Last days in HK

Wow, the semester is nearly over. 4 more days until I head back to the US. I really don't want to leave and reenter the real world. It has been like a 3 month vacation. So these last few days I am have to scramble around to study for my finals, see everything in HK I haven't seen yet, trek up to Shenzhen to get my custom made suit, and pack! ahhhh

Took a week long trip to China last week. Went to Shanghai and Yangshuo. I'll give a more detailed post later, but take a look at the pictures. The pictures below should entice you to go look! Yangshuo and Shanghai

Pictures Upload from Stanley

here are pictures from stanley

Cultural Exchange Showcase

A fellow exchange student put together a sort of talent show for local, mainland, international and exchange students to take part in. I played a pair of duets with my clarinet friend from the orchestra. But it was actually quite a cool show with lots of variety in the acts.

There were a couple groups reciting Chinese poems or drama. Most of these groups were made up of primarily international students. It was funny to here the reactions of the Chinese kids when the non-asians started speaking Chinese well! There were also groups that sang Chinese songs--one group sang some popular chinese songs that lots of people in the room were singing along with. There were also some hip hope dance groups, a belly dancer, an indian dancer, double dutch (which I'm sure many of the chinese kids have never seen before...they should come to any Evanston middle school to get a glimpse at the real deal!), and a girl playing a yangqin, a chinese hammered dulcimer.

All the groups were really impressive and the event was quite well attended. I wonder if it will continue on in the future, since the person in charge will be leaving. It is a great way for all the students to come together and enjoy performances from students around the world.

Hong Kong=paradise??? perhaps yes

So after my 1 and only class today, I headed over to the South side of Hong Kong island to Stanley village. This village is known for its market and beaches and is very crowded on weekends. Thankfully, it was not the weekend so I had a very leisurely time!

I walked around the village and saw the sights: one of the oldest Tin Hau temples in HK (Tin Hau is the goddess of the sea, so as a place where the sea is very important, there are many Tin Hau temples), a building that used to be over in Central which was moved brick by brick over to Stanley and rebuilt, beaches, and a market.

The market was quite nice. Not at all like the Mong Kok or temple street markets where the "shopkeepers" are constantly yelling at you, "Missy, Missy. copy watch? copy handbag?" Here you could actually walk with out being harassed. The stores were also nicer with real clothes, art stores, souvenir shops, and only a few fake designer bags!

The best part about Stanley were the beaches. I didn't' go to the main beach (although I wish I had gone over just to see it) and just went to some smaller beaches. I just sat there for a few hours under the sun and blue, cloudless sky, watching the waves come in and the cargo boats loll about off in the distance. Quite relaxing!

The south side of the island as seems like a different world than Central and Kowloon. No real businesses, hardly any high rises, more nature, and just a laid back feeling. ahhhh.....I'm relaxed just thinking about it.

Anyway, that's it for Stanley, but on the MTR back to campus, this couple walked onto the train. They seemed different than most Hong Kong people....just very well dressed. Hong Kongers strive to dress well, but often do so at the expense of quality. However, this couple just stood out for some reason. So I was looking at what the man was wearing, and noticed he had a brown belt on. I looked down at his shoes to see if they matched, but no, they were black! I thought about berating him for his inability to follow fashion rules...but upon looking at his shoes more closely, it seemed that somebody forgot to take the hair off the leather for his shoes! (and these hairy shoes probably cost 10 times more than regular leather shoes) I knew this couple didn't fit in!

pictures soon....

Bun Festival!

So as a replacement for Slope Day this year, I went to a Bun Festival held on a Cheung Cheu island. It was a great replacement! This is a small island about 30 minutes away from Hong Kong Island (on a fast ferry, an hour on the slow one) where no cars are allowed, nice beaches, the windsurfing capital of Hong Kong (apparently, Hong Kong's one and only olympic gold medal came from a windsurfer who trained here). And each year, lots of people swarm the island for their Bun Festival!

The Bun Festival obviously involves lots of buns. The buns are pretty big with a big red mark on the top for the baker and are filled with various sweet fillings (meaning red bean paste, sesame paste or an egg yoke custard). But the real attraction for the buns are the 40 foot towers covered them! At around 11 PM, people race to the top and try to pick as many buns off the tower as they can. About 30 years ago, the bun tower collapsed so the bun tower climbing was canceled. It was only reinstated in 2005, but with steel instead of bamboo supporting the towers and using plastic buns instead of real ones. They still make 3 huge towers and many small towers out of real buns though! They also build these paper effigies of the gods and people set up these picnics for the gods to come eat at. People go around to all the picnics that are seat up (probably 30 of them) and add more offerings and foods for the gods. They then burn the paper gods.

Also accompanying the festival is a parade featuring lots of chinese lions and dragons, marching bands of chinese instruments, and little kids in heavy makeup 10 feet in the air, supported only by thin polls! I also caught a little chinese opera.

For dinner, we had this great seafood dinner. I don't even really at fish or seafood and this was good! And so cheap. Less than $10 USD for like 8 different courses. The buns were cheap too, less than a dollar for a bun that probably could suffice as a meal in itself.

I missed the bun scrambling part because I had to get back to campus, but I'm sure it was fun. Here are more pictures on facebook. (Note, I brought my nice camera but when I got there I discovered it was out of batteries. I was going to bring my small camera, but then I decided against it. So I was left with the phone on my camera, which soon ran out of batteries too....)