Culture Shock 2 and Rain

Saying that we've replaced here in Hong Kong massive humidity with massive rain, I thought I would write about a recent eating experience here.

I always took some pride that I am a "White Man" who can use chopsticks. I hate eating Chinese food any other way- it just doesn't feel correct.

Well, I learned very abruptly that I have much to learn about Chinese etiquette.

Yesterday while eating, I was out with my Buddy from Hong Kong - a local student who's assigned to check on us while we're here in Hong Kong. We went out to eat and usually I have no trouble going out for Cantonese.

Anyways, after we finish, we were talking about manners and stuff, I am not sure how it came up, but anyways, he brought up "there are two things you need to learn about eating with Chinese."

Ut-oh.

He told me that using Chopsticks with your left hand is considered very rude and unrefined. I guess the Putonghua word for left handed, or 左, basically means "out of accord" or even worse, "illegal."

Now, I'm left handed, strongly left handed, I do everything left handed, except throw a baseball, oddly (maybe if I threw left-handed I wouldn't be so bad at sports ha-ha). Using my right hand to eat with chopsticks could never happen. I never knew being left handed would be such a cultural taboo. How to fix this... hmmm.

Also, in Chinese eating, you usually get several dishes and share between many people. You pull some from each dish and so on. Well, it's always been common for when I go out for Chinese, and I cannot grab a piece of vegetable or something, I will just try for the next piece.

Not Here. You're committed to that chicken piece once your chopsticks touch it. Call it food marriage, if you wish. Again, you can't grab a piece; you're basically an idiot.

So, I guess I am still the barbaric white man here in China, no matter how many years I have spent eating Chinese food in the States.

Hope all is well, until next time, Please Mind the Gap.

~Ken

Ode to Octopus

I once watched a couple online television news stories in the states several years ago that described that "one day, we will have the technology to purchase small items that we need by just pointing our cell phone or watch towards a vending machine or at a Circle K." I think I quote that almost word-for-word.

One day is today here in Hong Kong. Behold the Octopus, probably the greatest piece of technology Hong Kong has to offer, next to the longest escalator in the world and silent subways.

Let me explain why I "heart" Octopus. First, it's works everywhere. McDonalds? Use your Octopus. Bus? Use your Octopus. Circle K? Use your Octopus. Subway? Use your Octopus.

You get the picture. Basically, the Hong Kong transit authority for use issued the Octopus card in their extensive mass transit system (95 percent of all residents of HK use mass transit.

Like the social security number in the U.S., it ended up being used for everything in Hong Kong. You can use Octopus for tea at the Seven 11, McDonald’s, anything you want, just as long as you have enough money on it.

What makes it even cooler is the fact it’s radio controlled. So, you’ll see when you get on a bus people holding their wallets, purses, duffel bags, cats, up to the Octopus reader. They also make Octopus-compatible designer watches and keychains.

See? The Chinese invented Gun Powder, Porcelain, Fireworks, the longest escalator in the world (I promise to upload pictures of that too) and Super-Easy-Ways-To-Pay thingies. They are awesome ^_^

Americans can’t even come with a mobile network that works.

Other things of note: Classes started today officially, but I don’t start class until Wednesday because I am only going half time. My internship at Bloomberg starts 18 September, and you’ll definitely hear about that.

Anyways, Please Mind the Gap.

Ken

More of Hong Kong

I went with the Journalism faculty today on a tour of some major sites in Hong Kong for news value. While I wasn't able to fully grasp the major connections for news values, it was an excellent tour of some major sites of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

I can't blog much about today, so I'll just show pictures:

This is a Taoist temple located in northern Hong Kong. It's the largest temple in Hong Kong, and just absolutely stunning. Above is a picture of the rear garden. If I need to relax and run away, I'm running away to there.


In contrast, here's another picture from Mong Kok. I don't read Cantonese, but from my understanding, you wouldn't want your mother reading those signs if she could read Cantonese (sorry mom).


Let's go back to the Temple. Ah... peace. I guess in Taoist religions, you burn incense in multiples of three to ask the Gods for fortune or favors.


I look pissed off in this picture.

This was something I didn't notice until today. Outside of my dorm is a very large piller sculpture, dedicated to the victims of the Tianenman Square protests of 1989. The political liberties here in HK are much more extensive then I originally thought.

I'll post some interesting thoughts soon, until then. Baii Baii.

~Ken

Mong Kok

I went with a group of friends to an area in Hong Kong called Mong Kok located in Kowloon. The area is a huge open market. I could describe it, but pictures are much cooler (and I just bought a digital camera, yay!).

