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!

Hiking with a view

TID BIT: if you click on "My Homepage" under my profile for Blogger, it will bring you to my facebook album for the trip with all of my photos...

Today, and I've decided every Sunday I'm in Hong Kong, we went hiking in the New Territories to find a beach. Although it took some time to get there, it was well worth it. Kind've like the greenbelt in Austin but not at all like that because it's on the side of a mountain with water over the edge... Hong Kong's Parks and Wildlife Department must have a lot of investment because this hiking trail was miles and miles long and paved! Crazy. NOTE: It's interesting how clean this country is despite its lack of trash cans. We took a cab to the start of the hiking trail and went about 30 minutes to this great beach in the middle of a bunch of mountains. The water was clear and clean and felt great. Next time we'll probably start earlier, stop at one of the erratic shack restaurants along the trail, hike further, and discover new beaches. We were lucky it didn't rain today. It's sad how polluted Hong Kong is though... because we were further away from the city it wasn't as bad but there's always a haze in the air, even on cloudless days.

Great day.

Visiting Macau

We went to Macau Monday morning to visit the Portuguese monuments and experience the gambling capital of the East. Travelling as a huge group is always fun because we get all of the plush ammenities Anthony (our "cultural liason"/Dad/Interpreter/Doctor) provides. We took an hour ferry ride to get to Macau, another Special Administrative Region once ruled by the Portuguese but now under China's control. I was so excited to see a place like Vegas. Apparently, while Las Vegas made $5.3 billion in gambling revenues in 2003, Macau made $5 billion. And the casinos we saw were architectually astounding. The Sands was huge, the Lisboa was bigger and golder (if possible), the Golden Dragon we stayed in was even huge. There were others I didn't see like the Venetian (which apparently has a Cirque show... cool) and the MGM Grand. There was a little kids amusement park accross the street from our hotel boasting a huge volcano building, a replica of a Chinese temple, and a little Italy-type building. It was fun to look at but was closed when we walked over there leaving us to see vacated bumper cars and roped off entrances to mini-sized rides. The Portuguese monuments we saw were really pretty--a cathedral (I love visiting churches abroad, they hold confessions in English, Portuguese, and Mandarin), the facade of Sao Paulo (see picture) which once was a cathedral but burnt down, an old fort (at the top of TONS of stairs), and the Senate square. We ate at a Portuguese restaurant for lunch. Interesting to me is the fact that most restaurants in Hong Kong/Macau bring out your food at different times, not waiting on all of it to be ready before it is brought to the table. I understand they are probably trying to get it to you before it gets cold but its awkward sometimes because people will finish their meals before others have even gotten their food. After looking at the historical part of town, we went by a fruit stall to get some fresh fruit and unfortunately I passed up the opportunity to try these egg custard pastry dessert things (see link) but according to Wikipedia they should be in Hong Kong too.

Despite thinking I was going to have a Vegas experience, most of the games looked foreign (both because I have never been to a casino and because I was in Macau), there wasn't an easily accessible strip like Vegas, and I was so tired! After hanging out in the Sky View bar and drinking Lychee martinis (Lychee was a new fruit I experienced that day from a fruit stall--super sweet but really good) I burnt 300 HKD (~$40) on black jack and went to bed. I think my exhaustion has crept up on me because I have had a headache ALL day today. Urgg.

New foods:

Lychee fruit--suppposely if you eat too many of them you'll get a nose bleed and high blood pressure? Someone in our group told me that. They were good though, I still have some in my fridge.

Red Bean Paste--dessert-like, red wine colored

Gross ass salad today at Sha Tin mall--who puts tofu, cucumbers, and bananas in the same bowl?

I miss everyone. It's weird to think its only 5:35am at home, I'm getting ready to go to Lan Kwai Fong--the 6th street of Hong Kong.

The city, a lazer light show, and a typhoon.

