The Trip
For those of you who are interested, here is the more detailed breakdown of our trip to China:
SUNDAY:
Arrived in HK at 5:30am. We bought Octopus Cards at airport and found the correct bus to take to ShaTin. An hour later, we arrived at Royal Park Hotel, where they graciously allowed us to check in early! The room was spacious and very comfortable. We immediately hit the shower, which felt great. Then my friend Grace, and her daughter Joy met us at our hotel and took us to church with them. We struggled to stay awake during church, but our son struggled to stay upright. He fell down playing in the nursery (I was sitting right next to him!) and bruised up his left eye.
After church, we met up with Grace's husband and had our first meal of dim sum (see June 30 entry). We walked a lot that day, and tried to acclimate to the HK humidity. We went to Grace's home later to relax, and of course, eat some more. Homemade Cantonese cooking. Around 7pm we could barely keep our eyes open, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep. Miraculously all 3 of us slept through the whole night!
MONDAY:
The weather was great, we woke up around 7am and had the breakfast buffet in our hotel. We discovered that our son really likes fried noodles for breakfast. We really enjoyed the congee. (Just to brag a little: our hotel is going to be used for the Olympic Village next month for the equestrian athletes. Apparently the equestrian events are taking place in ShaTin, Hong Kong, not Beijing, like the other events. So we can say that we stayed in an Olympic Village!)
Grace & Joy came over to the hotel, and we went swimming in the morning. Later, we spent the rest of the day at New Town Plaza (just adjacent to our hotel) eating and window shopping. This is a really nice, new shopping plaza where you could find just about anything. Buyer Beware: Hong Kong prices are not cheap (hence the window shopping). We took the kids over to Snoopy's World, which was hot, but kind of fun. We also spent some time at ShaTin park, where our son liked playing at the playground. Our hotel was so conveniently located to many things!
TUESDAY:
We ordered breakfast via room service, which worked out nicely since we had to pack up and leave for the train station by 10am. We took the through train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. Since Hong Kong is a separate administrative region from mainland China, we had to go through immigration/customs, the whole bit (we even had to pay for visas just to cross over into the mainland!). The nice thing was that the train was clean and on time (a switch from 1996!).
I was surprised when a former student (current friend) met us at the train station and instead of piling into a taxi or on the bus, we got into her sporty blue Peugeot. Later I found out that many people in Guangzhou now own their own cars. Given that, I was also surprised that traffic was not as bad as I remembered. 2 other former students met us at a Japanese restaurant, Japan Fusion, which apparently can seat 1,000 people (seriously, this place was enormous!) We had a private room where we dined with shoes off, on tatami mats.
After lunch, we checked in at our hotel, China Hotel. The boys stayed there and relaxed, while I went for a massage with 2 friends. The massage was NOT the spa experience I was hoping for. It was actually more like a medical treatment, and it HURT! I had to keep requesting,"Qi Yidian" (softer please). I was diagnosed as having "too much humidity in my body" during the massage session. Anyone want to explain that one?
Much less relaxed, we went out to dinner at Macau Street restaurant, where about 10 former Management students got together. It was great seeing all the familiar faces, hearing how everyone has "grown up." Even though we've all aged on the outside, it was nice to see that people's basic personalities and attitudes have remained the same. It didn't feel like 11 years had passed.
WEDNESDAY:
The rain began. A typhoon was near the coast of Hong Kong, and this brought a LOT of rain our way. Fortunately for us, our first stop of the day was unaffected by the rain: dim sum at restaurant in LiuHua park. Carrie & Agnes were our guides for the day. After we stuffed ourselves (yet again), we headed out to the Guang Wai campus, which is where I used to work. Even though it was pouring down rain, we were able to drive around most of the campus, and observe all of the updates. The campus has been modernized quite a bit since the time that I lived there. There were several new buildings, a library, athletic fields and stadium, a supermarket & and a landscaped garden with statues, gazebos, etc. Wow. I wondered why all of this stuff wasn't there when I lived there.
After this, we went to a multilevel shopping mall to hang out, drink boba and eat snacks at RBT, one of many trendy little cafes that seem very popular now. Then again, we were off to eat some more. About 8 students from the Marketing class treated us to dinner at a restaurant (the name I don't know) but apparently it is famous in Guangzhou for fish head dishes. (It is said that people in Guangzhou will eat anything). The food was excellent, although I couldn't even tell you most of what was ordered.
THURSDAY:
Carrie picked us up at our hotel in the morning to take us to the train station to return to Hong Kong. Ashamedly, we stopped at McDonald's to pick up a quick breakfast we could eat on the go. For those of you who are curious, yes, it is the same greasy food that is served at the golden arches here in the States.
