First Weekend In Hong Kong

Course Registration

Friday was pretty relaxing after a long night out on the town.  My day started rather early, around 10am, to go to a course registration tutorial.  This is where the IASP Office (International Asian Studies Program), i.e. the name of the exchange program, would help us navigate the tricky waters of course registration here at CUHK.  While we may have a seemingly pointless cluster system at WashU, it pales in comparison to the stupidity of this course registration process. First off, the process differs for each type of class that you can take – business, “general education”, law, postgraduate, undergraduate, physical education, other types of physical education, and regular courses.  But make sure that these are your major or minor, otherwise the system changes again.  Quickly, I was longing for the days of my WebSTAC Registration Worksheet and the ease that comes with it.

The add/drop period is actually longer than ours, at three weeks.  However, it is done in phases, so you can only add/drop at certain points during that timeframe.  You must submit your changes on each of three Tuesdays, and then you find out the results on the next Friday.  Most of the hassle comes in the fact that to add or drop a class you need to perform some online process.  However, as far as I’ve been told, this is only a “request” and not a guarantee.  To make sure you are doing what you want, it is best to go directly to the department and get them to stamp your form (paper of course).  But, this too varies by class, and sometimes you need to track down the professor.  I was lucky enough to not have to do this.  I first went around on Friday with Mike to a sociology building, only to wait 45 minutes and then find out that none of this can be done until Monday when classes start.  Of course, why didn’t I think of that!

Anyways, here is my preliminary course schedule – it’s pretty good with timing, only one class before noon :)

Going Out

So, Friday night I went out with some French students to a club in Central HK.  It was at the top floor of, can you guess it?, a mall!  It really doesn’t get old how much they love malls here, pretty funny.  It was an open bar for $140 ($20US) which was really nice. Unfortunately, two drinks in, I found out that the open bar stopped at 1am, way too early.  So, sober, my Canadian flatmate Ryan and I hiked over to McDonald’s so that the night wouldn’t be completely wasted, and then split a cab back home.

Hong Kong Tour

Saturday, we were taken on a tour of HK arranged by the IASP office (exchange student office) of some of the major tourist sites.  Like a good college tour should, this one started at 1pm. About 200 of us boarded a few coach buses and headed off to Victoria’s Peak, a.k.a. The Peak.  This is the highest point on Hong Kong Island, at a stunning 1800 feet.  The main idea here is that you get a breathtaking (not from the smog) view of Hong Kong Island and all of its massive skyscrapers from above.  Wouldn’t you know it, there was another huge mall at the top of The Peak, in addition to the usual touristy-type shops outside like Haagen Dazs and gift shops.  One of the other cool parts is the Peak Tram, which is a really old funicular-type ride up from Central to The Peak.  While we didn’t do this then, it is definitely in the plans for soon, as it is much cooler to come back at night to see the skyline.

(Visitor area at the Peak)

(The famous Peak Tram)

(My first "Asian pose" picture)

(Always gotta have safety first!)

(Hong Kong skyline, courtesy of the panorama camera setting)

(More skyline, note the IFC building and the Bank of China Tower)

(Me over Hong Kong)

Next, we got back in the bus and headed down the mountain to the southwest part of HKI called Stanley, named after Lord Stanley (the British Secretary of War during the annexation of Hong Kong in 1842), and was the administrative center at that point.  This place is mostly inhabited by the rich, white folk of Hong Kong, and is on a really nice beachfront area.  It is known most famously for the Stanley Market, a really large street market.  Honestly, this was not super impressive except that this was the first time that it was sunny since I had been in HK, and the beach and beachfront area was very nice.  Otherwise, the market itself was not too different from other street markets I’ve been to here and it felt very commercialized (sorry Grandma). However, I could definitely see myself going back there for the beach when it gets nicer outside.

(Stanley promenade)

(Local beer of choice)

(Market street)

(I almost bought one of these)

(ObaMAO!!)

(Great view, from a mall)

(I found my dog, Charlie)

The final stop on the tour was to go to the Avenue Of Stars, very similar to the Walk of Fame in LA.  It is located in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is on the edge of the Kowloon region, right on the north side of Victoria Harbor.  It has a walking area along the Harbor, which provides for some astounding views of the Hong Kong skyline.  We got there right at dusk, and it turned into a really pretty night view.  I am now convinced that this is the most amazing skyline in the world, period.  Along this area there is also, yup, another mall, and some street performers and restaurants.  Each night at 8pm there is a light show on the skyline that is apparently unbelievable.  Something that you can go back to many times and still be impressed by it. We did not stay for that, but I plan on going back soon to see it, maybe when the whether is nicer.

Saturday night, Mike and I met up with our flatmate named Winter from mainland China, and his friend Heinrik from Sweden for dinner.  Winter is in his third year at CUHK and is currently spending the year on an internship program, so he lives in I-House but works full-time, so we only see him at night.  We ate at one of the canteens and then went up to the I-House Common Room in the second block for a little get-together with some other international students.

