Bye-bye Shenzhen: Hello Macau!

Today I slept in J. I love Spring break. Mom went into the office to finish up her work over here in Shenzhen and I packed up and then explored Nanshan (the neighborhood we were in) for the day. I cannot believe how many malls/stores there are over here. I honestly don’t know how they all stay in business. It’s absolutely crazy. These skyscrapers are either big business offices or apartments and then the bottom 4 floors (And maybe two floors underground you didn’t even know where there) are all restaurants/stores! Seriously, how do people even find your store to go shopping at when it’s in the basement of a sky scraper hidden around a corner and it looks like every other store in that building? I just don’t get it. I took some photos to document the Nanshaan area. They also had a UCLA store in the mall--kind of weird. It looks like an Abercrombie-esque store with everything "UCLA." I also had a snack at this bread store and the one pictured below is called a “Pearis Hilton.” It wasn’t to bad… hahaha seriously though, who names a baked good after Paris Hilton? Come on!

Building Across the Street 

More Buildings

UCLA is an apparell store in China

UCLA Store 

UCLA Store

The "Pearis Hilton"

While I was sitting reading a book and drinking my frappuchino (I know, I really am addicted to Starbucks) I realized I was the only Caucasian female I had seen in Shenzhen other than my Mom. I had seen a fair share of older Caucasian men (mostly in the hotel) and I think it was because they were all here for business. People have been looking at me since I arrived in Hong Kong (I keep checking my teeth for Spinach), but it hasn’t been the same as the straight-up stares I get in Shenzhen.  People straight up stare. The caucasian people are even surprised to see me (sometimes they stare too... maybe it’s because I’m one of a handful of Caucasian females in Shenzhen?).  On the metro or when I’m wandering around the city people seem to keep their distance from me. It’s like I have a protective circle around me that people don’t want to enter. If there’s a space next to me on the metro, and there’s a tiny little spot, squished between two people across the metro car people go for the tiny, little spot away from me. I’ve never felt like this before. Maybe people are trying to be polite? Or maybe they keep their distance because I’m different. I’m not really sure, but it’s an interesting observation for me because I’ve only ever experienced this in Shenzhen.

Then Mom & I said farewell to Shenzhen as we bordered a ferry for Macau!! I’m in love with Macau!!!!!!!!! Everyone seems to kind of overlook it or just disregard it as the “Vegas of Asia,” but I think it’s fabulous. Maybe I am just really excited to not eat Chinese food for dinner haha J I didn’t even have to use chopsticks tonight!

Pretty Porch in Macau

They have these everywhere!

Pick your Pet (just kidding--your dinner)

bottom dwellers?

Macau used to be a Portuguese colony (the same way Hong Kong was a British Colony) and was turned over in 1999. It’s really cool to see the fusion of Mediterranean and Asian cultures here. I love the Portuguese influenced architecture and the European charm it brings combined with the Asian open air markets and little restaurants. I find it quite charming. It’s reputation as the “Vegas” of Asia seems to be upheld too (I’ll explore this more tomorrow) as there’s a casino in our hotel and there is a MGM grand, a Wynn, a Venetian and a Sands hotel/casino among other hotels/casinos on the island. I think it’s so cool.

After we got settled in the hotel, Mom and I raced over to this little Portuguese restaurant on the other side of the island. They had fork place settings on the table!!!! Woo hoo! I may have had the best chicken of my life (or maybe I was just really excited to eat something besides Dim sum and noodles). It’s a traditional Macanese dish called African chicken where the chicken is cooked in coconut milk and a bunch of tasty spices. It was delicious! Mom and I also had a Salada Mista (I love Spanish/Portuguese salads—so basic: lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, vinegar, olive oil. Yum) and some minced beef croquettas. Mom had a bomb lamb stew with amazing potatoes. The sangria was also phenomenal as was the side of bread we got with our meals!!! I was having serious western food withdrawals prior to this dinner.

My African Chicken

yum!

