Life lessons...

So, as time passes, home is something that is coming closer and closer to me and once I get on that taxi back home, I can say the the journey is over. In any case, here are a few important (and not so important) life lessons I learned in Hong Kong:

• Unless you go to a destination frequently, you WILL experience culture shock. I thought that HK was going to be similar enough to Taiwan so I'd get used to it quickly but I was sooooo wrong.
• Traveling without a plan is the best plan ever.
• Not having lemon or milk tea in Hong Kong is like going to a bar and not drinking.
  
• If you go to HK, get an Octopus card. Those single journey tickets are just... inefficient.
• When in HK, walk fast, eat fast, buy things fast or you'll get trampled.
  
• Being aware is the recipe for preventing thefts, accidents and other dangerous things.
  
• If you get a seat in the MTR, a miracle has happened. Or you're at the very first stop. Because there is almost never a seat in the MTR so don't even try to hope for one.
• Friends you make in a foreign country are awesome because you're all just trying to survive and you help each other but it's also so sad because you will leave them and sometimes, you never know when you'll see them again. (I miss you all... you know who you are.)
  
• I grew up in the best place ever. You really don't realize that until you eat crappily made Vietnamese noodles and sandwiches with shitty mushy bread with the crusts cut off. Then there's also the fact that houses and apartments are actually bigger than you think they are. The air is wonderful and even if it's cold in winter it means that there are no mosquitoes!!!
  

Oh how I miss home. But I've decided that HK is one of my homes away from home. I will miss it so much once I'm back in Canada. It's been fun surviving on my own and wandering around a foreign city with the worst case of directile dysfunction evarrr. Anyways, the flight attendants call and boarding is about to happen. Hope to see you soon!!!

Hong Kong shopping malls...

I thought I should give them a mention in this blog seeing that the shopping malls in HK have evolved into something that you never really see in North America. There are shopping mall EVERYWHERE here. You can hop on the MTR and get off at ANY stop and sure enough, there will be a shopping mall at one of the exits. In any case, here are a few that I've gone to so far in no particular order:

K-11 Art Mall (Tsim Sha Tsui)


K-11 is apparently new and sadly kinda... dead. There aren't that many people at the mall despite the fact that it's in the prime real estate area of TST, which is a sort of the heart of HK. There are a few cute art displays and cool mall directories but there aren't that many stores and the stores in there are on the high end. There's one decent bookstore and a nice supermarket but it's a mall that you can go through in about half an hour and come out with next to nothing.

Times Square (Causeway Bay)


This place was massive and made me feel like a back-country hick. Most of the stores in the main section of the mall are high end brands like Gucci, Channel, Hermes. What's kind of lovely though, is that shops are grouped together so you have the stationary stores on one floor, women's clothing on the next etc; etc; There are some really cool shops like the stationary and instrument shop on the higher floors but it's not really a place to buy someone's birthday present (unless you wipe your ass with $100 bills...) as I learned on my first trip there. There are plenty of art displays and the design is crisp and clean. Gorgeous place... almost too gorgeous.

Shatin Plaza/Citylink Plaza/whatever else is connected to this place including Snoopy Land (Shatin)

Ok, the first thing you have to know about this place is that it's a bloody maze. It's so bloody big that I can't really take a picture of it. The entire mall is connected to about a gazillion other malls via random tunnels and passageways. It's not a friendly place for me seeing that I'm completely directionally challenged, although I do know my way to Honeymoon Dessert and for now, that's all that matters. There are tons of shops selling just about everything (only one bookstore though), about four or five supermarkets, twenty jewelry shops and a gazillion stores selling cheap clothing. While the two malls above are about quality rather than quantity, Shatin Plaza is the other way around. It bombards you with tons and tons of shops that offer cheap to mid-ranged priced products rather than having a few shops selling expensive stuff. That would be wonderful if everything wasn't so bloody hard to find.

Festival Walk (Kowloon Tong)


I think this one is my favourite mall not only because there's a skating rink but it's actually well designed, beautiful and not as overwhelming. Just look at the lines in this place, the architecture makes this place look so surreal:


Stores are in the mid-range in terms of pricing and there aren't that many. According to its wiki page, Festival Walk is trying to focus more on customer service rather than having a gazillion stores. I guess it kind of works because I had concerned mall helpers ask me if I wanted any help when I was wandering around hopelessly in search of cheap food. You see, the only scruple I have with this mall is that its food selection is pretty small. I ended up going to the Shatin mall to find my meal.

