(Steve)
Time to leave Hong Kong! Our train from the island to Guangzhou was in the morning, so we had to be up sorta early (boo). We were all a bit nervous on the way to the train station because our bags didn't really fit in the back of the taxi, so the trunk was only half-closed. Nothing fell out, though, and the drive was a little less roller-coasterish than some of the other ones we'd had. Unfortunately, Candice realized on the way that she'd left her jacket in the hotel room, and we didn't have time to go back. Then Jill had trouble finding the sheet she needed to get through customs. Then I lost my train ticket somewhere between the waiting hall and the train itself. Despite all of that, though, we made it on the train alive and with (almost) all of our stuff. We were finally on our way to China! (I know Hong Kong's in China, but like I said it's not really China)
When we got to Guangzhou, our guide was waiting for us. His name was Thomas. He was nice, but he seemed a little... slimy. The first thing we did was lunch, and it was our first Chinese meal. Too bad the food wasn't all that good. Plus the fish still had its head. Yum. After that we went to the Sun Yat-Sen memorial auditorium. It was very big. It looked pretty cool from the outside, but a little tacky on the inside. Just a little; performances there must still be pretty impressive. The next stop was the Folk Arts Museum. Oh my God. It was amazing. And my camera's batteries died. After my first circuit of the museum I discovered that as long as I let it recharge a bit in between pictures I could squeeze a little more out of the camera, so I went around a couple more times doing just that. My favorite stuff was the sand & stone paintings and the bone and wood carvings. It was all so amazing! It really reminds you that this is a culture that's been around ten times as long as our own. I may have gotten a little carried away, because I was about ten minutes late meeting up with the rest of the group.
Finally, Thomas took us to... a souvenir shop. See: a little bit slimy. The owner of the shop first showed us how they get pearls out of oysters (Jill was appalled when she realized the one she'd picked had just been sentenced to death). He had us guess how many would be inside. I was the closest: I said 15, it was 14. We got to keep the pearls. After that he showed us around the shop. And by "showed us around" I mean "cornered us whenever we were alone and pressured us into buying stuff". I succumbed. I got a couple of very small, very plain porcelain vases for much more than I should have spent on them. None of us was very happy with Thomas for bringing us there, but it definitely opened up our eyes as to just how harrowing bargaining can be here. Fortunately we've gotten better since.
We checked into our hotel, and Candice decided she was too tired to eat so Jill, Molly, and I went out. We found a little Thai place that looked good, and it was our first meal with just chopsticks. That was fine for me - I'd lost my appetite and I only had steamed rice - but the noodles Jill got were too hard to eat without a fork. Eventually we got back to the hotel and, exhausted, we went to bed. *End Day 3*
Impressions: Guangzhou wasn't anything special. Really, the only reason we were there is that it's cheaper to fly from there to Guilin than from Hong Kong. We were all a little relieved the next day to leave, especially when we discovered how much better Guilin, and Yangshuo, and Lijiang all were. I loved the Folk Arts Museum, though. They should probably just move it to one of the nicer cities.
News about Hangzhou and China
Pertinent news about Hangzhou and China from the Shanghai Daily
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Hong Kong Day Two
(Ms. Arkin)
Well today was our second full day in HK (and also our last). We are still having adjustment issues with the 13 hour time difference coupled with minimal sleep and lots of walking. Plus we are all on different sleep schedules. I keep waking up at all hours of the night. Fogginess seems to be an overarching theme when it comes to both my state of mind as well as the weather. Speaking of foggy weather, today was precisely that.
My friend Neil, who lives in Hong Kong with his wife and 16 month old baby, offered to be our tour guide for the day. No objections to that! We took the MTR to Central where we took a taxi to his apartment which is a good way up Victoria Peak. They were performing a “Lion’s Dance” outside of his apartment complex which is a New Years tradition. The purpose of the lion’s dance is to scare off the bad spirits for the New Year. It is also tradition to give money to both children and single people during new years. I had heard about this tradition before, but not the part about single people. Perhaps I need to make some more Chinese friends?! Anyhow, children get money presented to them in bright red envelopes which is referred to as lycee?? It was a very colorful, festive and happy setting as they ran around with their red envelopes dancing and chasing after lions. There was certainly a spirit of positive energy.
