Hong Kong

So, I’m catching up on this blog a bit – it’s been hard to get online in China. Either the internet cafes are few and far between, or really expensive. It seems the “Great Firewall of China” really exists! I’m getting used to seeing a pop-up screen with Chinese characters (which I can’t read obviously, but assume mean “page unavailable”) redirect my search to government-approved sites. Even Wikipedia is blocked.

I arrived in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, and met my friend Derek from Seattle. We stayed in a teeny-tiny room in Kowloon, which is directly across from Hong Kong Island.

The city is much smaller than I thought it'd be. Isn't Hong Kong called the “New York City of the East”? It seemed to have a vibe more similar to Vancouver, BC, (kinda quiet with tons of shopping malls) and was not exactly screaming “China.” Which makes sense as it was not a part of China for so long. We took the tram to the top of Victoria Peak for a birds-eye view of the city, then wandered around the harborfront (with Hong Kong's version of Hollywood's sidewalk of stars, and a statue of Jackie Chan).

I had also heard Hong Kong was a hot-spot for cheap electronics and spent a few days looking for a new laptop (which I never got, they didn't seem that much cheaper than New York. Need to find a new source on Hong Kong). We still had fun though, but I'm really looking forward to Shanghai in a few days... it’s supposed to be China's answer to Hong Kong, whatever that means!

P.S. I also want to take this moment to send a quick note to my folks: Dad, I’m totally safe traveling with Derek. Check out this picture of what happened when we ran into Bruce Lee at the Victoria Peak Tram.... (ok, so he’s a wax figure, but check out how tiny he was!)