Link to Stairs...

http://hongkongciber.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/a-stairway-to-heaven-mandate-of-heaven/

Here is a link to a blog about the many stairs of Hong Kong.

Our CIBER Blog is on wordpress and is going to be used in future years as a point of reference for the trip. Sadly, I am always torn between blogs, but feel better linking posts from there to "Tales from China" rather than the other way around.

Happy Fourth of July and Happy 28th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Our trip to Beijing was fantastic (we went June 18-21). We were only there 3 days and 3 nights which definitely is not long enough to see all there is to see in that city, but we got a good jist of it. The first night we went to an acrobatics show, Friday we went to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs, Saturday we went to the Forbidden City and the Silk Market, and Sunday we went to the Temple of Heaven and Mao's Mausoleum. I know, a ton of stuff.

The Great Wall was the best. The Temple of Heaven was awesome in itself though. One of their alter's (the one you see if you were shown a picture of the Temple of Heaven) was built without any nails. And its huge! Pretty cool. Also cool was the "hall of abstinence" where the emperor would spend the last 24 hours of his fast before making sacrifices (or something like that, Becca and Vanessa took a lewd picture in front of it); the "center of the earth" where the emperor made his sacrifices (I stood on the center of the earth you could say); but best of all were the loads of senior citizens scattered amongst the park's many acres. We got there early Sunday morning but so did thousands of China's communist generation. And while we were strolling, they were tai chi-ing, playing some sort of raquetball without nets, playing hacky sack (no joke. which was really funny to me because hacky sack players in america are skater-Californian middle school boys), doing fan dances and sword dances, and chanting (as the video almost creepily portrays).

All in all, the park was a cultural experience.

You know you're in China when...

Men seem to like having long fingernails.

Children deficate/pee on the sidewalk. Not joking (not in Hong Kong though, only mainland--like that makes it any better)

Everyone loves to spit. And not just dainty, too-much-spit-in-my-mouth spit, but clear-the-throat, hacking spit.

All sales prices are negotiable.

People may take pictures of you (assuming you're not asian) because you do not look like their homogenous culture. Whatever.

Finding a salad with lettuce is close to impossible.

Finding noodles/rice is like trying to find air to breathe. Too easy.

You've been run into, shoved, and pushed around at least a handful of times just for walking down the street.

All clothing sizes are now two sizes smaller--not so good on the self-esteem.

Wonder of the World, rightly so.

The Great Wall has been the best thing by far I have gone to see this entire trip. Maybe it was because it was practically like hiking (which I've gotten really into hear, since running in Hong Kong's humidity feels like running with a wet coat on). But the magnamity, history, and endless winding of the Great Wall makes it worth the sweat and time it takes to get there.

We went to a section of the wall named Mutianyu, where the wall dates from 1368 and there are less tourists to deal with because it is further from Beijing than other sections of the wall. Guard towers dot the wall, which were creepy for me, because they only reinforced the fact that the wall was used as a defense mechanism and I tried not to imagine how creepy it would be to be assaulted by Mongols creepy out of the mountains and assailing your wall... weird.

We wanted to tobagen down but it was closed due to rain (lame, it barely sprinkled) so we took a cable car down which was even better.

Market Shopping!

After 5 hours of fighting off vendors and fighting with vendors at the Silk Market (which apparently is the 3rd most visited attraction in Beijing--kind've sad statistic but one that shows tourists' need for consumption), I am glad we mastered the art of bartering. WE may seem like a group of unknowing tourists, a non-Asian gaggle of wide-eyed girls slowly walking down the crowded aisles, but we "are very hard" barterers as many a vendor informed us. Below you will find the video gem I managed to snag of Vanessa and Rebecca arguing over a Miu Miu cross-bod purse...

(I need to figure out how to cut it, its too big of a file currently. Bargaining took around 2 minutes which equates to >100MB, dang it)

I sadly, yet predictably, became a semi-professional shopper in mainland China, stuffing my luggage to the max with purchases for the trip home. But when I convert the reminbi spent back to US dollars at the end of the day I feel good about myself.

Rules to shopping in China:

1. Sometimes, as in 90% of the time, you have to say no and walk away or else you would be drug into every stall possible. Phrases such as "missy missy, looky looky" are still resonating with me. Grabbing your wrist and pleading you to purchase is another tactic which may occur...