After the lion’s dance we went for a walk around the area. We went through a little park / zoo type thing which was quite pleasant. We then headed down Hollywood Avenue where there are antique stores although not much was open. It seemed that the fog was lifting somewhat so we decided to make our way to Victoria peak in the cable car. Victoria Peak is where you get a spectacular view of the entire city. That is, if it is a clear day. When we arrived at the top of the peak, it was one thick mass of white fog. We still took a picture of the four of us in front of what should be a fabulous view of Hong Kong. Unfortunately all you can see is us with a backdrop of white. Oh well.
Also, at Victoria’s Peak is Madame Tousseauds’s wax museum (along with all sorts of shops, cafes and restaurants). If you bought admission tickets to the wax museum in addition to the cable car, you were allowed to bypass the long line for the cable car that takes you to the top of the peak. Neil was kind enough to treat us all to this “double deal” excursion. We were very grateful and thrilled not to have to wait in another line! At the museum, Candice was very excited (that might actually be an understatement) to get her picture taken with Jackie Chan. So the weather was lousy and the view was non existent, but Jackie was there to make things right!
When we were done with the peak, we walked back to Neil’s apartment which I said earlier is about half way up the peak. I think Molly mentioned the steepness of things in Hong Kong in the last journal entry. She was not exaggerating. It is one of those hills that is so steep it is actually easier to walk up than down. My shins, calves and heels were ready to snap in half by the time we got to the bottom.
We were originally going to stay at Neil’s for dinner so that we could see the fireworks from their apartment which is on the 35th floor and provides a sweeping view of the city. Since their building was immersed in white fog, we decided to make our way back down to the kowloon area to eat dinner and watch the fireworks from there.
We ate at TGIF’s – one last American meal before we fully transition to Asian cuisine. It was also a matter of convenience. We were like four zombies during dinner – that hazy jetlag feeling combined with hunger and aching feet. Not the best mix! Our timing was perfect, however. Just as we walked out of the restaurant to head back to the YMCA, the fireworks were beginning. The crowd was impassable. Stephen hopped on top of some type of utility structure which provided an awesome view of the fireworks and also alleviated the discomfort of being smushed by the crowd. Molly and Candice hopped up next and I thought I would never be able to pull myself up that far, but somehow I managed to do so (although not with the same grace). It started a trend and before we knew it a family and 4 children had joined us. The kids were cheering and jumping and screaming and having so much fun. Stephen got some great photos of the fireworks. My pictures had the corner of a building in the way.
The fireworks ended promptly at 8:23pm (as scheduled) and the crowd dispersed quite efficiently. I managed to jump off the structure without killing myself and we made it back to the hotel.
Well today was our second full day in HK (and also our last). We are still having adjustment issues with the 13 hour time difference coupled with minimal sleep and lots of walking. Plus we are all on different sleep schedules. I keep waking up at all hours of the night. Fogginess seems to be an overarching theme when it comes to both my state of mind as well as the weather. Speaking of foggy weather, today was precisely that.
My friend Neil, who lives in Hong Kong with his wife and 16 month old baby, offered to be our tour guide for the day. No objections to that! We took the MTR to Central where we took a taxi to his apartment which is a good way up Victoria Peak. They were performing a “Lion’s Dance” outside of his apartment complex which is a New Years tradition. The purpose of the lion’s dance is to scare off the bad spirits for the New Year. It is also tradition to give money to both children and single people during new years. I had heard about this tradition before, but not the part about single people. Perhaps I need to make some more Chinese friends?! Anyhow, children get money presented to them in bright red envelopes which is referred to as lycee?? It was a very colorful, festive and happy setting as they ran around with their red envelopes dancing and chasing after lions. There was certainly a spirit of positive energy.
