Hong Kong, Macau, and China

After Japan we went to Hong Kong, Macau, and China (depending on who you talk to, those might all be called China). Anyway, Hong Kong was first. Famous for its financial success and economic power, HK has always been recognizable among Asian cities for its spectacular office towers and impressive skyline. Recently added to this scene is the “symphony of lights” where every night many buildings participate in a light show put to music. The whole sky comes alive as lights and lasers move to the rhythms on a grand scale.

With a few days to spend in the region we chose to take the ferry to Macau – it just takes an hour to get there, so why not? And what is Macau famous for? Gambling. Big time gambling. Known as the Vegas of the east, Macau now dominates as the world's mega gambling destination. Years ago the gambling dollars passing through the Macau casinos eclipsed the amount spent at Vegas. That doesn't mean the Vegas casinos are watching from the sidelines: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Any of you been to Vegas before? Recognize these names? Wynn, and MGM Grand...and all the others are here too

That second picture – the Venetian – is an exact copy of the Venetian hotel and casino in Vegas. They just brought the blue prints over and built another one in Macau. And just like the Vegas casinos, there's all sorts of crazy stuff going on inside. We saw this guy trying for a Guinness Book of Records attempt at making the largest “house of cards” ever. A “city of cards” is more like it...

Macau hasn't always been a gambling destination, though. In fact, it began as an outpost for Jesuit missionaries. They built a cathedral here, the first in Asia, but it burned down – all except for its stone edifice which remains standing

Elsewhere on Macau we went to Dr. Seuss Street – at least I think that's what this was called. Seems like a good name anyway.

Eventually we left these “special economic zones” and entered real China. We breezed through Shenzen to arrive in Shanghai – home to some of the world's most impressive architecture...

But Shanghai is also home to.... Claire

A friend from Edmonton, Claire moved to Shanghai a year ago and so we couldn't miss the chance to see her. Amanda and Claire had a good time baking some cookies...

...and I had a good time eating them. A little lower down on my list of food preferences is this item we found on a restaurant menu:

Mmmmm, nothing like a little “nausea pork”. If that's not to your liking, how about this menu item...

Who could resist a meal as delicious looking as that? But seriously, most of the food we had in China was absolutely great. We certainly ate well – even if we did see a few funny things on the menus.

We also saw a little North American and Chinese cultural fusion – in the form of graffiti. Check out these two cool ones:

When traveling you always see things that are a little different from back home. In Shanghai we saw this industrious guy who collects Styrofoam (instead of bottles?). That's quite a load for his little bicycle.

For such a big load it's a good thing Shanghai has such a big road network. I'm sure you have all seen elevated “fly over” style roadways in big cities before, but check this out. It's four levels of elevated roads plus the ground level road. With a billion people, China has to do things on a scale the world has never before seen.

After a few days we escaped from Shanghai, and went to Suzhou for a day, and then on to Nanjing were we met up with some business friends of mine. We were treated very well, and had a good time. Here's me and “Magic” enjoying a dinner and beer.

And by the way – the fish we had that evening was absolutely the best tasting I've ever had in my life. It was soooooo good!

We sort of made Shanghai a base and returned there after Nanjing (and almost missing our train – made it by a hair). We saw Claire again and then headed off to Xi'An to see the terra cotta warriors. But we got distracted first with a visit out of town to see some Panda bears!

They even had some six month old babies, but we weren't allowed to photograph them. They were so funny – they looked just like a bunch of little kids running around in bear costumes. Very cute.

But then it was time for the main event of Xi'An – the terra cotta warriors:

This was an army of some 8,000 clay warriors commissioned by the first emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang) in 210 B.C. to protect him in his afterlife. Each soldier is unique in terms of armor, weapons, facial features, etc. He even had 130 chariots and 150 clay calvary horses in his terra cotta army.

The city of Xi'An had more to offer than the panda bears and warriors, though. It is also home to a large Chinese muslim population, so we walked through the muslim quarter, including a tour through a Chinese mosque. It was neat to see the Chinese and Arabic fusion...

It turns out that our friend Magic happened to be in Xi'An for business while we were there, so we met up with him again for a great dinner.

Still in Xi'An was the Big Goose Pagoda. I was surprised to see how extensive this facility was – including the dominating pagoda in the center. But most of all, I was impressed by the vast amount of white marble that everything was made of. Here's a dragon relief carved into a white marble stair case...

The whole place seemed to have been built with this gorgeous white marble.

We didn't know it at the time, but instead of visiting this pagoda we really should have been at the train station standing in the queue for our train back to Shanghai. We had never departed from the Xi'An train station before, so how were we to know that you need to arrive like 60 hours ahead of time to make your train. So in true Chinese style, we pushed and shoved our way to the front of the queue, presented our tickets and sprinted to our train and with just minutes to spare. Phew!

One curious thing was saw was this sight....

a basket full of kittens and colored baby chickens.

Anyway, we were back in Shanghai for another weekend with Claire (sick of us yet, Claire?) before heading off to Beijing – our final destination in China. And guess what? We made our flight without running this time! And another coincidence – Magic was also in Beijing while we were there so we met up with him for a third time.

In Beijing we went to visit the main site of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and of course saw those iconic buildings the Bird's Nest stadium, and the Water Cube...

But the real gem of Beijing is the Forbidden City set right in the center of town. It is a huge palace grounds that for centuries housed the ruling elite. Nobody except the nobles were allowed to even enter through its outer gates. Inside were many reception halls, residences, gardens, etc.

As you might expect, there were many ornate details, such as these gold covered lion statues...

Some of you who have been reading my blog since day 1 may remember a picture I took a long time ago of typical third world electrical wiring practices. You know – that tangled spider web of electrical wires spun around a pole. Well, in China I finally saw one of these artisans at work. This is how it's done, apparently:

Although not as famous as the Forbidden City, Beijing also has the “houtongs” which are the small neighborhoods with little alley ways for roads and little ad-hoc brick houses huddled together. We walked through these a little, observing that many of them are now abandoned as they are purchased by property developers, and flattened to make way for more sky scrapers.

Here's a derelict houtong home that's probably worth over a million dollars just for its property value near central Beijing:

As we explored more of Beijing we came across a night market specializing in all sorts of street food. This one stall served the most peculiar items from centipede, to sheep's penis, to water beetles.

Last but not least was an excursion out of Beijing to see the Great Wall of China. We opted to avoid the Badaling section which is nearest the city, and instead ventured a little further to the Jinshanling and Simatai areas. We walked about 10 km (mostly up and down) and were really impressed with the magnitude of this enormous structure. The wall is so wide that the Chinese army could easily have three horses marching abreast, and it is often as much as 10 meters high!

And that was it; our time in China – indeed in Asia – had come to an end. And yes – we did make it to the airport well in time for our flight to New York. But ask us how we did when trying to fly out of New York (we're in Brazil right now).