so, when i was in hong kong, i thought a lot about the way the Chinese are. at times, i feel great to be intermingling with the chinese and the idea of being in a different culture completely. however, sometimes i can't help but be annoyed with them. i didn't really notice how frustrating that some chinese can be until i went to hong kong. hong kong chinese are totally different from the mainland chinese. hong kong chinese behave like westerners. because of that, hong kong felt more at home than shanghai did. hong kong was like a british city with a bunch of chinese.
the chinese attitudes, from my perspective, towards whites are split into three groups. the chinese always seem to think just because we're white, we have a lot of money. everytime i go to people's square, nanjing dong lu and the fabric market, i always get approached by the men selling watches and handbags off the street and tell a ridiculous price for it. 1000 RMB for the watch that will only work for 2 hours, i don't think so. the three groups i tend to put westerners in: the stupid ones who get ripped off easily, the mean ones and the smart ones. the stupid ones actually believe that the watches and handbags on the street are real and of good quality. they actually pay the 1000 RMB. then afterwards, the chinese man will laugh about it with his other street seller friends on how it was so easy to get 1000 RMB from the white man. i, too, find this a little funny. the mean westerners are the ones who yell at the street sellers for approaching them and asking for an outlandish price. then they will go on and bitch about the chinese and how they never want to associate with any of them. makes me wonder, why did they come to china? the last group, the smarter ones are those who really embraces chinese culture despite all of the street sellers. they truly want to get to know the chinese and not always think that the chinese will not always try to make money off them.
looking at the street sellers selling fake watches and handbags, as well as those who sell copied DVDs. china does have copyright laws that prohibits fake things and burned DVDs; but they do not enforce it. almost everything that you find for a cheap price is probably fake. i actually had a discussion with one of my advanced english classes about the copyright laws and the rich vs the poor. they were all only 13-15 years old but they were incredibly smart. first we discussed imports and exports between china and the united states, particularly rice, wheat and clothing. we got to talking about how the chinese will rip off trademark products such as Apple and Microsoft, copy them, and sell them on the street as the genuine thing. two of my students got into a full on debate about each side of stealing work as one's own. one of them said that ripping off the trademark is completely wrong and taking credit for someone else's work. the other said that he does see that as wrong, but a lot of chinese people don't really have as much money to buy the real product. he wasn't totally against the fake products as it helps some chinese people's lives a little bit more enjoyable to have a computer and to watch DVDs at home. I thought they made really good points and it was a very lively debate. I have never heard this much intelligence from high school kids, let alone debate in another language.
this also helps me to see the gap between the poor versus the rich in china. china's economy has been rising exponentially in the last ten years with the emergence of globalization; as a result the middle class is starting to boom. more people in china now have more money. however, china still has 1.3 billion people, so many are still really poor. now, with the world financial crisis, the middle class is slowly fading in china and the poor will get poorer. like everywhere else, people are losing their jobs.
the country having 1.3 billion people brings up another fact. like i have said in my previous entries, the chinese will appear rude to many westerners due to their public manner. they push and shove on the street and public transportation; and there is no sense of equiette such as when you queue up at a fast food restaurant. chinese people can be pretty sloppy eaters. also they act in such a way that there are so many people and limited resources, chinese people can be quite greedy and selfish to get what they need for living. i can never understand how there can still be 1.3 billion people in a country with the least amount of arable land and still enrich in the world-china was poor until Communism and Mao Zedong came along. I guess Communism works for china. Now china has one of the largest economies in the world.
