Donnie's Chinese Adventure
As much as it makes Kibby green with envy, she thought I should share some pics of my recent port visit in Hong Kong. Here goes:
The harbor area is pretty wild with very modern skyscrapers that pretty much cover the small amount of flat real estate between the water and Victoria's Peak (in the background below). On the left above is an arena they are building for the Olympics. Notice how hazy everything is. This was the clearest day while I was there. The air pollution here and in southern China was as bad as I've ever seen it. They recently banned motorcycles and mopeds in Hong Kong and the air is apparently much better.
The waterfront has high end hotels, business offices, and huge shopping malls. Every night the entire waterfront has a wild light show with exterior lights on all the buildings blinking and flashing. It is all coordinated and has a pretty dramatic effect. The picture below captures the idea. It is not exactly in focus but is all I could do in a liberty boat splashing up and down.
And their Engrish is not so good.....who wants some Under Wear!!!
A JUNK!!!
You can actually rent these boats for the day. I'm thinking booze cruise next time we pull in!!
As luck would have it, as soon as I checked in to the hotel I was staying in prior to flying to Korea, the Olympic Torch ran by right under my nose!! We were told to avoid the crowds and not to watch the torch run due to the possibility of pro-Tibet rallys. But being that I was 16 floors off the ground, I figured I was safe.
The streets were packed with folks waving the Hong Kong flag (red with white flower) and the Chinese flag.
Switching out the runners:
MACAU
I took a day trip to the Chinese mainland and visited Macau and Shenzhen. Macau was the first and last European colony in China and was handed back over in December 1999 (Hong Kong was in 1997). Macau is basically famous for two things, 1) Casinos, and 2) Formula 1 racing. In the picture above, you have a restored Portuguese fort located right next to a volcano-shaped Casino/amusement park right behind a high-end shopping district with Portuguese-facade buildings. I never thought the "Old European - Volcano - Fort" decor could be pulled off quite so well.
The Lotus is the symbol of Macau and is featured on their green flag (above) and there is a monster gold-plated lotus statue in the Macau harbor-area.
This is one of Michael Schumacher's F-1 race cars. He is hands-down the greatest driver F-1 has ever had. He is better known by Iain as the red Ferrari in the movie CARS.
Macau also has several UNESCO World Heritage sites. This little temple located next to an old Portuguese wall is one of them. Let's just say this doesn't quite have the impact that Stonehenge , the Great Wall, or the Colosseum has. But, worth a quick picture and a magnet on the fridge.
This is what the town center looks like. There is a huge castle on the left and an old Christian church facade behind me. Would have been pretty neat a few hundred years ago.
After a few hours in Macau, we were whisked away to the Chinese city of Shenzhen. 28 Years ago it had a population of 30,000 and was a fishing village. The Chinese decided to make it a city and literally leveled a few mountains to make enough flat land and now the area has 12 million people, 90% of whom work in factories (building all the "made in China" electronics).
After trapping us in a state-owned Jade museum (they also had three of the Terracotta warriors too which was awesome) for about two hours hustling us for our dollars, they took us to a famous park where they have lots of traditional Chinese village mock-ups and a nightly show called the Dragon and the Phoenix that we attended. This show had 1500 performers and including acrobatics, martial arts, horses, farm animals, traditional music, the kitchen sink, lasers, and lots of smoke.
I guess this is just a taste of what we will see during the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Patty-cake, patty-cake....
Yes, that's right!!! Lasers, billowing smoke, and a guy with fire!!!!
This is the Chinese version of a 007 Bond girl. She was one of those who specialized in hyperextention of her arms and was doing some cool poses in front of the big red sun.
Ladies in traditional dress and people on stilts....and more smoke!!
The Dragon dancers were awesome.
And then the floating Phoenix lady accompanied by lasers and more smoke!!
And to top it off, possibly the coolest picture I have ever taken. Not quite sure how I did it, but I managed to get this guy jumping in perfect focus. A blind squirrel found a nut.