After the lion’s dance we went for a walk around the area. We went through a little park / zoo type thing which was quite pleasant. We then headed down Hollywood Avenue where there are antique stores although not much was open. It seemed that the fog was lifting somewhat so we decided to make our way to Victoria peak in the cable car. Victoria Peak is where you get a spectacular view of the entire city. That is, if it is a clear day. When we arrived at the top of the peak, it was one thick mass of white fog. We still took a picture of the four of us in front of what should be a fabulous view of Hong Kong. Unfortunately all you can see is us with a backdrop of white. Oh well.
Also, at Victoria’s Peak is Madame Tousseauds’s wax museum (along with all sorts of shops, cafes and restaurants). If you bought admission tickets to the wax museum in addition to the cable car, you were allowed to bypass the long line for the cable car that takes you to the top of the peak. Neil was kind enough to treat us all to this “double deal” excursion. We were very grateful and thrilled not to have to wait in another line! At the museum, Candice was very excited (that might actually be an understatement) to get her picture taken with Jackie Chan. So the weather was lousy and the view was non existent, but Jackie was there to make things right!
When we were done with the peak, we walked back to Neil’s apartment which I said earlier is about half way up the peak. I think Molly mentioned the steepness of things in Hong Kong in the last journal entry. She was not exaggerating. It is one of those hills that is so steep it is actually easier to walk up than down. My shins, calves and heels were ready to snap in half by the time we got to the bottom.
We were originally going to stay at Neil’s for dinner so that we could see the fireworks from their apartment which is on the 35th floor and provides a sweeping view of the city. Since their building was immersed in white fog, we decided to make our way back down to the kowloon area to eat dinner and watch the fireworks from there.
We ate at TGIF’s – one last American meal before we fully transition to Asian cuisine. It was also a matter of convenience. We were like four zombies during dinner – that hazy jetlag feeling combined with hunger and aching feet. Not the best mix! Our timing was perfect, however. Just as we walked out of the restaurant to head back to the YMCA, the fireworks were beginning. The crowd was impassable. Stephen hopped on top of some type of utility structure which provided an awesome view of the fireworks and also alleviated the discomfort of being smushed by the crowd. Molly and Candice hopped up next and I thought I would never be able to pull myself up that far, but somehow I managed to do so (although not with the same grace). It started a trend and before we knew it a family and 4 children had joined us. The kids were cheering and jumping and screaming and having so much fun. Stephen got some great photos of the fireworks. My pictures had the corner of a building in the way.
The fireworks ended promptly at 8:23pm (as scheduled) and the crowd dispersed quite efficiently. I managed to jump off the structure without killing myself and we made it back to the hotel.
Hong Kong Day One
(Molly)
Hi Everybody! We made it to Hong Kong, as did our luggage, to my surprise and delight. Our flight was delayed a day due to snow, which I appreciated because I was a nervous wreck on Wednesday. The delay gave me an extra day to repack and organize my thoughts, and I felt much better by the time we arrived at the airport at 4:30 in the morning on Friday. We checked our bags - Mine, Candice's, and Steve's bags were all under 50 pounds (Steve's barely made it), but Ms. Arkin's is 57. They didn't make her pay any fee on the way over, but we'll have to see how it works out on domestic flights within China. Then we flew Air Canada from Logan to Toronto - that was fabulous. We each got little screens and got to choose what we wanted to watch. I found the one House episode that I missed last season, and Ms. Arkin watched Arrested Development. Then we flew from Toronto to Chicago, which meant we had to go through US customs despite never leaving an airport. Next we flew from Chicago to Hong Kong. This took 15 hours and was very cramped. There was also a family with three small children (one was a baby) sitting next to us. We couldn't really tell how much we slept - most of it was drifting