Another weekend in Hong Kong

I need a t-shirt that says ‘I love Hong Kong’, because I really do !

Here is a rundown of the pictures :

Bowl-shaped viewing deck of the Peak Tram BUT there was only FOG to view (co-workers Vic and Karl with me); we had a good laugh about that!  The view has been like this for two weeks, said a guide, so that made us feel better.   The Bank of China building in the Central district on Hong Kong Island is spectacular up close.   Orchids on Flower Market street in Kowloon, they go for  US$10 for a flower pot with the plant spectacularly in full bloom (I saw South African proteas for sale as well).   Birds in cages in the bird market right next to it.   A mind-boggling array of street vendors selling brand names, off-brand names, wanna-be brand names in t-shirts, toys, gadgets, underwear, housewares, electronics, you name it, it’s there.  The t-shirt with the kitten character Marie from the Disney classic Aristocats flanked by Thomas and Friends and others.   Goldfish in plastic bags outside an aquarium store.   The high-end stores have stunning neon-lit displays of sea anemones, sea cucumbers, star fish and even coral for sale that matches the best scenes I have seen anywhere!  A park off Nathan road in Kowloon where retired men played Chinese checkers and mahjong.

Then we walked south on Nathan road,  and Karl bought some pearl arm bracelets;  I bought more gold (yes, another one, somebody – stop me! .. it was a very small item, though).   Then we were accosted like the tourist guides all warn, by the tailors that solicit business on the street.  What an interesting experience to go into the tailor shop – a long story, but I ended up ordering three custom-tailored shirts which were delivered at the hotel and run all of $40 each.  They fit very nicely.

Further south is Salisbury Road on the Kowloon waterfront with Hong Kong designer Vivienne Tam’s store 1881 about to open (the heart-shaped flower display in the picture); a store at that plaza sells Vacheron Constantin watches – which I have never heard of – and a stunning gold and diamonds watch with a dragon design was on display.  I had the nerve to ask the salesperson the price.  It goes for a cool HK$ 546,000 (US$70,000).    The next stop at the Chinese Center for Arts and Culture is the one and only place any visitor to Hong Kong must go to.    Pictures are forbidden, but I took the one shown of a carving, maybe it’s a block of jade,  I don’t know.   Some of the antique carvings in bone and ivory there make the word exquisite fall completely short as a description of it.

Next we got on the Star Ferry to cross Victoria Bay back to Hong Kong Island (skyline from the ferry).   The tall building is Two International Finance Center, the tallest building in Hong Kong.    The next picture shows two of my favorite night scenes : a tram and a building outlined in neon.  And as far as I can tell the O’Fama group is a local band.

Friday! / fog

This morning a blanket of fog enveloped the whole area; it is amazing how warm and stuffy it got from just one week ago when we were sitting here in the office building shivering from the cold.    The marble floors and door thresholds – and even windows – in the building ‘sweat’ – all the moisture condensing on it.    It’s bad to have slippery marble floors, so the office management had to put non-slip mats in the lobbies and hallways.   Yesterday a few of us walked up to the reservoir close to the office building here where we work.

But hey! it’s Friday and I have a weekend in Hong Kong to look forward to.  The Marriott Courtyard hotel room waiting for me there will be a get away and a little lap of luxury, and I am going to snooze in that king-size bed with the six pillows.

A little reservoir on the hillside, near the Daya Bay nuclear power plant complex. The character behind me translates  to .. water, of course!   水 shui = water  / river /  liquid  / beverage /  additional charges  or  income  / (of clothes) classifier  for  number  of  washes.
The offices where I work are in the gray & black office building on the left. The Daya Bay nuclear power station is visible in the distance behind it.

 

Thursday/ all-hands meeting

Directions at one of the T-junctions on the way to the office in our shuttle bus. We go left here, to Da Peng village.

Thursday – so, mercifully, the week is drawing to a close.    We have an all- hands meeting this afternoon which is a break for me: I get to just sit and listen, and not stand up front, trying to control a raucous discussion with a room full of 20 people.

I’m going to Hong Kong with three colleagues from work, so we will see how that works out. I suspect my way of exploring the city is very different from theirs.  I will join them for a big dinner at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, but it’s good to explore the offerings from local restaurants, or just eat in the hotel where they also offer a good variety of Asian cuisine. Also, I tend to steer clear of the big touristy places, and just walk around on my own. I work with great people, but I already spent 12 hours every day this week with you. On the weekends, I need some ‘me’ time :).

Wednesday/ 加 满 fill up with premium

Two pictures from around the apartment complex here in Dameisha.

