I <3 Hong Kong

Prepare for a long blog! But it will be full of pictures and stories from our GREAT trip to Hong Kong :)

It was really a fantastic trip and a nice break from mainland China; what a relief to be around people with English skills, delicious food, and familiar shopping!

And We're Off!

We departed from Beijing airport on Thursday evening. Despite my cold, I made it through health checks (common concern of mine - but who wants to get stuck in Chinese quarantine?), and we were on our way! Once we arrived at Hong Kong airport, it was a quick and comfy ride to the Kowloon station. We hopped in a taxi, checked into our hotel, and had a quick snack at McDonalds (gotta try it in every city right?).

Hotel Butterfly on Prat

Out hotel was really nice. A boutique hotel, Butterfly on Prat, in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui.

An idea of what Tsim Sha Tsui looks like at night:

The hotel is pretty new as I understand, and I really liked it. The lobby smelled delicious, the decour was trendy, and the rooms were comfy. The bathrooms were innovative to say the least. Per didn't really like them because they had glass windows from the bedroom looking into the shower (you would think he would like that!) and only a glass sliding door by the toilet (interesting choice by the designers).

Per "sitting" on the toilet...not too much privacy. Stay here with non-awkward roommates.

FRIDAY
Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island

We woke up early the next morning to head out on touristy adventures. We walked through the busy city to the Star Ferry terminal to take a ferry over to Hong Kong island. It was SO hot and humid. After a few minutes outside, we were wet and gross!

Notice Per's very shiny sweaty head while we were on the ferry :)

Victoria Harbour:

Genius City Planning

Once we got to Hong Kong island we had a rather tough hike through the city to get to The Peak Tram. What was really cool about Hong Kong, is if you really know the city well, I think you can probably get almost anywhere without ever leaving a building. Most of the malls and buildings are connected by indoor walkways, and because the city is so compact, it is usually a pretty quick walk from one building to the next if they aren't connected. This is OBVIOUSY necessary because its so DAMN HOT! It was the end of Septemeber and still over 90 degrees and HUMID. I can't even imagine how hot it would be in the middle of summer.

The Peak Tram

The Peak Tram is this cool trolley type thing that takes you to one of the highest spots with an amazing view of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour, and Tsim Sham Tsui.

The Tram chugging up the mountain:

The view!

Per and Hong Kong!

After a sub-par lunch at Bubba Gump's (Per's choice), we headed down from the peak.

World Class Shopping

There is a TON of insanely overpriced shopping malls on Hong Kong island, and after exploring them (and only being able to window shop), we headed back to the other side of the harbor. I can't wait till the day I too can shop with the Hong Kongers at Dior, Prada, and D&G. We did some more shopping exploration back in Kowloon in the search of something slightly more affordable. We visited a few electronics stores (Per ended up buying an iPod), and some more familiar and very welcome stores!

I was THRILLED to find TWO H&Ms in Hong Kong, and I bought stuff at both :)

We went home after spending some money at Lacoste, H&M, and buying a pricey scarpbook.

Symphony of Light

After resting up and struggling to decide on a place to eat dinner, we headed down to the Avenue of the Stars to watch the Symphony of Light show. It is the largest permanent light show that basically is the buildings on the coast blinking to music. A must see but not that amazing.

Pricey Dinner #1 - Japanesse

By this time we were starving, and we didn't think we could wait till 9:30 to eat at the restaurant we had a reservation at. We wandered into the shopping mall near by and found a Teppanyaki Japanesse restaurant (our favorite type of food to eat in Tianjin) so we decided to try it out. This was our first encounter with true Hong Kong prices. After we sat down and ordered a beer, we opened the menu, and just sorta laughed at what we were about to spend on dinner. And we thought Sweden was expensive! Despite the tremendously large bill, the food was great and we really enjoyed it! We ate the biggest shrimp we have ever seen, I wish I had a picture of it.

Here is our adorable chef! He was nice and told us that the innards of a giant shrimp are very good and we should eat them...he also constantly had to warn Per that the food was hot which is usually my job.

