china!

i just returned to hong kong yesterday evening after two weeks in mainland china. the first week was with the other etas, teaching (sort of) in a middle school just outside of guangzhou. it was really great to experience guangzhou from such a different side. the first time i visited (2 1/2 months ago) i saw the city as a tourist. this time, i got to see it as a teacher (sort of), spending a lot of time in primary schools and secondary schools. we didn't teach as much as i would have liked, but we did get a chance to teach a middle school class, and we did a few other presentations for larger groups on the united states (woooo). our group caused quite a stir at the school, but i think our impact was ultimately positive. after every class, we'd get mobbed by middle schoolers asking for our contact info, and occasionally our signature. it felt really great to be back in guangzhou, and the group did remarkably well together (although it felt more like study abroad than a work trip).

after the other etas headed back to hong kong, i took an overnight train to hainan, and spent a week in the town of sanya. sanya exists solely for tourism, which unsurprisingly, gives it a very strange vibe. the weather was beautiful while i was there, although sitting on the beach on december 21st is certainly a strange experience. i met another fulbrighter (john) randomly while there, who is living in the city of kunming, in yunnan province. he and i got along really well, and i think i'm going to visit him sometime in february or march. i didn't do a whole lot in sanya, which was great. highlights included a visit to hilton's beautiful private beach, eating lots of seafood (which is sadly all imported since china overfished the waters around hainan [sidenote: this blog could be much more cynical than it is]), and an adventure into the central mountains of hainan. john's mandarin was excellent which allowed us to meet many more local hainanese than i would have been able to on my own. it also was an inspiration to keep working on my mandarin.

dadonghai beach

the only photo i have of me from the trip. i hope my three faithful readers aren't offended by the topless shot...

speaking of mandarin, i'm still working on it, although it's slow going. i made the big decision yesterday to stop trying to learn traditional characters, and switch to simplified. in mainland china, a majority of chinese characters were simplified during the 50s and 60s to help improve literacy. the only places in which traditional chinese characters remain are hong kong and taiwan. i had hoped to make traditional characters happen, but it's just proving too difficult. hopefully this switch will help my writing. at this point, i know about 150 characters, but those are mostly simpler ones. as they get more difficult, the difference between traditional characters and simplified ones gets more pronounced.

my parents arrive in a few hours! it's been almost five months since i've seen them, the longest time we've been apart since i studied abroad in senegal. we'll be in hong kong together until the 30th, and then we're going to the philippines (cebu) for five days to relax on the beach.

it was really nice while in china to find that i missed hong kong, and was anxious to return. it made me realize how much hong kong feels like home, and how comfortable i have become here. it's still a pretty crazy, difficult, exhausting place, but my living situation is really comfortable, and i'm starting to feel like i have a really good feel for the city.

i hope everyone has a lovely holiday wherever you are in the world! to celebrate, here's a present from me to you, with a little help from yousendit:

um tom - caetano veloso

island hopping.

i hope the infrequency of my posting hasn't scared any of you off. i'm always shocked when i return to the blog to realize so much time has gone by. as i write this entry, i'm rapidly approaching the end of the first third of my time in hong kong. even in almost four months, i still have not resolved my mixed feelings for hong kong. i visited hong kong park today, although a park is hardly what i would call it. because there are so many people in this city, parks here are designed to move the maximum amount of people through them as possible. you can't bring dogs, there are few benches, and don't even think about sitting on the grass. everything is designed to be looked at while on the move. add to that the fact that every time you look up, you can see at least 50 buildings over 30 stories high, and you end up with a pretty un-park-like feel.

as i discussed in my last post, i enjoy hong kong most when i'm not in hong kong. hong kong is made up of 260 islands, many of which are largely undeveloped. 40% of hong kong's 460 square miles has been reserved for country parks, and only 25% of this area has actually been developed. this weekend i took advantage of these country parks, and spent one day on the island of cheung chau, and the next hiking through lantau island. this combined with a visit to lamma island last weekend has given me a pretty good sense for some of the more popular islands in hong kong. here's a map of hong kong (as a side note, all of these pictures are much bigger than they appear on the blog, so click for more detail):


i've circled the three islands, as well as mong kok and tai po (where the university is). one note is that the red dot for mong kok should be to the right of the k, not to the left of the m. i'm not sure why they placed it all the way out there. i wish it was that close to the water... (also, i just realized that the whole map is tilted a little bit. you get the general idea, though.)

lamma is a beautiful island about 30 minutes from central hong kong by ferry. there are two major towns connected by a concrete foot path. the island has a number of beaches, and many of the inhabitants are expats. lamma is definitely one of the more expensive places to live in hong kong, and as a result, a number of boutiquey stores have popped up in the main town of sok kwu wan. lamma is another reminder, though, that you're never as far as you'd like to be from hong kong development. the main beach is called 'power station beach' because if you happen to look right, you'll notice an enormous electrical power plant. as long as you angle your towel to the left and ignore the shadow it casts, the beach is really beautiful.

hi.