Mom's Lamb Stew

together at dinner

The Restaurant :)

We then took the bus (this cool little old bus that only the locals seem to take because there were some shocked faces when we got out of it) over to the central historic part of town and just wandered around. Wandering around aimlessly is my favorite thing! We stumbled upon some really cool markets (which we’ll return to tomorrow when they’re open) and some beautiful buildings and fountains. I’m excited to see them again tomorrow but the lighting on them tonight was absolutely beautiful! Check out the photos below.

I FOUND FITNESS IN MACAU!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am absolutely in love with this city and the things they have at this park are absolutely phenomenal! They have 5 different workout “machines” ranging from an oblique apparatus, a stationary bicycle as well as my personal favorite, the rotation disc! This is absolutely amazing that they have this equipment for free in a public park. My particular favorite is the rotation disc—they teach you how to use your abs during walking and keep the work out of your shoulders. Have questions? Hire me or one of my fabulous fitness friends to show you how to use it J.

Here are some of the things we stumbled upon:

Another thing I found that I really liked was the stone-mosaic roads. All throughout the history part of the city there are these beautiful stone roads with different patterns. These last photos are a collection of some of the cool patterns I found while walking around tonight. Enjoy—I’m off to bed J

Day 3: Return to Hong Kong (temporarily)

After Mom left for work, I got up and headed out to Hong Kong again (just to wander around for the day). I took the metro all by myself (I’m a big kid now J haha) to immigration and exited China to get back into Hong Kong. Then it was another hour train ride back into the city. As soon as I got out of the metro in Central (back in Hong Kong) I went for my camera and it was out of battery. NOOOOOOOO :/. So the rest of this entry is photoless, but I will do my best to entertain you with my veracious vocabulary and exquisite descriptive details of my day. Maybe I’ll throw in some rhymes or riddles just to keep it fresh.

 (I’ve included links to other photos, but they’re not mine! Just to give you an idea of what I saw).

My Hong Kong exploration extravaganza began with another stop to the “Chop shop” where I got some more chops made (Dee and Doug I have a gift for you!—Surprise!!! J Text me your address Dee if you want it shipped to your house).  Ng Kam was pleased to see me again—if anyone is going to Hong Kong please let me know and I’ll give you his business card—he is the absolutely nicest person I met in Hong Kong and makes excellent “chops.” Then I wandered around this part of the city in search of this dried fruit store (admist all the dried seafood stores) that sold dried kiwi. No luck… so I settled for some honey pearl milk tea J yum! I <3 boba.

Then I passed 13 Hillier Street—home of this snake shop! Crazy snakes in there. They use them in wines, drink the blood as a kind of medicine and dry skins for use in eastern medicine as well. It’s a family business and has been around for years. I didn’t get to close to this store though… I’m with Indy on snakes.

I continued to wander around this area (Sheung Wan) and found a sign pointing to the Man Mo temple! A temple! YES!! I was so excited. I ran up the steps and voila there it was. This particular one was in honor of the God of Literature and the God of BLANK. I went in and got some incense (mmmm.. smelled so good) and lit it and followed other people who knew what they were doing around the temple and then placed my incense in sand (like I had seen other people do). It was really cool to be in an actual temple and it smelled so nice with all the incense burning. Although the temple experience was awesome, my favorite part of this particular visit were the signs on the outside of the temple (warning: this is my immature side). It read: “Be ware of Naked Flame.” Hehehehehe.

And dreams do come true because as I exited the temple I saw another sign for the Museum of Medical Sciences in Hong Kong (another thing I wanted to go) so I ran up those steps (haha… I wish, my not having worked out in a week was catching up to me and I was slowly making my way up the seemingly endless sets of stairs). This museum was not exactly what I anticipated—I was hoping for more of an explanation/exploration of eastern medicine. It turned out to be a museum documenting the history of medicine in Hong Kong including topics such as the SARS epidemic, the introduction of midwives and did dabble a bit in the difference between Eastern and Western Medicines. Still cool, but just didn’t quelch my thirst for more knowledge about all those dried fish I see around town. So I headed over to this “pharmacy”/Eastern medicine center in the heart of town where they have a cool little shop selling everything from dried crocodile (almost bought some… but I didn’t think it would fly with U.S. customs), to deer’s tail, to dried rose. On the wall they had a little exhibit explaining the different benefits of animals parts (yup... let’s just say there were some dried reproductive organs), different rocks and marine animals. I’m intrigued. Although I don’t think eating antelope horn is for me. Neither is dried shark fin. Maybe this part of eastern medicine just isn’t my thing.