A beautiful dog outside the little grocery store here at the complex. It looks like a samoyed. The breed takes its name from the Samoyedic peoples of Siberia. These nomadic reindeer herders bred the fluffy white dogs to help with herding. [From Wikipedia]
Gasoline tank gap on a car here. (Little typo there with ‘premium’). The two Chinese characters below the 97 says 加 满  ‘Fill up with premium’.  

Tuesday/ more work sessions

Another day of work session facilitating for me – half of it in Chinese with me waiting patiently for the Daya Bay team animatedly discuss some design issue before them.  Then I get a translation from the team lead or my Chinese colleagues, and depending on my answer back they settle down or debate it a little further : ).

It’s tough for me, and tough for them : some are seeing SAP for the first time – in English – and they are not familiar with the terms or the processes.   It is packaged software, offering some setup choices, but not total freedom to redesign it. So sometimes I really have to shrug and say:  ‘We just cannot change it in such a fundamental way. That’s not the way the Germans designed it’.

Back at the apartments after a long day. The view from the shuttle bus. The sign says 小心行人 xiǎo xīn xíng rén which translates to ‘be careful for pedestrians‘ (watch out for pedestrians).

Monday/ Outside China Town

It was a long Monday at work – Mondays always seem long! but at least I can post these pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Outside China Town (OCT) theme park.   Disneyland or Six Flags it is not – but there is a spectacular and steep aerial tramway up the mountainside to provide panoramic views of Dameisha, the beach and the bay down below.

The parking lot for OCT theme park. We see the tower with the wrap-around screen every night from the Yanba Expressway when we came in from work with the shuttle bus.
The entrance: a nod to the Year of the Tiger, and the first of five or six escalators that takes one up the mountainside.
A misty pond on the way up to the space shuttle display on one of the levels.
Trinkets and refreshments are for sale everywhere, of course.
Here’s the Starbucks, with a food vendor in the foreground. If the Starbucks was a little easier to get to, and not inside OCT, I would have visited it every day.
The water spray is kicked up by a jet ski, and we did not stay long enough to see what other entertainment was offered in this show.
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Here’s the aerial tramway, taking us to the top of the mountain ridge. Those pylons are really tall! That’s Dameisha beach on the right and Mirs Bay in the distance.
The arrival point at the top of the tramway. The little tramway cars take only 6 people, at most.
Posing for the obligatory photograph at the overlook. This is looking more or less west, with the coastline continuing on towards Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Here’s the skywalk with its glass floor. Yikes. With these things, one has to trust that the civil engineers had double checked their design calculations, and that the builders had followed all the specifications without cutting corners.
Looking down at a new ride that is under construction, on the edge of the cliff. I’m too old for these kinds of heart-stopping experiences, so it’s a no for me, thank you very much.
Another Chinese only menu to decipher. The pictures are super helpful for the helpless (us), of course. The green section has the cold drinks (such as snow top coffee and iced tea) and hot drinks (black tea, green tea, milk tea, classic coffee).
Here is the view from the top, with some main areas and buildings of interest. Dameisha is really ‘big’ Meisha (‘da’ is big) and Xiaomeisha is ‘little’ Meisha (‘xiao’ means small or little).

Sunday/ breakfast at the Sheraton

Shumai is a traditional Chinese dumpling  served in dim sum*; it’s essentially a pork and mushroom dumpling. It’s steamed in a wooden basket like the one on my plate.
*Dim sum is the collective name for a southern Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea.

A few of us treated ourselves to a buffet breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel close by – expensive by Dameisha meal standards – but still very affordable at $20.

I just had some scrambled egg, toast and some shumai. (Gobbled up the first one of the two little dumplings in my bowl before I took the picture).

We went to the Dameisha beach afterwards. Some people were out on the beach, but it’s only slowly warming up.  Highs today reached only 60 ºF (15 ºC), with the sun is struggling to come out.    We may go to a resort close by where we live this afternoon with a cable car that runs up the mountains with a panoramic view.

Angels and a sparse crowd on the main beach in Dameisha. It’s hard to see where the sea meets the sky in the hazy distance. The Sheraton hotel is close by and has its own stretch of sand just for its guests.

 

Saturday night/ rough translation

Here’s the cute translation into English, from the back of the coconut coffee bag. (Would have posted it yesterday, but had to wait until I got home so that I could take a high-resolution picture). Note the creative breaks in the words T-his (wow) and su-mmer, and – the taste will be better when it is hot drink in winter.  Gotcha!  :).

Saturday/ coffee, with coconut

Saturday morning and hey! we saw the sun shine this morning on the way in to work with the bus. We got a little reprieve and left the apartments at 7 am instead of at 6.30 am.

