Beijing

When we moved to Hong Kong, number one on our list of places to see was the Great Wall.  We finally made it there!

The weekend before last we travelled to Beijing for PJ’s baseball tournament.  This was the first trip to Beijing for all of us except Meg.  She went with her classmates last year for school.

Dave, the girls and I spent Friday touring some of the sites in Beijing: Tiananmen Square, Heavenly Temple, Forbidden City and Zhongshan Park.  Here are a few things by which I was struck:

                 The skies were a hazy, brownish-grey, but the weather was quite nice.  I didn’t feel the 

                 effects of the air quality, but Dave, Grace and PJ did.

                 The architecture in Beijing is much more interesting than Shanghai.  It was quite a 

                 beautiful city from that standpoint.

                 The security at Tiananmen Square was far greater than any other attraction.

                 The Forbidden City was a little too commercialized for me.

Some interesting things we saw:

                 At Forbidden City, with people all around and public restrooms nearby, parents put 

                 newspapers on the ground and let their two little boys squat and take care of business right 

                 there.

                Toddlers running around in pants with the back slit open…or perhaps they were made that 

                way??  I saw one with a diaper, but the others had nothing on underneath.  Interesting and 

                less expensive way to potty train.

               All of the locals wanted to take pictures with Meg because she is blond.  She had warned us                        

               this would be the case.  At the Great Wall a group wanted a picture with Dave.  He felt 

               awkward so he had PJ step in too.

The Heavenly Temple was very neat and well worth the trip.  Beautiful grounds.  I had heard mixed reviews, but we definitely enjoyed it. 

Zhongshan Park (next to Forbidden City) was beautiful.  We saw many military cadets marching through the park.

The Great Wall was well worth the trip!  Just amazing to see the way it rolls over the mountains and the sheer massiveness.  We rode a cable car from Mu Tian Yu up to the Wall.  Walked along the wall for a bit.  The section we were at was in very good shape.  I know there are some sections in disrepair.  Then we rode a toboggan down.  Grace, Meg and I rode the brakes while Dave and PJ went so fast that the attendants were telling them to slow downJ

Here are a few pictures:

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square looking across to Forbidden City

Zhongshan Park

Zhongshan Park

Zhongshan Park

Forbidden City

Cool bike.  They were everywhere in Beijing.

Outside the Forbidden City

Heavenly Temple

Heavenly Temple

Heavenly Temple

Great Wall

Great Wall

PJ pitching in the championship game

Occupy Central

For those of you following international news you may have heard some talk about protests in Hong Kong.  In 2017 Hong Kong is due to elect the next Chief Executive.  Many Hong Kongers would like this to be a democratic election.  Beijing would like this to be a traditional Chinese Communist Party election, meaning one in which a small group in Beijing determines which candidates are acceptable.

Activists here in Hong Kong have been threatening to protest and shut down the Central financial district.  They followed through yesterday.  Last night PJ went downtown with a friend and his father to witness the protests.  He said it was an unbelievable experience.  They watched as one protestor stood his ground against the police.  They saw the police dawn their gas masks and knew that something was about to happen.  Then they witnessed the growing cloud of tear gas headed their way.  They decided it was time to leave when they saw the police coming over the barricade towards the lone protestor who appeared to be the cause of the unleashing of tear gas.  As for the tear gas, PJ now knows how that feels.  “My eyes were watering and I had snot running all down my face.”

This morning PJ and I had to be in Central by 9:00am for a doctor appointment.  When I asked the taxi driver to take us to Central he told me he couldn’t; “All shut down.”  Instead I had him take us to the other end of the MTR line in Chai Wan and we took the MTR into Central.  I take the MTR from Chai Wan to Central 3-5 days a week on average.  It is never crowded in Chai Wan and certainly not at 8:00am.  It was complete chaos.  However, when we came out of the exit at Central the streets were not crowded at all.  I think that because people knew some roads in Central were closed they all decided to take the MTR and figured they better get an early start because it would be crowded.  PJ tells me that last night the protesting was confined to in front of the Chinese Embassy and we are a little ways from there.

You can add this to the list of experiences we never would have had without moving here.  As my brother said, “Who got the, ‘May you live in interesting times’ fortune cookie??”

PJ took some pictures for me, but he thought I should use these from Huffington Post instead:

Carts and Trash

It has been awhile since I have posted anything, so I have a few to post today.

One thing I have noticed in our time here is that the overwhelming majority of people do not return their carts (shopping or other) to the proper place.  It is common to walk up to checkout at a grocery store and have several shopping carts blocking your path.  I have been in line and had the person in front of me leave their cart blocking the register.  I have become the crazy lady who returns 5 carts while waiting for the cashier to ring up my groceries.  This phenomenon does not only occur at the grocery store.  The other day we were in line to board a plane to Beijing.  The woman in front of us had taken a cart to push her purse.  She and her husband got in line in front of us; she removed her purse and left the cart blocking our way.  Most people will just walk around the carts and wait for someone else to take care of them.

If you come to visit us you will notice there is always trash on the sidewalks.  When my father was here last November he asked if that was from the “spoiled expat kids”.  No, it’s not.  It’s actually the locals.  There are trashcans about every 500 yards on our loop, but all of the local workers leave their trash on the sidewalk.  Lunch trash, cigarette packs, water bottles, etc.  Everyday there is an elderly woman whose job it is to sweep the sidewalks and she takes care of all of the trash along with any tree limbs or other "natural" debris.

