Back to the Motherland (Guangzhou)

After a few days in Shanghai we flew straight to Guangzhou, China. Thankfully Guangzhou is one of the few cities in China where we can speak cantonese and everyone understands. The main reason why I wanted to go is to see where my parents grew up and how they met. The city is a bit of a mess right now since they are preparing for the 2010 Asian Games. Most of the roads and tourist attractions were being repaired so it was difficult to walk around. Personally, I found Guangzhou people to be a lot more civilized than the ones we encountered in Shanghai. I felt the city was more similar to Hong Kong than China. The whole time we were there we didn't get pushed or shoved, lol.

We arrived at the Guangzhou airport to be picked up by my uncle from Hong Kong that I've never met. Luckily he printed and lamenated a photo of me for reference:


I like how he printed a current picture of me as well as one when I was 8 and one of my mom. =|


Once we got our luggage and met up with my uncle we checked into our hotel, which was pretty clean and spacious. Instead of resting we walked over to the Pearl River to take pictures, went to Beijing Road where there are lots of stores and snack vendors, and visited the apartment my mom grew up in.

Picture with my aunts and uncle along the Pearl River.

According to my mom once you go up the stairs and open the door there is 4 seperate rooms that housed 4 different families. There was a communal washroom and kitchen and that's about it.


After all of that walking we finally took a train to dinner. We went to a chinese restaurant to try a few traditional Guangzhou dishes. My uncle also shared stories of my parents when they were dating, which was very entertaining.

The next day we woke up fairly early to have dim sum at the hotel's restaurant then off we went to my dad's old house (much bigger than my mom's):




Then we visited the Chen's Lineage Hall, which is where the Chen family lived.



Above is the altar where the Chen family used to pray to their ancestors. Through numerous generations the altar would be filled with pieces of wood with the names of the deceased carved onto it.


While we were walking to and from I took a random picture of this guy hanging out. Keep in mind that day was really hot.




We also went to Yuexiu Park where people can fish, play basketball and even climb the mountain. We were too exhausted to do any of that. At night Norm and I went back to Beijing Road and shopped a bit. Then we went for a relaxing (and very cheap) massage at the hotel. The next morning we took a direct train back to Hong Kong. Overall, I really enjoyed seeing where my parents grew up and being able to take lots of pictures to show them how much Guangzhou has changed.

-Mandy

China Round 2

So after going 5 days with China in Beijing, we went to Shanghai to live with my aunt and potentially check out the Shanghai Expo. We went to the ghetto Shen Zhen and caught a flight to Shanghai.

First day, we went the Expo. It was raining that day so I was hoping that the amount of people at the Expo was going to be lower. BOY was I wrong. I suppose people came from all over China to check out the Expo - foreigners were very few and far between there. Another thing that I noticed was the difference in culture between people in Hong Kong and people in China. People in China don't seen to understand the concept of personal space as well as as queuing up for a line. Lining up for exhibits and the boat across really was a test of patience. We ended up looking at the North Korean and the United Emerites exhibit and some of the theme exhibits. Of course, the China Pavililion would take 6 to 8 hour wait, but I took a picture in front of it just to show that I was there.


However, after one day, I had enough of the pushing and shoving and the dirty bathrooms of the Expo. The second day, we went to check out some of the tourist attractions like the Yu Gardens, and some other tourist destinations. However, it was just as packed with people and I was starting to feel slightly irritated with the density of people. But, Shanghai is still fun - just go at a time when half of China isn't there. One thing that made it all worthwhile is the Xiao Long Bao! Mmmmm.....


Also the massages there were pretty good and cheap (no happy endings) =P

Hong Kong Jockey Club

Due to insistence from the #1 fan of the blog (my mom), this post will catch on everything since I left Japan.

One of the coolest places in Hong Kong that I didn't go to last time was the Hong Kong Jockey Club Racetrack. Courtesy of my cousin, we went to the box seats away from the crazy hustle and bustle and to a place where there exists an all you can eat buffet with lobster, foie gras, sushi, lamb chops, steak and much more. Needless to say, I feasted.