in and out. I had bought about 6 books for the flight ... I read for a total of maybe 2 minutes. After about 27 hours in Airports and on planes, we finally got to Hong Kong! Hong Kong is a very neon city. It seems like a cross between New York City and Las Vegas. Everything is in both Cantonese and English, so it is a really great transition city. Right now the entire city is decorated for the New Year. There are tiny orange bushes EVERYWHERE. I picked one - the fruit is quite sour. There is a lot of red and gold, and a surprising amount of neon orange. When we got to the city, we called my youth group advisor, Jamie, who is in Asia for 2 years and whom we had arranged to meet up with. We took the Star Ferry to meet him in Hong Kong. It was brief, but great - all the buildings have neon moving murals on them. My favorite is one with two goldfish whose tails are waving back and forth. Jamie decided that since we would be having Chinese food for the next two months, we should start out with something different, so he took us to a Thai restaurant in the restaurant district of Hong Kong. Much of Hong Kong is built into Victoria Peak, so it is even steeper than San Francisco! However, everywhere in Hong Kong (and everywhere in China, says Jamie) they love escalators. We took moving sidewalks all the way up the hill to the restaurant. They go down from 6 - 10 in the morning, when people are commuting down to work. Then they go up for the rest of the day. The restaurant district had EVERYTHING - Mexican, Spanish, Italian, American, French, Russian-Ukrainian, Argentinean, Thai ... After we went to dinner, we took a walk down to SoHo, which is short for South Hollywood. It is the bar district. It is hilarious, because it is just as steep as the rest of the peak, and every other row of cobblestones on the road is raised. High Heels + Steep Slope + Raised Cobblestones + Beer = Hilarity. This was a place for serious people-watching. The people in the bars were from all over the world. The Americans were the loudest and the drunkest. We had some Ben + Jerry's and watched the crowd. Then we left the bar district and took a taxi down to the flower market, which closed the next morning at 6 AM. If all the Internationals were at the bars, all the Chinese were at the Flower Market - it was packed solid. I couldn't even see the vendors, so it was better to just get out of the crowd and watch the people coming out, seeing what they were carrying out with them. The crowds here are not as bad for me as back home, because everybody is shorter! We expected Flowers and traditional Chinese crafts. Instead, it was mostly blow-up plastic carnival ware, and a bunch of pinwheels. We saw one man carrying a large blow-up rake... The weather here is fabulous, although a little too humid. It is probably 70 or 75 degrees during the day, so we are all breaking out the short-sleeve t-shirts that we haven't worn since September. Candice is on a mission to find a special kind of Nike sneaker that is sold only in China. We have had 9 sightings so far. We are staying at the YMCA, which is quite nice. The breakfast is great - there are both western and Asian foods. We found sticky rice and pork wrapped in leaves, which we had had before in the states - those were great. Candice says that waiters keep trying to put her napkin in her lap for her, which she finds a little unnerving ("I can do it myself!") Today we went to Lantau to see the Big Buddha. That is one BIG BUDDHA! It took us about an hour to get to the island via the MTR system, which is clean, quick, and easy. The MTR is what we would call a subway, but here a subway is just a tunnel you take under a street instead of crossing it above the ground. Then we had to wait 2 hours for the tram. By the end, our feet were very tired and a little swollen. The Buddha was pretty great. There were also 6 statues of his attendants, who were holding various things. The sign said "don't throw coin," but everyone was tossing coins at the statues, hoping to land them in the attendants' hands. We've seen a lot of kids today in traditional silk dress. We are not sure whether this is just for the New Year, or whether they wear it all the time. Also, we've seen really little kids out until 2 in the morning! Tonight Ms. Arkin and I went out for Italian food. The waiter had a crush on us and was really excited to practice his English. He was very smiley. I'm going to go to bed now, since it's approaching one AM!