2. Do not be completely creeped out when the man on the street with a magazine displaying various purses and watches leads you to an upstairs, hallway of a room with faulty flourescent lights and the stench of stale cigarrettes; although, it is nice to go to these places with a group of people. Bartering in groups gives you economies-of-scale power, and in the end the shop keeper cares little if he received 800RMB from a watch and a purse or 10 watches--their profit margin has to be exorbitant.

3. NEVER accept the first price. It depends on the place, but have a general idea of how much you want to spend, split that price in half, and start there. Vanessa paid 100RMB for a sword the shop keeper initally said was worth 1200. Ridiculous, exhausting, but kinda fun too. I began having calculator wars in which they would type a ridiculously high number and we'd say "too high, too high" than secretively converse and type in a ridiculously low number in our calculator... ahhh the joys of communicating with language barriers. Everyone knows the language of money though (unless you're clueless about the conversion rate, i guess).

Missy missy, looky looky. psssh

It's Not ALL Fun and Games

We had a midterm today for our International Accounting Policies and Procedures Class. Rough. Rough in the fact that we are in Hong Kong and everyone stayed in the I-House yesterday to study. Rough in the fact that we only had 4 classes before we had a test (although 16 hours of class). And rough in the fact that I fell asleep on top of my notes twice. Although, as with the passing of every test, a sense of relief passed through everyone after 12pm today and tonight was dedicated to celebration.

Although, and this is pathetic how proud of myself I am, I spent 4 of my hours today doing laundry. As anyone who knows me well knows I do not devote many (IE any) hours of my life to laundry at home, it was quite an accomplishment. Everyone and their mom AND dog decided to do laundry at the same time today, making it a longer process in having to wait for certain machines, etc. Although, my drawers are now full of clean clothes, my delicates are hanging nicely from this funky contraption I borrowed from the boys' room, and I can go to bed feeling more accomplished.

Ha.

Victoria's Peak and Time Spent Travelling

Yesterday we fought the rain and made our way to Victoria's Peak, a touristy mountain on Hong Kong Island which boasts a shopping center equipped with various eateries and a spectacular view of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Leaving campus takes some effort: We take the MTR to get into town most of the time, but it takes 30 minutes to walk to University station (our MTR station) from the I-House, or we can wait for a bus to take us to the station but there is usually a wait for that and one of the buses (the "light bus" opposed to a bigger bus) costs $4.50 HKD (which really is nothing. $1USD=~$7.5HKD). Once we get to University Station we take that line all the way to one end (8 stops), walk underground to transfer to the red line and take that another 2 stops to the end which is called Central. Whew. If you think this is confusing to read, imagine travelling it. THEN, we took a bus from central to the Victoria's Peak tram, pay a tourist price for the tram (still cheap compared to the US, about $4USD) to take you to the mall at Victoria's Peak. THEN once in the mall you got up about 8 escalators to get to the Sky Terrace, pay another fee and finally witness all of the skylines Hong Kong has to offer. Boasting more sky-scrapers than any city in the world, it's worth the almost 2 hour journey. I want to go back during the day, hike up Victoria's Peak, then hopefully see more distant views (although between the smog and the rain just how far that will be is debatable).

After taking a group photo, attempting to take non-flash skyline photos, and holding hands with Rebecca (because it was just too romantic of a spot not to hold hands with somebody), we ventured off to find some dinner. Because Victoria's Peak is so touristy (and romantic), the range of restaurants is from McDonald's (~$30HKD) to fancy pants restaurants where I imagine couples get engaged or up and coming stars spend a lot of money to feel more like celebrities($1000HKD+). Me being me, I found some weird but delicious looking crepe stand and had some awesome tuna-fish concoction. **Don't worry, I've already recognized the need for a future blog solely about food; I'm preparing a food diary of photos.**

Despite the fact that school is pretty tough and the mountainous pathways of CUHK are exhausting, I'm proud to say we have managed to leave campus every day. A few of us went to Sha Tin mall after class for lunch and tonight we are watching a Chinese movie projecter-style with the entire group and working on homework.

I miss home and American things. Happy Birthday to Carol last week, congrats to Matt for finishing his CFA, and props to Mary for finishing her LSAT!