Here is the aftermath of our dinner.
Please note that on the right (my side) there is a white piece of toast on the foil in the back. The chef puts the food on this piece of toast to soak up the cooking oil on the food. Well...the first thing we ate was squid, and when the chef put the squid on the piece of toast, Per picked it up and ate it with the squid on it. I couldn't stop laughing. I'm sure the chef had a good laugh with his chef buddies when he returned to the kitchen about the silly Swede that at the grease toast!

Temple Street Night Market

Our day wasn't over yet even though we were getting super tired! After dinner, we jumped into a taxi and headed to the night market. Tons of stuff - fake purses, t-shirts, fake watches, jewlery, souvenirs, fake belts, and much much more. After buying some junk, including a pink stuffed Super Mario Mushroom, we headed home to get some much needed rest.

SATURDAY

Dim Sum - Yum yum!

Saturday we woke up prepared to do one of my favorite things, EAT! Our first toursity event for the day was to eat a traditional Hong Kong dim sum brunch. I found a famous place called Tsui Han Village in the Mirimar Shopping mall not too far from our hotel, and I couldn't wait! We were the only white people in the restaurant, which is odd in Hong Kong because it is so touristy. I took it as a good sign and a confirmation that the food would be authentic. It was truly scrumptious. I'm not so sure how Per felt about it, he is a bit more weary of food. I couldn't have been more satisfied, I just wished we had ordered more!

My favorite was the steamed bbq pork buns, SO delicious. I insisted we eat there again on Sunday before leaving, and Per agreed. So we ate there twice :)

Me enjoying a delcious pork bun (Sunday):

Big Buddha

After brunch, we took the best day trip I could have imagined! We struggled between a trip to see 1 giant buddha or 10000 little buddhas. We chose the giant buddha! We took the train to another island, Lantau, and stopped in Tung Chung. From here, we expected to get on cable cars which would take us over the mountains to the Po Lin monastery in Ngong Ping. For whatever reason, the cable cars weren't working, so we had to take a long windy bus ride there instead. This wasn't a bad deal though because we saw parts of Hong Kong people probably don't see much of - beaches and jungle. It felt a lot like being in Hawaii. When we finally reached the top, 500m above sea level, it was well worth the trecherous drive. I absolutly LOVED it. I have always enjoyed seeing churches (and now monasteries) on vacations, and this really was super impressive.

At the top of the mountain is the Tian Tan Buddha statue, the world's largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha statue (I read online that this was true until 2007 - poo). It is 34 meters tall, and it order to get to it, you have to climb 260 stairs! NOT so fun in 90 degree humid heat but well worth it!

As some people know, I am rather freightened by over size things, like big statues or huge ships. At first I was a little bit creeped out by it because it is so gigantic, but I got used to it after a while.

Our first view of it (shudder)!

On the way up to the top:

Offerings to Big Buddha:

Besides the Big Buddha, there is also a nice monastery with real munks!
After suffering in the heat as long as we could (including a PAINFUL wait for the bus), we headed back to Kowloon to get ready for dinner.

(More) Pricey Dinner #2 - Aqua Roma

We had a "photo shoot" at the hotel before we left for dinner. Per hates when I make him do this, he usually limits me to two photos which would be OK if he didn't always ruin one.

We had made a reservation at Aqua the night before during our search for restaurants. Aqua has a great view of the harbour and we were hoping to be able to admire the view and maybe catch the Symphony of Light again from the restaurant.

When we walked in, we knew it was NOT going to be cheap. It was really swanky, very trendy, and they had great service. The good news was that they also had really amazing food. You can either eat Italian (Aqua Roma) or Japanesse (Aqua Tokyo). We decided to eat Italian, and it was a truely delcious dinner...with really yummy cocktails too! We never thought we would beat Friday night's bill...but we did! Only live once right?

Aqua on the 29th floor, with a bar on 29 and a half.

The most delicious dessert which we ALMOST passed up!
After dinner, we had a cocktail in the bar (Rasberry Bellini - so yum!) and then decided it was time to head home!

