Shenzhen - Windows of the World

Shenzhen - a walk across the border from Hong Kong. It's actually quite a hassle to get to the other side since it's technically in Mainland China. I used my first mainland China visa visit to visit this city of fake goods. Apparently, you can even get fake eggs! Ann and I ventured to guess that maybe they replaced the real eggs with egg-shaped potatoes...Who knows.

Shenzhen is quite a sketch city. A friend of mine (whose actually in HK for more than a year!) got robbed - you'd think of all people, he would know not to put his wallet in his back pocket. Silly. I suppose it's a lesson learned.

Everybody you meet in Shenzhen speaks Putonghua...I found that out the hard way. And they hardly speak English...except when they want you to buy a DVD. They just say "DVD, DVD" repeatedly like a tape recorder. I was with my German and American friend looking for a nice tailor to get their suits made. It was like walking through actual mainland China where vendors bombard you with fliers and comments. But apparently, it wasn't as bad because they were with me (since I'm Asian?) than if they were by themselves.

It's worth a visit to Shenzhen. But just one. It's actually a boring city. But who would have known that 20 years ago, it was all rural? It's a different atmosphere from Hong Kong...and they drive on the right side of the road :-)

Here are some highlights from "Windows of the World," where they build miniature versions of popular/famous tourist attractions from all over the world.

I found Russia!

It's like a child's playground!

From the view of the Eiffel Tower

This is how they have fun in Shenzhen....

I hopped the fence and almost yelled at....but it was worth it :-)

Enjoy!

"McDull" - popular kids cartoon in Hong Kong; translated into French too ^^

Oh Brother! BSB and Macau X2!

I cannot believe it is already MARCH! What a fast 2 months...and I only have another 2 months before I have to back home :-( My brother came into town on Tuesday (feb 26) and he is leaving today (Tuesday 4 March). It's been great finally seeing some immediate family! I wish I didn't have midterms so I could have hung out with him more...but oh well. And yes, I still study! He did most of the sightseeing that I had already done - so he traveled with his friends to do that. In terms of going out...well, I took him to Macau and to see the nightlife in HK. I also took him to Honeymoon Desserts (a really good place for HK desserts and fusion desserts). I tried durian for the first time; it tastes like an onion...bad aftertaste...and the smell sticks to you (it smells like someone farted. ^^) I hope my brother had fun - I just wanted to show him a good time :-)

So...the Backstreet Boys came to Hong Kong! How weird is that? We went to the Asia-World Expo, a newly built arena (only a few years old). It's quite huge and it also is quite far away from CU! We took a bus that curves and winds and curves some more...we almost got sick just going around in circles and winding through HK's back-alley ways. But after an hour, we finally made it. The show started at 8pm....we got there at 5:00pm and there was still a line! It was standing only so we wanted to get a good spot. Can you guess how close we were able to get?

Here are some highlights from Friday/Saturday :-) Enjoy.

Asia-World Expo...only the East wing I believe.

We stole this poster on the way out...after the concert! The security guard caught us...but I just asked him to give it to us since they were going to throw it away anyway (in Cantonese of course). He said....hurry and get out of here before they see you. :-)

The line for BSB - Zone A!

The show :-) I couldn't get any clear pictures because Asians like to push. And fanatic Asians for BSB especially LOVE to push. I got jabbed in my back for most of the concert - which at one point I yelled at the girl to stop pushing me. BTW - i HATE standing only/General Admission. Oh...we were in the wayyyy front :-)

Post-concert. There were two others but they had to pee! So we just got a security guard to take it for us :-)

Macua: Round 2

Inside a church. It was quite beautiful.

Can you find Kenny? @ Ruins of St. Paul

Kenny and his friend Mike are exercising in a park. Macau is so health-conscious! They have this park with this exercise equipment - free to use!

Kenny resting after hiking up a hill - the tallest point in Macau? It was quite anti-climatic and it took us FOREVER to get to there (Guia Hill).

Misadventures

I find that physically looking Asian makes life a lot easier here in Hong Kong. A few of my Western friends (whether they be from America or Europe) that are not of Asian ancestry must deal with specific stereotypes that I usually don't deal with here, mainly because I look Asian. For example, there have been quite a number of stories that I have heard from my white friends that they have had to pay a higher price than locals (I guess you could call it the "western price"). Whereas a normal cab fare from the central area to CU would be 180 HKD, some of my friends have been asked to pay as much as 210 HKD. Or perhaps a ferry ride will cost less than 20 HK dollars for locals, but will be priced much more for westerners - merely because they cannot speak the language to bring the price down. I think it stems from the stereotype that, because you are from the US or Europe, you must be wealthy. I have always experienced Asian stereotypes from living in a predominantly white area, but I have never witnessed other ethnicities stereotyping Americans or Europeans.

