Hong Kong

This was my third trip to Hong Kong. We purposely scheduled plenty of time there and scheduled it as our last stop because there aren’t a lot of touristy things to do and we could take it a slower, more relaxed pace. We were tired by this point in the trip. The city is best compared to New York. It’s a city with a lot of skyscrapers, people, shopping, and congestion.

WIA: The food in Hong Kong is outstanding. It’s kind of like Las Vegas in that they import all different types of foods and restaurants, so you can get the best in everything. We ate lunch at the food court in the mall next to our hotel at a Shanghainese place. It was quick, easy, and pretty good. Dinner was at Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese dumpling institution that has since opened locations in several international cities. There was a long line, but we got in pretty quickly. I’m not sure what all the hype is about, but the dumplings were tasty. I actually really liked my noodle dish in peanut sauce. It tasted like noodles with peanut butter. Lunch on day two was at Classified, a mozzarella bar, next to Stanley Market.  Jenn had a cheese plate and I had a salami and cheese sandwich that wasn’t nearly as good as I hoped it would be. We took the ferry to Macau in the evening. While walking, I had an egg tart, which was delicious. It’s apparently the thing to eat there.  We had a late dinner at Il Teatro, an Italian restaurant, at the Wynn Hotel. Our table was next to the window and overlooked the fountain, so we saw the fountain show about 6 times during dinner. I know it seems silly to travel across the world for fried mozzarella, spaghetti and meatballs, and pizza, but everything we ate was really good. It may not have been worth the premium price we paid for it being at the Wynn, but we knew that going into it. I had two Macau beers. It was light and not too bad.

 

 On our third day, we ate at afternoon tea at The Peninsula. The food wasn’t substantial, but the scones and finger sandwiches filled us up. We had higher expectations of the tea. It’s right in the lobby once you walk in the hotel and there are all levels of dress. I’m not a big tea guy, but I feel like there is something nice about getting dressed up (even though we weren’t) and going to a nice hotel for tea. I can appreciate that. There is something to be said for sticking with nostalgia and keeping things the same if it works the way it is. I’m sure it would be a pain for people to get dressed up to come to tea, but there are so few things left in life that we haven’t marginalized by trying to keep up with the times. It was also all very systematic. The waiters went through the motions and were efficient in getting people in and out so the next group in line could sit down for their tea. We’re glad we went to experience it. 

We ate dinner at Zuma, which is super trendy, and serves up a nice (and very expensive) Japanese menu. I had a couple sushi rolls that were fine, but not nearly worth the price I paid for them. Jenn’s salmon was really good. The people watching was excellent. We finally saw who all the people were who are buying all the clothing in the extremely high end stores that blanket the city. We had a non-traditional dim sum brunch on Saturday at Tim Ho Wan. This is a very small (6 or 7 tables), pretty dumpy looking place that serves up incredibly good dumplings. We were aware they didn’t take reservations, so we arrived at 10am, which was the time they opened. We were given a number and were told to come back in an hour. We did. We were then told to come back in another hour. We did. I get extremely frustrated when things don’t work the way they are supposed to. I had no issues with them giving me a number and telling me to come back in an hour. What I did have a problem with was traveling back across town to make it back at the time they told me and then be told to go away for another hour. I was pissed. Jenn had to talk me down. When we eventually did eat, the food was worth the wait. We had a few different dumplings, but the highlights were the deep fried shrimp and chives dumpling and the baked pork bun. We don’t actively eat pork, but the pork bun is the most famous dumpling, so we had to eat it. The barbecued pork was surrounded by a sweet tasting biscuit that was soft on the inside and flaky on the outside. It was out of this world good.
That evening, we met my cousin Allison and her husband Mario and first had a drink at the ICC, the bar at the top of the Ritz Carlton, which is the tallest building in the world. The drinks were obscenely expensive, but the views were worth it.