What a GREAT day!

SUNDAY

Time to go Home :(

Sunday we ate some more dim sum (I gotta find a dim sum place in Tianjin - I bought frozen bbq pork buns today at the grocery store so I don't have to live without) and we did some last minute shopping, including hitting up the Ladies Market (not to buy ladies and not just for ladies). And there happened to be a parade to celebrate something...I forget what.

It was a wonderful weekend. We could have used a few more days, but I'm so happy we went. Truly one of the coolest places I've ever been and one of my favorites. We will have to go back in the future...with more $ and when it isn't as hot :)

Per caught my cold :( and has a really busy week ahead of him at work. Poor guy. His parents arrive on Monday, and we are really looking forward to it! I'm doing lots of trip planning, which after Hong Kong I have to say I'm pretty good at. I get it from my mom I'm sure!

Off to Hong Kong!

Per and I are leaving for Hong Kong in a few hours!

As usual, I'm sick with a cold and Per has an unhappy stomach.

Cross your fingers that we make it there and back without being quarintined and that we don't have to spend a whole day in the hotel!!

<3

Beijing Market and Window Washing

On Sunday we woke up, ate our last buffet breakfast at the Radisson, and headed out to the Ya Show market or "new market". It's right next to the western district in Beijing and wasn't as scary as I expected it to be.

Per is well versed in the negotiating tactics, so I followed his lead. Most transactions go like this:


Sales girl (SG) : Hello lady! You want to buy jacket? I give you good price.
Me : I like this one, how much.
SG : This very good quality. I give you special price. 1200!
Me : Psh! That's WAY too expensive. (mumble to Per about fair price) I'll give you 120.
SG : You kidding! That kidding price. Now give me real price.
Me: : 120.
SG: No, come on. This good quality. I give you special price because I like you. 800!
Me : No way. 120.
SG : You crazy. Give me best price! No kidding price.
Me: 120.
SG : No, you kidding! I can't even pay factory with that!
Me : Ok (start to talk away)
SG : OK Lady! Come back. I give you good price. 300!
Me : (walk back) No, 120.
SG : COME ON! Give me final price you pay.
Me : 120. (start walking away again)
SG : Lady! 200!
Me : (still walking away) 120.
SG : OK OK Come back.
Me : (walk back...again)
SG : 150.
Me: 120.
SG: 140
Me : 120
SG : 135
Me : 130 (start walking away...again)
SG : OK lady! 130


So, in the end you pay around 10% of what they originally say AND you are probably still getting ripped off.


I guess it is kinda fun, but it gets old. Not to mention that for a woman my size (being tall alone is hard) it is almost impossible to buy items of clothing. Per didn't have a problem anywhere. But I tried a fake Max Mara jacket, which at a store would fit, in XXL China version size, and I couldn't even get both arms in. LAME


We did manage to buy a lot of stuff for under 100 bucks:

Two Peak Performance jackets for Per, 3 t-shirts, 1 sweater, a Pashmina scarf, a Chinese silk robe, a DVD, 6 pairs of socks, a pair of sunglasses, a can opener, and a small figurines.

After some time at the market, we headed into the Western district for some lunch at the Blue Frog. Per enjoyed a beer:

Chinese butterflies like beer too (pretty beat up butterfly - too many bar fights maybe):

And I enjoyed a Bloody Mary (like mother, like daughter):

Then we headed back to Tianjin! Here is a picture of the speed of the train as proof!

It was a great weekend in Beijing. We will be heading back soon with Per's parents and then again with mine! But in the end of November we will take one more trip back to stock up on all kinds of crap!

The next morning, I woke up to something crazy! Two Chinese men, in what I would call a large basket held up by only two wires on either side, were cleaning my windows....on the 32nd floor!! As they lowered themselves down to my window, they didn't notice me. But then I waved to them and they laughed at me! After they lowered themselves past my window, both of them began screaming! I ran to the window to see what could be happening. Thank god both of them were in their basket, I suppose they needed something from the guy on the roof or something.