Hi Everybody! We made it to Hong Kong, as did our luggage, to my surprise and delight. Our flight was delayed a day due to snow, which I appreciated because I was a nervous wreck on Wednesday. The delay gave me an extra day to repack and organize my thoughts, and I felt much better by the time we arrived at the airport at 4:30 in the morning on Friday. We checked our bags - Mine, Candice's, and Steve's bags were all under 50 pounds (Steve's barely made it), but Ms. Arkin's is 57. They didn't make her pay any fee on the way over, but we'll have to see how it works out on domestic flights within China. Then we flew Air Canada from Logan to Toronto - that was fabulous. We each got little screens and got to choose what we wanted to watch. I found the one House episode that I missed last season, and Ms. Arkin watched Arrested Development. Then we flew from Toronto to Chicago, which meant we had to go through US customs despite never leaving an airport. Next we flew from Chicago to Hong Kong. This took 15 hours and was very cramped. There was also a family with three small children (one was a baby) sitting next to us. We couldn't really tell how much we slept - most of it was drifting in and out. I had bought about 6 books for the flight ... I read for a total of maybe 2 minutes. After about 27 hours in Airports and on planes, we finally got to Hong Kong! Hong Kong is a very neon city. It seems like a cross between New York City and Las Vegas. Everything is in both Cantonese and English, so it is a really great transition city. Right now the entire city is decorated for the New Year. There are tiny orange bushes EVERYWHERE. I picked one - the fruit is quite sour. There is a lot of red and gold, and a surprising amount of neon orange. When we got to the city, we called my youth group advisor, Jamie, who is in Asia for 2 years and whom we had arranged to meet up with. We took the Star Ferry to meet him in Hong Kong. It was brief, but great - all the buildings have neon moving murals on them. My favorite is one with two goldfish whose tails are waving back and forth. Jamie decided that since we would be having Chinese food for the next two months, we should start out with something different, so he took us to a Thai restaurant in the restaurant district of Hong Kong. Much of Hong Kong is built into Victoria Peak, so it is even steeper than San Francisco! However, everywhere in Hong Kong (and everywhere in China, says Jamie) they love escalators. We took moving sidewalks all the way up the hill to the restaurant. They go down from 6 - 10 in the morning, when people are commuting down to work. Then they go up for the rest of the day. The restaurant district had EVERYTHING - Mexican, Spanish, Italian, American, French, Russian-Ukrainian, Argentinean, Thai ... After we went to dinner, we took a walk down to SoHo, which is short for South Hollywood. It is the bar district. It is hilarious, because it is just as steep as the rest of the peak, and every other row of cobblestones on the road is raised. High Heels + Steep Slope + Raised Cobblestones + Beer = Hilarity. This was a place for serious people-watching. The people in the bars were from all over the world. The Americans were the loudest and the drunkest. We had some Ben + Jerry's and watched the crowd. Then we left the bar district and took a taxi down to the flower market, which closed the next morning at 6 AM. If all the Internationals were at the bars, all the Chinese were at the Flower Market - it was packed solid. I couldn't even see the vendors, so it was better to just get out of the crowd and watch the people coming out, seeing what they were carrying out with them. The crowds here are not as bad for me as back home, because everybody is shorter! We expected Flowers and traditional Chinese crafts. Instead, it was mostly blow-up plastic carnival ware, and a bunch of pinwheels. We saw one man carrying a large blow-up rake... The weather here is fabulous, although a little too humid. It is probably 70 or 75 degrees during the day, so we are all breaking out the short-sleeve t-shirts that we haven't worn since September. Candice is on a mission to find a special kind of Nike sneaker that is sold only in China. We have had 9 sightings so far. We are staying at the YMCA, which is quite nice. The breakfast is great - there are both western and Asian foods. We found sticky rice and pork wrapped in leaves, which we had had before in the states - those were great. Candice says that waiters keep trying to put her napkin in her lap for her, which she finds a little unnerving ("I can do it myself!") Today we went to Lantau to see the Big Buddha. That is one BIG BUDDHA! It took us about an hour to get to the island via the MTR system, which is clean, quick, and easy. The MTR is what we would call a subway, but here a subway is just a tunnel you take under a street instead of crossing it above the ground. Then we had to wait 2 hours for the tram. By the end, our feet were very tired and a little swollen. The Buddha was pretty great. There were also 6 statues of his attendants, who were holding various things. The sign said "don't throw coin," but everyone was tossing coins at the statues, hoping to land them in the attendants' hands. We've seen a lot of kids today in traditional silk dress. We are not sure whether this is just for the New Year, or whether they wear it all the time. Also, we've seen really little kids out until 2 in the morning! Tonight Ms. Arkin and I went out for Italian food. The waiter had a crush on us and was really excited to practice his English. He was very smiley. I'm going to go to bed now, since it's approaching one AM!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Steve's Day 2 - The Peak
(Steve)
Day 2 wasn't so much a full day as an afternoon - we spent the entire morning trying to keep from collapsing and never getting back up. Finally, though, Jill came by to tell us that her friend Neil had an apartment with a great view of the fireworks so we were going to go over there for dinner. Then we decided that since we weren't doing anything else we might as well go over a bit earlier and he'd show us around. When we got to his apartment, there was a lion dance going on. I could be wrong, but I think it's supposed to keep evil spirits from entering the building where it is performed. Unfortunately, we were a little late, so we missed the really cool semi-acrobatic part. The drumming and the giant fuzzy lion-puppet were still pretty cool though.
