Hong Kong (take 5) or why I’ll never go to Hong Kong from China ever again

My boss tells me and M to go to Hong Kong for a lecture. Hong Kong is about two hours away from here, but he was expecting us to go all the way to Taikoo MTR station and be there for 9:20AM the next day.

5:30AM: woke up
5:45AM: taking the bus to the metro
6:30AM: first metro
7:30AM: arrived at Luohu, the China/HK border
The Chinese teacher here is from the province of Guangxi. When you get to the tourniquet to leave the metro, there are usually people who are “tour guides” waiting for you. When you’re not from Guangdong province, then the visa you get for Hong Kong is only good for touring. If you’re not part of the tour, then you cannot go. She found somebody who would “sell her a tour” last time for 50. This time, it has increased to 100. M managed to bargain and get the price down to 80. Then she had to wait for the other people in her tour and line up with a few dozen other people. It was almost 8:30AM at the time. But the immigration officers found flaws in the list of people who were on this tour so she had to go back and I waited an extra 40 minutes. What I noticed while standing there for so long is that most Chinese people who go to Hong Kong aren’t even part of a tour. I’m sure immigration officers are aware of these people, but nobody tries to catch them. Truth is that going there is so annoying that it deters people from going. So I guess this is more of a “traveling control” precaution.

9:05AM: arrived at Hong Kong immigrations
This customs was relatively quick, although I did have to wait an extra 20 minutes for M because the line-up for Chinese nationals were longer than the foreigner one.

9:30AM: we get to the MTR, M lines up to get an Octopus card and we are on our way to class
10:53AM: 4 line changes later, we arrived to destination. It took us 5 hours to get there (it usually only takes me about 2-3 hours). We got on the wrong elevator because this building used a system where you punch in your floor and it tells you which elevator to take. You cannot pick a floor from the inside.
11:00-12:00: Speaking workshop for the Early Young Learners program, then quick lunch
12:45PM: on our way back
1:30PM: arrived at Fanling where we looked for bb cream and cold medicine
2:30PM: departed towards Luohu
4:15PM: finally crossed both immigrations
5:45PM: arrived at work and had about 10 minutes to prepare for my class
6PM-7:15PM: class
7:30-9:30: preparing my weekend classes

Time spent in HK: about 3 hours
Time spent traveling+customs: about 10 hours
Was it worth it? No.

Needless to say, I will never go to Hong Kong for a workshop again. Even if it’s a paid trip.

The guy has flown in from Taiwan to give us a lecture about how to encourage students to speak more English in class.

Useful. I teach the Cambridge books and I always thought that the speaking exercises were too easy, but while listening to the teacher, I realize that it made complete sense. Teaching English is about communication, not about grammar or vocabulary. There is no need to drill students about these things if they do not understand you when you speak.

What I looked at for 1h30 waiting for M to get through Chinese customs.

Our destination. I really liked the design here.

The view from the 25th floor. It was truly beautiful.

That thing in the corner left is abalone, which is considered a very expensive seafood. I’ve never had it and apparently, it’s not that delicious.

Pardon my immaturity but when you look at the last sign it says “To Fuk Road”… when you read the Chinese, it says “a lot of luck” so this road to fk is really lucky… xD

The view from Fanling Town Center.

I thought it was interesting to see so many face products for men and so many Japanese imports (I was always under the impression that Chinese people hated Japan….)

And it was suuuuuuuuppppa sour… don’t drink this if you don’t want to make a face in public.

The sheer amount of Chinese people I had to look at while waiting for M.

More waiting. Below, I had a short video that I took on the MTR (metro) and two videos I took while waiting for M to come out of the Chinese nationals side of customs at Luohu. Everyone comes back with a carriage and bags and bags of things. And you can be certain that these people did not travel with a tour guide. Think of all the money these people are making out of this ridiculous law.

Hong Kong (take 3)

Last week, I made my way back to Hong Kong to meet up with DTT who just spent 6 months in Hong Kong on a semester abroad. We went to check out this Viet restaurant recommended by Viet people around Central. (note: it is almost impossible to find a payphone in HK. if your phone doesn’t roam and you need to meet up with someone – you are screwed.) DTT and I went to a place called Chôm Chôm (like the hairy red fruit)

So expensive! And I had to tip, too! (boy, I don’t miss tipping) And, excuse me, the banh mi costs the same as the bun ba hue?! In what world will I ever pay more than 5$ for a banh mi? I could’ve really used some che (liquid-y Viet desserts), but they only had ice cream and cake (WTF?).

The crispy spring roll was delicious (that white thing is a shrimp chip).

DTT’s pho. He says it was awesome and pretty authentic.

My bun ba hue. I asked for extra spice. DTT and I stuck around for maybe an hour. He told me about how he tried to make a poutine in HK. I told him I missed donuts but not hockey… or poutine.

My plan for the day was to go to the Science Museum (which is free on Wednesday) and go to Times Square in Causeway Bay. I thought this would be like the Times Square in New York, but it just ended up being a huge-ass fkn mall with no maps anywhere so you don’t even know what stores they have. (Yes, I did go up and around every floor to check it out).

