Hong Kong Tourism

Today in Hong Kong I went to Café O for lunch w/ our friends visiting from cold Michigan. Then on to the aviary, where there are beautiful exotic birds sitting for us to photograph. Hong Kong is great that way- there is a large park downtown with a huge Aviary that has a suspended walkway for visitors to walk amongst the flittering inhabitants.
There is also a zoo of sorts that has cages of monkeys, huge tortoises, and even orangutans! My favorite! There is a little family of a big hairy daddy, and petite lovely mommy, and a playful little hairy monster baby.
In the park today a group of singers is assembled at the roman stadium singing opera, accompanied by live music!
A couple dressed in wedding attire is getting their picture taken by the pond with little turtles sitting on top of each other in the background.
It's a holiday and it is sunny and warm so the whole city seems to be here in the park.

Later Jill and I go to photograph the Peak Tram from the unique vantage point of the Kennedy Rd stop. When the first tram comes by we realize we are standing a little too close for comfort!
We are standing on the faded yellow line at edge of walkway, but the tram comes RIGHT to that yellow edge! We watch it come up towards us and away up the peak and wait for it to come back down and into the tunnel where it will pick up the never diminishing line of tourists waiting to climb the peak on this relic.

Dinner at Causeway Bay Market, outdoor eating or inside a stark 3 walled room gorging on fresh seafood, spitting shrimp shells right onto the table, drinking luke warm beer, this is the fun of Hong Kong! It takes having visitors to do these things!

Offerings for Blessings

Went to Wang Tai Sing temple to watch people praying and shaking fortune sticks out of a jar for the Winter Festival.
Many brought their food offerings from the day before: whole chickens still in their Styrofoam containers, the oranges, roasted pork.
This temple is famous for its fortune tellers and is packed with locals paying tribute and praying for the coming year.

Winter Festival

Today in Hong Kong it is the Winter Festival- or the first day of Winter. It is a special day for Chinese people.
Today Chinese families will set out food in front of their doors: a whole roasted chicken, maybe a duck (depending on your origin- Fujianese, Cantonese, etc.), 4 oranges, 4 apples, a carton of bananas, 3 cups of wine, and 3 bowls of rice and wine, and some vegetables. All is set out in bowls outside the front door and then the family prays for 40 minutes.
The interesting thing is that the TIME when the food goes out is very precise and depends on the zodiac- more precisely the zodiac of the elder of the family, most likely the father. The woman who cleans my apartment will celebrate at 8:35 tonight because her father is a Dog.

After the prayers everything must be eaten, all of it.

Shopping paradise

Today in Hong Kong I went Christmas shopping. Of course if you have all the money in the world there is no limit to what you can buy: Tiffany jewels, Louis Vuitton bags, Jimmy Choo shoes, Hermés scarves, Omega watches, Prada sunglasses, Chanel suits… or knock-offs of these things. But Hong Kong is also famous for antiques and cool design and interesting clothes. There is a shop called G.O.D.- which stands for Goods of Desire. Actually, it has a Chinese name of three characters, Ji Oh Di, which means “Better Living” (or something to that effect). This place has interesting things for the home, from furniture to rugs to lighting. The founders of the store have their own line of bags and clothing, using their trademark design of silkscreening several images of Hong Kong to make a continuous view of the sight. For example, I have a bag that has old Hong Kong mailboxes all over it. Another popular design is the photos of Hong Kong residential housing, repeated so that it looks even more dense. It makes for interesting stuff. It is fun just to browse.

Christmas shopping

Today in Hong Hong I went to pay for my boyfriend's Christmas present, a handmade pinhole camera by Zero Image (http://www.zeroimage.com/), made right here in Hong Kong. These are beautiful cameras made of teak with brass knobs and hardware.
Finding where to give my money was a little difficult mostly because I forgot to bring the address. The office is on a small street behind Times Square, but there are several interesting shops there. Adding to the confusion, I was actually just giving money to the guy’s wife at her office, a cubby hole about the size of a walk-in closet with 3 girls working at computers on “design.” I hand over my money, for something that can basically be made at home with a shoe box, with no chance to look at the various choices or learn how it works, to a young girl translating for the wife in this small graphic design studio upstairs in the Workingview Commercial Building (another interestingly named office building). I cross my fingers that I won't be too surprised by the final product which they will start work on once the money is in hand. The website explains it pretty well though, so I am hopeful.