I headed over to Mak’s noodles—a place I almost stopped in to eat with my Mom, but decided for dumplings instead. I did a little research and found out this was one of the best eateries in town!!!!! How could I pass that up? It definitely was amazing and I was the only non-local in the small little restaurant (which is impressive considering the multitude of guidebooks that highly recommend it). I watched them make the noodles as I waited for my beef brisket and shrimp dumpling noodle soup and the bok choy in oyster sauce (my fave). I made a fool of myself with my chop sticks  (my inability to use chopsticks is super embarrassing. I try. I really do. gAH!). —I spilled one of my bok choy—the one covered in oyster sauce—all over myself like a kindergartener. That may have attracted more attention than my blond hair and green eyes (and maybe even more attention than my hips! Haha).

I quickly paid for my noodles and made a bee-line for the exit and strutted my oyster sauce stained scarf down Wellington street :/. I’m still embarrassed. I continued to wander around the city until I found the Tea shop I had researched online. Inside I sampled a couple different teas with the nice lady that worked there, bought a couple things and preceeded to go to the next tea shop. The second one was WAY cool! They were scooping the dried flowers into bags and packaging them right there. They were measuring out different amounts of the flowers/leaves and combining them. It smelled soooooo good. I bought a bunch of different little teas and cannot wait to have them at home! My tea shopping desire has been fulfilled. I felt complete.

Then I made my way over to the piers to take the Ferry back across to Kowloon so I could actually see the Hong Kong skyline! It was still cloudy, but clear enough that I could see the tops of the skyscrapers and even Victoria Peak. I strolled along the “Avenue of the Stars” again and enjoyed a latte while looking across Victoria harbour. It was really fulfilling to be able to see the (almost) whole city! Then it was time for me to take the train (it’s like a 2 hour ride) all the way back to Shenzhen. 

Shenzhen Day 2

Mom got up early and left for work and I slept in J. The perks of being on Spring Break. Then, I met up with Matt!!!! Aka Connolly… aka Connory. He was a neighbor last year and is living in Shenzhen for the year teaching English at elementary schools. We had lunch at a place by one of his schools that has bomb spicy food. 6531 reunion in China what what.

Matt & I

Matt in front of the restaurant

Then I proceeded to wander around Shenzhen on my own. I went shopping at LoWu (or Luo Hu depending on where you are) and purchased a fake purse J a guilty pleasure. I had millions of “Hey Missy want to buy a purse? Sunglasses? Watch?” “Hey Missy have a manicure” as I walked through the large commercial center. It literally is fake purse/watch/shoe central. They’ve got Prada, Armani, Tory Burch, Burberry, you name it! There’s fake Rolexes, Tiffany jewelry and some are pretty convincing. I settled on a Longchamp—it’s the perfect size for overnight trips/carry on bag.

Universiade Games of Shenzhen

Shenzhen's skyline outside the train station

LoWu shopping center

Inside LoWu

I took the metro back to the hotel and met up with Mom and other Ruckus workers: Tiffa, Sissy and Daniel. We all went out for Hot Pot—a style of food where you order a bunch of raw meat and vegetables and a broth (we got half spicy half herbal). The food was fantastic—but the spicy for sure got to me after a while haha. 

Day 1 in Shenzhen (Trip Day 4)

We started off the day going into the Ruckus office here in Shenzhen. I got to meet (or see again) a lot of the employees and had a tour of their facilities here. Ruckus is a wireless company with headquarters in Sunnyvale and offices across the globe including Taipei and Shenzhen (check out their website for more info: http://www.ruckuswireless.com/).

Then I went off with Rebecca, a tour guide that the Human Resources person, Ann, had set up to take me around the city. Rebecca was wonderful—she works at a training center (Wall Street English) and was fun to talk to and had great English skills. She did a fantastic job of showing me around the city and was a pleasure to hang out with. First we went to an antiques market. They sold everything from tea sets to special stones to jade bracelets. Some of the pieces in the market were supposedly 2 centuries old.