Beijing Day 0.5, 1, and 2

Per and I left Tianjin on Thursday night to visit Beijing for the weekend. After getting Subway, we took the taxi to the Tianjin train station and jumped on a fast train to Beijing. The train goes up to 320 km/hour and it takes about 30 min to get to Beijing. The trains were nice and clean, and you could barely tell you were speeding so quickly down a train track.

We took a taxi to The Radisson and hit the hotel bar. Had some gin and tonics and a few beers. Then we went to the room to sleep. Both of us were very excited for Friday and our trip to the zoo!

Well...as they say, things don't always go as planned. Both Per and I had very rumbly tummys in the morning and, let's just say the trips to the bathroom were frequent. In an attempt to regain the day, we visited the hotel breakfast, only to find that that was not at all helpful to our stomach. We spent the day in the hotel room (good thing we upgraded), drinking water, struggling with stomach cramps, and taking turns in the bathroom. We believe our dinner at a Chinese restaurant Wednesday night was probably the culprit! It was the 1st Chinese restaurant we went to (besides dumplings), and after a ruined Friday in Beijing, I'm not looking to go back! We crossed our fingers and went to bed, hoping that our stomachs will have recovered by Saturday morning. Thanks Pepto!



Saturday morning we woke up in slightly better condition, Per was still feeling pretty bad, but he was a trooper and we went to the zoo! We canceled the food tour we were supposed to take, deciding that pandas were more important!
Seems like the Beijing Zoo is full of sleeping animals. I don't think we saw many of them move at all! Probably all sedated so they stay still and don't hide from the millions of small children dying to see them.


The pandas were cute but lazy!

But not always lazy, because this one managed to get himself up into a tree where he scartched himself a few times and then decided to take a nap.

There were of course lots of other animals at the zoo, but the zoo itself is kinda run down and I think a lot of the animals are depressed. Their surroundings were pretty pathetic. I won't post any of the pictures of the lions or tigers or elephants or anything because they just look kinda sad. But I did get this nice pictures of a crane:And Per with the Giraffs giving the sterotypical Chinese picture pose:

We also visited the aquarium which is newer and less depressing. Be careful in the aquarium though, there are steep slops everywhere:The slopes are steep too! (Per didn't get why I thought this was funny)

There was also a sign by the fish pond that read "No feeding with nonspecial foodstuffs." But people fed them anyway:

Me with a cute sharky thing, also doing the Chinese picture pose:After seeing a number of small children, I was also introduced to Chinese baby buttless pants. I tried to get a picture but our camera was not working with me! I will get one and post it later. Apparently babies here don't wear diapers, they have holes in the bitt of their pants so they can just squat when they gotta go, which I assume leads to a lot of really unpleasant messes.

After the zoo, we went home, got some food, and had massages! It was GREAT! :)

Then we went to a very famous restaurant in Beijing called Da Dong. It is famous for Beijing roast duck, and it was DELICIOUS! We had to wait for a table, here is a picture of my handsome fiancé :)

Here is the guy carving our delicious ducky!

To finish off our declicious dinner, we were served CORN ICE CREAM. So strange. And we ordered some typical Beijing desserts which were not a success. All the desserts here are made from bean and gelatin and just kinda strange.

Now we are back in the hotel lounging in bed!

Tomorrow we will go to the market!! Exciting :)

In non-China news!

I've been offered a scholarship PhD position at Lund University in the Department of Business Administration working on a Corporate Risk Management research project!

...O gosh, what have I gotten myself into!

Dr. Sara Lundqvist in 2014!

Monastery of Deep Compassion and Culture Shock

Today Per and I went to a monastary close to the city's edge. It is the most important Buddhist temple in Tianjin (according to Lonely Planet).
There is a central statue of Sakyamuni, or Buddha. I think this is the Buddha, but we aren't 100% sure because of course there are no signs in English, and I'm not well versed in the differences in Buddhas and other Buddhist figures.