I went into Marks and Spencer and bought some White Chocolate Macadamian Cookies (mmm). M&S accepts almost any kind of payment. I actually paid in RMB instead of HKD. Then I went to c!ty’super which is the MOTHER OF ALL SUPERMARKETS. I found an iPhone that can turn into a pet…

Does that look big? cause it was ginormous.

That caviar was also specially huge.

A sea cucumber. In this shape, it actually doesn’t look like a d***.

A soft drink rack that actually looks like home cause there are 5 million versions of Coke (Diet Coke, Coke Light, Coke Zero, Diet Coke with Splenda, Caffeine Free Coke…). For the homesick or the person who wished there was “this” or “that” in China, you will find it all at c!ty’super. I know I did.

Then I went to Hennessy Road. My quip with Hong Kong is that apart from the classic panoramic view at Tsim Sha Tsui, I felt like I never saw or experienced Hong Kong as I imagined it in my head… until I got to Hennessy Road. There were streets with stalls and stalls of fresh produce and fresh seafood. The air felt alive and joyous for once.

It was really big and littered with restaurants and bakeries. There wasn’t as much shopping as Mongkok and Tsim Sha Tsui. It felt more business-y. Standing right here, waiting for the light to turn; this was the first time I felt that Hong Kong was beautiful.

HUGE Angry Birds cakes. Wow. I don’t like Angry Birds very much but I’d be very impressed if I got a birthday cake like this.

The MTR has lights that tells you which side the door will open on (some lines in Shenzhen has that, too). It seems kinda useless, but when you’re packed like sardines; it’s useful to know how to make your way out.

I went to the IFC to buy the new iPod 5 (the iPad Mini was still impossible to get). I paid 2288HKD (about 300$) for it. I think I got a great deal out of it, considering that I didn’t get taxed on it. Buy your Apple products in HK!! On my way to the bathroom, there were carolers singing Christmas music. I felt so glad to be in HK because this kind of spontaneous Christmas joy would never happen in China.

On my way to the Star Ferry (pier 7), I noticed for that there were 10 piers and that some of these went to outlying islands. I made it my goal to visit all these islands before I leave.

View of Tsim Sha Tsui from the ferry. The Star Ferry is really cheap – 2-2.5HKD depending on which side you take – and it’s always my favorite part of the trip.

The buildings were Christmas-y this time around.

Snowmen buns in a city that never snows… haha. I checked out Temple Street (between Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok) before I left. There were stalls of shops and seafood restaurants everywhere. it was insane; useless shit everywhere but it was a great treat for all senses.

Some culinary essentials I picked up at c!ty’super. Cream cheese, pasta sauce, miso paste and mayonnaise. They were out of sriracha for the day 😦 but I’ll be back HK!

First time in Hong Kong

Thought it was a mangosteen, ended up being a passionfruit. I had to Google “purple fruit with yellow seeds”. It was nicely sweet and sour. I was afraid I was going to have to throw the fruits away at customs but no one even checked my bag.

HK money is absurdly ugly. Exchange rate is about 120$HKD for 100元. Or 1$CDN = 7.75$HKD. The machines at the MTR (metro) don’t take bills but 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50$ coins…. whut?

One day in HK and my passport is plastered with stamps. I don’t even remember getting stamped when I went to the US. Customs is not as rigid here. You don’t have to declare anything, and if it looks like you haven’t bought much, they will just let you pass. On the metro, I saw 2 women fit 4 boxes of baby formula in these carriages. I’m sure no one stopped them at customs.

A Hong Kong MTR ticket. From Longcheng Square metro to Luohu (the HK/China border), 6.75元 (about 1$). From Luohu (or Lo Wu in Canto) to East Tsim Sha Tsui, 38HKD (about 5$). This is just a tiny preview of how expensive things are in HK… well, compared to China. Up to this point, I had spent 5 months in Shenzhen and couldn’t help but gawk at foreigners. I almost asked to take a picture with one of them so I would remember what they looked like when I returned to China. Without knowing it, I had adapted to this country… First stop, Avenue of the Stars!

Who is Li Tit? I’m surprised that with her name, she wasn’t more famous.

Legendary statue of Bruce Lee. Everyone cued up to take pictures.

Legendary panoramic view of HK Island from Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui).

There’s a space museum, art museum, a cultural center and a science museum in Tsim Sha Tsui. None of which I visited to due the time constraint, but I did stop by this work of art to take a picture of myself.

Wow, you can recycle cum? I, then, headed to Nathan Road which connects Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok (huge shopping area). I didn’t visit Mongkok for a lack of funds (didn’t think HK was that expensive)… but who knew that English was an official language here? I got served in Canto and Mando if I didn’t initiate the conversation but everyone spoke English just fine.

I saw ads everywhere for “Isa”.

It’s one of those expensive department stores.