The local Daya Bay team is mostly back on site – they were out all week, but work today and tomorrow.  One of them brought in coconut-flavored instant coffee for us (picture of bag that contains packets).    The US team has the day off tomorrow, thankfully.  A really busy schedule of system design workshops start on Monday.   I am facilitating the discussions for my team. We spent this week getting the all our ducks in a row, and I think we are ready.   I am sure we will find out !

Friday/ ‘Happy New Year’ one more time

Friday, and a rough week it was, with long work days.  It’s the last day of the new year’s week, and hopefully the firecrackers at night will now draw to a close. It wasn’t really all that bad, though.

Here is  a little Mandarin lesson from our colleague: how to write and say ‘Happy New Year’.

This is 新年好 xīn nián hǎo: ‘new year good’ (informal, for friends, family).
There is also 新年快乐 xīn nián kuài lè: ‘new year happiness’ (formal, for strangers).

new, recent, fresh, modern

year; new-years; person’s  age

good  / well /  proper  / good to / easy to / very /  so  / (suffix indicating  completion or  readiness)

Thursday/ a giraffe on a bus

Our project manager ran out to Walmart yesterday and brought back a bunch of space heaters for the office.  Yay! and Thank You!  we said. There will be no gallivanting around Shenzhen or Hong Kong this weekend : we have to work !

This metro bus with the giant giraffe, advertising South African Airways flights out of Hong Kong, pulled up across from my hotel when I was there last weekend. The direct flight to Johannesburg is 13 hours.

 

Wednesday/ 丁丁 在西藏 Tintin in Tibet

It was cold in the office yesterday. The new building’s heat pump was not working for some reason. Back at the apartment in Dameisha at night, we still hear a barrage of fire-cracker pops and fireworks go off, as the week-long celebration of the Lunar New Year continues. It is cold in the apartment as well. Our $12 space heaters from Shenzhen’s Walmart are not quite up to the task of warming up the entire apartment, of course.

Anyway, sticking to the theme of cold: below are the snowy cover pages of the English & Chinese versions of ‘Tintin in Tibet’. Tintin translates to Ding Ding in Chinese.

I bought the English ‘Tintin in Tibet’ at Pollux bookstore in Central District. Then I used it to shop around for its Chinese translation, which I found at Joint Publishing bookstore on Queen Victoria Rd.
A panel from the Tintin in Tibet story. Tintin was dreaming about his missing friend Chang, and woke up with a fright. Everything goes flying, but Professor Calculus (in the green jacket reading a book), is unperturbed. 🙂

[From Wikipedia] The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic strips created by the Belgian artist Georges Rémi (1907–1983), who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. Tintin in Tibet is the twentieth book in the series. It is said to have been Hergé’s favorite of the Tintin series (previously The Secret of the Unicorn), and was written during a personally difficult time in his life, as he was divorcing from his first wife. The story is unlike any previous Tintin books, before or since: there is a small number of characters and no enemies, villains, spies or gangsters. This adventure revolves around a rescue mission of Tintin’s Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen.

It is also unusually emotional for a Tintin story: moments of strong emotion for the characters include Tintin’s enduring belief in Chang’s survival, the discovery of the teddy bear in the snow, Haddock’s attempting to sacrifice himself to save Tintin, Tharkey’s return, Tintin’s discovery of Chang, and the yeti losing his only friend. Indeed Tintin is seen to cry when he believes Chang’s fate, something he is only seen to do three times throughout the entire series (the other occurrences being in The Blue Lotus and Flight 714).

Tuesday/ more of Hong Kong

The dragon motif made me buy this little 24 carat gold tablet at a jewelry store.

Here are a few more pictures from my weekend in Hong Kong.

First, a quick refresher orientation of the Hong Kong area. Hong Kong Island is at the bottom of the picture. Kowloon (literal meaning ‘Nine Dragons’) is across Victoria Harbor to its north and west.  My hotel was on the Island towards its west, but the MTR (Mass Transit Rail, red dots) whisked me around, anywhere I wanted to go. It goes under the water, in tunnels under the harbor (thin red line).  The roads shown on the map that cross Victoria harbor all run across massive suspension bridges. (Note: this is an updated map from 12/2020 on Google Maps).

The street scene pictures were taken late on Saturday night in the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Kowloon. The little propeller fans were at New Years Fair in Victoria Park the  (northeast on the island).  The double-decker street tram with Chinese basket ball star Yao Ming is on the route that runs on the north of Hong Kong island.

Monday blues

Monday and I’m posting more ‘happy’ pictures to take the blah out of Monday after such a nice weekend in Hong Kong.  The characters below were on a canvas poster on the street outside the hotel.  I just couldn’t tell what they were happy about!   And who wants some MeltyKiss with fruity strawberry chocolates?   Saw these in a candy store in a Hong Kong subway station and had to take a picture of the box : ).