cheung chau is much more densely populated, with 30,000 people living in just 2.5 square km. the island feels much more chinese than lamma, and many of the small winding alleys in the town of cheung chau sell traditional herbal medicines and paper hell money (to be burned in memory of the dead) over organic quinoa. i wasn't crazy about cheung chau at first (still so many people), but heading south i soon found myself on an abandoned trail that hugged the rocky coastline. the trail was really rugged in spots, and even involved some spelunking through a cave the notorious pirate cheung po tsai once hid in.

first look at cheung chau.

trail in southern cheung chau.

i'm really obsessed with lantau. yesterday, i went on a 15 km hike that took me over two peaks (sunset peak at 870 m and lantau peak at 980 m). lantau peak is the second highest in hong kong, and afforded some phenomenal views of the penninsula as well as the not so beautiful hong kong airport. one interesting note on the airport. like much of hong kong, the airport is built completely on reclaimed land located (as you can see from the map) off the north coast of lantau island. reclamation projects in hong kong are a huge source of tension, as developers are running out of flat space, while others wonder whether victoria harbor (the body of water between hong kong island and kowloon) will even be here in ten years.

pretty normal photo for hong kong: huge area of reclaimed land, city area with a lot of skyscrapers, plenty of smog and lots of green.

anyway, the hike on lantau was definitely the best i've been on in hong kong, and maybe one of the better day hikes i've ever been on. the sky was unusually clear, and descending lantau peak with a view of po lin monastery (and the tian tan buddha) was really stunning. the 'big buddha' as it's more commonly called is apparently the largest, outdoor, seated, bronze buddha in the world. wooo. it was nice to arrive after a day of hiking, though, and sit down to a huge veggie lunch at the monastery.

looking back from sunset peak. all of these houses are rented by the monastery.

looking back at sunset peak from lantau peak (you can see the trail we hiked at the bottom of the photo).

approaching the big buddha from lantau peak.

as i'm still a little overwhelmed by the intense development/consumption/excess/insanity of downtown hong kong, it's been nice to find things to do with my time off work that get me away from the malls. i think i'll close by sharing a song i've had on repeat for the past two weeks. hope everyone is well.

little brother (electric) by grizzly bear.

and for no reason, me in a pumpkin:

i miss fall.

for some reason, writing has felt very difficult lately.

i've settled into what might be called a routine, although every day continues to be quite different than the previous one. my teaching schedule is finally somewhat consistent. i work three days a week in tai po, which is nice because it gives me a considerable amount of time away from campus.

i was walking home tonight after a pretty surreal halloween party put on by the RA staff on campus, and had one of those 'i am very far from home' moments. moments like these usually come out of nowhere and are rarely the result of exceptional circumstances. it kind of feels like an artificially constructed mental barrier comes crashing down, as one of eight thousand daily stimuli finally tips the balance. it's like that marble game where you have to gradually pull out the pick up sticks and then one stick causes all the marbles to fall. i really liked that game. anyway, my brain evidentally works like a poor simile. but in losing my marbles, i find that all of a sudden the reality of my situation comes flooding in in an intense and really emotional way. the interesting thing is that this is rarely a negative experience. in fact, tonight it made me smile. maybe it's like the gradual process of getting used to and ultimately blocking out a familiar noise, and then three weeks later, for no particular reason, hearing it again and realizing that it's been with you the whole time. maybe i live in my head too much. the point is, it's easy to forget how many barriers i (or anyone really) put up in a foreign place to maintain some sense of normalcy. try as you might, these barriers can only hold up for so long, though. when they do fall down, the sounds, smells and surroundings of a place can hit you all at once. i guess i find it kind of exciting.

it's strange to think that i will have been in hong kong for three months on saturday. hong kong still doesn't feel completely comfortable, i don't know if it ever will. there continue to be so many things about this city that surprise me on a daily basis, though, that keep life consistently interesting. the strange mix between mass consumerism on a scale i've never experienced and huge areas of national park mean that in 30 minutes i can find myself surrounded by any number of vastly different landscapes.

i've been hiking a lot recently, which has really greatened my appreciation for hong kong. most of the trails here are concrete, which is a bummer, but the way the city is built on what must have originally looked like a pretty unforgiving landscape is stunning (not stunning beautiful, but stunning how is this possible). the land itself is incredibly hilly, making the hundreds (probably thousands) of 30 story buildings that pop up out of nowhere look really unnatural.

i learned last week that mong kok is the most densely populated urban area in the world. there are 130,000 people per square km. i don't think i can really even process what that means. it's a lot. imagine leaving a concert venue all the time.

i think i'll stop there. i seem to have been affected by a writing style that my students often use. rather than write a linear, intro-thesis-topic sentences-conclusion essay, many students have a very circular way of writing. it's certainly indicative of the religious and cultural views of much of china. while it often doesn't make a lot of sense in an argumentative essay (at least to me) there's something really interesting about the way it can be used to convey meaning.

i've been listening to a lot of early sufjan stevens recently. it makes me nostalgic. i hope you are all doing well. take care.

this doesn't have much to do with hong kong.

just had to share this, my favorite song from the new radiohead album:

reckoner by radiohead.

