Olympics 2008

Hello, all. The following message was written over the course of a few days and is a bit late but here it goes anyways:

Jetlag still has the best of me although we've been in China for 5 days now. It is now 5 am on our first morning in Beijing. Despite a chaotic arrival yesterday we are excited about being here and the Opening Ceremony later tonight. I'll save my comments on Beijing for later and will summarize our stay in Hong Kong for the time being.

We now understand why there is a Chinatown everywhere on the planet. There simply isn't enough space for the Chinese in China anymore. We most likely will experience this is the mainland again but Hong Kong must be the most densily populated piece of land on this planet. You think Copacabana or Manhattan are bad because you have not been to Hong Kong yet. Extremely orderly however if you consider the enormous number of people everywhere.

Hong Kong has a diverse, sophisticated and integrated transportation system that keeps the crowds moving. And move they do. They are fast busy bees. The English hand is used here which can cause some confusion at first. 90% of the population don't own cars and in fact we didn't see a lot of parking lots. Instead they will use the subway, trains, cable cars, trolleys, double and single decker buses, mini buses, vans, taxis, funiculars, ferries, boats, escalators, moving sidewalks, footbridges, mopeds, motorcycles and bicycles, etc ... Some of the subway stations resemble airports in other big cities. Huge underground areas and overpasses link office and residential buildings to the public transportation system. It is all amazingly connected and very orderly and clean. Signs in Chinese and English are abundant. You can't get lost. So, I said moving sidewalks. Not at the airport as would be expected but on the streets!! The most amazing is what they call Mid-Level scalators. It is half a mile long and takes 30 minutes to travese the whole thing. It takes you from the lower part of town up a hilly neighborhood. And it has "stations"where people get on and off the moving sidewalks and staircases. You can peek into the windows of commercial and residential buildings for entertainment or just people gazing. Be careful not to be overrun by a busy family on their way to doing something important.

Up at 5am. So, what's new? Katy is quite busy at that time of day. I used to be saddling up for spinning at 5:15 (dreadful days by the way). Not in Hong Kong. Life picks up around 9. On the other hand, the subway and streets are crowded way past 11pm. Our kind of town!!

The smells of Hong Kong deserve note. Spices, teas, food and incense mix up in the air (even in the outdoors!) to create pleasant and sometimes not so pleasant olfatory experiences. The smell of chinese food is a constant presence. Not only from food stalls in the streets but from the multitude of restaurants and street markets. Walking into our perfumed hotel lobby had a distinctive effect on us at the end of the long days. Walking by specialty tea and spice shops was also nice. Unusual to western nostrils are the dried foods. We'd have to pick up the pace or hold our breaths while taking pictures of shark fins, dried scallops, caterpillars and mushrooms and other local less easily identifiable delicacies. By the way, these are not eaten as such but used to make tea or soup. Each with its own function helping your circulatory, digestive or respiratory system, brain, bones or tissues, etc ...

The hotel had a fantastic breakfast buffet. I'm not sure the locals eat this stuff for breakfast but we certainly tried the dim sums, misso soup and temakis. Of the variety of local fruits I can only remember the dragon fruit by name. We stayed clear of the street food stalls planning to try them in Beijing. We tried a Japanese and a Nepalese restaurant for variety. A pleasant surprise was the affordable price of eel here as compared to home and I must have had more rice in two days here than I did in all of 2007.

They speak Cantonese in Hong Kong. Mandarin is spoken in the mainland. As if one Chinese language wasn't hard enough for westerns ... Don't ask me what's different, I haven't learned the similarities yet. Although English is an official language in Hong Kong very few people are actually fluent. Hotels provide cards with phrases in English and Chinese such as "Please take me to ..." and "Where is the restroom?" so that guests can communicate in the streets in case of emergencies. Watch out for some false friends in sign language too.

There are several shopping areas that specialize in certain products and there you will find every variation of that good. There is a fish, flower, jade, ladies, bird, etc ... market. From one to several blocks long you will find several shops and street stalls that sell stuff. Of course you will also find all the knicknacks that you'd expect to see in China. Cheap? Ladies, it gets cheaper. Wait for our next stop. At the fish market you can get Koi fish of every size and variation of red. They bring prosperity. And did you know that when one dies in your home it means good luck? The poor fish sacrifices his life warding off the evil spirits from his owner's home. As a sign of gratitude they go down the toilet (just like in the west) and will be replaced as quickly as possible. If not clear by now, at the fish market you get stuff for your home aquarium. So not only fish are sold here but crabs, turtles and tadpoll are as well. With aviary flu threatening survival of the human race, we stayed away from the bird market.

Luckily for you Hong Kong was hit by a typhoon and we spent a full day inside the hotel watching videos and reading. The rain and wind were nasty and mostly everything was closed for the day. It went away the next day and we were able to fly to Beijing without a problem.

Tip: the information booth at the airport distributes a pamphlet with Walking Tours of Hong Kong. A great way to get to know the place.

More on Beijing and the Olympics shortly.