For dinner, we ate in the Temple Street Night Market. I don’t even know the name of the place, but it was one of the open air places right off the street. It was far from fancy and pretty far from sanitary, but the food was hot and good and the beer was ice cold. It was a lot of fun catching up with Ali and Mario. They have lived in Hong Kong for a few months. She works at a university and he is starting an art organization. We haven’t seen them in a while, so it was great to talk and get updated on their lives.

WID: We started off at the top of Hong Kong by taking the tram up to Victoria Peak. We went on a walk that got us away from the main commercial area and all the people, so that was nice. The views were incredible.
That night, we walked along Avenue of the Stars and took in the Hong Kong light show. The city is packed with skyscrapers, one after another, and from the Kowloon side, at 8pm every night, one can watch a synchronized laser and light show being projected from many of the buildings on the Hong Kong side. It’s cheesy, but still kind of cool. It’s something to see once. This was my second time to see it.

We took a 30 minute cab ride out to Stanley Market the next morning and realized quickly that it was a waste of our time. We’re not clear why this market is so popular and why any guide book would recommend making the trek out there. The area is nice along the water though and it’s nice to get outside of the city for a little while, but it ate up a whole lot of time. In the early evening, we took the ferry to Macau, the Las Vegas of China. It’s a former Portuguese colony which in the past 6 years has exploded with huge Vegas style casinos. There is an MGM, a Venetian, a Wynn, the Sands, and many others, with many more to come in the future. It’s of course packed with people. There is a lot of shopping and very nice casinos and shopping malls, but besides the gambling, it doesn’t quite pack the debauchery that makes Vegas Sin City. We walked through the Venetian, the extremely impressive Galaxy, the MGM, and ended up at the Wynn for dinner. We gambled a little and contributed to the future development of the city. They play blackjack differently there. The dealer takes one card, then deals out to the table and doesn’t take the second card until everyone at the table has played out their hand. I’m not sure if this changes the odds or the playing strategy, but I just played it the way I know how to play. We started out with a nice little run before losing everything.
On Friday, on the way to The Peninsula for tea, we walked through the Ladies Market (which sold the same crap as every other market) and the Jade Market. We bought (and most likely overpaid) for some “jade” bracelets for Jenn. We shopped at the Shanghai Tang flagship store and did some damage. We liked a lot of stuff we saw, but had to limit ourselves because it’s an expensive store and they don’t negotiate like the other markets in town. We’re trying to do better about buying things when we travel, not to accumulate junk, but to have some mementos from our travels that we can have for the future.

After dinner, we walked through Lan Kwai Fong, the expat bar area, and Soho. We didn’t go in anywhere for a drink, but just took a stroll through the streets to observe. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but it was supremely hot and humid the entire time we were in Hong Kong, so anytime we went anywhere, we would become drenched with sweat quickly and found our faces, hands, and feet to be very swollen. It wasn’t all that comfortable. After a dim sum lunch on our last day, we walked around some of the shopping areas. The shopping in Hong Kong is crazy. There are so many high end stores. It’s hard to comprehend where all the money is coming from, but there is obviously no shortage of it. You can’t walk a mile without passing a Louis Vuitton or Gucci store. It’s pretty incredible. There are stores from everywhere in the world. They have it all. After dinner, we walked through the Temple Street Night Market, which sold more of the same crap we’d seen everywhere else. We weren’t impressed.

WIS: The Langham Place in Mongkok was really great. We were very lucky with the location, next to a big shopping mall and a metro stop, and also walking distance from a lot of restaurants and markets. The room was nice and the staff was extremely helpful in so many different ways. The price wasn’t cheap, but it was less expensive than many other hotels in Hong Kong. I would stay there again and would also definitely recommend it to others. They have a great pool on the roof, which we unfortunately didn’t take advantage of during the trip.

WAM: Every time I go to Hong Kong, I think more and more that it's a place I wouldn't mind living in at some point. There are a lot of people, which would present a problem for me, but I really like it as a city. It has people from everywhere, the food is good, it's easy to get around, and you're in a good location to travel in and around Asia. 

WTF: You can't walk anywhere in Hong Kong without getting dripped on from the balconies above the street. It's impossible to avoid as you walk through the city. It's really disgusting. I don't know what it is and I don't really want to know, but I do know that I do not like it. I may need to start walking around with an umbrella when I visit again.