Sometimes, studying abroad can be difficult. Always, learning your way around a new city is difficult. Take for instance, our first journey into the city yesterday. We met our whole program at the Lazer light show that takes place every night at eight on the skyline of Hong Kong Island. Sweet. Really sweet. The skyline in itself is enough to take your breath away. My picture needed to be quadruple panoramic, because the skyline behind me is just a tidbit of the whole thing. Afterwards we journeyed to the night markets (where "crap" takes on new meaning--even though I'm sure you could find some treasures if you hunted and fought with the non-English speaking stall man about prices) to find ethernet cords and browse around.

The real difficulty was trying to get home. We had to transfer MTR lines (their subway/metro/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-train-below-the-ground) and walk about a mile underground to get to the second train. Then, once we got to University station, the buses had stopped circulating and there were no taxis queued, so we had to find our way home. No problem except it was raining. After about an hour, thinking we were lost, thinking we new where we are, having a man in a lexus stop to ask in broken English if we needed help (no way we are getting into a random man's car, I think we've all seen Taken a bit too recently), finding a Cantonese speaking security guard, and climbing a bit of a mountain (the whole campus is a mountain), we finally made it home.

Sometimes studying abroad in Hong Kong has it's drenched moments. Always, studying abroad in Hong Kong will have memorable moments.

I have finally arrived

Written on my internet-less computer last night, June 2, 11:30pm:

Greetings from Hong Kong! What a day, after 24 hours of traveling, flying with the sun and across the entire Pacific Ocean, I am just about settled. I woke up at 4:30am, having to be at the Austin airport 2 hours before my flight (for international percautions and much to the chagrin of Dad who drove me). Knowing it was some of the few precious hours I had left to use my phone, the 2 hours passed quickly as I updated myself on the most current TFLNs and FMLs. One thing I did notice was my sudden assumption that every Asian on my flight could be flying to Hong Kong. It may be a little racist, but I felt every Asian flying to San Francisco (my connecting city) was all of a sudden Chinese and flying back their home country. I wanted to be their friend. One of my potential new "friends" sat next to me on the plane, and thank goodness I asked him where he was going opposed to assuming and asking him if he was going to Hong Kong because he was Korean and going back to Korea.

Jessies asked me if I think I will be able to differentiate between different Asian origins after my trip. I don't think so. It reminds me of the MLB Cap commercial I saw the other day (click on the YouTube link, its funny); an overweight, scruffy white guy weraing a Boston Red Sox hat gets off the plane and Japan and everyone thinks he is David Ortiz. Sure, they have the same jowl and Boston hat, but David Ortiz is black. Hmm... Its funny how differentiating between people of idfferent races is as difficult as it is. Also difficult: Chinese languages! If I pick up more than a handful of Chinese phrases I'll be impressed.

Other things that have surprised me:

• China's fascination and utter fear of the swine flue. Everyone is wearing surgical masks. Okay, not everyone. But I did have my temperature taken via ear and infrared on my forehead (very MIB-like) before I could step foot into the I-House ("International House," the dorm we are staying in while at CUHK (Chinese University of Hong Kong)). Asians on the plane and at the airport wore surgical masks and every entrant to Hong Kong had to go through a health screening line before going through customs.
• The enormity of our airplane. 60 rows, 3 aisles with 3 seats on the outside aisles and 4 in the middle. Then, first class was two floors! Crazy.
• This odd, fish-like smell that seems to permeate the air. Ocean spray? Not really... I'll see if it clear up, probably not though because it's more humid here than Houston and we haven't figured out how to work the AC yet... sweaty.
• At one point today I realized I was with four people who had all either interned for PwC or just accepted their offer from PwC. Is the world trying to tell me I should work with PwC?

Although its 10:50am in Austin (11:50pm in Hong Kong), I have to try to get some sleep because I have class from 9-1 tomorrow. Although I don't know anyone in the program well, I think this is the exhaustive beginning of a great trip...

--Jin Lin