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

End of Hong Kong/Beginning of Shenzhen

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day (we needed it after two days of 12+ hours out and about), so we slept in, had breakfast at the hotel and then wandered over to the Hong Kong History Museum. They have really interesting exhibits documenting the Hong Kong areas from pre-historic times to the more modern social changes that have occurred over the last century. It’s definitely a museum worth your time if you want to get some historical background on the city.

Our Hotel

You can only study at Starbucks from 6-9 hahaha. Good thing Starbucks in the U.S. doesn't have this!

After that it was farewell Hong Kong. We grabbed our suitcases and headed to Hung Hom (the train/metro station) where we grabbed an extended metro train (like the “Cercanias” if you’re familiar with Madrid) to Shenzhen. It took about an hour to arrive at the Chinese mainland border where went through immigration to leave Hong Kong and immigration to enter China. It reminded me a lot of the Berlin wall crossing points (like they have pictured in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin) and I wish I could have taken a picture, but I probably would have been detained. You cross a bridge over a river, which has a tall fence on one side with two different levels of barbed wire and video cameras all along the fence. There are guards all along the bridge as you walk through it. What I want to figure out is whether the fence/barbed wire/guards are there for. Is it just to make sure people go through immigration? Is it to keep people out of entering Hong Kong illegally? Or is it to keep people in China? (or maybe a combination of the three). Some of the Chinese people we talked to are only allowed to leave the country to Hong Kong twice a year. Others don’t even bother because to get a visa for Hong Kong they’d have to travel hours back to their “hometown.”

Anyways, we made it through immigration and customs and entered the extraordinarily large city of Shenzhen. It was super muggy and extremely overcast so on the taxi ride there I didn’t even comprehend the size of the city. I just saw sky scrapers all along the freeway. We arrived at the hotel and Mom’s co-worker Sisi and her husband Hawk came and picked us up to go to dinner. The restaurant served Sichuan style food and we had roasted duck, lotus root, “muggles” (it’s a kind of cucumber haha… not just ordinary people around Hogwarts) with beef, pork spare ribs, bok choy in oyster sauce and then some sort of dessert with a purple root plant in it (the only thing I could think of was beet, but it didn’t taste like that).  And we had LOTS of tea.  It was like unlimited refills to a whole new extreme and they poured the hot water into your cup from a teapot with a really long neck and from far away. Check out the photos.

At dinner with Mom, Sissy and Hawk

Me & the Tea Guy

The other cool thing about this Sichuan restaurant was that they have a show! It was a traditional Sichuan show where the main character changes his mask. You can’t even really tell how he does it, just next thing you know he has a new face! Haha. He came out into the audience and grabbed my hand and then changed his face and growled. Scared me so bad haha.

Me, Sissy and Hawk 

Me & Mom at the Restaurant

The Show

Hong Kong: Day 2

Today was a FULL day touring around Hong Kong island  and then back to Kowloon for some night time festivities. It was cloudy and overcast all day with rainshowers every couple of hours. Thanks Grandpa Will for my rain jacket for Christmas--it was a lifesaver today! The morning started off early with a ride on the MTR (their subway) under the harbor to Hong Kong island where we began with Dim Sum at a traditional restaurant. Waiters came around with a variety of foods and we would check them out and then decide whether or not to eat them (some looked pretty strange). 

At Dim Sum

Yummy Food!

In front of Dim Sum Restaurant

Then we wandered through Hong Kong park--they have a very pretty botanical garden set up and even a zoo. The highlight of the zoo was the wild raccoon from North America. :) but seriously, they should take some of our raccoons from IV if they like them so much! I was really surprised at how tropical/junglish the natural fauna is over here. I wasn't expecting so much rainforest looking plants in such an urban environment, but it was absolutely beautiful.

If London (my cat) was a lemur she'd fit right in!

Hong Kong Park

With Wild Raccoons

Because the streets are backwards! (like in Britain, you stay to the left of the median)

Next we took the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak. We were literally in the clouds. Mom said it wasn't as scary as last time because you couldn't see anything. You really couldn't. I plan on photoshopping the Hong Kong skyline into my photo below haha. We also did this crazy thing where you put your feet into a pool and little fish (yes, real live fish) nibble away gently at your calluses! GROSSSSSSSS!!!!! haha after the initial 2 minutes I got over it and now my feet are soft and smooth, but still GROSSSSSSS!!!! I think this is a once in a lifetime experience for me.