When the dance was over, Neil brought us for a short walk. We went through a little zoo which, surprisingly, was free. That was nice. And the jaguar was cool. No pandas though, which made me sad. We also got to go in a little temple, which seemed somehow out of place next to the 40-storey Hong Kong buildings. Finally, we decided to take the tram up to Victoria Peak, even though it was way too misty to see anything. Neil bought us the combined tram/Madame Tousseauds' tickets so that we could skip the line. Madame Tousseauds' was a lot of fun; I was very happy to see Indiana Jones there, and getting my picture taken with Ghandi was definitely worth it. Candice was really excited about getting a picture with Jackie Chan, but she would have had to pay for it - fortunately, she'd gotten her picture with the Jackie we'd seen at the ticket counter.
The girls did some shopping while we were up at the peak, and we got to see the completely-white view of the mist, and then we started the walk back down. Our calves were not happy with us the next day. Eventually we made it, though, but because of the mist the view from Neil's apartment wouldn've have been so amazing. We decided to go back to our hotel, and Neil saw us off from the MTR station (Thank you so much for everything, Neil!) We had dinner at TGIF's, and when we came out the street near our hotel was packed. We were just trying to figure out how to get through the crowd when the fireworks started. There was a utility structure in my way, so I went with my first instinct: get on top of it. I guess I started a trend; by the end it wasn't just our group up there, but also a family and several children who had been lifted up by their parents. I'm still happily surprised that we didn't get in trouble for it; back home that would have gotten us arrested. It was a great view though, and I got some impressive pictures (my camera actually has a fireworks mode? What?) I was sad when the fireworks ended, and a little surprised because it was still so early and so light out. Still, our second full day in China was a success. *End Day 2*
Day 2 wasn't so much a full day as an afternoon - we spent the entire morning trying to keep from collapsing and never getting back up. Finally, though, Jill came by to tell us that her friend Neil had an apartment with a great view of the fireworks so we were going to go over there for dinner. Then we decided that since we weren't doing anything else we might as well go over a bit earlier and he'd show us around. When we got to his apartment, there was a lion dance going on. I could be wrong, but I think it's supposed to keep evil spirits from entering the building where it is performed. Unfortunately, we were a little late, so we missed the really cool semi-acrobatic part. The drumming and the giant fuzzy lion-puppet were still pretty cool though.
When the dance was over, Neil brought us for a short walk. We went through a little zoo which, surprisingly, was free. That was nice. And the jaguar was cool. No pandas though, which made me sad. We also got to go in a little temple, which seemed somehow out of place next to the 40-storey Hong Kong buildings. Finally, we decided to take the tram up to Victoria Peak, even though it was way too misty to see anything. Neil bought us the combined tram/Madame Tousseauds' tickets so that we could skip the line. Madame Tousseauds' was a lot of fun; I was very happy to see Indiana Jones there, and getting my picture taken with Ghandi was definitely worth it. Candice was really excited about getting a picture with Jackie Chan, but she would have had to pay for it - fortunately, she'd gotten her picture with the Jackie we'd seen at the ticket counter.