Some of the Antiques--These are calligraphy brushes

More Antiques

The Market 

Lanterns

Rebecca and I wandered into a tea store where we sampled a couple of teas. One was supposed to promote weight loss and the other healthy digestion… all I wanted was a tea that tasted good J haha it didn’t really matter as much to me what the tea “did,” but it clearly was important to other customers who came into the store. I ended up purchasing a raw “green” tea from the nice ladies at the store.

Then we went off to lunch at a very nice traditional restaurant that served dim sum among other things. Rebecca told me that the roasted chicken claw was a specialty of the area, so I was a trooper and gave it a try. It’s not for me. It tasted fine but I cannot get past the mental part. I was literally putting a foot of a chicken (and it looks like one—check out the photo) into my mouth…….. gross. Rebecca loves it so she was happy to have the rest. We also had shrimp dumplings, bokchoy in oyster sauce (a new favorite of mine), pork steamed dumplings, steamed spare ribs and fried rice. I also had watermelon juice—I needed something besides tea to wash down the chicken claw.

Watermelon Juice--yum!

Still can't believe I ate (or at least attempted to eat) one of these!

The area outside of the restaurant was right in the heart of Shenzhen by the city hall. The  magnitude of the city finally hit me! Shenzhen is HUGE!!!!!!!!! Seriously though, there are skyscrapers everywhere for like a 20 mile radius. It’s not like New York City or Hong Kong in terms of the density of the buildings (at least in most of the parts I’ve been in), but the sheer number of skyscrapers here is almost unimaginable and on a clear day they continue on forever. Shenzhen has been the fastest growing city in China for the past 30 years and currently has an estimated 14 million residents. There’s not much history here (at least compared to cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing), but there is an interesting conglomerate of people who have moved here from across China. It’s unique in being a “special economic zone” and a place where the vast majority of people have moved to in the past 2-3 decades. It’s continuing to grow too, as demonstrated by the various construction projects I’ve seen around the city. Currently there’s a building being finished that’s supposed to be taller than Taipei 101 (the world’s tallest building from 2004-2010).

After lunch we got in a taxi where the cab driver proceeded to try and talk politics with me (eekk… not me! not in China please!) via Rebecca the translator. He was going on about their new city hall and how even though the people in China may not have much money, the government does and they can build beautiful buildings because of it.  He asked if we had similar buildings. He said that our government is poorer even though our people are richer. There are 4 things you don’t talk about in public in China and the government is one of them—so I just kind of nodded my head and smiled J.  We were headed over to Splendid China—one of the various theme parks located in Shenzhen.

Splendid China has two parts—a part of the park that does a bunch of cultural performances from all different ethnic groups across China and then a part of the park that has mini replicas of historic/famous buildings from the country. Rebecca and I watched several shows and I even starred in one! Hahahaha J Rebecca said I surprised all the people there with my dancing skills. She said most people think Caucasians don’t have rhythm… I ended my performance with my partner grabbing my hands and flipping me upside down into a dip where I was hanging off his hip, screaming from the unanticipated dip. Unfortunetly Rebecca did not capture this precious moment on photo. However, here are some others:

Sichuan Masks

Lanterns leading into the park

The bird stared right at me :)

a show in the park

me drinking my coconut water :)

Horse Show

The Show!

More dance moves :)

Rebecca :)

Views of Shenzhen

Views of Shenzhen

More views of Shenzhen

The latest trend on hot days

Rebecca with the Mask

That night Mom & I went out to dinner with Jeremy, a colleague of hers at Ruckus who recently moved to Shenzhen. We had a nice dinner at the local mall including more steamed dumplings, pork spare ribs in a honey bbq sauce and an unidentified meat (we think chicken? Haha it was good). I had my first beer here—they were out of Tsingtao so we went for another local beer comparable in quality to Keystone. Yum. Mom & I ended the day with a foot massage (a much needed foot massage).

Mom, Jeremy & I at dinner