Down the street a young guy hands me a flyer for 20% off at his store Select which sells “exclusive and preloved clothes.” I like the term “preloved.” I go upstairs to check it out. Even with the 20% off the “preloved” designer labels are too much for my wallet. Including the “designer” gap cardigan that is over $100. I don’t think I can justify paying that price for a cotton sweater from the Gap of all places. Evidently Gap is not readily available in Hong Kong and, being American, calls for a high price. But if you are in the market for designer clothes, especially obscure things from Japanese designers, Select is a good starting point. 2/F 1A Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay, behind Times Square. Tel 2838 7010.

While in the dressing room Mrs. N calls me to continue the interview for tutoring her son to get into the English Schools Foundation. It has been about 5 weeks since she told me she would call back so am surprised to hear from her. She wants me to bring the computer for her son to work on and do the exercises I will have prepared for him. I don't think so. She also wants to know, again, what I will be working on with him. I tell her I don't have a computer and that I need to know his level first before I can know what to prepare or how much work will be needed to get him ready. I will probably have him write a sample essay after I have talked to him. She wants me to send him a topic to write about so that he can have the essay already written so that he doesn't have to waste time during our session. Fine. I will email him a topic tonight if she gives me his email. She thinks it is better that I send it to her. That way she can make sure it gets done, etc. Ok. So she starts to tell me her email address. I am, of course, stuck in a dressing room with one arm through a too-small sweater and the other holding the phone to my ear while the rest of me is without clothing at all. I tell her that I do not have a pen, could she text message me her email. She says she will do that. Never get anything from her the rest of the day.

I leave my umbrella at the store as I leave in search of the Central Library to maybe study some Chinese. I get to Pho Saigon in Wan Chai and realize I do not know where the library is after all.

Birthday dinners

Today in Hong Kong it is my boyfriend's mom's 80th birthday. (We think. The Chinese have a funny way of counting age. First of all, one is 1 year old already when born. Then, after a certain age, they add ANOTHER year. So she keeps saying she is 81, but Sister-in-Law is pretty sure she is 80).

All is settled and we are going to a special place to have roast suckling pig and the special abalone that his brother had bought a long time ago for this special occasion. The restaurant is a non-descript Chinese restaurant with not too clean tablecloths and terrible décor. But evidently the food is great. The pig IS great and I eat more than my share. The other filler dishes are good, but the abalone is the thing we are supposed to ooh and ahh over.

I personally don't get it. We each get one dried abalone the size of 2 matchbox cars which cost about half of the cost of the whole dinner. It is drenched in a sort of sweet/fishy non-descript brown sauce and has little flavor of its own.
A little fishy. Texture of chewable rubber.
All in all not bad, but not worth the hype and the price (in my foreigner's opinion). As a way to find common ground I tell them that my uncle free dives for abalone and then pounds it, dredges it with flour, and fries it with lemon and butter. So delicious. Sister-in-law wrinkles her nose and exclaims, “What a waste! You don't get the aroma and the texture.”
Isn't that the point? I guess each to his own and there is no accounting for cultural tastes!

Emperor's Parents

Today in Hong Kong I got a call from Mrs. N about teaching her son English- basically prepping him for the entrance exam for the English Schools Foundation. Since I have already worked with W on this, I have some knowledge of what is needed.

I tell her that I will meet her son this weekend to assess where he is now in his English abilities. She wants me to assign him some exercises that she can pick up and have him complete before we meet.

Of course I will not be paid for preparing these so called exercises. Also, since I have no clue what level her son is I cannot possibly prepare proper exercises for him! This doesn't seem to matter.

"You will prepare some exercises for him, is it?"

"Well I would really like to meet him first and see where he is, what his needs are, how I can best help him."

