Hong Kong and the Philippines

Me in Tsim Sha Tsui, Feb 2013. 

I seem to have a strange affinity for these mirrors in the sidewalk...

 here I was at them in March 2010 with Henry the XSI. 

 In love with this tree at a park in downtown Sai Kung.

Pleasant (and immaculately clean) park. 

 Downtown Sai Kung

 The view from Doug and Kathy's balcony

Doug and Kathy: the Scottish/Hong Kongese godparents I never had

Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant with mainland-esque looking apartments above

Evening overlooking the water in Sai Kung

Elodie's Village - Kei Ling Ha San Wei, if I remember correctly

 View from what is essentially Elodie's front yard -- not shabby

On a stroll around the beach in Elodie's village

Beautiful day

 Can you spot the needle?

Crowds gather to see the fireworks -- our view was not exceptional, but the fireworks were.

View of the crowds and Hong Kong island across the water from TST

Fireworks. Skyline of Hong Kong island visible on the left.

 

Arrival in the Philippines. Look at that lack of air pollution... I had culture shock just staring at such a blue sky.

Nighttime in a neighborhood of mostly military families

Taking a ride in a Tuk-tuk 

View from the side car

People wearing flip-flops (proof this place is nothing like China)

Jeepney -- the California

Inside a hot & stuffy Jeepney

Personal fave -- the Lady Alma

Nerdy me went to the Mind Museum and found this exceptional plaque. Encouraging. 

Geeking out with a (replica) skeleton

Gotta love giant, plastic neuroscience for kids

In my head, the 12-year old next to me is saying, "I'm so done with this" while I stare at myself befuddled in the mirror. 

View of the neighborhood surrounding the museum in Taguig. Clean and modern.

 Outdoor area of the museum

And again

Creeping on a security guard

View of a neighborhood in Pateros from the highway

 Nighttime. Pops Sullivan in the middle.

Dawn near the airport, where land formerly reserved for military bases is now being sold & developed for commercial purposes.

 Good morning Manila & McDonalds

On the runway

Farewell, Philippines

 And bye bye stunning blue skies

After traveling Hunan province, Elodie and I flew to the Shenzhen (深圳) airport, from whence we took a bus directly to the border of Shenzhen and Hong Kong (approximately one hour) and crossed through immigration into Hong Kong. Since I posted about Hong Kong back in 2009 and my opinion of it has not changed much since then, I will let the photos do most of the talking. First, however, an entertaining tidbit about Hong Kong. There is now a law in place that only permits a person to carry 19 cigarettes with them when going through immigration into Hong Kong. Although this law is not relevant to me, I do find it peculiar when traveling to Hong Kong, a smoker with a brand new pack of cigarettes must take one cigarette out of the pack before lawfully entering the region.

As usual, Hong Kong was clean, civilized, beautiful, and incomparably more Westernized than the mainland. Going to the grocery store almost felt like being back in the States. I had milk and cereal for the first time in months, and it was glorious. The only downside was my general inability to communicate when going out due to the fact that Mandarin is not popular in Hong Kong. Got by with English in museums, some restaurants, 7/11, etc., but had to learn a few words of Cantonese for use on public light buses and at more local restaurants.

Because I was staying with family friends Doug and Kathy, who live in Saikung (simplified: 西贡) in the New Territories (新界), I got to explore the Saikung area a bit more. Saikung is a charming fishing village with a lovely downtown area where one can find anything from slice-by-slice pizza to authentic Cantonese dishes. I noticed a large population of British families with children in downtown Saikung this time around as well.

On the third day in Hong Kong, I visited the Hong Kong Museum of History, which gave a very thorough view of the history of Hong Kong from how it formed geographically to the Japanese occupation in World War II and beyond. The museum is located in Tsim Sha Tsui (aka TST aka 尖沙咀) and can be easily found by following signs from Hung Hom subway station. I spent 3 hours there but could have easily stayed longer. Admission is a whopping 10 HKD.

One other notable outing included my first time eating at a Western vegetarian restaurant (of which it turns out there are many) with Elodie called Life Cafe on Hong Kong Island (Central). They have a tasty set lunch and even have a small store on their first floor where Luna bars may be purchased. Nearby we found an Organic grocery store and a delicious froyo place among other shops that will make you think you're in health heaven.