This is Mong Kok. I don't think you can see in these pictures, but the vast majority of the people walking around here, have on flashy watches and carry Gucci bags. It's all fake, but it's kinda fun. This part of the road was a open market, and every time we walked by a stall, the owner would yell at us "Copy Watch!" - you can figure out what that means.

Here, it's pure bargaining, and everything is cheap. My friend Philip from Germany bought two dress shirts at a stall for 80 HKD, or about 10 bucks. It was funny to look at them though, they were decent in quality, but totally labeled wrong. The pocket read "Hugo Boss" and the inside the neck read "Nautica."

Every corner had a little shop for you to shop at. Mong Kok in this area was almost all consumer goods - no chinese medicine, artifacts, or that stuff. What was sold as Chinese trinkets were pretty cheap looking. I was little sad. Some of the trinkets were so cheap looking, I felt bad just looking at them, because they were probably based off something at some point.

There were dozens of these street markets.

On a main street, there was a protest going on. Hong Kong, as a Special Administrative Region, is allowed more political liberties than other places. The people below were protesting in favor of the Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is banned in China, it's a political movement. I don't know much about it. Anyways, look at the sign. It says "Heaven Condemns CCP's Brutal Genocide." If you think back to anything you learned in school about China, do you guys remember the Mandate of Heaven concept? Basically, any government in China is given the right to govern by the Gods. The People's Republic of China is the successor of the Chinese Emperors, and is the legitimate heir to thier government. Just interesting to note.

You can't see in these pictures but, Mong Kok is incredibly crowded, and we went on a slow day. It's hard to walk in some of the open markets at some points, and people definately are pushy.

On one street in Mong Kok was an open air fruit market. You could purchase anything exotic there, and it all looked incredibly fresh. We had just ate before, so I didn't have anything. I did however...

Have a coconut. :)

I kept seeing people wander around with coconuts with straws in them. It immediately became a mission to find the stall for one. I found one, and for 5 HKD (about 64 cents), the guy would punch a hole in the fruit with a screwdriver and hand you a straw. Very good actually. Aww... that girl in the picture is cute.

Hey, look how tan I am! I went to the beach for my birthday, and had a chance to get some color in my skin again. Yay!

I bought a bomber jacket and brown sports coat at Mong Kok. Both were very nice, I got them for like... combined, um, 150 HKD? Yea, like 20 bucks. My shopping Gods smiled at me today.

Culture Shock Episode 1: Chicken and Prostitutes

I watched a chicken die.

Now, there are a lot of things I could write about today, especially since it was my birthday. But, I choose to write about said chicken.

I walked into the Smithtown Market today, and on the first floor is a butchering area where dozens of butchers have there individual stands selling various meats. I made the mistake of watching past a poultry stand when a woman pointed to a live chicken and ordered it.

I don't speak Cantonese, but I think she ordered it.

The butcher pulled the chicken out of the cage and well... yea.

I walked away at that point. Two minutes later, my roommate called me to see if I wanted to eat.

-Eight Hours Later-

I went with a large group of international students to Wan Chai, which is a neighborhood in central Hong Kong. We were going bar hopping and inbetween the bars were woman grabbing my hand, talking about favors or something.

I've seen prostitutes before, but never been actively sought out by them. I thought it was the grossest thing ever, but every time I ignored them, some guy behind me would walk off hand-in-hand with them.

That was my birthday, chicken and prostitutes.

~Ken

PS: I did spent the vast majority of my b-day on a beach today :) ... we went to Western HK, where our driver took us to a cove with an isolated beach. It was absolutely wonderful

Ground Floor, seven stories up.

My friend made an interesting comment today, and I think it’s true for my entry today. He said as we were staring at a overcrowded cemetery “Look, even the dead and the living have to fight for space in Hong Kong.”

I don’t know if he stole that from some famous quotation or whatever. But, I’ll say this, -how appropriate.

Today was my first day in Hong Kong that didn’t consist of Jet Lag. My first initial observation, other than my inability to even purchase tea without it being a humongous deal, is how vertical this city is.

Yea, it has big buildings… I’m not going to make that observation.

Hong Kong is built on, how appropriately, Hong Kong Island, which is a big old mountain. Victoria Peak, the tallest spot, is like at 1,500 feet. Now, that doesn’t sound like a lot. But, the whole island goes from ocean shore to mountain top in maybe, 2-3 miles, max.

So, everything is built on top of itself, it’s crazy.

Leaving on a Jet Plane, part three.

Note: I didn't have Internet for three days, and I wrote these while I was Internet-less... enjoy.

Thirteen and one-half hours…

The first thing you notice, other than the massive piece of steel, plastic and oil that’s supposed to take 7,200 miles across the Pacific Ocean, is the self-service beverage soda fountain next to the bathroom.

Welcome to international economy class.