The girls did some shopping while we were up at the peak, and we got to see the completely-white view of the mist, and then we started the walk back down. Our calves were not happy with us the next day. Eventually we made it, though, but because of the mist the view from Neil's apartment wouldn've have been so amazing. We decided to go back to our hotel, and Neil saw us off from the MTR station (Thank you so much for everything, Neil!) We had dinner at TGIF's, and when we came out the street near our hotel was packed. We were just trying to figure out how to get through the crowd when the fireworks started. There was a utility structure in my way, so I went with my first instinct: get on top of it. I guess I started a trend; by the end it wasn't just our group up there, but also a family and several children who had been lifted up by their parents. I'm still happily surprised that we didn't get in trouble for it; back home that would have gotten us arrested. It was a great view though, and I got some impressive pictures (my camera actually has a fireworks mode? What?) I was sad when the fireworks ended, and a little surprised because it was still so early and so light out. Still, our second full day in China was a success. *End Day 2*
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Welcome Year of the Pig
Experience the 2006 Year of the Dog celebration in Hong Kong (NOT a D-S group video, but captures the experience very well!)
Steve's Day 1 - HK Arrival
(Steve)
For anyone who doesn't already know, our flight left Logan at 6:00 Friday morning. From there it was 27 hours of airports and airplanes before we got to China. We had to go through Toronto to Chicago, then finally up north over the pole to Hong Kong. The detour through Canada meant that we had to recheck our bags and go through customs to get back to the States, even though we never even left the terminal. It was irritating and a little stressful what with our time constraints. We got here with all of our stuff, though, so it all worked out in the end.
We got to Hong Kong at 7:00 at night (6:00 AM back home) and decided to go out. We took the Star Ferry across to where Jamie, Molly's youth group counselor, works. The ferry was fun, and the decorations for the New Year were amazing: everywhere we looked there were statues and displays lit up, lanterns, and flashing neon pictures on the buildings. I'm still annoyed that I forgot my camera. Anyways, Jamie treated us to a Thai dinner in SoHo before giving us a brief tour of Hong Kong. He pointed out how much Asians love escalators and moving walkways, but in Hong Kong they're somewhat necessary: the city's steeper than San Francisco! That's exactly what made the club district so entertaining in terms of people watching, as Molly said in the blog. Even so, it was hard not to be impressed by the neighborhood. After that, we went to the Flower Market, which we expected to be a rather traditional festival-type gathering. It was more carnival-esque: we didn't see any flowers but we did see plenty of cheap plastic toys (even an inflatable rake). The place was packed, so we didn't stay long. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 2:00 AM. All in all, it was a great welcome to Hong Kong and I can't thank Jamie enough for it, but I regretted staying out that late for the next few days.
I still didn't sleep much that night - a 13 hour time difference really throws you off - so I was up and about pretty early Sunday morning. I wandered around until I finally ran into the girls, and we decided to go see the Big Buddha. When we got to the cablecar station, we found out that the line was 2 hours long. That was not easy on our feet. Finally we got up to the top of the mountain though, and yes, it is one BIG Buddha. It was very cool, and it was also kinda funny to see all the people trying to toss coins into the things the statues were holding. By the time we got back from the Buddha the streets were starting to fill up for the New Year's parade, but I was too tired even to eat, much less to stay up for that. So I went to bed. *End day 1* (and for those who are wondering, I'm not counting Saturday. Sunday was day 1.)
First impressions: Hong Kong is a very western city. Everyone seemed to be expecting us to suffer massive culture shock, but it didn't feel all that different. It was a little disconcerting to see Chinese characters everywhere, but they were always accompanied by English. Driving, which we heard so many horror stories about, wasn't all that bad. Even so, though, my hotel room felt very lonely for the first few nights, so I'm definitely glad we went to Hong Kong first to ease into the trip.
For anyone who doesn't already know, our flight left Logan at 6:00 Friday morning. From there it was 27 hours of airports and airplanes before we got to China. We had to go through Toronto to Chicago, then finally up north over the pole to Hong Kong. The detour through Canada meant that we had to recheck our bags and go through customs to get back to the States, even though we never even left the terminal. It was irritating and a little stressful what with our time constraints. We got here with all of our stuff, though, so it all worked out in the end.