Going to Tram

Where the Peak Tram picks up and Drops off

Mom at the top!

Me with the view of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

Fish Spa!

Mixed feelings.......!

Eating your Feet!

After Victoria Peak we wandered our way over the the MTR station and on the way stopped by the Tea house in another park. It was the oldest colonial building still remaining in Hong Kong and it is beautifully juxtaposed by the new skyscrapers in the background (check out the photo below!). They have awesome displays inside of all sorts of tea goodies--who knew you could whip tea from powder instead of just steeping it. Tea is literally an art form over here and it is totally blowing my mind. I hope to find my own little tea set to bring back with me to the states.

Colonial Tea House juxtaposed with Modern Skyscrapers (and me!)

Then we headed over to the Western part of Hong Kong island had lunch and then wandered around this CRAZY part of town. I think I saw every sea animal imaginable in a dried up form (okay maybe that's an exaggeration--but seriously I don't know how these little dried sea animal shops stay in business because there's trillions of them). We saw dried versions of: "large shark" (? haha see picture below), turtles, more snakes, sea horses, starfish, sea cucumber, shrimp, mussels, shark fin and even crocodile just to name a few. 


Here's some of the CRAZY stuff!

Centipedes?

Crocodile!!!

"Dried Seafood Street"

Shark Fins!!!!

Dried Seahorse

Dried Turtle

giant Mushrooms!

starfish (okay maybe not so crazy.. but still!)

Large Shark? haha

I think that might be snake without the skins? hmmm

Seriously I have no idea.... but I needed to capture it!!

Sea Cucumber (gross!)

Snakes, Shark Fins and Antelope Horns--oh my!

Our ultimate destination as we wandered our way through this part of town was Hong Kong University. On our way there we also passed Western Market (an old produce market that now houses a bunch of fabric sellers). At Hong Kong University we had tea in the art museum and learned how to correctly steep our tea--I had white tea and Mom tried the green tea. There are several steps involved including cleaning your little glass, "cleaning" the tea, and then steeping it for the appropriate amount of time dependent on the type of tea you were brewing. So many details in this tea time ritual!

tea time!

Some green tea!

some of the fabric at Western market

The Flowers--they have a beautiful aroma!!

Me at Hong Kong Uni

The highlight of the day (for me at least) was getting my own personal CHOP! I did this on the historic Chop making street at Fan Chop. We consulted with the Chop-maker who translated my name into Chinese and gave us several options for the chop design (traditional chinese characters? new chinese characters? name in latin letters too? female/male? what's your chinese horoscope? etc). An hour later he had hand-carved my name into a chop (which is a stone stamp essentially) so now I can replicate it in all my letters :). I have a little chop set complete with Chinese ink. I am so happy!!

Me, my Chop and the chop maker!! (I was a VIP :) )

We continued to wander around the city, had dinner at "Dumpling Yuan" (because I LOVE pot-stickers :) yum yum) and then made our way back across the harbor via Ferry. We watched the beginning of the light show, but you couldn't see half the lasers because of the clouds :/. It was anti-climactic, raining and cold, so we decided to move on with our night.

Dumplings! Fried & Steamed

Light Show

Light Show and Hong Kong Skyline (the scrapers go straight into the cloud cover--unbelievable)

We headed up back by our hotel to the Temple Street night market. I cannot figure out the difference between a "fake purse" and a "mimic." Fake purses are illegal, but all these markets sell purses that are fakes (albeit not good ones) and don't seem to have a problem selling them. Maybe it has to be good quality to be illegal? who knows!   The highlight of the evening activities was having our fortune read by the Temple! William, our experienced fortune teller, read our palms and faces and looked at our Chinese astrology to give us the complete fortune telling experience. I won't tell you all the dirty details, but basically I'm a leader who will be a happily married property owner and my life will continue to get better as I age. Mom was lucky she married after age 28 (otherwise divorce was in her future), is a leader at work and her strong jaw line indicates she will live to old age. Thanks William!!

William reading Mom's palm

My Elements!

William showing Mom he was born the same day! 5-28-** (she's 29, duh)! 

William analyzing my birth day and time

After 12 hours of wandering around the city we grabbed some food and bee-lined for the hotel :). It's time for me to sleep now! Goodnight and goodluck everyone :)