My new friend. I really don't know what it is...except that it is a character from Japan. Yet another example of Japanese influence in China. This was a Hung Hum subway station.

Chicken Congee in Tai Wei. Very tasty.

Lantern Festival/Chinese Valentine's Day. Free palm reading available as well!

Typical BBQ - Asian style. This was at a public park. I went with one friend and my dad's cousin/family.

Teaching English with HK kids in rural schools. This is a traditional Chinese New Year meal - we had a lot of pig skin in ours! They are quite rowdy kids :-)

Happy Birthday to my brother :-) He's probably on his way to HK by now.

73 days...

I was counting the days till I have to leave....73 days till the end of the semester. Time has really flown by since I've been here. I feel like I have learned so much, but at the same time, I have yet to see everything that Hong Kong has to offer. I have been here for so long and it's quite astonishing to see the confluence of three cultures merging together in one city - Chinese, Western, and Japanese culture. The local students mix their Cantonese and English all the time; it actually reminds me of back home, where I would say sentences in Chinese but add an English word in there when I didn't know the Chinese equivalent. Who knew I was meant to be a HK person after all?

Today I went to an English table held at one of the colleges on campus (Chung Chi college). It's a gathering of exchange and local students who want to practice their English, and dinner is free. Dinner was served traditional Cantonese style. Bowls of food were placed in the center of a spinning dish, and people can choose what they want to eat amongst the bowls. We had sweet and sour pineapple chicken, vegetables of sorts, soup, dessert soup (literally 'sugar water' in Cantonese), rice, tofu, and beef with vegetables. Yummy.

The highlight of the English table was the fact that I got to meet some local HK students who wished to practice their English. Which was great because they wanted to help me practice my Cantonese. I have been trying to find local HK students willing to talk to exchange students. I find that there is this aura of Chinese pride amongst not only local students, but the Chinese in general. People tend to gather with others of the same common background, so needless to say, local students gather with local students and exchange students gather with others from their own country. It is subconsciously done, but it is still frustrating when you want to break out of that stigma. Regardless, I am quite happy I took Kenji's invitation and joined him at the English Table tonight. I had a delicious dinner and met some new friends, which is always a positive. I even went on a pseudo-date....let me explain :-)

It's actually a part of the English table. The topic tonight was Love and Dating because of this past St. Valentine's Day and this upcoming Chinese Valentine's Day on Thursday. We played the dating game; it was just a fun icebreaker game to get students talking. The person that I was paired up with is actually quite the romantic; his girlfriend should be pleased! Who wouldn't want a guy that loves to watch Romance movies? ^_^

I might add that, for a conservative culture, there is quite a lot of PDA in the libraries and elevators. More than just hand-holding! It really surprised me seeing this in Hong Kong and even in China. Although public displays of affection are not uncommon in the United States, I would not expect to see such copious public displays of affection in an Asian society. I am definitely reminded of how my previous perspectives and ideas about Asian culture and society are somewhat skewed.

What a learning experience this semester is....

BRRRRR...it's cold!

Flower Market at Victoria Park (held every year; called the New Year's Fair, and you buy flowers (among other things like food, balloons, stuffed animals, etc) to bring to relatives' houses

Fireworks show! Only one every year...they did alot of "8"s in the sky...8 is a lucky number. notice why the Olympics in Beijing are in 08/08/2008 :-p

Break is over :-( and it's still cold. Nothing much has happened since the last time...although there have been new developments on the sex scandal amongst HK's stars (if you don't know what I'm talking about...just Google Edison Chen, Cecilia Cheung....among others). Quite silly. but it has exploded in China and Hong Kong - even sparked a protest in HK!

Anyway, I got 1 week off to spend Chinese New Years. While (practically) everyone I know went traveling, I did the Hong Kong thing for New Years! So how did I spend my Chinese New Year's break? Let me count the ways...

nihn sāah máhn (New Year's Eve) - hotpot with family, spent the entire night up to 3:30am playing the Wii with my relatives' daughter...lots and lots of games :-)

nihn chō yāt (1st lunar day) - parade (fā che - literally, "flower car" in Cantonese)
nihn chō yìh (2nd lunar day) - fireworks! (yin fā - literally, "smoke flower"); out and about
nihn chō sāam (3rd lunar day) - lounged around; I was supposed to go to the horseraces, but I woke up too late. THAT, and you're technically not supposed to do anything but watch tv and be lazy (seriously!)

you're supposed to "he" (pronounced héh - with a rising tone), which means to kill time. You can do that a variety of ways...but I spent it watching drama series (Bou yaht kehk - bou as in to stew (like when making congee or soup) and yaht kehk = TV/DVD drama series. it's to describe an activity in which you constantly watched episode after episode :-)

Chinese New Year's superstitions:
you're not supposed to cut your hair or take a shower until after the 3rd lunar day because you'll either cut your luck away for the new year, or you'll wash away your luck and good fortune. Same idea towards not cleaning your house too.