We got to Hong Kong at 7:00 at night (6:00 AM back home) and decided to go out. We took the Star Ferry across to where Jamie, Molly's youth group counselor, works. The ferry was fun, and the decorations for the New Year were amazing: everywhere we looked there were statues and displays lit up, lanterns, and flashing neon pictures on the buildings. I'm still annoyed that I forgot my camera. Anyways, Jamie treated us to a Thai dinner in SoHo before giving us a brief tour of Hong Kong. He pointed out how much Asians love escalators and moving walkways, but in Hong Kong they're somewhat necessary: the city's steeper than San Francisco! That's exactly what made the club district so entertaining in terms of people watching, as Molly said in the blog. Even so, it was hard not to be impressed by the neighborhood. After that, we went to the Flower Market, which we expected to be a rather traditional festival-type gathering. It was more carnival-esque: we didn't see any flowers but we did see plenty of cheap plastic toys (even an inflatable rake). The place was packed, so we didn't stay long. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 2:00 AM. All in all, it was a great welcome to Hong Kong and I can't thank Jamie enough for it, but I regretted staying out that late for the next few days.
I still didn't sleep much that night - a 13 hour time difference really throws you off - so I was up and about pretty early Sunday morning. I wandered around until I finally ran into the girls, and we decided to go see the Big Buddha. When we got to the cablecar station, we found out that the line was 2 hours long. That was not easy on our feet. Finally we got up to the top of the mountain though, and yes, it is one BIG Buddha. It was very cool, and it was also kinda funny to see all the people trying to toss coins into the things the statues were holding. By the time we got back from the Buddha the streets were starting to fill up for the New Year's parade, but I was too tired even to eat, much less to stay up for that. So I went to bed. *End day 1* (and for those who are wondering, I'm not counting Saturday. Sunday was day 1.)
First impressions: Hong Kong is a very western city. Everyone seemed to be expecting us to suffer massive culture shock, but it didn't feel all that different. It was a little disconcerting to see Chinese characters everywhere, but they were always accompanied by English. Driving, which we heard so many horror stories about, wasn't all that bad. Even so, though, my hotel room felt very lonely for the first few nights, so I'm definitely glad we went to Hong Kong first to ease into the trip.
DS has arrived in HK!
(Stephen, Molly, Candice, Ms. Arkin)
We made it! Out enjoying the new years festivities! Will write more later.
We made it! Out enjoying the new years festivities! Will write more later.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
China-Bound
Weary-eyed but excited, the Spring 2007 group met at the Air Canada counter at Logan Airport at 4:30 A.M. (Ms. Arkin hit a detour on I-93S and appeared a bit late, just enough to give us all a bit of angst!). Anticipating a very long day of travel due to a changed flight plan and a one day delay due to the snowstorm which walloped the East coast yesterday, the group came equipped with their soft pillows and comfy garb (Steve, were those PJ bottoms I noticed you wearing?). Once we got to the counter, we learned that there would be no direct check into Hong Kong, but rather two custom checks in Toronto and then in Chicago (so much for the almost direct flight from Boston to Hong Kong previously scheduled!) In addition, upon weighing the various suitcases, it seems that a couple folks had gone over the allotted weight limits for travel in China. Obviously the next time the group flies there will be a more layered fashion look. I'm sure upon return to the States, we will undoubtedly see everyone return with an extra suitcase.
After a couple of plane delays due to aircraft servicing and a change in ramp service, Molly, Steve, Candice and Ms. Arkin got to Chicago on time and caught the United flight for the 16 hour plane trip to Hong Kong. It will be a very long day, but they will arrive New Year's Eve in Hong Kong just in time to celebrate the Year of the Pig. We await their comments.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Welcome to the China Exchange Blog!
Welcome to our new blog, the Dover-Sherborn China Exchange Journal! Today marks the beginning of the 5th year of the D/S China Exchange. Though the delegations are small in number, their impact has been immense. More than 150 people have been directly involved in the exchange as students and family hosts in China and the U.S. More than 5,000 students have been taught on both sides of the Pacific, and many teachers from both high schools and middle schools have participated in teaching special classes for visiting students and teachers . Most profound, however, have been the shared cultural experiences, the new level of cultural understanding and the lifelong friendships forged over several weeks.
Enjoy these journal entries of each group's experiences!
Enjoy these journal entries of each group's experiences!
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Sunday, February 1, 2004
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