Because it was the Chinese New Year, we got to see the fireworks set off over Victoria Harbour as well. However, we were not in the best place to view them, so in my photos the fireworks are occluded by a pedestrian bridge.

Last but not least, I got yet another ear piercing, which in general I would not recommend doing in Asia if one has access to a Western nation. Elodie and I found a piercing place online, and while it was not a complete disaster, I would say the man who pierced our ears was neither as experienced as ones I've found in the States, nor did he give us proper care instructions. Dad
, sorry to drag you to the event and make you photograph, but thanks for the moral support.

On to the Philippines... our trip was very short due to my Dad's limited vacation time, so we only visited Manila. My first impression of the country: While both automobile and pedestrian traffic is just as chaotic as in China (possibly even more), it is a significantly more Westernized country due to influences from Spain and the U.S. This includes a democratic government, English spoken everywhere, loose gun laws, the presence of Dunkin' Donuts, popularity of Christianity, etc.

One of the most fascinating things to me about Manila is the lack of public buses. Replacing government-provided public transportation were colorful, decked-out "Jeepneys" (see photos) as well as small motor-bikes with side cars called tuk-tuks, which are prominent all over south-east Asia. From what I could tell, there is no way to know the routes of the Jeepneys, or where their stops are, without asking a local or shouting to the drivers. Inside a Jeepney, there are two benches parallel to the direction of travel, unlike public buses in China or the U.S. Because the highs were in the 90s Fahrenheit, the inside of the Jeepneys were hot, sweaty, and smelly. Nevertheless, riding in them was certainly an experience.

Two other interesting things. I found it peculiar that although Manila is only a two hour flight from China, the food at "Chinese Restaurants" in Manila was just as unauthentic as in the States! Regardless, the Filipinos seemed to enjoy it. The native Filipino pancit was tasty, but served in such small portions that I always found myself wanting more. Mangos, coconuts, and Filipino soybean milk bought on the street were cheap and delicious.

The last thing I wanted to mention was "Filipino time." I know that the Philippines are not the only nation where things seem to happen in a slow-motion, completely disorganized and unplanned fashion, but it was my first exposure to such an extreme. If dinner was planned at 6pm, it would not happen until 9pm at the earliest. Planning and events seemed to be done with a "we've got nowhere to be any time soon and no reason to rush!" attitude, which, in the eyes of a UChicago student can sometimes be rather trying. Stalling seemed common for no apparent reason. I'm sure if I were to relocate to the Philippines, I would have no option but to become a much more relaxed, spontaneous, and easy-going person. Ha. 

Hunan Province: Changsha and Zhangjiajie

Kaifu Temple in Changsha on a smoggy day

Ducks in a pond at Kaifu Temple

View of the Xiang River with vegetable gardens growing off to the side (Tangerine Island visible in upper left)

To get an idea of the kind of day it was...

Yuelu Academy Entrance

Yuelu Academy

Yuelu Academy

Neat window in Yuelu Academy

Tree with green velvet-looking moss

Green velvet tree close-up

Tombs of martyrs on Yuelu Mountain

Elodie breaking the rules on the peak of Yuelu Mountain

View from the top of Yuelu Mountain. Notice how you can see... none of the city below.

Cable cars down the mountain

Entrance to Zhangjiajie National Geological Park

Scary rhesus macaque

Scarier rhesus macaque

Cute babies

This fellow appeared to have a peaceful relationship with his feeders

How many macaques do you see? There are at least six in this photo. 

 Pretty Valley

Little macaques chasing each other -- probably the only time I will ever get to see that happen in their natural environment

Cute little fellow with a nearby and very territorial mother

Stream in the valley

 Bad English translation -- in Chinese it says "do not throw food at the monkeys!"

Clearest water I've ever seen in China

More beauty

Friendlier macaque who crossed his arms and let us pass by unscathed

 Almost to the elevator

 Bailong elevator -- the view from the ground. The actual lift can be seen in the background.

View from the elevator

View from the top of the elevator

 Sunset over Zhangjiajie National Park

Next day -- Elodie buying peanuts from cute old man

30 seconds later -- little devil stealing & eating Elodie's peanuts as cute old man laughs at us

Crowd gathers to stare as the macaque finishes off the peanuts

View of the park

Me at the park. Photo taken by Elodie. 