"yes yes, I can come pick up the exercises for him, is it?"

I tell her that I really must meet him first and besides, after this weekend I will be gone for a week so we couldn't start for another week and a half anyway.

She says she will call me in a couple of weeks.

Great.

Free Wednesdays

Today in Hong Kong I went to the Museum of Art and the Space Museum. They are free on Wednesdays. The museum of art usually has a temporary show and, upstairs, a permanent collection of ceramic antiquities. Actually, this collection of ceramics is quite impressive, going back 4,000 years. There are fine examples of the various techniques that were used through the years: blue underglazing, various colored enameling (wucai, doucai, etc.). The are samples from the different areas that produced pottery for the imperial court or for export or for daily use: jingdezhen, yue, etc. All of the pieces are in good condition and one marvels at the fact that there are few cracks and that they have lasted in such condition for so long.

In the contemporary arts hall there were two installations about hair, of all things. http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/textmode/english/exhibitions/eexhibitions_s_20060701_2.html
One guy, a native Hong Konger, got hair from the US and from Hong Kong – his two homes – to make a huge installation with the hair glued together to make sheets and on the sheets, using the hair in clumps, he wrote false language all over. The point is that even though we have different languages, different backgrounds, different cultures, but we all are humans, with hair, blond hair, black hair, whatever. It ties us together.
The other exhibit was about 1,000 little slippers made of hair. It was interesting because some had gray interspersed with dark brown, or even shots of dyed red; most were straight, but one was curly like bouclé yarn.

The space museum (http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/e_index.htm) is interesting and interactive- great for kids. They even have a flight simulator where you can feel like an insect flying through the Grand Canyon, using the controls to bank left or right. Most people definitely would have been smashed bug on the sides of the canyon. And there is a Zero-gravity “ride” that lets you feel what it would be like to walk on the moon. Actually it is 1/6th –gravity, like what you would experience on the moon. There are other simulators and knobs you can turn, buttons to push, things to learn at the Space Museum. So educational. There is also a 306 degree IMAX theater showing such scintillating titles as “Magnificent Desolation” and “Solar Small Bodies.” Actually, I am sure they are very interesting as “Magnificent Desolation” is narrated by Tom Hanks and is about walking on the moon.

For lunch my friends and I ate at a place called Serenade; it's right there in the Cultural Center where the museums are. Not bad dim sum and a great view of the cityscape of the Island.

What makes Hong Kong Hong Kong

TODAY in HONG KONG I appreciate that there is a lot of "china" here too, and this is what makes Hong Kong Hong Kong. My street is lined with elderly people selling who knows what: fish for your aquarium, aluminum hand-pounded into trays, dried snakes and puffer fish turned inside out (really!), clothes from someone's closet… sometimes you can find them selling knick-knacks with pictures of the royal family on them! One street over is the open air vegetable and fruit market and perpendicularly they sell meat, fish still jumping around. The fish monger keeps up his constant call for customers “YU” “FISH.” He has some big fish heads there- they are still gasping for air, slowly closing and opening, although there is no body to breathe life into!


On the corner is a famous, very old (been there forever) Chinese medicine shop with its skinny patron looking out at you wondering why you're looking at him! And amongst the chi-chi restaurants you can find the best wonton noodle place, or a place famous for its Beijing style dumplings, or a noodle shop that has been there forever with the same décor and maybe some of the same staff! And of course there is the famous, very old, been-there-forever tea house with a line out the front door. They are waiting to seat themselves at one of the ever bustling noisy tables to eat old-fashioned dim sum. On several corners you can get a cup of medicinal tea for 50 cents. And on any street at any given time you can see skinny old men or unkempt old women or sinewy young guys pushing carts laden down with who knows what, waiting patiently for impatient cars to push by, people to cross the street, an opening so that they can swing the cart around the corner. One evening I saw an old woman pushing such a cart across the road, head down, full force of her body behind the cart, only to have to stop to let the red taxis and the black Mercedes go by before she could make that final push up and over the hump of the street.

Fire! Dragon!