Buddha is surrounded by 18 Buddhist monks (according to Lonely Planet). There is also a large hall with 3 golden statues of Guanyin (don't really know who that is either), and the eyes follow you around the hall as you move (says Lonely Planet, I didn't really feel like it was acceptable to try to figure out if this was true while people were praying). You can't really see in this picture below, but it has a backwards swastika on its chest.This is the big hall with the three golden statues, all the buildings looked similar to this but smaller versions:

Another golden statue:

People were praying and burning incense. It was a really nice sight.

Outside the monastery, there are three small corridors where you can buy different things, like incesnse and mini buddhas and gifts for Buddha. It was really interesting.

I was also asked to take my first "white tourist" photo. As we were walking across the plaza area, I noticed this girl taking a picture of Per and I. As we got closer, she came up, and in Chinese, asked if I would take a picture with her and her boyfriend. Per took it, and then he swtiched with the bf and Per and I took a picture with the girl. Hehe. Makes you feel silly! And of course she did the sterotypical peace sign pose. I wish I had a picture too!! Next time I will take one too, and I can start a collection.

Per and I were not the best tourists today, and we left the camera memory in the computer as well as forgot to charge the camera. So we only got pictures from the temple. After that we went to the Ancient Culture street. Here you can buy all kinds of "traditional" Chinese things. We will go back when Per's parents arrive to take some pictures and visit the temple they have there.

Around Ancient Culture street I got hit by culture shock. I've been fine here the first week, but today it got overwhelming. There were so many people everywhere. Everyone was staring at us everywhere and it just got to be a little too much. I guess since it was a Sunday everyone was out, all 12 million inhabitants of Tianjin, and I think they were all following me around everywhere! I also wanted to buy this little ceramic buddha type character...and it was in one of the toursity shops so of course you have to haggle. And, I'm bad at it. Especially if I don't know how much a thing like that is even really worth! I just want a price tag that I know is near market value (like the Gucci purse i saw today for $2500 hehe). Then lunch was aggrevating because we didn't know what to eat and we were hungry and grumpy, so we just ate McDonalds because it was easy. Wah, poor me huh?

We had dinner at a sushi restaurant, that I liked but Per wasn't too crazy about. After dinner we went to this Chinese candy store and bought some random stuff to try! Fun...but weird :)

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day with less crowds and less culture shock! :)

Train Station

After lunch today, Per and I went to the train station to buy our tickets to Beijing for next weekend and look around. The train station was chaos! So many people, warmest building ever, and lines that seemed to lead to no where. People thought Per and I were very interesting. Per also pointed out that some of the people, who probably come from the countryside, are very curious about the machines there. So they go up to them and look at them really close. One big Chinese man came up to talk to Per (he wasn't so interested in talking to me). I think he probably just wanted to try out his English so he asked where Per was from, what company he worked for, and how long he would be here. He was nice. A lot of people there stared at us, but this time no one wanted Per's picture or to touch his skin to see if he was real. Haha.

The train station building:

The mass of people standing outside (note the chinese man on the very left with his shirt pulled up over his belly - very common - cooling):

Per and I:

Across from the train station and the river is this very European looking group of buildings. No idea what they are but its rather interesting. You can tell in this picture especially how hazy and foggy it seems here, although I suppose it is pollution.

Some weird clock:

On another note, all day I've felt very sad about something I saw today. I saw this Chinese man, walking with his wife, carrying an adorable little puppy. Some kinda fluffy little dog. When I saw him holding it, I didn't feel like he was admiring how cute it was or showing his wife how adorable their new puppy was. I noticed that under the puppy, in his hand, was a plastic bag. I sorta made a comment to Per that the man probably bought the puppy for dinner....WELL...10 seconds later, he was holding the plastic bag by the handles with the poor little puppy inside. :( I feel heartbroken about the puppy. But I guess to people here, dogs aren't adorable little pets (I've only seen two dogs on leashes). It is a toatlly different thing to them. Hopefully he was taking the the little puppy home to be their pet and just didn't know it wasn't nice to carry it in a bag...hopefully :(