop was a museum that opened at 10 a.m. on Sundays, so we got onto the buses at 9:30. On one hand, the buses didn’t break down, so we were on time. On the other hand, Starbucks on campus doesn’t open on Sundays, so I was coffee-less unfortunately that day. But that’s beside the point.
The museum we went to was that of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who is frequently credited as the founding father of modern China. While interesting, the museum housed few authentic artifacts and the museum’s tour guide simply read off the story boards on the walls.
The next stop was Aberdeen, a fishing village (formerly full of pirates) on the south side of Hong Kong Island, about 10 minutes from my dorm by bus. There we went on boat tours of the bay in what we were told were Sampan (literally “three pieces” of wood), though ours were noticeably more posh than the examples on Wikipedia.
Like many other places in Hong Kong and China, the most notable part of this boat ride was the contrast between new and old that was presented to us. Right next to the large commercial fishing boats were smaller houseboats, that according to the tour guide were dying out as more people preferred living in the local high-rises.
Next was Repulse Bay. Other than being a really nice beach (not littered with trash like the nearby Deep Water Bay Beach), it was notable for its collection of Taoist and Buddhist sculptures, including a Buddha whose tummy has been blackened in the name of good luck.
After was Stanley. I had been to Stanley once before, though I didn’t blog about it. It’s a nice little town (with skyscrapers) on the south side of the island. It’s home to many ex-pats and Stanley Market, which reminds me so far the most of American Chinatowns of anything here.
My favorite parts of Stanley, though, are the Murray House and inhabiting Hong Kong Maritime Museum (which I have not visited) and two temples, one claiming to be the oldest building in Hong Kong and the other with a giant Guan Yin (a Taoist goddess turned Buddhist bodhisattva) statue that looks over the area.
From Stanley, we were off to the Naval Museum on the northeast side of the island. The buildings themselves were built by the British as a lookout for the colony. It had decent exhibitions of the naval history of the Ming and Qing dynasties (the last two) as well as decent views of Victoria Harbor.
With that we were taken back to the university. Not quite as tired as the day before, we went to bed to get up for classes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
