China: Hong Kong is not an Island

I'm over half way through my time here in China, and it's been over a week since my last post. Needless to say I've been very busy.

Last week started with a visit to the British council where we had talks on doing business in China and the pros and cons of it.

Tuesday morning we had a talk with ARUP, who built the famous CCTV building in Beijing amoung other things. It was interesting to hear how their project cycle worked, sketching, designing, small 3D models, then large 3D models, as well as earthquake testing then finally the construction.

That evening our last evening in Beijing, we were taken to a Hot-Pot restaurant by our tour guide Maria. Hot-Pot is a well known type of meal in Beijing, where two pots of seasoned water / sauce are placed in the middle of the table. Then you dip raw meat into the pots to cook them, then season them with your personal choice of herbs and spices.

The next morning we were up early for our 3 hour flight from Beijing to Shenzhen which officially brought a close to our time in Beijing. I do miss the hustle and bustle of Beijing but it's great that I can see some of the other parts of the country too.

Wednesday evening, after touching down in Shenzhen we were brought to our hotel. The swimming pool on the way into the hotel got our spirits high and our expectations even higher. We thought that this hotel would be spectacular. However on entering my room I was a little disappointed, the room is grand but not the 4-Star quality I had expected.

Thursday morning started with a tour of one of the Huawei manufacturing plants. The amount of automation shocked me. There were lots of workers there but at the same time machines did most of the work while people just double-checked the work.

That afternoon we were brought around the F1 and G1 Exhibition Hall. Basically Huawei's Exhibition rooms for their consumer products (phones, routers etc..) And their Enterprise products (Servers, security systems, video conferencing etc..) and their Commercial products such as their 4G network solutions.

That evening we went to the OCT Loft, a busy night-life center in Shenzhen for some expensive drinks and to celebrate Connors birthday. It was one of the sweatiest evenings I've ever experienced. Some of us bought drinks and sat outside, but despite the fact that we were doing nothing we all ended up soaked in sweat. Incredibly uncomfortable...

Friday morning wasn't incredibly interesting, kicking off our ICT Course, but I did win two boxes of decorative chop sticks, but it was Friday evening that was much more interesting.

A group of us had decided to take advantage of our free weekend, and our double entry visas to spend the weekend in Hong Kong!! So the minute class was over on Friday afternoon we ran back to the hotel, grabbed our go-bags and got in Taxis to the subway station.

It took about three hours to get through border control as well as getting several subways but eventually we surfaces in the TST region around 9pm in the middle of the High Rise buildings and flashing LED lights of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is incredibly different to mainland China. It was amazing to see such contrasting cities so close to each other. People in Hong Kong express themselves, they have Hipsters there, they like different clothes and listen to different music. There are many foreigners in Hong Kong, unlike in China. They have lots of British people and lots of Indians / Pakistanis. In mainland China there are little to no foreigners. So much so that often they ask to take photos with us.

That evening, after dinner we went to the waterfront to take photos of Hong Kongs beautiful skyline, making the most of the night mode on our new Honor 6 Plus. After taking hundreds of photos of the same thing we went back to our hostel and went to bed (boring I know). Our hostel was in a building called Chung King Mansion. Fabled in Hong Kong. The building itself looked quite nice from the outside, having LED lights on its front which lit up in sync changing colours, the Hostel itself was clean and cool (due to the excessive use of the AC) however the building itself, on the inside, was quite the opposite.

Aside from being dirty, grotty and warm, the building houses many small shops owned by foreigners selling everything from water to electronics to fake DVDs. Among the shops were men offering all sorts of services including but not limited; every type of drug imaginable, tailor services, watches, scarves, massages and the mysterious 'Guesthouse'. It was quite the experience and a little bit intimidating but the Hostel was cheap and incredibly central so we couldn't really complain.

The next morning we woke up in the middle of a heavy rain storm. Being the tourists we are we ventured for a market only to learn that it was exclusively a night market.

After buying poorly constructed ponchos we decided to make our way out to the Ten Thousands Buddahs Monastery. Despite the heavy rain we managed to find the steps up to the Monastery. We were pleasantly surprised (given we had no idea what to expect). The steps to the Monastery were lined with hundreds of full sized golden statues of Buddhist Monks, all striking different poses. When we reached the top we found a room which housed over 12800 small Buddhist Monk statues, each about 15cm tall. We had assumed the name Ten Thousands Buddhist Monks was an exaggeration so we were a bit shocked to find out that it was actually an under exaggeration. That room was magnificent. Each statue was more or less unique and perfectly placed on its shelf. Incredibly impressive stuff.

After taking many pictures with the statues and gasping at the sights we went to look for food. What looked like a shopping center was actually a home department store. Thankfully we found an IKEA on the top floor. We bought meatballs. It was shameful, but so so tasty.

After a quick trip back to the Chung King Mansion we made our way to the International Commerce Building and paid €20 to make it to the 100th floor, 360m high we overlooked the whole city. We went at a great time where the sun was setting. Despite the cloud, we still managed to get great shots of the city at day and night.

The next morning we woke up early (ish) with great hopes of going up to Victoria Peak. The highest point in Hong Kong, with breathtaking views of the city. We queued for about an hour to get the tram up. In the process I managed to drop and break my gopro lens.

After getting up to the top we took a few quick pictures but were too hungry to appreciate the views so we decided to take lunch. This was where we went wrong. After five minutes of sitting down into our lunch the clouds rolled in and suddenly the whole Peak was in a cloud. We couldn't see a thing. The beautiful views were instead replaced by thick grey fog.

It was disappointing but it was still something to do I guess and it drew a close to our great time in Hong Kong.