(HK skyline at dusk)

(Money shot 1)

(Money shot 2)

Mong Kok with Monatrice

Sunday I met up with my good friend Monatrice from WashU who lives in Hong Kong.  She lives in a city called Mong Kok, which is in northern Kowloon, about a 20 minute MTR ride from campus.  This day was highlighted by great conversations and great food.  I’ll start with lunch.

We went to a Japanese grill restaurant where we sat at a hibachi “bar” where the chefs cooked our food right in front of us.  We split a few rolls – salmon, octopus, sea urchin and one other I can’t recall.  We also had some “traditional” shrimp tempura, and then grilled halibut.  All of it was delicious!  It seems that Hong Kong is mostly based in eating, which I must say, is quite a good match for me.

(L to R: sea urchin, unknown, octopus, salmon)

Next we walked around the streets hitting up spots such as Ladies Street, which is a street market with items mostly for women.  There is also Sneaker Street, which literally, is an entire street where every single store sells sneakers.  That’s it, just sneakers.  I’ll probably stop by there sometime just to see if they have anything cheap in size 13, but I’m told that even finding a size 10 shoe is difficult – the curse of being tall!

Then started the onslaught of street food, which was perfectly delicious.  First was bamboo juice.  I was startled to see a big bucket with ~5-foot shoots of bamboo that were being compressed.  Monatrice told me that this was bamboo juice, which she had actually never tried. It was hot and extremely sweet, almost like a hopped up version of a mixture of sugar water and fruit juice.  With that in hand, we picked up some fried meat balls.  First were spicy white fish balls, followed by lobster balls (my favorite) all fried and served on a skewer.

After devouring those, we stopped by a popular bubble tea shop.  For those who haven’t had the pleasure of having bubble tea, it is a milk tea, often adding other flavors, and tapioca balls at the bottom served with an extra wide straw.  I had mango with rice crystals instead of tapioca, which tasted like sugary gelatin.  I also got a customer card and am 2/5 on my way to a free bubble tea!

Then Mon said we should try stinky tofu – this is actually what it’s called in Chinese, not my nickname for it. Smelly tofu is fermented tofu, and can in fact be smelled from probably 100 feet away.  Its odor is sour, and it really smells.  However, when you are actually next to it, you don’t smell it – a strange phenomenon.  Served on a couple of toothpicks, this fried “treat” should be dipped in a soy-sauce, however, we didn’t have this by accident.  It tastes really bitter, and was on the only food so far in China that I couldn't finish.  Try everything once.  That’s the rule I’m going by for this trip. 

(Stinky tofu)

(Monatrice!!!!)

The last stop on our food tour was to get a dessert of course.  We got a waffle-batter based treat that looks like a beehive that is rolled into a column.  You then pick off little pockets/balls of the dough and it tastes like a fresh and sweet waffle.  I am in heaven at this point.

Some interesting things to point out about Mong Kok.  It is extremely busy.  On a Sunday afternoon it was bustling with tons and tons of people, and is considered one of the most densely populated parts of Hong Kong, and by de facto, parts of the world.  Another interesting site was seeing signs for hotels that charged by the hour.  If you can’t figure it out, I’ll tell you that it was in their “Red Light District Area”.  If you still can’t figure it out, ask someone.

We also walked around in the over ground walkways to one of Monatrice’s favorite spots: a bird garden/market.  On the way though, I saw one of the most astonishing things of my life.  Kneeling on the floor was a man without arms.  In his mouth was a paintbrush and on the floor, was his paintings of some of the most beautiful Chinese calligraphy ever.  I felt like it would be distasteful to take a picture, but just try to picture this amazing feat.

(Busy street in Mong Kok from overground walkway)

One of the other lasting memories was going into a shop that sold decorations and items for the Chinese New Year.  A brief history: Chinese New Year, a.k.a. Lunar New Year, is celebrated after the first month of the lunar calendar and lasts for 15 days.  It is considered the most important of traditional Chinese holidays. It is different from western New Year in that it is mostly to spend time with family as opposed to party.  Word on the street is that all of the exchange students, who don’t have a family here, leave during the week-long break during the New Year because everything around town is dead.  So, the store had tons of trinkets and decorations, all in red and gold, for the New Year celebration.  It is the year of the Tiger, so lots of tiger stuffed animals and paraphernalia.  Another cool thing is the red envelope tradition, where older and married couples give red envelopes full of money to children and unmarried people.  In fact, its very common to greet someone during the New Year by saying “Happy New Year, give me the money!”

Thanks again Mon for taking me on an awesome tour of your hometown, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with you and learning about Mong Kok.  As I mentioned, you’re definitely invited to the Novick family Thanksgiving next year as repayment.