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Beijing

Besides “The Wall”, I wasn’t overly impressed with the city of Beijing. I had been there once for work, but saw nothing but the hotel and the office. We gave ourselves two days to experience the city. The city is very spread out and because of the language and the complete ineptitude of taxi drivers, it’s extremely difficult to get around. I could see this being a city that would be easier to do as part of an organized tour with a group.

WIA: Let me preface this section by saying I really dropped the ball on our eating in Beijing. I usually do an excellent job of planning meals out and making reservations when necessary, but I got very little help from our hotel staff and just didn’t do a good job with coordination. I mentioned the duck at QuanJude Roast Duck Restaurant in the previous post. There are a few famous duck restaurants in Beijing, so I’m not sure what really distinguishes one from the other. I ate at Da Dong on a previous visit and it was good, but I don’t know that I could tell you if one restaurant was better than the other. My intention was for Kalp, Ezequiel, Jenn, and I to eat at a Chinese restaurant next to Tiananmen Men Square when we finished our tour of the Forbidden City. Unfortunately, the restaurant had been closed for a year and since it was past 2:30, most other places were not still serving lunch. We ended up at Capital M, which served international food, and had a great view over the square. The food was overpriced, but it wasn’t terrible. I had the Danish Smorrebrod, which was a plate full of the little Danish open faced sandwiches. It was past 3pm. I would have eaten anything.
That evening, we went to HouHai, the lakes district, which is a nighttime bar and restaurant area around a few small lakes. We planned to go to a place I’d looked up that didn’t take reservations, but had received excellent write-ups. Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to find and by the time we arrived, they were no longer serving food. We had an interesting few minutes when one guy who we weren’t sure whether or not he worked there told us to go upstairs and tried to convince the staff to serve us. A couple of waitresses then escorted us out. We ended up eating at a place near there, called Zone, which seemed to be the only place still serving food. We had a well balanced meal of microwaved popcorn (which is sweeter than what is served in the US), french fries, shrimp fried rice, some skewers of mystery meat, and a couple other things. It was disappointing. On the last day, it was just Jenn and me. We had a really nice lunch at the Aman Resort at their continental restaurant. I had the duck salad and Jenn had the burger. We were the only ones there, so the service was excellent. It was nice to be in such a quiet and serene atmosphere since it’s very difficult to avoid being around people when in China.

For our last evening, we stayed in the ChaoYang area, which is near where we were staying and had dinner at Karaiya Spice House. This was a Hunan restaurant, so the food was extremely spicy. We ordered the grilled steak and steamed prawns, but got them both prepared mild. I ordered the spicy shredded duck, which I thankfully asked for to be prepared medium. It was so delicious, but also so painful to eat. I couldn’t stop eating it even though it was so unpleasant. I was downing my beer and water constantly and trying to balance the spice by eating some of the non-spicy dishes. Nothing helped.

WID: In the morning, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is a giant park full of temples that all look alike. Tourists are able to navigate the area using gigantic oversized maps that you can buy at the entrance.
We hit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City next. There was a lot of walking, a lot of steps, and a lot of buildings that looked the exact same. I hope pictures can capture how many damn people were in Tiananmen Square. As someone who really values personal space and doesn’t feel all that comfortable around large groups of people, China really was a challenge. With some of my idiosyncrasies, it's amazing I can get through the day some times.
We took a break in the afternoon before heading to HouHai in the evening. On our last day, we visited the Summer Palace. It is an enormous park that offers a peaceful environment for walking around. It’s impossible to see everything there, which is fine, because it’s really not necessary. Again, like the Forbidden City, everything looks the same. It was foggy out, so the views weren’t as impressive as they could have been.
In the afternoon, we walked through the 798 Arts District, which was kind of faux alternative, but still sort of cool. It’s a bunch of art galleries, cafes, and boutique shops.
We hit the Silk Market on the way back to the hotel, which is best described as a giant garage sale. It’s floor after floor of crap. Vendors literally grab at you to pull you into their stalls. If you are interested in something, you then have to play the game where they offer a price and then you negotiate until you end up paying a third of what they originally offered. In the end, you still feel like you’re getting ripped off. And more than likely, you are.