In any case, I think the point I want to make here is that there are tons of malls in HK. So many that they end up competing with each other for business. Architects, businessmen and investors all make an effort to come up with some crazy idea to draw customers. Artwork, architecture, customer service, quality vs. quantity... the mall has become more than just a place to buy things, it's become almost a cultural hub here. It's an artistic space for contemporary artwork, it's a commercial space that demonstrates the economic prosperity that allows a good portion of HK citizens to go to these places and buy whatever they want to buy (including, may I note, giant gold statues and jewelry - there's seriously about 10 jewelry stores in big shopping malls and several near local and tourist hotspots) and all of this is perfectly normal in HK.

Just think about the malls in Canada. Yes, some of them might have interesting architecture and sort of cute decorations for the seasons but even in the country's biggest city, you won't find a mall at every subway stop. Nor will you find a mall where polite customer service ladies are at every corner just in case you need directions. Very few malls will have special attractions like Snoopy Land or random art displays in front of the mall and there is no sense that each mall is trying to continuously outdo each other in terms of impressiveness.

There isn't much competition between the malls in Canada. You usually go to the nearest one to your house or the one that has whatever you want. In HK, there are about 10 different malls near your house and at least more than half of them have what you want. The result? These crazy theme-park/work of art/art gallery/mall/entertainment centre things...

Saying goodbye all over again...

For the past few days, it's pretty much been all about the goodbyes. A few days ago, I had to say goodbye to Suki. Today, it was my roommate and posting these pictures feels like another goodbye to Guangzhou, a place that I miss for some reason. A goodbye to Hong Kong is in order very soon but for now, I'll enjoy the last of my time as I hope you will enjoy these pictures.


Roadside fruit market.

The Chen ancestral residence that was once used by members of the Chen family to study and live in when they wanted to prepare for exams to become an official.



Placard in front of the house that was once used by the Clefs d'Ors in Sha Mian. According to the intertubes, Les Clefs d'Ors are a sort of union of hotel concierges of the highest standard. The horse in the middle of the logo is a symbol for travel in Guangzhou. (See picture below.)


There's a special name for this statue in Chinese but the most important thing is that the statue of one of a horse on a swallow (it's kinda stepping on it...) on a globe and it's a symbol of traveling.


I wonder if anyone here has a Clef d'Or. This is Guangzhou's first five star hotel.


After a rainy day, the snails came out! This one was pretty big. According to the head teacher, people cook these things in soup. Then again, another teacher told me that in Guangzhou, there's an expression that states: "The only thing that can fly but you can't eat is an airplane and the only thing with four legs that you can't eat is a chair." Oh dear...


Speaking of um... interesting food, guess what these are? Figured it out yet? Well, if you can't, then you'll have to wait for my description on facebook.


Breakfast at the university canteen. The plates and such were rather spartan but the total cost of everything pictured above? $1.60RMB = 21 cents Canadian.


Speaking of universities, this is the gate to the best university in Guangzhou, Zhong Shan University. It's on this island with 9 other universities. No, there's literally an island with 10 universities on it in Guangzhou.


Old door in Guangzhou. It has three layers. There's a giant wooden door for general use but Guangzhou is super hot (no, seriously) so when it gets really warm, people just use the barred doors so that air can circulate and the rooms keep cool. If you want more privacy, you just close the doors that go up halfway. Neat eh?

Parting shot. Guess who put the flowers on the pylons? My friend Suki: Jess, everyone's watching us. Yes, it was me. =D

Guangzhou...

After a week with no facebook, twitter and youtube, I'm back on the free intertubes in Hong Kong. I will be home very soon and I can't wait to be back. (Taiwanfest! Buskerfest! Sandwiches with proper bread!) Anyways, I think you should all be very very proud of the fact that I survived without the sites mentioned above. Then again, there was so much to do each day and I came back home so exhausted that there was no time for the internets anyways. How to start...? Hmmm...