i learn new things about china every day.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
CNY in HONG KONG, Part 2
I didn't realize how much detail I had to share about my CNY until I wrote my first part of the holiday yesterday. The second part now begins with my third day in Hong Kong (second day of CNY). That day, Claudia and I headed to the Peak of Hong Kong Island. We had taken the tram from the city and embarked on a ten minute ride through the mountainous jungles of Hong Kong Island to the top. Once, we got to the top, we noticed how extremely foggy it was. Each day that had passed that I was in Hong Kong had been cloudy and foggy and I didn't want to go to the Peak until it was nice and sunny. However, as each day passed, the clouds were still there; and I thought I better get to the Peak before I lose the chance. Nonetheless, it was still a breathtaking view from the Peak looking down on Hong Kong Island and its skyline. After spending maybe twenty minutes at the top of the Peak, we started hiking down the mountain. It was a really pleasant walk through the nature of Hong Kong Island. However, my camera's battery had died and I couldn't take any pictures. I saw areas that would make perfect snapshots; but now it's only in my memory. Well, I know I definitely want to go back to Hong Kong and I'll hopefully remember to bring a fully charged camera. We hiked down and finally reached the neighborhood of Soho and had some delicious gourmet burgers. It was in this tiny little place in which you can make your own burgers and look down the hill from Soho. Soho is midlevel on Hong Kong Island, which I thought gave to the neighborhood's uniqueness. I have decided that Soho and Lan Kwai Fong are two of my favorite areas of Hong Kong.
After our dinner, we headed down to Victoria Harbor and watched the CNY fireworks. I had brought two beers, one Sam Adams (which I had to buy because I never get GOOD American beer anywhere in China) and one weird Russian vodka drink (which tasted a lot like Mike's Hard Lemonade). I wanted to drink at the parade the night before, but I wasn't too sure if public drinking was allowed at Hong Kong because the police are one of the most strict of any Asian country. China's police don't really seem to give a shit about anything. I noticed many people drinking at the parade and many cops walking by them. So, I figured it's probably ok to publicly drink. So, I brought my Sam Adams and the Russian vodka drink and found a place along the harbor to watch the fireworks. The fireworks were actually really far, almost on the other side of the harbor. However, they were pretty good, but in terms of level of how good it was, I would rate is the same as the Fourth of July Fireworks. But the fireworks over the harbor looked amazing along with the skyline. After the fireworks were over, the boat in charge of letting them off actually caught on fire. No one was hurt. We ended our night by going back to Tsim Sha Tsui and walked around checking out what's there in the area.
The next day, we headed to another country, Macau. Macau is an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong and it is actually a Portuguese speaking country. It is really small, just two islands in which everywhere is walking distance. But the population is huge for how small the land is: 440,000 people. Macau is also inhabitied by the Cantonese speaking Chinese. Macau is famous for its casinos, being one of the only Asian countries that have legalized gambling. Once we arrived through Macau and gotten through Immigration and Customs, we arrived at Salada Square and find it to be completely PACKED by mainland Chinese. I have never seen so many people in such a small area EVER before in my life. It was almost impossible to walk the streets of Macau. Everyone was packed like sardines in the pedestrian streets. Claudia and I fought our way through to see the Portuguese architecture and take a lot of pictures. But we barely enjoyed the sights due to the large amount of people. The architecture was really cool, and it reminded me of southern Europe. There was a fort at middle of the city and we stood at the top and saw the city of Macau. The city is not very nice to look at. A lot of the buildings are actually an eyesore; I really felt that Third World feeling at Macau, depsite all of the casinos on the other side of the island. On the way to the casinos, I stopped for the infamous Portuguese/Macauese cuisine, the egg tarts. To be honest, it sounded disgusting when I first heard about it, but when I tried it, it was actually pretty good. I think any westerner will enjoy it. We arrived to Macau's main casino, Grand Lisboa and played the slot machines. I spent twenty patacas and lost it all. The Grand Lisboa looks like your ordinary casino with a lot of lights on the outside. Nothing too special that I can add. But there is one thing, Macau also has Vegas casinos and Macau is actually generating more money that Vegas itself. Cool fact, right? We headed back to Hong Kong by ferry that night.