WIS: Even after visiting Beijing, I can’t tell you what location of town would be best to stay. The city is so spread out, so I don’t think anywhere is ideal. We ended up taking taxis everywhere. There is a decent metro system, but the stop “near” our hotel was like a 20 minute walk. We stayed at the Hotel G, which is a W wannabe. Since in China, there are name brand knockoffs of everything, it seemed fitting to stay at a name brand hotel knockoff. Our room was huge, modern, and relatively nice. The breakfast wasn’t that impressive, which is partly their fault, but we had also just spent a week at the Ritz in Shanghai, which had an incredible breakfast buffet each morning. My main problem with the hotel was with the lack of assistance they were able to provide in navigating the city. With a few exceptions, there was no dedicated concierge and no one on the staff spoke or understood English extremely well. They were effective at responding to our inquiries, but were not proactive in offering up advice, like that there are four entries to the Temple of Heaven, which would have been helpful to know since we were meeting Kalp and Ezequiel at the entrance. Beijing is not an easy city to get around so if I were going back, I would splurge for a hotel with a well trained staff and a helpful concierge. There was a stark contrast between the help we received at the G and the Ritz the previous week. Obviously, we can’t always stay at the Ritz, but I think when going to a city that is more difficult to get around, it is important to choose a hotel with a helpful staff. Not providing proper guidance led to a lot of frustration and discomfort during the trip.

WAM: We drove by the Olympics site and saw the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. They were cool looking. If we had more time, we would have gone back to see it closer up. Also, foot massages are big in China. I abstained, but sat in the room and drank beer while providing commentary as Jenn, Ezequiel, and Kalp received theirs.

WTF: I get that the taxi drivers in Beijing are not the most educated bunch and that they come from other regions and may speak different dialects. Here’s what I don’t understand. At some point, if they’ve worked there long enough, one would think they’d know the major sites, know common things that tourists ask for, and not be total assholes. We had someone from the hotel explain to a driver that we wanted to pick up our friends at a different hotel and then go to HouHai, the Lakes District. Not only did he not know where that area was, but didn’t understand the picking up our friends part. This is after someone from the hotel explained the whole thing in Chinese. He then wanted us to pay him more money because he was frustrated. We had several drivers who refused to drive us anywhere and run the meter. They wanted us to agree to inflated set prices as if we were complete idiots. There are plenty of other examples from our time there. It’s amazing to me that this is after the city hosted the Olympics and supposedly much effort was put into training the taxi drivers.

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The Great Wall of China

The day before we left for Beijing, I read in the newspaper that there have been 168 flaws logged for the Chinese bullet train system. A flaw (in this particular article) ranged from minor technical glitches to structural issues with the track. It seems there is much debate going on as to the severity of these flaws on what should be done to rectify them. The only precautionary measure taken up to this point is that the trains have been slowed down to travel at a much reduced speed. Specific to the Beijing-Shanghai line, 54 trains by one manufacturer were recalled the previous month due to safety concerns. With this information and the news of the recent accident of the bullet train accident when many people were killed, we thought long and hard about whether or not we should take the train from Shanghai to Beijing. I am risk averse in so many ways. I won’t even eat something if I sense the remote possibility it will give me diarrhea. We decided to take the 4 hour and forty-five minute bullet train ride on Saturday afternoon. It definitely felt fast; much faster than the trains we've been taking in Europe. The floor was vibrating the whole time and I felt a little nauseous. It was cool when we passed another train and it zipped by in a second and all we could see was a blur.