get ready for a photo heavy post

i think i'm going to divide this post into two sections. the first is about mong kok, one of my favorite places in hong kong, and the second is about my recent trip to china.

mong kok is located about 15 minutes by metro from downtown hong kong. the reason it appeals so much is because it's the closest fit to what i expected hong kong to be like before arriving. i was initially pretty discouraged by hong kong as most of the downtown area is full of big malls and white people drinking. mong kok, though, is one busy market after another, with a lot more happening, and a lot fewer expats. the goldfish market sells everything from turtles to sting rays to large tropical fish. there's a great fruit and vegetable market, and of course, the requisite tourist junk market. below you'll find a few photos of mong kok at night.

mong kok from above

one of many busy streets

i had a pretty light work week this week [surprise] so i headed up to guangzhou, the capital of guandong province. here's a map:

canton and guangzhou are the same thing. you can also see shenzhen (city I visited a few weeks ago) and macau (city I visited six weeks ago)

i really loved guangzhou. the only problem was that because this week was national week the streets were more insane than they usually are (which is really saying something), which made walking around pretty exhausting. on top of that, most tourists leave the country for national week, so after a day of wading [literally what it feels like as i stand a head above most everyone else] through crowds, i'd return to an empty hostel. the hostel itself was located on a beautiful island in south west guangzhou. the island was originally a concession given to european traders in the 19th century, so the architecture has a distinct colonial european feel. with the multiple parks and gardens and wide footpaths i could easily forget i was even in china. it made it a nice place to return after the insanity of guangzhou proper. here are a few photos:

a little overexposed, but this is the shamian island central walkway

guangzhou skyline

guangzhou old town

one of dozens of alleys selling traditional medicine ingredients

one such store. notice the starfish in the upper left

a bucket full of live scorpions [for traditional medicine]

near the scorpions, more animals (even chipmunks!) in a small space than i have ever seen

a video of central guangzhou - neon lights are big in china

and because i appear in none of these photos, a completely unrelated photo from the horseraces (maybe next time you'll get more than my back):


well, congrats for making it this far. i'm proud of you. so proud, in fact, that i have a little reward:

song of the week: the penalty by beirut (video courtesy of la blogotheque - skip ahead to 1:20)

i putong [my] hua-king shoes...

ok, this one doesn't even make sense. maybe it's a sign that i should make more relevant titles/insert depeche mode lyrics.

before you come to any conclusions,
try walking in my shoes.

if you haven't noticed, there's no real theme to this week's post.

i went to shenzhen [pronounced shen-jen (which ruins previous blog title sadly...)] a few weekends ago and came back with arrested development and planet earth box sets and this photo of one of the central plazas:


needless to say, i'm hoping to make it farther into china next time (shenzhen seems to play a similar role for hong kong residents as tijuana does for those from southern california, except shenzhen has 13 million people).

i had my first primary school classes today and spent most of the time comparing heights with students standing on chairs. not even the coordinated clapping drills could get them to pay attention. hopefully next week i'll actually get to do some teaching.

i started teaching myself mandarin (putonghua [put-ong-wah]) a few days ago using rosetta stone which has been really fun. i've even been able to try out a few phrases on my students.

the winds have turned. shenzhen's smog has settled on hong kong. it's pretty gross.

i'm going to the horse races (the jockey club, along with hsbc, seems to own much of hong kong) this weekend. more on that soon.

song of the week: a postcard to nina by jens lekman.

so many op-shenzhen hong kong...

bad puns back by popular request. this one is particularly rough, though.

time continues to move very quickly over here. last friday we finished up orientation with a long, powerpoint heavy induction ceremony and officially became members of the faculty. on monday, i had my first classes. so far, all i'm doing are a few one hour one on one tutoring sessions, and two longer small group writing and speaking sessions. commitments will gradually increase, but this week has been very quiet. next week, i start as a TA in an experimental teaching methods class.

it's really great to see the enthusiasm these students bring in to the tutoring sessions, and i love hearing all of their varied stories on how they ended up getting to hong kong. most of the students that come see us are first years from mainland china, because their english isn't as good as those coming from hong kong.

i continue to enjoy celebrity like status on campus, due to my height and the logical next conclusion that i must personally know kevin garnett and lebron james. as of yet, i'm happy to deflect the attention, but it's just another reminder that you really don't appreciate anonymity until it's gone.

more action, less words.
- i got a six month multi entry china visa! i'm planning on visiting shenzhen this weekend.
- i went to a great beach on an outlying island this week. it was hard to believe i was still in hong kong.

hap mun bay.

- i eat a tub a week of super chunk skippy. i'm never quite sure how it happens.
- last week i sprinkled my eggs with what i thought was salt. it was msg.

yesterday sarah, matthew (a friend of sarah's stopping over on the way to dubai) and i visited victoria peak for some fantastic views of the (apparently) number one rated skyline in the world. the weather was perfect, and there was a great breeze, but 9 pm is a difficult time to take photos. these are the best two.

i'm pretty proud of this photo. precariously placed 10 second self timer...

that's all for now. hope everyone is doing well. b4n.

song of the week: other than the entire m.i.a album, i'd have to say 'the courtesan has sung' by sunset rubdown.