Also, horse betting is actually very fun. Learning the different bets (Quinella Place, Trio, Place, etc) was good as I won't be an idiot if I ever decide to go to a racetrack. I lost money, but Mandy and my aunt won quite a bit. I did win a bit on a few races though. Afterwards, Lum Fong, aka Raymond Lam and Joey came out to sing. He was okay... I guess.


Next entry will be when we go to the Big Six aka China!

Tokyo Part Deux

So, are you burning to know what happened on the fourth, fifth, sixth AND seventh day in Tokyo? Well, you're in luck - I will divulge everything (to the best of my recollection).

The fourth day of Tokyo was an early day. I typically don't wake up early unless it is for an extremely good reason, but that day we went to the Tsukuji Fish Market. Also known as the place where the fishermen sell their fish right after they catch them. We stopped by a sushi restaurant nearby and ate some FOB fish. The FOBs were delicious. My personal favourite was the sea urchin, with the fatty tuna a close second. If that wasn't enough, we went for some Chirashi don (raw fish on a bed of rice) RIGHT after. Oh Japan, you've ruined my palette for sushi now. I dread eating sushi in Toronto now...


(This cost 3500 yen!)


Chirashi-don, but it wasn't as good as the fish market restaurant.


Picture of the fish market. Next year the fish market will be re-located to a more remote area.

After that, we went to Ginza to check out the masssssive Muji there as well as the Sony entertainment store. We took a look at the 3D TV technology, and I was quite surprised how sharp it was. Though, realistically, it just looks like layers of 2D TV stacked in front of one another. However, my foot started acting out that day so I went back to the hotel early to rest. However, Mandy continued and went to Roppongi. There was a cool store that sold a lot of kawaii (cute) stuff. [Mandy's note: We went to Roppongi Hills, which is a relatively newer shopping area. The interior design of the mall was simplistic and serene; lots of water falls and bamboo trees inside the mall! We found a Joel Robuchon bakery inside the mall and I had a very delicious peach tart. It was so good I went back to buy one for Norm.]



On the fifth day, we checked out DisneySea... not Disneyland, but DisneySea, which is an exclusive park available in Japan. It was actually quite good, we stayed for the whole day and watched fireworks and the water/fire show. With my awesome skills, I managed to win a Stitch doll from the carnival games! Plus most importantly, I pushed Mandy to go on her first roller coaster ever! Check out Mandy's expression when we went on the Tower of Terror. [Mandy's note: I'm willing to go on a roller coaster but I still can't convince Norm to watch the Sex in the City movie. Sigh]



On the sixth day, we went to follow a tour to check out Mt. Fuji. If my foot was okay we would've hiked up the mountain but we had to settle for a tour. The peak stations had some really beautiful scenery - mountains shrouded with wispy white fog.



We went for a boat ride, and were supposed to take the cable cars to check out the scneery. However, it was raining quite heavily and the cable cars weren't open in case of lightning. So instead they gave us aquarium passes. It was kind of cool I guess, though I would have preferred to go on the cable cars. Though, we did see some fish, penguins, jelly fish, crabs and other cool crustaceans.



Lastly, we took the bullet train (shinkansen) back and a typical 90 minute journey was shortened to simply 30 minutes. The infrastructure in Japan/Asia is just amazing.

The last day was an easy day. Did some light shopping and we went to the Airport. Note to self: take the Narita Airport Express when going to the airport rather than the ordinary JR express. A 2 hour commute could have been a 30 minute commute with an additional 1500 yen or 15 dollars. Luckily I had my DS with me.

Sayonara Japan. I will miss you and your delicious food. (Mandy bought some 800 yen grapes and went crazy with happiness.)


Norman-san

Tokyo

We just got back from Tokyo and I already miss the food! The plane ride was only 4 hours but it took a good 10 hours from our place in HK to checking in to our hotel thanks to Tokyo's efficient but very confusing train system:



The sad thing is that picture only shows the railway system and not the subway system, which connects some of the existing stations. We were advised to stay in Shinjuku because of the infamous red light district. (See how long it takes for you to find the station on the map!) There were always these anime guys on the streets giving out flyers to locals but we couldn't figure out what they were soliciting.