Last day -- climbing to Tianbo Mansion above the clouds

Me on top of the mountains. Photo by Elodie.

 Climbing up to Tianbo Mansion scenic spot

The view from Tianbo Mountain

In late January, I left Beijing for Hunan province with my classmate Elodie. After visiting the provincial capital of Changsha and Zhangjiajie National Park, we eventually made our way down to Hong Kong, where Elodie lives, and where I visited my dad and family friends Doug and Kathy. This post will be about my experience in Hunan, located in southern China just north of Guangdong.

I chose Hunan because it looked like it had beautiful scenery and was supposed to be warm even in the winter. It is also where Mao Zedong is from and where he attended school. He even wrote a poem or two about Changsha. In actuality, the weather was not ideal. Daytime highs while we were in Changsha were only in the 40s with almost incessant rain and smog. Elodie and I did not have the best impression of the city due to the weather and pollution, but it is probably a lovely place in the spring or summer. Famous places we visited in the city include Tangerine Island (橘子洲), a small strip of island in the middle of the Xiang river (湘江) that runs through Changsha; Kaifu temple (开福寺), a famous and very active Buddhist temple; Martyrs' Park (烈士公园); and the extremely well-known Yuelu Academy and Yuelu Mountain (岳麓书院和岳麓山). Yuelu Academy is over 1000 years old is one of the four ancient academies of classical learning in China.

It ended up raining heavily on the day we planned to visit Tangerine Island, so we only walked around briefly. Every Saturday night, there are firework shows on the island, which we were told are impressive. Unfortunately we did not stay long enough to see them. Kaifu temple was lovely, extremely colorful, and had many monks praying and chanting when we went. Martyrs' Park seemed completely deserted in late January, but afforded nice views of the city. Many older people walked around the lake in the park for exercise, but all of the little stands, carnival-style games, and cafes were closed. We were not sure (I am still not sure...) which martyrs specifically the park honors, but there is a large monument near the entrance of the park honoring them. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me when we went, so I do not have any photos of it. Perhaps the most famous scenic spot in Changsha is Yuelu Academy and Mountain, which definitely deserves a visit. If I remember correctly, Yuelu Mountain took about an hour to an hour and a half to climb up. There were many Chinese ladies climbing up in high heels complaining of the workout. Once at the top, we could not see the view of the city well because of the heavy smog, but it was peaceful nonetheless. It must not be a hot spot for foreign tourists, however, as we got stared at and talked about by nearly every Chinese person we passed.

One rather entertaining/frustrating story from Changsha before I move on. While in Changsha, Elodie and I (both vegetarians) had an extremely difficult time finding meatless things to eat. One particular lunch I cannot forget. At the time, I emailed Frank describing the situation, so I will simply copy and paste (in italics) what my email said below:

"We ventured out in earnest at about 1 pm to find lunch. We eventually stumbled upon a little restaurant and decided to try it. The menu was on a wall behind the front counter, so people were supposed to order there before sitting down. I saw a noodle dish I thought looked good that would translate to "vegetable noodle soup," and asked them if there was any meat in it or any meat broth. They first said, "no!" then one of them paused and said, "well, yes, the broth is bone broth." I then asked if they could make it without the bone broth. "No," they responded. Then they recommended another soup. "Does this one have bone broth too?" I asked. "Yes," they responded. So I repeated again that we did not want to eat anything with animal products in it. They then said, "Well, we can make the soup without bone broth," contradicting their earlier statement. "Then will it have any other meat products in it?" I asked. "No," they said. Then they mentioned that it would only have such and such in it, but one of those "such and such" things was pork oil. I told them I did not want pork oil, since there was meat in it. "No!" they said, "there is no meat in pork oil!" I asked why it was called pork oil if there was no pork in it. "Because it is just oil that has been added to a pot with pork in it, and then the oil is taken out after the pork has soaked in it!", they responded. I then said that I did not want pork oil, because it probably had pork juices, etc. in it. I said to them, "consider me a Buddhist. I don't anything with any meat products in it!" "Well we can make it without pork oil!" they responded. I said good. They called back to the kitchen and told them what we wanted. The kitchen called back asking if chicken broth was okay. Instead of yelling directly back to the kitchen that chicken broth was not okay, they looked at me in confusion one more time and asked if chicken broth was okay. I (for the umpteenth time) said that NO MEAT was okay. They said all right and the ktichen started making the soup. Elodie and I sat down.