It was my last night in Hong Kong as I was going back to Shanghai the next day. I had gotten to bed and set my alarm for my 8:05 flight the next morning. Guess what time I woke up the next morning? 7:30. So, I'm thinking in my hostel bed that it takes over an hour to get to HK Airport. It's most likely I'm not going to catch that flight. Obviously, I didn't. I ended up spending the whole day at Hong Kong International Airport, due to the lack of money and I couldn't afford to get back to the city. I actually started drinking at 2:30 that day due to relentless boredom. I bought two books and a magazine and almost read everything. It was one of the longest days of my life. But it ended really nicely (I'm being sarcastic). I had gotten an interesting tidbit from Claudia after I arrived in Shanghai. Well, I thought that I didn't get paid until the day after I arrived back in Shanghai, which is why I didn't go back to the city due to having no money. Claudia told me that night that we had gotten paid the week before. So all along, I had money in the bank and could have afforded to go back to HK for one more day. Nice, huh?
This part now concludes my CNY in HK. Stay tuned for the next entry as I compare HK Chinese to Mainland Chinese.
After our dinner, we headed down to Victoria Harbor and watched the CNY fireworks. I had brought two beers, one Sam Adams (which I had to buy because I never get GOOD American beer anywhere in China) and one weird Russian vodka drink (which tasted a lot like Mike's Hard Lemonade). I wanted to drink at the parade the night before, but I wasn't too sure if public drinking was allowed at Hong Kong because the police are one of the most strict of any Asian country. China's police don't really seem to give a shit about anything. I noticed many people drinking at the parade and many cops walking by them. So, I figured it's probably ok to publicly drink. So, I brought my Sam Adams and the Russian vodka drink and found a place along the harbor to watch the fireworks. The fireworks were actually really far, almost on the other side of the harbor. However, they were pretty good, but in terms of level of how good it was, I would rate is the same as the Fourth of July Fireworks. But the fireworks over the harbor looked amazing along with the skyline. After the fireworks were over, the boat in charge of letting them off actually caught on fire. No one was hurt. We ended our night by going back to Tsim Sha Tsui and walked around checking out what's there in the area.
The next day, we headed to another country, Macau. Macau is an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong and it is actually a Portuguese speaking country. It is really small, just two islands in which everywhere is walking distance. But the population is huge for how small the land is: 440,000 people. Macau is also inhabitied by the Cantonese speaking Chinese. Macau is famous for its casinos, being one of the only Asian countries that have legalized gambling. Once we arrived through Macau and gotten through Immigration and Customs, we arrived at Salada Square and find it to be completely PACKED by mainland Chinese. I have never seen so many people in such a small area EVER before in my life. It was almost impossible to walk the streets of Macau. Everyone was packed like sardines in the pedestrian streets. Claudia and I fought our way through to see the Portuguese architecture and take a lot of pictures. But we barely enjoyed the sights due to the large amount of people. The architecture was really cool, and it reminded me of southern Europe. There was a fort at middle of the city and we stood at the top and saw the city of Macau. The city is not very nice to look at. A lot of the buildings are actually an eyesore; I really felt that Third World feeling at Macau, depsite all of the casinos on the other side of the island. On the way to the casinos, I stopped for the infamous Portuguese/Macauese cuisine, the egg tarts. To be honest, it sounded disgusting when I first heard about it, but when I tried it, it was actually pretty good. I think any westerner will enjoy it. We arrived to Macau's main casino, Grand Lisboa and played the slot machines. I spent twenty patacas and lost it all. The Grand Lisboa looks like your ordinary casino with a lot of lights on the outside. Nothing too special that I can add. But there is one thing, Macau also has Vegas casinos and Macau is actually generating more money that Vegas itself. Cool fact, right? We headed back to Hong Kong by ferry that night.
It was my last night in Hong Kong as I was going back to Shanghai the next day. I had gotten to bed and set my alarm for my 8:05 flight the next morning. Guess what time I woke up the next morning? 7:30. So, I'm thinking in my hostel bed that it takes over an hour to get to HK Airport. It's most likely I'm not going to catch that flight. Obviously, I didn't. I ended up spending the whole day at Hong Kong International Airport, due to the lack of money and I couldn't afford to get back to the city. I actually started drinking at 2:30 that day due to relentless boredom. I bought two books and a magazine and almost read everything. It was one of the longest days of my life. But it ended really nicely (I'm being sarcastic). I had gotten an interesting tidbit from Claudia after I arrived in Shanghai. Well, I thought that I didn't get paid until the day after I arrived back in Shanghai, which is why I didn't go back to the city due to having no money. Claudia told me that night that we had gotten paid the week before. So all along, I had money in the bank and could have afforded to go back to HK for one more day. Nice, huh?