Other superstitions include food! Eat lots of chicken and shrimp. When said with a different tone, 'chicken' in cantonese sounds like the word for 'family' in cantonese (gah). Also, shrimp will make you laugh more for the new year, because shrimp is like 'ha' (as in laughter too). Eating Pistachios will give you more luck in having a son (so, ladies, eat up!). the idea behind that is the canto for pistachios (gwa ji) is similar to the canto for son (jai).

Traditions and Mythology:

The idea behind the dragon dance (Móuh lùhng móuh sī ) - every new year there is a monster that eats all the children in China, so to scare off the monster, people created the dragon costume. That's why these celebrations are always loud and colorful. Also, not only is the color red a symbol of luck and prosperity, it is also because red is the color that the child-eating monster is afraid of. You learn something new everyday :-)

of course, there's always laihsi (money that you get in red envelopes).... Asians (especially the Chinese) are very practical. so rather than getting a present you don't want, they give you money so you can buy something you do need. On traditional red envelopes, the character for "fook" (roughly speaking, everything good) is upside down because it's like luck is coming to you so from your perspective, you see it upside down.

There are two gods especially important on New Years that Chinese people "pray" to (baih-san)

Jou gwān – kitchen god (watches over you so you don't set a fire)

Tóu déi – house god (protects the home) - literally means ground

Things to say when you receive lucky money! (besides the usual Gung heih faat choy)

Hohk yihp jeun bouh – do well in school

Lùhng máh jīng sàhn – be energetic

Maahn sih yùh yi – all the best

Chèuhng mehng baak seui – one life of 100 years

Bouh bouh gōu sīng – every year a promotion

saang yi hingluhng - keep your beauty (something like that...) say it to the ladies!

mk...i actually have to study now. Oh, I forgot to mention, on the 7th day of lunar year (which happens to be yesterday - yahn yat - literally means "person day"), it's everyone's birthday! The story goes: a chinese god turned human that day. So...happy belated birthday!

oh and happy valentines' day too :-)

Happy Chinese New Years!

Not much has happened since the last time I posted. I guess I can finally say I'm settled? Who knows. But there were some trips made to Lamma Island and Po Toi Island. you can just take a ferry but I'm not sure if it's free - I went with the International Students Office at CUHK. Here are some highlights, in no particular order!

They're so big!!!! at Lamma Island

We like to eat.

Temple at Lamma Island.

She protects the entrance. It's actually a cub under her paw.

Typical cemetery in China. This was at Lamma Island. We didn't know we were heading towards a cemetery - but we kept seeing those pieces of paper that they burn when someone dies. I paid my respects :-)

On a side note, people in China never order exactly 7 dishes when eating. 7 dishes is the number you have when someone in your family dies, so when going out to eat, always order less than or greater than 7.

Our transportation to Lamma Island and Po Toi Island...there are over 1000 islands that are a part of Hong Kong.

On Po Toi Island. me being stupid hehe

Daai pai dong (Canto for food market). "Tofu fa" is the greatest...especially on a cold day. It's a Chinese dessert, and can be served hot or cold. This was at Lamma Island.

Po Toi Island. Can you see a sea turtle?

Squat toilets - public bathrooms in China. Don't fall in! You'll find more of these in mainland rather than HK. But this one was at Po Toi Island

One of the Beijing Olympic mascots. cute :-)

it's the Year of the Rat starting Feb 7. say cheeeese! This was at Causeway Bay

Chinese New Year's decorations at Tsim Sha Tsui

More decorations. China goes all out!

Happy Chinese New Year!!! Gung hei faat choy

On a side note, here's a great Taiwanese drama, very popular in China, to enjoy: It Started With A Kiss(惡作劇之吻)

It's based on the Japanese manga, Itazura na Kiss. It moves slow at times, but it's still a nice chickflick drama :-) It's cheesy at times, but....yeah.

I really like one of the songs that's in the drama. it's called Kao Jin Yi Dian Dian - Lara (靠近一點點 - 南拳媽媽) which means, roughly, "Come near, a little closer"