Today in Hong Kong I went to see the Fire Dragon, an annual event corresponding with the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival. This is a a 70 foot long dragon with incense sticks poking out all over, creating a smoking, glowing, undulating sight that parades through a small neighborhood in Wan Chai.

It is difficult to get a good vantage point to see as the area is totally crowded. There are also a lot of other participants: little girls in shiny outfits carrying lanterns, men holding big lanterns on the ends of staffs, and a banner is hoisted by young people from the neighborhood.

The dragon is kept aloft by several men, one positioned every few feet along the body of the dragon. A few of them are needed for the head. They are hot and sweaty and streaked with smoke. They have to switch out once in a while as the whole square is choking with the smoke.

The crowd, the yelling, the smoke, the glowing incense sticks, the weaving of the dragon through the crowd, down the street. It is an exciting part of Hong Kong heritage that I think few people even know about. I am coming back tomorrow for another show!

Living in Hong Kong

TODAY in HONG KONG it is raining. I can see fog rolling in on the harbor and around the tops of the buildings around my apartment. Yes, I have a water view! You really only have crane your neck a little and I can see the water through two, count them! TWO spaces between the buildings. I am on the nineteenth floor and all around me are dirty skyscrapers and shorter multistory housing projects with leaky air-conditioning units in every window and multiple TV antennas coming out the tops. Most have roof-top sanctuaries with tables and chairs, plants, and, of course, clothes lines. The other day was a hot sweltering day and a family was dining on their rooftop. Today, several rooftops are full of potted plants as people take advantage of nature’s sprinkler.





I live in Central- a very convenient area for spending money. Lots of cafés, international foods, pizza, etc. It is possible to pretty much live an all air-conditioned existence in this downtown area, walking from one up-scale shopping center to another, passing Chanel, Prada, Bulgari, and the Armani Center on your way to a salad lunch in Pacific Place or Coffee in the Alexandra building, or Manolo Blahnik shoe shopping in the Landmark, you really don’t have to go out into the sweltering heat at all! The buildings are connected by glassed-in bridges and there are long air-conditioned foot paths over large expanses of area, so that you are in this sort of never-ending mall and don’t need to know the names of streets or where you going, just know that you need to turn right at the Chanel Perfume store.

This is Hong Kong

Today in Hong Kong I get a view from the Peak on a clear day. Hong Kong is a totally modern city and quite bedazzling depending on your view. Around the harbor the buildings are all new with mirrored surfaces, reaching toward the sky. The tallest, the IFC, is 88 floors and towers above all the others. When I was here 11 years ago, in 1995, the newest and tallest building was the Bank of China building, built by I.M. Pei with his signature triangular shapes (he built the pyramid of the Louvre) outlined with white neon all up the building. It looks like a building made by trianimoes. (For those of you who did not spend countless hours trying to entertain yourselves while snowed-in in Tahoe during your formative years, this is a game like Dominoes but with triangular pieces instead of rectangular). At night these outlines are lit with stark white lights that reflect in the newer buildings around this totally cool building. It is still the coolest building in Hong Kong in my humble opinion.


This is my first impression of Hong Kong. It is a pretty amazing city, really. In this city of amazing dichotomy, one thing holds constant: where ever you are, there are always hundreds of people around you.

I am looking for jobs- most want me to have a permit to work here, which I can't get unless I have a job. Total catch-22 and so aggravating.

Hong Kong: City of Lights

TODAY in HONG KONG a storm has cleared away all smog and only a few wispy clouds are visible, reflecting the lights of the glimmering city that has innumerable high rises all lit up. At 8 o’clock every night the bigger office buildings put on their own little light show with blinking, color changes, and movement of light up and down their reflective surfaces. The taxi took me from the airport on a flyway through the city so you have a great view and it was so crisp and clear and almost magical - kinda like Blade Runner but clean and shiny and nice! With the neck craning I can see a few of the shiny new buildings of the famous Hong Kong cityscape from my apartment.

I have moved to Hong Kong from smoggy Shanghai and this brilliant sight is my first view of my new home.