On the second day we went to Asakusa (north east of Tokyo) to check out the famous Senso-ji Temple. We learned that before entering the temple you have to wash your hands (left and then right) and rinse your mouth with water.




Outside of the temple there were tons of food and souvenir vendors. We snacked a bit and headed to a tempura restaurant. Japanese tempura is distinctively different from Toronto's - it's a smooth, thing layer of batter instead of flakey. After lunch we headed to Akihabara, known as Electric Town. We walked the streets, checked out an enormous 7-storey electronics store that has an area for DSi players to play together, saw a Gundam Cafe with a huge line-up, played TYPING OF THE DEAD, and went to dinner at a tapas restauarant.



On the third day, we started the day off like every other: a quick breakfast at the local convenient store before we headed to Harajuku to visit the Meiji shrine and Harajuku girls! The Meiji shrine is inside Yoyogi Park, the largest park in Tokyo.



It was a great change of scenery since Tokyo like Hong Kong is full of skyscrapers. Unfortunately, I think we entered/exited through the wrong exit and missed the Harajuku girls =( We did a bit of shopping before we went to lunch at a burger joint. According to Norm it was the best burger he ever ate!



After we re-fueled we walked to Shibuya and witnessed the most busy intersection crossing in the world. It was scary to see how many people cross every single light change.



We didn't do too much shopping because the Japanese are crazy! Each store delegates one employee (sometimes two) to stand on a chair and yell in a high-pitched voice to attract customers. It's too chaotic for me to even browse. Eeeeek

For dinner we went to a revolving sushi restaurant for the first time. The sushi wasn't amazing but it's cool to pick and choose exactly what you want. For those of you who haven't tried it basically you grab the dishes you want off the conveyor belt. At the end of your meal the cashier counts your number of dirty dishes. Different coloured dishes represents different prices.



My overall impression of Tokyo is that the girls wear way too much make up and feet crushing high heels but the people are super nice and the food is amazing!! That's it for now... Norm will continue with the rest of the trip.

-M

I Love BJ

Before I start writing about our trip to Beijing I want to emphasize how disgusting and creepy Chung King is:



If you look really closely you can see that people added air conditioners by grabbing some bricks and made it into a DIY project.

The First Day

On to Beijing! I was pleasantly surprised to see that Beijing isn't as crowded as I imagined. Maybe because Beijing is 16 times larger than HK so it seemed like it is less populated. However, tourist attractions are a totally different story - way too crowded and way too hot! Just to remind everyone we went on a tour and good thing because no one speaks english or cantonese.

So the first day was pretty relaxed. We went to dinner at a restaurant that tried to mimic a feast an emperor would have back in the day. The food was okay but to be honest I didn't particularly like any of the food we had. It might've been because it was tour food or because I'm not used to the type of cuisine. Anyways, after that we went to Wangfujing where we shopped a little and tried the street food. I was hesitant to try anything but I had to try the asian-style candied strawberries on a skewer. So delicious I went for seconds!



They had some interesting local delicacies like star fish, silk worms, etc. Of course Norm had to try something gross:



It looks like meat but it's actually water beetles =\

After that we checked into our big hotel room, which was a nice change from HK. But no matter how big the bed, waking up at 6:30 am everyday is still a chore.

The Second Day

The next day was a very long and cruelling one. We had a 6 hour walking journey through Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (Pic 1), the Summer Palace (Pic 2), and the Olympic area. The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms and we saw all of them! Kidding... we only saw one part of it. There are so many rooms there that if you were to live there from birth and you lived in different rooms for everyday of your life, you'd be 27 before you'd finish living in every room. It was very cool to see how emperors used to live. They have a building for everything - even one for greeting his counsel every morning.




We couldn't go inside the Bird's Nest stadium because we made our own plans to go see an acrobatics show. Before watching the show we needed to grab some dinner, which was very very difficult to do. We ended up going to one random restaurant, didn't like the food, and went to KFC. It was all worth it because the show was amazing! Way better than any acrobatics show I've seen in Toronto. (Norman's Note: 10x better than Cirque de Soleil)

-M

The Third Day

Before I discuss the third day with you, I just want to emphasize how semi-balling the Beijing Marriot is. It's considered "5 stars" and just take a look at the room. Pretty swanky if you ask me. At least it's better than the Marriot in Toronto.



