Thomas in Hong Kong 26Oct -1Nov 06

Tuesday, the 26th of October, Thomas, a close friend from Denmark arrived to Hong Kong to visit me for a week. We had both high expectations to the forth coming week, with plans both to visit Macau and Shenzhen in China. In addition, he would have to see all the amazing sights in Hong Kong, meanwhile I tried to coordinate with my classes and mandarin test at CityU.

After a quick pick up at the airport and the beautiful ride to Kowloon, we went to my campus where we joined with a local friend, Mathew, to go for Chinese at the local restaurant, where you can get a full meal including beer for a mere 40HKD (30DKK). We also had dessert, the Chinese way, at a local dessert house. What an experience… Chinese dessert is completely different from Europe’s conception of dessert, no ice cream is served, but black rice pudding, rise balls in soup with red bean frappe, and dragon fruit is some of the more popular dishes.

The first day, we spent walking down the old part of Kowloon, where I showed him the Bird market, the Fish market and the Ladies market in Mong Kok. It’s an amazing tour for those who have never been to Hong Kong before, as it starts off in the poorer and undeveloped part of town and ends down at the waterfront of Kowloon peninsula, overlooking the modern and flashy city that most people affiliate HK with.

It is also a tour that takes you through some of HK’s many food markets, which in western standards seem brutal, unhygienic and disgusting. It is one of those “up in your face” experiences that never leaves you completely again. For example, it is considered wrong by HK standards to buy and eat frozen meat, fish or vegetables, which is very common in at least Europe. This means that poultry, fish and meat is absolutely fresh in the HK markets, the fish being killed at your demand, as well as the poultry. It is very bloody and to many a shocking experience to see the killing of animals up front, especially when you come from Europe, where you rarely ever see such brutality.

To finish of the tour, we ate at Chao Inn, a restaurant located in One Peking Tower at Kowloon with a fantastic view over the Hong Kong skyline, which we further took a closer look at when we later that same night went to the Peak. The Peak is an observatory platform at the top of the Hong Kong Island’s mountains, with a stunning view over the city (See picture)

The following day, I was off to classes while Thomas experienced HK on his own hand… maybe ask him how to get from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central with Star Ferries and you will see he has become a true expect…isn’t that right Thomas?! The evening we spent at Lang Kwai Fong, HK’s bar and club area, where all foreigners hang out in the evenings, enjoying the music and atmosphere.

Lantau Peak:

To find some diversity among the many buildings in HK, we went Saturday to Lantau Peak, the highest point in HK, 934m. We hiked up the mountain from the Giant Buddha statue

for about one hour and passing through the layers of smog that usually covers HK, the sky became blue. We saw the beautiful view over the Pacific Ocean and HK’s Chek Lap Kok airport, the world’s largest man-made island. I will let the pictures say the rest… ohh we also had to hike down, overall a really exhausting, but fantastic trip…

Macau:

Sunday morning, we were off in a group of 8 people to Macau, a small peninsula of China, which is part of a SAR region. Macau was returned to China after 200 years of Portuguese colonization over the area. Macau is today known for its large casinos, which are very similar to those you find in Las Vegas, its beautiful waterfront, and its Portuguese heritage.

The trip to the island is very close to flying, you take the Turbojet boat from Hong Kong harbour to Macau, which skims over the water at 90kmt. It takes thus just over 1 hour to cross to the island. We spent the day looking and walking the streets in the hot sun, it was some 31 degrees, sightseeing Macau’s culture. It is kind of strange to find you self in an European style city in the middle of Asia, and the colonization of the island is still today very eminent, despite the modern casinos are taking over with investments flowing from the U.S.

In the evening we then took the boat back to HK, after going through HK immigration (Yes, Macau is not a part of HK law and thus, another page of my passport is used up, again…it beginning to fill up YEAH!)

Shenzhen SEZ (China):

Back again in Hong Kong, we left for Shenzhen the next morning. Shenzhen is one of Chinas many Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which are located along the Chinese coastline. These are cities or regions that have special laws favoring the international community and multinational companies, who establish their Chinese headquarters in those areas.

We left in the morning, to find out self on the east KCR line to Shenzhen. Having cleared Hong Kong emigration and Chinese immigration, we exited the station and were immediately approached by Chinese salesmen, offering us cheap DVD’s, memory cards, suits, etc. The list is long and you can get anything that you want. The people are very resourceful to earn a quick buck.

We walked around in the city and looked at some of the local markets, where we quickly realized that foreigners normally did not go. People, especially children, stared at us as if we were aliens from a far away planet. Despite, the markets in Hong Kong are brutal as I described, the markets in Shenzhen adds a little more flavor! Sea turtles, exotic birds, large snakes, deer and finally dead dogs are for sale.

After a long day, we left for HK… 30 minutes by train and we were back in a more “civilized” town afterall.