This part now concludes my CNY in HK. Stay tuned for the next entry as I compare HK Chinese to Mainland Chinese.
Chinese New Year in HONG KONG! Part One
I just got back from celebrating the Chinese New Year in Hong Kong! 2009 is the Year of the Ox. Hong Kong was amazing and I did the usual Chinese New Year stuff. Of course, it was usual for the Chinese and not for me. The Chinese New Year, also called Spring Festival, is a two week long holiday. I flew over to Hong Kong last Sunday, the 25th of January-the Eve of the Chinese New Year. I arrived pretty early in the day, around 12 noon into Hong Kong International Airport. The first "weird" thing I noticed about Hong Kong is that they have body temperature sensors once you get out of the plane and entered through the gate. Apparently, HK police do not want people with a high body temperature in the country. Yes, HK is a different country; and American citizens do not need a visa, yes! Anyway, I thought the body temperature sensors were very strange. I understand that you do not want sick people in a country, but temperature sensors? I had thought that it was a little extreme.
I had come to HK with my colleague, Claudia; then we boarded the bus to the city. We were staying in this really, really shitty hostel on Kowloon side of the city. The city is split into two main areas: Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong as the country has a lot of islands including the New Territories that border with mainland China. Kowloon is on the same piece of land as the New Territories. Anyway apprantly, Kowloon is the ghetto side of HK; though it was cool. Kowloon's main district, Tsim Sha Tsui is pretty lively with a lot of bright neon light signs. My despicable piece of shit hostel, called the Mirador Mansion, was in Tsim Sha Tsui. The hostel was just disgusting. It reeked of urine and there were bugs all over the place. The paint was coming off the walls, leaving several big ugly patches of color, even though the paint is not a pretty color itself. It seemed like the building was in the slums. I took pictures of course, only to show off how gross this hostel was. My bed was actually ok, well at least to the naked eye. My shower however, was over the toilet. It was really awkward trying to shower. I kept thinking, "Should I sit on the toilet and shower...or should I stand in an odd position around the toilet?" Nonetheless, I was in Hong Kong and sure as hell wasn't going to spend my time in a hostel, especially a gross one.
My first day there, the Eve of CNY (Chinese New Year), I walked around the Avenue of the Stars and saw all of the Chinese movie star names on the pavement, similar to the one in Hollywood. Then I took the Star Ferry, much like those water taxis in Baltimore, across the Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. I saw the much talked about Hong Kong skyline. I took the also much talked about trams from the Central District to the Causeway Bay District. Causeway Bay had so many bright neon light signs, even more than Kowloon. It reminded me of those pictures and movies I would see of Hong Kong back at home. This area was always how Hong Kong was illustrated in movies. I went over to the CNY Flower Market in Victoria Park next to Causeway Bay and saw the wide variety of flowers. There were flowers that I had seen before and others that I had never seen before. I took a lot of pictures. At the market, I tried bamboo juice. It was very thick and very green. I was a little nervous trying it, but it turned out not bad. It tastes like the smell of freshly cut grass. After that, Claudia and I had an Italian dinner at Causeway Bay.