We arrived back in Hong Kong at the Royal Park by noon. For our second fast food meal of the day, we tried Mos Burger. Not bad. Our son took a nap in the room, while we waited for our sister to meet up with us. She flew down from Shanghai, where she works, to spend the last couple days with us in Hong Kong. We took her out to dinner at New Town Plaza and then went down to Tsim Sha Tsui for some nightlife action. Unfortunately we arranged to meet Grace at the subway station downtown, but miscommunicated and spent an hour looking for each other underground. (Oh what did we all do before cell phones?). When we finally met up, we went out to see the beautiful Hong Kong nightscape. The rain had stopped and the air was very clear. We also walked along the "Avenue of the Stars" which is a Hong Kong version of Hollywood boulevard, complete with stars and handprints for the movie stars.
FRIDAY:
It was raining pretty hard again, so our trip to the beach had to be cancelled. Fortunately there are a lot of indoor malls in HK, so we headed off to Festival Walk, to take in some more window shopping. There was an ice skating rink inside, and a really good congee/noodle restaurant. In the afternoon, I returned with Grace to her apartment, to visit and eat durian, lychee and taro cake. At night we met up with our cousin who works in downtown Hong Kong. We ate a late dinner and took in the craziness of Nathan Road. When I was younger, I was much more enamored with all the hustle and bustle in this part of town, but now I'm happy to just see it, then leave. HA! I must be getting old. After a long subway ride, we went back to our hotel for our last night in HK.
SATURDAY:
More rain! We said good-bye to our sister, and had our last dim sum meal with Grace and her family. This time we tried a Shanghai-style dim sum restaurant, which was a spicier twist on the Cantonese version. I also bought my son a pair of Crocs, which were on sale for a decent price. Then we hailed a cab to take us to the airport. And that's pretty much the end of our trip. The ride back was ok, except for the half-hour that our son was hysterical prior to and during takeoff. That was the worst time of the whole week. He did settle down eventually, although he sustained another injury while on the flight. A flight attendant accidentally dropped some plastic cups while standing right above our son, and guess where they landed? yep, our son's left eye. just barely missed the eye, producing a cut right in the corner of his eye. poor kid. he totally looked like he got beat up. thank goodness for baby tylenol!
SUNDAY:
Arrived in HK at 5:30am. We bought Octopus Cards at airport and found the correct bus to take to ShaTin. An hour later, we arrived at Royal Park Hotel, where they graciously allowed us to check in early! The room was spacious and very comfortable. We immediately hit the shower, which felt great. Then my friend Grace, and her daughter Joy met us at our hotel and took us to church with them. We struggled to stay awake during church, but our son struggled to stay upright. He fell down playing in the nursery (I was sitting right next to him!) and bruised up his left eye.
After church, we met up with Grace's husband and had our first meal of dim sum (see June 30 entry). We walked a lot that day, and tried to acclimate to the HK humidity. We went to Grace's home later to relax, and of course, eat some more. Homemade Cantonese cooking. Around 7pm we could barely keep our eyes open, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep. Miraculously all 3 of us slept through the whole night!
MONDAY:
The weather was great, we woke up around 7am and had the breakfast buffet in our hotel. We discovered that our son really likes fried noodles for breakfast. We really enjoyed the congee. (Just to brag a little: our hotel is going to be used for the Olympic Village next month for the equestrian athletes. Apparently the equestrian events are taking place in ShaTin, Hong Kong, not Beijing, like the other events. So we can say that we stayed in an Olympic Village!)
Grace & Joy came over to the hotel, and we went swimming in the morning. Later, we spent the rest of the day at New Town Plaza (just adjacent to our hotel) eating and window shopping. This is a really nice, new shopping plaza where you could find just about anything. Buyer Beware: Hong Kong prices are not cheap (hence the window shopping). We took the kids over to Snoopy's World, which was hot, but kind of fun. We also spent some time at ShaTin park, where our son liked playing at the playground. Our hotel was so conveniently located to many things!
TUESDAY:
We ordered breakfast via room service, which worked out nicely since we had to pack up and leave for the train station by 10am. We took the through train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. Since Hong Kong is a separate administrative region from mainland China, we had to go through immigration/customs, the whole bit (we even had to pay for visas just to cross over into the mainland!). The nice thing was that the train was clean and on time (a switch from 1996!).