I’m here on Cathay Pacific flight no. 885, service from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. The flight is only about half full, and I am near the back of this 747 –row 56, seat A. I get a whole row to stretch out – and I think I have filled every pocket within three seats. Lunch is around here somewhere.

The flight so far has been slightly interesting. The safety demonstrations are done in well, English and Cantonese, obviously. Most interestingly was a health service video about how to care for you while on a very long flight.

The flight consisted of a boy and girl, white, no older than maybe six or seven, in a park. All of the sudden, they decide to get up and do stretches. Here I am, 23 years old, with a $1,200 ticket to Hong Kong, and I am having children teach me how to sit and stretch on a plane.

I calculated it all out, and I think I arrive in Hong Kong at approximately 9 a.m. Missouri time, 7 a.m. Arizona time. I don’t usually sleep on planes.

Six hours in:
I don’t sleep on planes because I think I have a fear of flying. Why not explicitly fearing flying, I think I fear more the idea of I am trusting my life into the hands of countless people I never will meet. We’re over Kampuchea now (that’s eastern Siberia), and we hit some moderate turbulence. I slightly freaked.

Leaving on a Jet Plane, part 2

I present this challenge: Get from the United States, to a small six-story building in eastern Hong Kong, and do it without knowing a word of Cantonese.

This has been my challenge of the day. I learned very abruptly that none of the taxi drivers in Hong Kong speak any English. Now, I wasn't surprised, just that there really isn't a solution for this. I was told by people over there that I have to write out what I need, use a translation program and hope it does a good job.

So... I had to figure out how to write:

"Dear Taxi Driver, I need to get to Simon KY Lee Hall at The University of Hong Kong's main campus. Please take me there." Note: Simon KY Lee Hall is not necessarily 100 percent translatable.

I got this:

"亲爱的出租汽车司机, 我需要获取对西蒙KY 李・霍尔香港的主要校园大学。
请采取我那里."

That's Putonghua, or Mandarian (not commonly spoken in Southern China). I had to write that out. I've never written a Chinese character in my life - and I had to copy, character by character, that sentence onto some paper. It took me an hour.

According to BabelFish, that translates into: "Dear taxi driver, I need to gain to Simon KY Li Hall Hong Kong's main campus University. Please adopt my there."

Pray for me, and pray that my taxi driver can somewhat comprehend my Mandarian chicken scratch. I then realized today, "Ken, you're going to a place in the world that you don't speak a word of their language, and somehow live, survive, and work." It's a humbling thought.

Again, Pray.

~Hong Kong Ken

Leaving on a Jet Plane, part one.

I leave for Hong Kong in three days. My flight from Los Angeles leaves at 1:20 p.m. on August 29th and arrives at 7 p.m. on August 30th. The flight is 14 1/2 hours.

I got asked again today if I am excited to leave for Hong Kong. I've had this question come passed me a lot throughout the summer. To answer:

No, not really.

Ever talk about something for months and then it finally happens? It's kinda anticlimatic. I think I just want to get on my plane and get there. Maybe I'll be a little more excited then.

To give you an interary of how things go: I fly into Hong Kong International Airport,香港國際機場, considered the best airport in the world. It's built on an island. Yes, I'll take pictures.

I then take a high speed train into Central Hong Kong. If you look at the picture below of the HK skyline, those large buildings are Central. I arrive in the HK equivilent there of Penn Station, for all my NY readers.

I then take a taxi to Simon K.Y. Lee Hall - a dorm. That's where I am living (for US$3.40 a night). The University of Hong Kong is located in the Mid-Levels, where a lot of older British architecture is found, and sits in the shadow of Victoria Peak. I love public education.

~hong kong ken

A little about Hong Kong

Hello everyone:

Since I haven't left for Hong Kong, yet, and I am trying to get this blog to be code ready for when it debuts, this is a place holder:

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (Chinese: 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區) is one of the two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China, the other being Macau. It is commonly known as Hong Kong, which is often written Hongkong in older English-language texts. The Hong Kong Government officially changed the spelling of Hongkong to Hong Kong on 3 September 1926.

Hong Kong is on the eastern side of the Pearl River Delta on the southeastern coast of China, facing the South China Sea in the south, and bordering Guangdong Province in the north. Hong Kong is China's richest city, has one of the world's most liberal economies and is a major international centre of finance and trade.

Hong Kong was a British colony from 1842, until its sovereignty was transferred to the PRC in 1997. It is governed as special administrative region under the Basic Law of Hong Kong. Under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the PRC has promised that Hong Kong will have a relatively high degree of autonomy until at least 2047, fifty years after the transfer of sovereignty. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, it retains its own legal system, currency, customs policy, cultural delegation, international sport teams, and immigration laws.