Five minutes later, the soup comes out. There are strips of chicken blatantly sitting atop the soup. I told them this wasn't my soup, and the lady who had brought the soup out said "yes it is, the vegetable noodle soup!" I told her that I'd already spoken with the ladies at the counter and told them that meat was not okay. The ladies from the counter rushed over and took the soup back into the kitchen. Two minutes later, the soup reappears, this time with strips of what looks like hotdog on top. I say again, "this has meat on it." They tell me that the hotdog looking thing is not meat. At this point, other patrons in the restaurant are also telling us that it's not meat. Then a man from the kitchen comes out and hands me a roll of the hotdog stuff, and says, "look, it's not meat!" I look at the ingredients. The first ingredient, I repeat, the FIRST ingredient, is chicken. I tell them, "The first ingredient on the list is chicken, how can you tell me this is not meat?" They then say, "Oh," and take back the soup. Two minutes later, the soup reappears, finally meat free."

I later learned that many people in the south of China consider the word "meat" to refer only to "pork," which may have accounted for part of the problem there, but not all.

Onto Zhangjiajie -- from Changsha, we took a long distance bus (about four hours) to the city of Zhangjiajie, in the northwest corner of Hunan. Zhangjiajie is a small but pleasant place that is developed enough to have McDonalds and KFC. We stayed in the city two nights before heading 45 minutes out of the city into Zhangjiajie National Park. Zhangjiajie was absolutely gorgeous and the air was probably the cleanest I had breathed in months. The park brags that it was the inspiration for some of the scenery in Avatar, and according to Wikipedia, the director of Avatar did cite Hunan province as one of the places (among a few) from which they drew inspiration for the "floating rocks" in the movie.

Anyway, at the entrance of the park we discovered that hundreds of rhesus macaques lived there. At first, we were stunned and excited. That excitation did not last long, however. In no time, we learned to be scared of the animals. If you had any food on you, the macaques knew and would approach (and even jump on) you in pursuit of it. I got jumped on by a total of three macaques over the two days we were in the park. Full grown, they are fairly big, so getting jumped on by them was relatively horrifying. At first, I tended to run away in terror, but eventually learned to make a kicking motion at them and yell at them to let them know I was higher on the food chain and not to be toyed with. Some of the macaques further from the entrance were a bit shier and simply watched us pass by. Those with babies were the most aggressive, as to be expected. From the entrance, we walked about 2 hours through a valley next to a stream (see photos), and eventually ended up at the Bailong elevator (百龙电梯), which took us up a few hundred floors to the top of the mountains (also see photos). From there, we walked another hour and a half or so to our hostel on the mountains.

The next day ended up misting, but we did get to see some sites before the heavier rain came. On our last day, we climbed to the "Tianbo Mansion" (天波府), and then climbed down and exited the park. Describing the views does no justice, so I've included photos. That day was significantly warmer than the previous ones and we were sweating by the time we reached the top of Tianbo Mansion.

One last encounter before I end this novel-long post. On the bus from the national park back to the city of Zhangjiajie (a bus mostly filled with locals), a grandmother offered her 5 year-old grandson to us. As in, she asked us if we wanted him and said that she could not take care of him. I have never encountered anything like this, nor have I ever heard of anyone encountering anything similar. The whole situation shocked and saddened us. I asked where the boy's mother and father were. The grandma replied that he had no father. I asked about the mother again, and she replied something to the effect of "oh yes, he has a mother..." The mother was clearly not in the picture, though. I told the woman that we were students and could not take him (not to mention how entirely illegal that would be). The grandmother acted disappointed. The little grandson eventually started crying about something (maybe the fact that his grandma was trying to get rid of him?) and the grandmother yelled at him. They got off along the road somewhere to sell fruit before we reached Zhangjiajie.

From Zhangjiajie, we took a bus back to Changsha, then flew to Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province and crossed into Hong Kong. Subsequent posts will be about Hong Kong and the Philippines.