I was surprised when a former student (current friend) met us at the train station and instead of piling into a taxi or on the bus, we got into her sporty blue Peugeot. Later I found out that many people in Guangzhou now own their own cars. Given that, I was also surprised that traffic was not as bad as I remembered. 2 other former students met us at a Japanese restaurant, Japan Fusion, which apparently can seat 1,000 people (seriously, this place was enormous!) We had a private room where we dined with shoes off, on tatami mats.
After lunch, we checked in at our hotel, China Hotel. The boys stayed there and relaxed, while I went for a massage with 2 friends. The massage was NOT the spa experience I was hoping for. It was actually more like a medical treatment, and it HURT! I had to keep requesting,"Qi Yidian" (softer please). I was diagnosed as having "too much humidity in my body" during the massage session. Anyone want to explain that one?
Much less relaxed, we went out to dinner at Macau Street restaurant, where about 10 former Management students got together. It was great seeing all the familiar faces, hearing how everyone has "grown up." Even though we've all aged on the outside, it was nice to see that people's basic personalities and attitudes have remained the same. It didn't feel like 11 years had passed.
WEDNESDAY:
The rain began. A typhoon was near the coast of Hong Kong, and this brought a LOT of rain our way. Fortunately for us, our first stop of the day was unaffected by the rain: dim sum at restaurant in LiuHua park. Carrie & Agnes were our guides for the day. After we stuffed ourselves (yet again), we headed out to the Guang Wai campus, which is where I used to work. Even though it was pouring down rain, we were able to drive around most of the campus, and observe all of the updates. The campus has been modernized quite a bit since the time that I lived there. There were several new buildings, a library, athletic fields and stadium, a supermarket & and a landscaped garden with statues, gazebos, etc. Wow. I wondered why all of this stuff wasn't there when I lived there.
After this, we went to a multilevel shopping mall to hang out, drink boba and eat snacks at RBT, one of many trendy little cafes that seem very popular now. Then again, we were off to eat some more. About 8 students from the Marketing class treated us to dinner at a restaurant (the name I don't know) but apparently it is famous in Guangzhou for fish head dishes. (It is said that people in Guangzhou will eat anything). The food was excellent, although I couldn't even tell you most of what was ordered.
THURSDAY:
Carrie picked us up at our hotel in the morning to take us to the train station to return to Hong Kong. Ashamedly, we stopped at McDonald's to pick up a quick breakfast we could eat on the go. For those of you who are curious, yes, it is the same greasy food that is served at the golden arches here in the States.
We arrived back in Hong Kong at the Royal Park by noon. For our second fast food meal of the day, we tried Mos Burger. Not bad. Our son took a nap in the room, while we waited for our sister to meet up with us. She flew down from Shanghai, where she works, to spend the last couple days with us in Hong Kong. We took her out to dinner at New Town Plaza and then went down to Tsim Sha Tsui for some nightlife action. Unfortunately we arranged to meet Grace at the subway station downtown, but miscommunicated and spent an hour looking for each other underground. (Oh what did we all do before cell phones?). When we finally met up, we went out to see the beautiful Hong Kong nightscape. The rain had stopped and the air was very clear. We also walked along the "Avenue of the Stars" which is a Hong Kong version of Hollywood boulevard, complete with stars and handprints for the movie stars.
FRIDAY:
It was raining pretty hard again, so our trip to the beach had to be cancelled. Fortunately there are a lot of indoor malls in HK, so we headed off to Festival Walk, to take in some more window shopping. There was an ice skating rink inside, and a really good congee/noodle restaurant. In the afternoon, I returned with Grace to her apartment, to visit and eat durian, lychee and taro cake. At night we met up with our cousin who works in downtown Hong Kong. We ate a late dinner and took in the craziness of Nathan Road. When I was younger, I was much more enamored with all the hustle and bustle in this part of town, but now I'm happy to just see it, then leave. HA! I must be getting old. After a long subway ride, we went back to our hotel for our last night in HK.
SATURDAY:
More rain! We said good-bye to our sister, and had our last dim sum meal with Grace and her family. This time we tried a Shanghai-style dim sum restaurant, which was a spicier twist on the Cantonese version. I also bought my son a pair of Crocs, which were on sale for a decent price. Then we hailed a cab to take us to the airport. And that's pretty much the end of our trip. The ride back was ok, except for the half-hour that our son was hysterical prior to and during takeoff. That was the worst time of the whole week. He did settle down eventually, although he sustained another injury while on the flight. A flight attendant accidentally dropped some plastic cups while standing right above our son, and guess where they landed? yep, our son's left eye. just barely missed the eye, producing a cut right in the corner of his eye. poor kid. he totally looked like he got beat up. thank goodness for baby tylenol!
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