Needless to say, we survived and made it safely to Beijing in time for a nice roasted duck dinner at Quanjude Restaurant. We arrived there not long before their closing time, so by the end of the meal, Kalp, Ezequiel, Jenn and I were literally the customers remaining at the restaurant. The duck was rich, juicy, fatty, and delicious. I had gone into the trip saying I would eat duck every single day in Beijing, but after this one meal, I had my fill. It’s just too rich. Ezequiel heard from someone who supposedly knows that the way they get the skin so crispy and separate it from the meat is by “blowing” the duck, which we assume means they literally blow air into the duck. We’re not sure how they do this or if this is even true, but there are only two openings in a duck in which one can blow air, so for the sake of whomever has to actually blow the duck and for the duck itself (even if dead at the time), we were all hoping it was through the beak.

We were picked up early on Sunday by our tour guide and driver from Great Wall Hiking and had a pleasant 2 hour ride to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by mountains and could see a portion of The Wall in the distance. It was high. It was clear to all of us that we were hiking straight up. It would not be easy. Our group, led by our guide, Robert, consisted of (besides Jenn and me) four of my co-workers: Neal (who is based in Taiwan), Ezequiel (based in the US, but was in Shanghai for work), Kalp (also in the audit group, but is based in Singapore), and Charles (who has made several cameos in this blog and is on assignment in Bratislava with me).

We started out on the steep trail and for an hour hiked through jungle like conditions through branches, weeds, etc. on our way up to the entrance to the wall at Jiankou. It was hard. The temperature was relatively cool, but we all worked up a good sweat on our way to the top. Robert, the guide, informed us when we reached the top that we had just completed the most difficult part of what would be a 5 hour hike.

The Jiankou portion of the wall is still in its original and unrestored state. This means lots of loose stones, no level paths, and overgrown with trees and shrubs. This made for a difficult two hours of hiking. It was also much steeper in parts than I imagined. The part of the wall built by the Ming Dynasty spanned 6500 KM. We were covering roughly 10 in our hike.

We had a really fun and challenging two hours along the Jiankou section. It was foggy, but the views were still incredible. Each corner we turned was better than the previous one. My favorite part of this part of the hike (actually of the whole hike) was a section where we had a very steep incline to the top of a mountain and then the steep decline back on the other side. Footing was not secure and it was legitimately dangerous, requiring us to grab onto the side of the wall and hold on for dear life in order to stay standing up.

We eventually reached Mutianyu, which is a restored section of the wall. We purposely chose this hike because we had been told that visiting some of the more touristy sections of the wall could be extremely crowded with people and feel kind of like DisneyLand with how clean and new the wall looks and because of all the vendors selling junk. It was a dramatic contrast when we reached the dividing line between Jiankou and Mutianyu as we went from old to new, from three hours of no people, to needing to weave in and out of hundreds (thousands maybe) of other people and vendors selling drinks and knick knacks. I can’t even imagine how crowded it gets the section (Ba Da Ling) that is closest to Beijing that is most popular. I will admit though, this newer, nicer looking section did make for excellent pictures.

From pictures, it’s hard to appreciate how steep and challenging walking along The Wall can be. These two hours along the restored section consisted of steep inclines, declines, and a lot of steps. It’s not a casual stroll in the park. I understand why people who want to see the wall go to the newer, easier parts, and it’s nice that everyone has the opportunity to experience “The Great Wall.”

We passed on hiking down to the bottom once exiting and instead took the gondola down to the parking lot. We were sore and exhausted.

Lunch was at a local restaurant, which was enjoyable. I imagine anything would have tasted good at that point as it was 3:30 or so and besides two miniature Snickers bars provided by our guide, we hadn’t eaten all day.

I tend to have a very low level of enthusiasm for… pretty much everything. It takes something truly magnificent to get me excited. Hiking the "Great Wall of China" was one of those things. It was an incredibly awesome experience and one that I will never forget. There are certain moments I’ve experienced when traveling that I haven’t truly been able to appreciate until I’ve seen them in person. Michelangelo’s “David” was one such thing. The Parthenon was another. There are others. These are moments, memories that are so much bigger and important than the stamps in my passport that simply say “Joey was here”.  We have wonderful pictures and a certificate and a button from the tour company, but the experience and feelings I had will always be with me.

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