Anyways, the third day is what I call "tour guides squeezing money from silly tourists". There are always these trips that the tour guides take you to convince you to purchase something, and the tour guides get commission for the purchases. Anyways, in the morning we went to to an Eastern medicine shop and obviously the elderly Chinese people end up purchasing everything under the sun. Next, we went to a Jade store, where the purchasing spirit was more tepid. In any case, Mandy and I were just bored and hung out. Nothing particular of interest.

After that, we went to do the cultural stuff. We check out the Ming tombs where various emperors were buried. Pretty cool stuff. Below is the "archway to the dead". When you're leaving, you have to walk through the door and say "I'm back home" to go back to the land of the living.




The coolest cultural thing was when we visited the Great Wall of China. Talk about a workout... it stretches over 9000km and slopes up and down these large hills. Amazing view, but also amazingly tiring during the trip up the hills. I have to admit, there were some seniors that managed to get up and down the same hills that I got winded in. I'm not sure if that's an indication of their vitality or an indication of me being out of shape. Regardless, I was still impressed. Some of the scenery:



Anyways, that day for dinner we had Hot Pot, which to my gwai loh friends is a pot of boiling water and various meats and vegetables that you boil, then dip into sesame/soy sauce. Quite delicious, but eating at home is much better in my opinion.



Lastly, we checked out the Bird's Nest stadium at night... which is way better.



The Fourth Day

To begin the fourth day, we went on a ride in Hutong Village via rickshaw. It was a really cool village - a blend of old China and modern China. There were a lot of tourists and expats there so it was cool to see some white faces. Check it out:



After that, some more cultural stuff. We went to Tian Tan to see the heavenly stone, and the village surrounding. To be honest, though it was good to get back in touch with my cultural roots, it was quite trying with the weather being very hot and the lack of air conditioning. Also, all these villages which the emperor may visit do not have trees whicih exacerbates the heat issue. (Trees are absent because they pose a danger to the emperor through assassins, etc.) Here's a picture:



Another notable thing we did that day was that we went to see a Kung Fu show. It was about a young boy who became a buddhist monk, I thought it was pretty good, but Mandy looked like she was about to fall asleep. I guess the violence of Kung Fu is able to catch my attention. (Mandy's note: it had no plot and the Kung Fu sucked)

The Fifth Day

Good thing the very last day in Beijing was just shopping trips because we were pooped. We had imitation "shark fin" soup for lunch along with some bland chinese dishes. After lunch they tried to kill time by taking us to a mall that sells all fake stuff and a silk linen store. Finally after many hours of boredom we arrived at the Beijing airport =)

We are sooooooooooooooooo glad to be back in HK. Beijing was clean and spacious but it's great to be back home!

-Normster the Gangster

How can the Louis Vuitton store be so close to the ghetto!?

Today my aunt was ditching us for lunch so we had to get by on our own. Good thing for us, Leo suggested a good place to eat in the K-11 Mall. This place was called Hana and it was the best 98 HKD I've sent on food yet.



Mandy got the eel rice, but my dish was obviously more delicious. But you be the judge:




Afterwards, we went to check out Tsim Sha Shiu. The sketchiest place there is a place called Chungking Mansion. We walked a circle around, but Mandy was already super sketched out going there and for good reasons. You can stay there for 100 HKD per night, but obviously you get what you paid for. Don't believe me? Google the hotel and see what previous tenants have said about it... Ironically, it is less than a block away from the most expensive hotel in HK (Peninsula, 1 night is $1500 for the cheapest room and there is an option to ride the Rolls Royce back to the airport on checkout for an additional $1500 HKD). Also it is steps away from Louis V and Gucci and all that other baller stuff.

We also did some museum hopping (museums are free on Wednesday). The space museum is horribly outdated and none of the exhibits even worked. The science museum was in much better shape. The coolest exhibit was the optical illusion exhibit. However, the ROM in Toronto is still significantly better.

Anyways, packed at night and is going to Beijing. In Beijing, the censors will be preventing us from updating so expect a longer post in about a week. Gonna get in touch with the asianess in me!!!

-Norm