Well, let's just say that I went to Guangzhou knowing absolutely NOTHING of the place except that apparently there were a lot of pickpockets and robbers who would rob you in broad daylight. I could start telling you of all the horror stories that I was told, but in the end, I didn't think Guangzhou was that bad. (There was only one incident where one of the students got pickpocketed, though he seems to have a history of getting his money stolen...) In fact, I'd love to go back one day. A famous Chinese saying claims that, "To eat good food, go to Guangzhou. To settle down, go to Hangzhou. To die, go to Liuzhou." In other words, Guangzhou is reputed to have awesome food and I won't argue with that. I've taken pictures of almost every single thing I've eaten in Guangzhou, so stay tuned on facebook for the food pr0n. But for now, here's a preview:



I think the first thing I noticed in Guangzhou was I couldn't see the sky. It was the first time I've ever seen that much pollution in one place but the smog started to clear off once the rain started coming in. Then again, the air seemed to be a lot better there than in Taipei... The second thing I noticed? These goats:



They're the mascots for the 16th Asian Games and I've decided that they're too cute to be legal. I've already gotten a few pieces of goat merchandise to lug back to Canada, and I admit I was sorely tempted to buy the entire set of plushies and figurines as well... They're definitely more adorable than the Beijing mascots and they're giving Miga, Sumi, Quatchi and Mukmuk a run for their money, although the Vancouver 2010 mascots are special to me for other reasons. Why goats do you ask? Well, the head teacher will be proud at the fact that I'm transmitting my knowledge of Guangzhou to my friends... (Even though this is in English and not Chinese.)



Once upon a time in Guangzhou, there was a devastating drought. People were dying because the grain harvest was poor, so they prayed to the heavens. One day, five immortals came down to Guangzhou riding five goats. Each goat had rice ears in its mouth and the immortals offered this to the people. The immortals then flew off and the goats stayed behind in Guangzhou and since then, the people of Guangzhou got rain and beneficial winds every year. Wheee~ Yay~ In 1903, a sculptor made a sculpture as a tribute to this myth. (Picture above.) It sits in Yuexiu Park and is a symbol of Guangzhou. As a result, the mascots of the 16th Asian games, which will be held in Guangzhou in November, are goats~! Cute ones~!

Anyways... other things I noticed when I first arrived in Guangzhou... The campus was pretty! And it wasn't on a hill! There was a pretty park smack dab in the middle of campus and although civilization was somewhat further away, we could walk to the supermarket rather than take a bus! We also got single rooms with private bathrooms. Apparently they treat you better if you're an international student.

The local teachers in Guangzhou were super nice and super fun. I think that they might've thought I was a bit weird 'cause Suki and I were giggling randomly all the time. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised at this at all...

Hmmm... things I did. Well, other than going to that park, there were tons of museums and old residences, and old residences/forts/buildings turned into museums. It was pretty cool to see all the things I learned translated into actual artifacts and physical objects. The shopping wasn't too bad but there weren't too many chances to go shopping. There was a pedestrian street with cheap clothes (as in less than $10 Canadian/American per piece) but I was exhausted that day and going into shutdown mode so I didn't buy anything. Not to mention, our local teacher who took us around was a guy, so Suki and I would feel bad if we dragged him into women's clothing stores. In any case, there is too much to say and yet so little energy left in my battery. (Travelling is fun but exhausting. Even a two hour train ride can suck all the energy out of you in one go...) I will leave you with some picat00rs and a caption or two.


A street in Lingnan Impression, a historic tourist site in Guangzhou.


Doesn't this look as if it belongs in Europe? This is Sha Mian, a section in Guangzhou that used to be inhabited by foreigners. Many of the buildings looked European, including this Starbucks. It reminded me of home...


What's China without Chairman Mao?


An ivory sculpture with two multi-layered balls. This was probably one piece of ivory and each ball had about a gazillion other balls inside, each with a geometric design. Talk about patience and workmanship.


Jade suit worn by the Nanyue King from the Western Han dynasty in his death. There are bits of jade suits at the ROM, but not an entire suit like this one.


Sun Yat-sen memorial hall.

So tired... will upload more pictures either tomorrow or on facebook... stay tuned.

Going back in time: Shang Wan and Mao-mania, etc, etc, etc...

So, due to exams, I haven't done anything interesting during the last two days thanks to my exam today but Sunday was rather fun. My roommate Janice and I went to Sheung Wan. I really had no clue what was there or where it was but of course, such things would not stop me. She had this guide book, which had a map so there was a lot less random wandering as would happen if I were to travel alone... sans guide book. We started out at a place called the Western Market:



The building was rather magnificent on the outside, although the inside was full of cloth stores for no apparent reason.

Anyways, we continued our wanderings and for those of you who don't know Cantonese, the "Sheung" in Sheung Wan means up and it seemed very fitting considering that walking anywhere there involved walking uphill. Many of the scenes reminded me of the Cantonese dramas I used to watch with my parents when I was a kid while other things looked absolutely surreal:






On the guidebook, there was a very precise walking path, but being me, I had to wander off into random alleys with cool things and hawking stalls. One of the spots listed in the guidebook was "Cat Street". I had no clue what it was but I think we randomly came upon it during my random wanderings. My infinite improbability was at work again.

