A case of wind

Hong Kong has wind and it's coming from the South. So? Well, in winter the wind come from the north, bringing along with it what seems to be ALL of China's pollution. It's not a pretty sight and quite spoils what is otherwise a beautiful harbour city. Not to mention the effect it has on one's respiratory system. But something rather wonderful has happened of late... the wind has done a little 180 and is now coming from the south, across the clean oceans, bringing fresh, clean air. At the moment the air is SO clean and the distant mountains SO visible that there are a few conspiracy theories cropping up. One I heard at lunch today being that the Chinese government has temporarily reduced factory output in order to clean up the air for the 10th anniversary celebration of Hong Kong's handover to China which happens to be next weekend. Sounds like it has some merit but the general consensus was that in the end it's just a descent case of wind.

Here's a pic I took of Tuen Mun from the Gold Coast when I first got here this year:



Here's the same mountain taken a couple of days ago - (the mountains are often catching clouds like this)...



Crossroads site is between this mountain and the pink blocks of flats. The Gold Coast hotel is the building to the left of the flats...

Sailing the High Teas...

It's curious and somewhat spooky, but my computer seems to know that I'm in Hong Kong. Of late it has taken the liberty of presuming that being in HK I must speak Chinese and would therefore appreciate some of my websites in the said Chinese. Clever as it is, I don't appreciate my websites in Chinese actually. For no apparent reason, my whole blog editing interface is now Chinese and since I can't read it I have no idea how to make it sensible again. So it could be a little bit trial and error but let's see how we go...

This posting is dedicated to Cousin Kate who has been waiting all week to see photographic evidence of my High Tea At The Ritz Carlton experience, since I casually dropped it into the conversation to her in an email. Being the High Tea Queen and the one who introduced me to whole beloved concept (with her very own home-made High Tea At The Ritz Manly) SHE will at least appreciate the following joyous vision:



Oh lovely sweet morsels!!!

To my privilege and delight I was invited to join Katrina and her 2 friends Yuki and Christina for high tea last weekend, thanks to Yuki winning a prize draw at work... high tea for 4 at the Ritz Carlton. It was an English portal in downtown Hong Kong, complete with chandeliers, old-fashioned high-backed chairs with round dark wood tables, live piano music and well-to-do society... a delight for all the senses, as per this little clip of video:



For more pics, check out the High Tea link under my pics to your left.

Ligers and Tigons…

A couple of weeks ago I got the exciting news that my working visa had finally been issued by the Hong Kong Immigration department (5 months after applying). I was quite beside myself as it means I’m no longer on a holiday visa which needs renewing every 3 months. Another guy here called Ben was issued his visa as well and as we needed to leave the country in order to have them validated, we decided to go to Shenzhen in China for the day.

We arrived at about lunch time so naturally the first port of call was to find food. Shenzhen is where Hong Kongers go for Serious Shopping as there is a huge complex selling all manner of bargains (if you haggle well) right at the boarder where you come out of customs. That seemed the best place to start… We entered the building to be immediately accosted by a crowd of enthusiastic shop-owners (mostly women) all shouting “you buy missy missy you buy pelicure maniclure deebeedee copy watch missy missy you buy??” Our first taste of Chinese pushiness. We managed to stay focused and followed some big signs that promised food, up lots of escalators and round and round until we realised we might need some help and shouted into the chaos: “dim sum!??” Suddenly a lady manifested from nowhere wearing a restaurant uniform, armed with menu. She gently but firmly steered us through a rabbit-warren of aisles, past a plethora of interesting shops and enthusiastic sellers desperate for our esteemed patronage, to a wonderful looking dim sum restaurant at the edge of the complex looking out on China (actually it was mainly overlooking the bus terminal, but in the excitement of the moment it was the whole of China waiting to be discovered).



The dim sum did the trick, we paid in Hong Kong dollars as the guide book promised we could do and after looking at our options decided we would visit the Shenzhen Safari Park located “in the north.” It was a bit of a surprise therefore to find the bus conductor refusing to take our Hong Kong dollars to pay for the ride. During the ensuing comical game of charades which finally ended in a kindly man on the bus exchanging our dollars from his own wallet, the realisation slowly dawned that outside of the “you-buy-missy-missy” shopping centre on the boarder, we were in China and we were on our own. There were no foreigners to be seen. There appeared to be no-speak-a-da-ingrish and there was definitely no accepting of foreign monies!

Shenzhen is a SEZ (Special Economic Zone) - which means it has its own economic laws designed for economic growth. One can get a 3 day visa to visit Shenzhen so long as one doesn’t wish to venture further afield into greater China. Whatever it means in theory, in practice the SEZ status appears to have made Shenzhen rather wealthy. I was expecting it to be crowded, crammed with ugly high rises, polluted and lacking for greenery. A more intense version of Hong Kong. In fact it was the opposite. So much green! The landscaped streets we passed through on the hour-and-a half (when will we be there) bus ride were incredible. It’s like a cleaner, newer, more spacious and greener version of Hong Kong with less hills (it’s rather flat). I don't have a good photo of the streets so uploaded this video so you can see...



We finally arrived at the Safari Park to find that our Hong Kong dollars were shunned here too, but a nearby shopkeeper came to our rescue and we exchanged enough money to see us through the rest of the day. By this time the heat and humidity of the day was intense and after being in the lovely air conditioned bus so long I felt like a slice of refrigerated bread suddenly finding itself in the toaster. In a hot, sweating and slightly wilting manner, we enjoyed many hours looking at animals and trying to avoid paying for photographs with all manner of other attractions along the way - our subsequent encounter with Chinese pushiness. I've posted another video clip to give you an idea. (This lady with cockatoo had been following us along trying to convince us to have a photo for some time before I thought to take the video)...



She plonks the bird on Ben despite our protests, so I take advantage of the photo opportunity which thereafter sees the lady following us for some way demanding payment...



The undeniable highlight was the Enclosure for Dangerous Animals where creatures such as bears and lions and tigers are roaming free (in separate sections from each other). We were taken through on a mini bus and got up close and personal, (but not as personal as when we were invited to feed some tigers in cages afterwards). For $10RMB each (less than $2AUD) we were given some chicken on a stick and led to a narrow pathway between 2 rows of cages housing all manner of felines including Ligers and Tigons - which sounds incredibly unnatural if you ask me.



As we passed the first cage I suggested to Ben that he kneel down in front of the nice tigers for a photograph. So he did, quite close to the cage, quite close to 3 quite large tigers. Just as I was about to take the nice photo one of the nice tigers decided it wanted to eat Ben. It let out a mortal roar and leapt spread-eagle onto the chicken wire cage that separated it from lunch. There was a frozen moment in time when Ben’s eyes went wide as saucers before my own self-preservational instincts kicked in and the rest went something like: scream flee heart attack laugh oh my gosh I thought I was lunch for a minute there might need to change my undies… As Ben noted later, I wouldn’t be very good journalist on the front line. I’m still kicking myself for not catching it on video let alone completely missing the photo. Ah well, we laughed about it all the way home… think it helped rid the body of all that adrenalin.

Here’s a video after we had fed the nice tigers and completely calmed down. Don’t be deceived, they look disinterested but they’re quietly plotting how to go about eating you.



For more zoo pics, go to the Shenzen June 07 link under 'My Pics' to your left somewhere.