Went into this Turkish place to get a doner. Took a picture of the street. There was a Marks and Spenser not so far away. The clothes were over 400HKD (holy crap). Wanted to buy some (Earl Grey) tea, cookies or chips but I realized I didn’t miss these (foreign) things as much as I thought (they were all over 40HKD…)

Found Chungking Mansions (made popular by Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express movie). Apparently, the cheapest lodging in town. Can lodge 4000 people for under 100$/day. But the rooms are tiny. I only visited the first floor, which was littered with Indian food stalls, money exchange bureaus and places to buy a phone or SIM card.

Visited Muji (a popular Japanese brand renowned for its minimalistic style) in Harbour City (huge mall next to the Star Ferry). Clothes were ugly and expensive. The notebook/pen/snacks/misc section was interesting.

One of their displays. Then I took the Star Ferry (2HKD! Cheapest thing I bought on this trip) from Kowloon to HK Island. Must’ve been my favorite part of the trip. I visited the IFC mall, took the Central Mid-Level Escalators (you can click the name for a link to Wikipedia) where I took a bunch of stairs that went up forever through a few streets. On my way back down (by foot), I found a violin player and this:

Super colorful.

A Japanese-styled vending machines (Pocari Sweato and C.C. Lemon? lol). Wanted to buy something, but you could only purchase with your Octopus Card (the MTR card… yeah, seriously, you can buy many thing with your metro card here, I thought that was strange but so convenient if I were to have one).

Then, I took the ferry back to Kowloon to watch the “light show”. Those are usually start every day at 8PM and lasts about 10 minutes. There’s classical music that accompanies this light show. I personally thought the fireworks festival in Montreal was more impressive than this.

This time the trip from East Tsim Sha Tsui station (in HK) to Longcheng Square station (in SZ) only took me two hours (customs included – absolutely empty at 9:30PM on a Monday evening). My last bus back home from the metro was at 22:40 but I took the wrong exit. I ended up getting a bike ride (20元 – about 3$) home. This was much nicer (and cheaper) than the taxi I was going to take. I haven’t walked this much since the last time I went to NYC. I only spent 6 hours there, but there is so much to do (and eat). It’s impossible to be bored in this city even if you’re traveling by yourself. And it felt so great to be able to connect to Facebook without connecting to my VPN first. Ahh… China, what have you done to me.

Trip to Dongmen and Red Forest

What are those black bags at the top? Well, they’re barf bags. Who is that lady with the red thing on her arm? That’s the “bus manager”. Every bus stop has countless bus lines that run through it (the one closest to me has 20). If you want a bus, you need to hail it down like a cab or it might not stop. When you’re on the bus that’s not crowded, she calls out the stops and asks if anyone is getting off, otherwise she tells the bus driver to keep going (unless someone hails the bus). She also collects fees from everyone. A and I went to Luohu on Mid-Autumn Festival day which made it more busy than usual. The “bus manager” was not only collecting fees, but asking people standing next to the door if they were getting off, and to move to the back if they weren’t. She asked every person to move to the back individually (unlike Montreal where the bus driver just yells barbarically and threatens not to keep driving unless people move to the back). It was pretty cool.

The decorations downstairs from my apartment complex. It looks really cool at night.

There are two big holidays in China. One if Chinese New Year’s where most people get two weeks off. The other is Mid-Autumn Festival which is coupled with National Day (kind of like Canada Day or Independence Day) to make for a longer holiday. With 5元 and a 90 minutes bus ride, we made it to Luohu from Longgang to Dongmen, a huge pedestrian/shopping area.

A, my manager

Me, wearing jeans cause I can’t wear them at work.

I was wondering when China became so blatantly patriotic (haha…) then I remembered that it was also National Day soon.

The temperature isn’t as hot anymore, but there are some machine that spray cold water to keep you refreshed. That was pretty annoying considering that I wear glasses, but anyway… China’s China.

Eating some BBQ calamari. I took too long to take the picture and all the oil started dripping on A’s hand. Hence the look.

We had hot pot.

It’s kind of like a grocery store. Nothing is unlimited. You just grab what you want and put it in a basket.

55元.

Clockwise: Corn, pig tripe, lettuce, lamb, dumplings, fish cakes, pig blood, salty+spicy sauce, fried tofu, some kind of fishy beef sauce, enoki mushroom, button mushroom, seaweed and mushroom ear.

Our half and half broth.

The styles of shoes you can buy… and there’s really only one style (as you can see)

Wow, there’s a Subway (Sai Bai Wei in Chinese)!! I didn’t buy anything cause I was still full but it looked like they mostly kept the same menu.

A metro token. You insert it in the machine when you go in. And you put it back in the machine when you leave. Just like in Japan, you pay the trip by distance and not by trip. This is to ensure that you paid the right price.

Back of the token.

“Mangrove Nature Reserve” in English. “Red Forest” in Chinese.

The path between the metro and the shore.

Destination! That island in the far back is Hong Kong. HK – I am coming for you soon!

A better look at the shore. No swimming allowed.

A hairy tree.

We took the 353 all the way back to Longgang. That was 8元 and another 90 minutes bus ride. I asked Alice why we didn’t take the metro, but the metro would require us to switch metro lines and then wait for the bus anyway. This was just one long painless ride back. I looked up direction on Google Maps about how to go to downtown Shenzhen from here, I got all these complicated directions and it said it would take 2 hours.