Sunday/ Valentine’s Day & Lunar New Year

They do celebrate Valentine’s Day in China, and this year it coincides with the Chinese New Year’s Day – very rare since the new year’s day is late on the calendar this year.

It turned out that my fears of masses of people trying to get into Hong Kong on Friday through the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border was unfounded; I sailed through with no trouble at all.  I stayed at a Marriott Courtyard Hotel on Hong Kong Island, very reasonably priced at US$100 per night, a tall 30 story structure with only 6 rooms on every floor (picture below is from my hotel room).   The room was very cozy, the bed had six perfectly firm pillows, the glass shower stall a large oversized ‘rain’ showerhead .. and the food in the restaurant was superb.

I was so tired on Friday night, and sat there enjoying a crisp Asahi beer and fried halibut with jasmine rice and Thai asparagus.    Saturday I crisscrossed the city on several missions, to the bookstore, to the jewelry store, to the toy store, and they were all successful.  I also learned that the New Year’s parade (another parade other than the January one) and fireworks was only going to be tonight, so I missed that.  But I did go to the New Year’s Fair in Victoria Park; I will post more pictures later this week.

Here’s the outside of the Luohu border crossing that separates mainland China from the Hong Kong special territory. There is an MTR station on the other side called Lo Wu on the East Rail Line that runs all the way into Hong Kong city.
Catching my reflection on a stainless steel-plated pillar on one of the plazas outside the International Finance Center mall, an upscale shopping mall on the waterfront of Hong Kong’s Central District.
These ‘happy happy’ guys are from the foyer of the International Finance Center mall, an upscale shopping mall on the waterfront of Hong Kong Island’s Central District.
A family of tigers, heralding the start of the Year of the Tiger, inside the fancy Landmark shopping mall on Queens Road in Central District on Hong Kong Island. This mall is very upscale and designer oriented, all Gucci and Louis Vuitton and all that.
Lots of people on Saturday night, and lots of food vendors in the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Ice cream at Mister Softee in the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Hole-in-the-wall stores in Tsim Tsa Tsui that are not on the street level can be found on other levels in the tall buildings. Look for the sign for the South African ‘Van Der Merwe’ camera store on the left !
A forest of tall apartment towers from a high floor in the Marriott Courtyard on Connaught Rd West in, Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong Island.

 

 

 

Friday morning/ on my own

My roommates and others are going to Shenzhen for the weekend. Later today I am going to attempt to get to Hong Kong on my own.

To get from the red dot at Dameisha on the far right where the apartments are, to the ‘Train Station’ dot on the Hong Kong border with a taxi driver, should go without a hitch.

Then I might run into a mob scene at the Hong Kong border, with thousands of mainland travelers trying to get through customs (it’s Chinese New Year weekend, after all). It might count in my favor that I’m a foreigner. Sometimes we have a separate line at customs.

Once through mainland China & Hong Kong customs, I should be all clear, since I know how to use the Mass Transit Rail system. I might still encounter seas of people that will want to use the train go to into Hong Kong city. We shall see!

My plan B is to turn around, go back to Shenzhen to stay there in a hotel and give up on Hong Kong. Hong Kong should have a really big fireworks display on Saturday night to herald in the Chinese new year. And who wants to miss a Year of the Tiger fireworks display in the country where it was invented?

Friday/ 勿 擦 do not erase

So check this out .. I wrote ‘Do not Erase’ on the whiteboard, and then my Chinese colleague wrote it in Chinese next to it, for good measure.   That second one is a 17-stroke character! Wow.  So as the amateur very limited-time student of Chinese I had become, just had to go look up the characters on my translator .. and voila!

cā : do not erase!

must not, do not; without, never

to wipe / to erase / rubbing (brush stroke in painting) / to clean / to polish

 And this sign says ‘Good Luck’ ..  which I hope I will have a little of for my trip this weekend to Hong Kong.  I see the New Year’s Parade was back in January, so I missed that, but even so there should be an exciting vibe there this weekend.  I need it, since I am a little homesick, and that after just one week out here this trip.

Thursday/ avoid peek

This cute translation is displayed on the ATM machine at the apartments.

A more ‘proper’ translation could be ‘Please block when entering password/ Prevent prying eyes’. I say this one is perfect as it is.

Wednesday/ red lanterns

The red lanterns that the apartment complex’s management have put up are just spectacular.  I finally figured out how to use the bracket function on my camera to slightly over-expose the image to make the lantern ‘glow’ in its dark surroundings.

 

Tuesday/ flowers & mandarins

This beautiful flower and mandarin tree arrangement is at the entrance of our offices, in anticipation of the start of the Chinese New Year.
I believe the mandarins will be put to good use (eaten) afterwards, and not be discarded.