Second day in HK, the first day of the CNY, Claudia and I had a traditional Hong Kong brunch serving dim sum. Dim sum is Hong Kong's specialty. We had at least four or five kinds of dim sum. It was delicious. One of the truly delicious meals I have come to find in a Chinese country. When we had paid for our meal, we got a little present in return from the restaurant. I opened it and it happend to be ten Hong Kong dollars. Whoo, I love CNY! Everyone gets presents or money, I mean, literally everyone. Then we hopped on a ferry and headed to Lantau Island, one of HK's outlying islands. Lantau Island was beautiful; it was a mountainous countryside covered in a jungle. I had seen different kinds of vegetation that I had never seen before, not counting the bamboo. We docked at this tiny village and took the bus to one of the Lantau's peaks. The bus reminded me of those pictures I had seen of buses in Africa, but this was just only a step up from that. It was really bumpy on the way up and felt ages old. I was a little apprehensive going up the mountains since the bus drove along the edge of it and felt like it could drop and roll down the moutain cliffs. But I saw goregous countryside, which I would love to see again. At the top of one of Lantau's peaks was the infamous Giant Buddha. The Giant Buddha is over 300 meters tall and make of solid bronze. It is in a little one-street village called Ngong Ping. As I climbed up the very long stairway to see the Buddha, I was also looking over Lantau Island and the South China Sea. So much greenery, things that I never see in Shanghai. I also visited the Buddhist monastery, Po Lin it was called, and it was completely decked out in CNY decorations. There were so many people that had come to see the monastery and to pray. There were lighted incense in various stick sizes; it had actually gotten to the point when it was hard to breathe due to all of the smoke in the air. The monastery was beautiful as it was plentiful in gold buddha statues. After seeing the monastery, we walked back to the village down the road and had gotten our palms read by a very old man, who of all languages could also speak English. He looked at my palm lines and said that I had operations before and also had gotten into serious trouble before as well. Both true. He also said that I have a very clever brain; but I do not use it enough due to my stubbornness. Maybe also true. Overall, it was a great day on Lantau Island and a great way to start the first day of the Lunar Year, the Year of the Ox. I saw the Giant Buddha, went to the Po Lin monastery and gotten my palm read.
Claudia and I headed back to Kowloon for the CNY parade. The parade was awesome. It had many different floats from various countries. I also saw the dragon that I always seen in movies based in Hong Kong. That was my favorite part of the parade. There were three dragons total, all in many vivid colors. There was a float that had a giant ox, which I thought was pretty cool. There was one part of the parade that I didn't like. It was the American float. Of all things, they chose to represent the United States with cheerleaders. Yes, cheerleaders. I kept thinking, "oh my god, this is an awful way for HK residents and other tourists to see America." This might have well strengthen the American stereotypes. The parade lasted an hour and half long. After that, Claudia and I headed over to Hong Kong Island's main nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong for some drinks. Lan Kwai Fong was a really neat little area, just full of bars. It had streets that was designated for pedestrians only and the temperature that day was so pleasant, I could walk around without a coat. Most of the bars are all outdoors, which almost never I get to enjoy in January.
Overall, this was a great way to start of my first CNY. After this day, I had decided that I love Hong Kong and sort of wished that I had moved there in the first place. Anyway, I am started to get tired of typing, since I have so much to say. I will be back soon for part two of CNY and will also write a separate entry on differences between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese. So different, by the way.
I had come to HK with my colleague, Claudia; then we boarded the bus to the city. We were staying in this really, really shitty hostel on Kowloon side of the city. The city is split into two main areas: Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong as the country has a lot of islands including the New Territories that border with mainland China. Kowloon is on the same piece of land as the New Territories. Anyway apprantly, Kowloon is the ghetto side of HK; though it was cool. Kowloon's main district, Tsim Sha Tsui is pretty lively with a lot of bright neon light signs. My despicable piece of shit hostel, called the Mirador Mansion, was in Tsim Sha Tsui. The hostel was just disgusting. It reeked of urine and there were bugs all over the place. The paint was coming off the walls, leaving several big ugly patches of color, even though the paint is not a pretty color itself. It seemed like the building was in the slums. I took pictures of course, only to show off how gross this hostel was. My bed was actually ok, well at least to the naked eye. My shower however, was over the toilet. It was really awkward trying to shower. I kept thinking, "Should I sit on the toilet and shower...or should I stand in an odd position around the toilet?" Nonetheless, I was in Hong Kong and sure as hell wasn't going to spend my time in a hostel, especially a gross one.