In any case, wikipedia claims that Cat Street got its name because,

In the past it was a common joke that, if you had something stolen, you were almost certain to find it for sale back in Cat Street. In Cantonese slang thieves are called rats, and the dealers who purchase goods from the rats are cats.

However, I disagree... randomly. Personally, I think that it's because if you change the tone for "Mao" from second to first tone in Mandarin, you get the sound for cat and this was where the kommies in Hong Kong congregated. (I'm joking by the way...) Anyways, there was just a lot of Mao and communist paraphernalia.

By the way, I was really tempted to buy that Stalin bust for Julia... or Ailsa.


Yay! Proletarians! LOL...

Anyways, the day ended with a delicious lunch. I had suckling pig for the first time. Yummm... (Sorry the picture is screwy, I know.)


Oh yes, and just to be random, I'll end with a picture I took today of Snoopy Land in Shatin.


P.S. I'll be in China for the next week so I have no clue if I'll be able to update.

Exam time...

I've done some fun things the last few days but I don't have time to write more than I am right now. Tomorrow is the date of a huge exam so my blog post for the last few days will be postponed until tomorrow.

Signing off,

~Jess

Travelling with no destination in mind...

Wow... what a jam-packed day. Today was probably the most interesting I've had so far in Hong Kong.

After a week with very little sleep, I decided to sleep in just a leeeeeeetle bit today. I woke up at 9, intending to start homework and work until 4ish and then go out once all my homework was done. In any case, I brought all my work onto my bed (I'm used to working in bed) but fell asleep and finally woke up at 11. Yay! Sleep! And I managed to finish everything by 4, just as I planned. Woot! (Yes, I was travelling alone again as Suki is in China visiting relatives... How I wish you were here...)

Anyways, after hearing a lot of Mong Kok shopping stories from my roommates and friends, I decided to head to the famous Ladies' Market (pictured above) that's steps away from the MTR station. After wandering through an insane crowd of people, I decided that I hated the place and seeing that I had nothing to eat all day except for a few digestive crackers and chips, I decided to find a restaurant to eat. I ended up going to a restaurant that wasn't used to seeing tourists considering that the menu was all in Chinese. I saw that they had pretty decent-looking curry fish balls (a Hong Kong street meat staple) so I went in. I could barely discern what was in the menu and in the end, I ordered something with beef and noodles. It was kind of disgusting but I was so hungry, I ate it all anyway.

After dinner, I noticed that I had walked all the way south to the next MTR station and when I went in, I saw this:


Dundas Street and Square!? I tried finding it, but the place was so much like Mong Kok that I decided to give up my search. I had planned to stay out until 9 or 10 but at this point, it was only 6 in the evening. There was so much time and I had absolutely no clue where to go or what to do. I went out that day with barely any plan of what I was going to do. In any case, I noticed that I was 2 stops away from Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), which is a really popular spot in HK, so I decided to hop on the MTR, get there and figure out what I was going to do when I got there. After reading the signs telling you what was at each exit, I discovered that there was a park called Kowloon Park! In the middle of TST aka prime real estate aka one of the most expensive pieces of land ON THE PLANET! So off I went and I'm so glad that I did.

After looking at the map to see how to get there, I noticed that there was a mosque nearby. When I got out of the station, the mosque was right beside it!


There was also an entryway into the park right beside it! I felt as if time stopped for a moment when I saw the mosque. It was so surreal, being in the middle of one of the busiest places in Hong Kong, hearing chanting/prayers from loudspeakers and seeing women in hijabs having a picnic in the park. The mix of cultures almost reminded me of home...

Anyways, I'm so glad that I decided to go into the park. In many ways, it's probably more "artificial" than the parks in Taiwan since there were various gardens and an aviary. However, the park was well designed because despite these gardens, it felt like a park back at home where it feels as if someone sectioned off the wilderness of the city rather than the parks in Taiwan where you can see the human hand behind every tree, flower and shrub. I've always felt that the parks in Taiwan were a bit... garrish (?) too unnatural (?) just plain tacky (?) so I was glad that this park was designed by someone with good taste.