That's all from me. I will turn the blog back over to Kibby.
HONG KONG
The harbor area is pretty wild with very modern skyscrapers that pretty much cover the small amount of flat real estate between the water and Victoria's Peak (in the background below). On the left above is an arena they are building for the Olympics. Notice how hazy everything is. This was the clearest day while I was there. The air pollution here and in southern China was as bad as I've ever seen it. They recently banned motorcycles and mopeds in Hong Kong and the air is apparently much better.
The waterfront has high end hotels, business offices, and huge shopping malls. Every night the entire waterfront has a wild light show with exterior lights on all the buildings blinking and flashing. It is all coordinated and has a pretty dramatic effect. The picture below captures the idea. It is not exactly in focus but is all I could do in a liberty boat splashing up and down.
And their Engrish is not so good.....who wants some Under Wear!!!
A JUNK!!!
You can actually rent these boats for the day. I'm thinking booze cruise next time we pull in!!
As luck would have it, as soon as I checked in to the hotel I was staying in prior to flying to Korea, the Olympic Torch ran by right under my nose!! We were told to avoid the crowds and not to watch the torch run due to the possibility of pro-Tibet rallys. But being that I was 16 floors off the ground, I figured I was safe.
The streets were packed with folks waving the Hong Kong flag (red with white flower) and the Chinese flag.
Switching out the runners:
MACAU
I took a day trip to the Chinese mainland and visited Macau and Shenzhen. Macau was the first and last European colony in China and was handed back over in December 1999 (Hong Kong was in 1997). Macau is basically famous for two things, 1) Casinos, and 2) Formula 1 racing. In the picture above, you have a restored Portuguese fort located right next to a volcano-shaped Casino/amusement park right behind a high-end shopping district with Portuguese-facade buildings. I never thought the "Old European - Volcano - Fort" decor could be pulled off quite so well.
The Lotus is the symbol of Macau and is featured on their green flag (above) and there is a monster gold-plated lotus statue in the Macau harbor-area.
This is one of Michael Schumacher's F-1 race cars. He is hands-down the greatest driver F-1 has ever had. He is better known by Iain as the red Ferrari in the movie CARS.
Macau also has several UNESCO World Heritage sites. This little temple located next to an old Portuguese wall is one of them. Let's just say this doesn't quite have the impact that Stonehenge , the Great Wall, or the Colosseum has. But, worth a quick picture and a magnet on the fridge.
This is what the town center looks like. There is a huge castle on the left and an old Christian church facade behind me. Would have been pretty neat a few hundred years ago.
SHENZHEN
After a few hours in Macau, we were whisked away to the Chinese city of Shenzhen. 28 Years ago it had a population of 30,000 and was a fishing village. The Chinese decided to make it a city and literally leveled a few mountains to make enough flat land and now the area has 12 million people, 90% of whom work in factories (building all the "made in China" electronics).
After trapping us in a state-owned Jade museum (they also had three of the Terracotta warriors too which was awesome) for about two hours hustling us for our dollars, they took us to a famous park where they have lots of traditional Chinese village mock-ups and a nightly show called the Dragon and the Phoenix that we attended. This show had 1500 performers and including acrobatics, martial arts, horses, farm animals, traditional music, the kitchen sink, lasers, and lots of smoke.
I guess this is just a taste of what we will see during the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Patty-cake, patty-cake....
Yes, that's right!!! Lasers, billowing smoke, and a guy with fire!!!!
This is the Chinese version of a 007 Bond girl. She was one of those who specialized in hyperextention of her arms and was doing some cool poses in front of the big red sun.
Ladies in traditional dress and people on stilts....and more smoke!!
The Dragon dancers were awesome.
And then the floating Phoenix lady accompanied by lasers and more smoke!!
And to top it off, possibly the coolest picture I have ever taken. Not quite sure how I did it, but I managed to get this guy jumping in perfect focus. A blind squirrel found a nut.
That's all from me. I will turn the blog back over to Kibby.
posted by Kibbyjane at
3:58 AM
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