My first day there, the Eve of CNY (Chinese New Year), I walked around the Avenue of the Stars and saw all of the Chinese movie star names on the pavement, similar to the one in Hollywood. Then I took the Star Ferry, much like those water taxis in Baltimore, across the Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. I saw the much talked about Hong Kong skyline. I took the also much talked about trams from the Central District to the Causeway Bay District. Causeway Bay had so many bright neon light signs, even more than Kowloon. It reminded me of those pictures and movies I would see of Hong Kong back at home. This area was always how Hong Kong was illustrated in movies. I went over to the CNY Flower Market in Victoria Park next to Causeway Bay and saw the wide variety of flowers. There were flowers that I had seen before and others that I had never seen before. I took a lot of pictures. At the market, I tried bamboo juice. It was very thick and very green. I was a little nervous trying it, but it turned out not bad. It tastes like the smell of freshly cut grass. After that, Claudia and I had an Italian dinner at Causeway Bay.
Second day in HK, the first day of the CNY, Claudia and I had a traditional Hong Kong brunch serving dim sum. Dim sum is Hong Kong's specialty. We had at least four or five kinds of dim sum. It was delicious. One of the truly delicious meals I have come to find in a Chinese country. When we had paid for our meal, we got a little present in return from the restaurant. I opened it and it happend to be ten Hong Kong dollars. Whoo, I love CNY! Everyone gets presents or money, I mean, literally everyone. Then we hopped on a ferry and headed to Lantau Island, one of HK's outlying islands. Lantau Island was beautiful; it was a mountainous countryside covered in a jungle. I had seen different kinds of vegetation that I had never seen before, not counting the bamboo. We docked at this tiny village and took the bus to one of the Lantau's peaks. The bus reminded me of those pictures I had seen of buses in Africa, but this was just only a step up from that. It was really bumpy on the way up and felt ages old. I was a little apprehensive going up the mountains since the bus drove along the edge of it and felt like it could drop and roll down the moutain cliffs. But I saw goregous countryside, which I would love to see again. At the top of one of Lantau's peaks was the infamous Giant Buddha. The Giant Buddha is over 300 meters tall and make of solid bronze. It is in a little one-street village called Ngong Ping. As I climbed up the very long stairway to see the Buddha, I was also looking over Lantau Island and the South China Sea. So much greenery, things that I never see in Shanghai. I also visited the Buddhist monastery, Po Lin it was called, and it was completely decked out in CNY decorations. There were so many people that had come to see the monastery and to pray. There were lighted incense in various stick sizes; it had actually gotten to the point when it was hard to breathe due to all of the smoke in the air. The monastery was beautiful as it was plentiful in gold buddha statues. After seeing the monastery, we walked back to the village down the road and had gotten our palms read by a very old man, who of all languages could also speak English. He looked at my palm lines and said that I had operations before and also had gotten into serious trouble before as well. Both true. He also said that I have a very clever brain; but I do not use it enough due to my stubbornness. Maybe also true. Overall, it was a great day on Lantau Island and a great way to start the first day of the Lunar Year, the Year of the Ox. I saw the Giant Buddha, went to the Po Lin monastery and gotten my palm read.
Claudia and I headed back to Kowloon for the CNY parade. The parade was awesome. It had many different floats from various countries. I also saw the dragon that I always seen in movies based in Hong Kong. That was my favorite part of the parade. There were three dragons total, all in many vivid colors. There was a float that had a giant ox, which I thought was pretty cool. There was one part of the parade that I didn't like. It was the American float. Of all things, they chose to represent the United States with cheerleaders. Yes, cheerleaders. I kept thinking, "oh my god, this is an awful way for HK residents and other tourists to see America." This might have well strengthen the American stereotypes. The parade lasted an hour and half long. After that, Claudia and I headed over to Hong Kong Island's main nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong for some drinks. Lan Kwai Fong was a really neat little area, just full of bars. It had streets that was designated for pedestrians only and the temperature that day was so pleasant, I could walk around without a coat. Most of the bars are all outdoors, which almost never I get to enjoy in January.
Overall, this was a great way to start of my first CNY. After this day, I had decided that I love Hong Kong and sort of wished that I had moved there in the first place. Anyway, I am started to get tired of typing, since I have so much to say. I will be back soon for part two of CNY and will also write a separate entry on differences between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese. So different, by the way.
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