The park was pretty darn awesome. It had fountains, sculptures and... FLAMINGOS!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to squeal out loud when I saw them! There was a huge flock of them!!! There were other birds in the pond as well as an aviary with exotic birds. 'Twas tres cool.


Some parts of the park looked as if nature had taken over the land again. It was fabulous. I absolutely adore this tree although my roommate says it's kind of scary-looking.


The Chinese garden was rather pretty although it took me absolutely forever to find it...


Anyways, after my adventure in the park I wanted a drink since I had finished the one in my purse. Victoria had mentioned the K-11 mall on facebook and I knew it was in TST, so I decided to check it out. It turns out that the K-11 is an art mall. Some of the things in there were so cool, although shopping was limited. I wanted to buy this book at the bookstore but figured that it didn't quite fit my budget at the moment. Maybe I'll exchange some money and get it. It was a book where this guy went around China and got people to pose with a statuette of Mao.

Anyways, K-11... Here are some pictures. Isn't this the coolest information kiosk evarrrrrrr?

It's Candyland!!!


At one of the exits was the biggest toast painting in the world! All that down there is toast!

After that, I went to another mall to look for a supermarket to buy a drink and found one. I went in looking for a drink and I came out with the most GINORMOUS mango ever! (The picture will be on facebook.) All the other mangoes were smaller and the same price. I've named the mango Mr. Mangofest but I fear that naming it will make me too attached to it to eat it. I plan to eat him for breakfast tomorrow. He's perfectly ripe and smell delicious. I figured that I had to buy him considering I was carrying him all over the supermarket and inhaling his lovely scent.

In any case, the moral of today's story: traveling with no plan is the best plan ever.

Field trip!

Hermes is backkkkk!!! And so are the picat00rs!!! Woot woot!

Today, rather than doing our lesson, our teacher decided that we should go on a field trip to experience Hong Kong culture. I approve.

Our day started with dim sum. Yum...


After dim sum, we were supposed to go to Wong Tai Sin, aka my dad's birthplace. I didn't mind going again but today began with a bout of rain and then the weather became super super sunny, humid and hot. Suki didn't want to be outside at all today and the teacher secretly admitted to Suki that she didn't want to go to Wong Tai Sin anymore either... So after some debating and discussing, we ended up at...


Festival Walk! Remember that mall I decided to check out yesterday? Well, I didn't get a chance to go skating but we did today! It made me so happy. Keina, the little Japanese girl in our class was a bit reluctant and scard at first and our teacher is obviously not Canadian, so she was a bit apprehensive that one of us would go and break our legs or whatnot. The thing is, if she was Canadian, she'd know that falling is a natural part of skating and unless it was some insane collision with another person or a fall from a figure skating move, falling is perfectly harmless. You might get bruised a bit, but you pick yourself up and go on.

Anyways, by the time we finished skating, Keina was reluctant to go and admitted that she had a lot of fun. Woot. It was nice to feel the ice underneath the skate blades since I didn't go skating during the winter. After this skating bit, class was dismissed and now we have to write a composition about the culture of Hong Kong. A vague bs-ing topic that I don't mind writing about.

Anyways, there was a little blip in the day when the teacher mentioned something about low marks. I need to pass this course to get my credit for my program requirement so I could graduate with my degree. I didn't think I was doing too badly in the class but I would never imagine that I could possibly be failing. There's also the fact that the Chinese Language Centre at CUHK has never received any of our compositions or quizzes and our teacher hasn't even given us marks for anything yet. I have no clue what's happening. I was so upset about the possibility of failing that I decided to go to Shatin and find the post office rather than go back to the hostel and mope.

During my journey to the post office, I noticed from afar a set of lovely buildings. And then I saw signs for a temple and all of a sudden, instead of finding the post office, I found a lovely temple on a hill so I decided to go up. I seem to have a knack for finding random cool places and exploring them. I know that if some of my friends were here, they'd tell me to just ignore the place and find the post office but I thought that this spot was too pretty to pass up. Even though it was a rather secluded and quiet area. It's a rather lovely temple, actually. There's a really tall pagoda according to the visitor's map but I didn't find it. If I did, I would've gone up the pagoda. Oh well. Next time...



I had asked directions to the post office before my sojourn at the temple and I was confused because I went in the direction that people were telling me but all I could see was a tall government building and the temple. I decided to go into the government building and lo and behold, the post office was there! I put all 19 postcards in this box:


And then I saw the mailboxes outside. I have no clue if I should or should not have put those postcards in here but I hope you guys get them! Tell me if they actually have that datestamp or not!