The “someone else will take care of it” attitude is one that makes me crazy.  There is plenty of this in the U.S., it just seems to be a little more “in my face” here.  To use the words of fallen Marine Travis Manion, “If not me, then who?”  I find these words appropriate to so many facets of life.  And please don't say, "The elderly woman who comes by everyday.":-)

Sombrero and Pancho

Dave sent me an e-mail from work on Tuesday saying that he had to go in costume to a work dinner Friday night, could I possibly get him a sombrero and poncho?  Well, that would be very easy if I were living in San Diego or Yuma, but I wasn't sure how easy it would be here.  As luck would have it, costumes are extremely easy to find in Hong Kong and the best place to find them is a block away from where I go to CrossFit classes!  The CrossFit box I belong to is in the Central district of Hong Kong, about 45 min to an hour on the bus and the MTR.  One of the biggest tourist attractions in Central is "the lanes".  These are little alleyways filled with shops and vendors.  One particular lane, Pottinger Street, has a lot of costume shops.  I walked into the first shop and asked for a sombrero.  Sure enough, hidden back in the corner she had several and matching ponchos to boot!  Here are a few pictures of "the lanes":

And here is a picture of Dave's sombrero and poncho:)

Paddle Boarding

I tried something new today, paddle boarding.  Since we returned to Hong Kong in August, Dave has been talking about getting a membership at the water sports rental in Stanley.  He really wanted to try paddle boarding.  Unfortunately he has been extremely busy at work and we haven't had a chance to do it.  A couple of days ago I decided that I would ask a friend to go with me and I would give it a try in advance.  Neither of us had been on a paddle board before.  Thankfully the water is quite calm and neither one of us had any trouble.  We were able to paddle from Stanley Beach to Turtle Cove (the beach right below our house) and back.  In the picture below you can see the white sand of Stanley beach off in the distance.

Although it was hot and we both had sweat dripping in our eyes, it was very enjoyable.  Of course when we got to Turtle Cove we heard some big rumbles of thunder.  Thankfully we made it back before a storm rolled in.  I have to tell you, neither one of us wanted to enter the water.  There was a lot of floating trash and a couple of dead crabs.  The ocean water in Hawaii is still my favorite!  Next on the agenda is to rent kayaks from the same location!

Ex-Pat Summer

This was our first experience of an "ex-pat summer".  I have to tell you, I don't particularly like it.  Now, to be fair, our summer was crazy busy and hopefully not every summer would be that way.

The vast majority of ex-pats in Hong Kong go "home" for the summer.  Many own homes in the country they are from or even in another country.  I have a friend from Ireland who owns a home in Florida and that is where they go for a portion of their summer in addition to going to Ireland.  Some don't own a home and they spend the summer going from one relative's house to another or renting a house for part of the summer.

For us, going home meant spending part of our time in Pennsylvania visiting friends.  Travelling to see family in New Jersey, Tennessee, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia and Michigan.  Spending some time in San Diego where we now own a house and where Kaylin stayed to work for the summer.  My parents are in San Diego also.  Of course there were a few camps and college visits for PJ along the way.  It was very important to all of us that we try to see as much family as possible.  While we were not able to see everyone, we were able to see many, including Dave's 96 year old grandfather and my 94 year old grandmother.  Dave was able to see all of his siblings and I was able to see two of mine.  Sorry Maude and Kit:(

There was many a car ride where someone complained about the hours spent in the car.  Thankfully our time at the destination always made it worthwhile.  One of those rides was a particularly bad drive from Pennsylvania to Rhode Island.  The drive took 3 hours longer than it should have and complaints were at an all time high.  Then we walked into Dave's grandfather's room.  His hand went up in the air and he said, "Oh, oh, it's my family from Hong Kong!"  PJ looked at me afterwards and said, "That reaction was worth the drive."

While we did enjoy all of our time spent with family and friends, this left us feeling like we were on the road most of the summer and living out of suitcases.  I will say everyone was ready to return to Hong Kong by the end of the summer to see our dogs, sleep in our own beds and unpack.  Now some of my friends who have been ex-pats for awhile told me that I will learn.  They say everyone does that their first summer or two and then you learn to just park yourself and let people come visit you.  I don't know that I am capable of doing that.  One of the hardest parts of being in Hong Kong is not seeing family and missing family events.  I know that if we just stayed in one place all summer we would not get to see a lot of our family.

We are very thankful to all of our family and friends that housed us or came to visit us throughout the summer.

Another display and some observations

Today's displays come to you from Causeway Bay.  This is the section of Hong Kong where Dave works and where Hong Kong's Times Square is located.  There is almost always a display out in front of Times Square.  It seems to change monthly.  Today there were a few different displays.  One in the covered, but open air area and three outside.  I truly have no idea what the significance is of the displays.  Perhaps someone can give me some insight after seeing them.  Two of the displays had lines of people waiting to get into the display area to take pictures.  This brings up a couple of points: (1) I do not look like a foolish tourist as I walk around taking pictures because everyone does it.  (2) The Asian people love to take their picture with any display.  It does not matter what age they are.

Here are the displays:

Below are pictures from another display in Causeway Bay.  This one is from Hysan Place (a mall).  There was a display set-up both inside and out.  There was also a store set-up selling all types of smiley face dolls.

Now for my observations.  First, electronics have taken over! I know this is true everywhere.  As I ride the bus or the MTR I notice that everyone has their face stuck in their phone.  Some are playing games, some are reading something, some are watching shows.  I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of reading my emails and checking Facebook while I'm on the MTR.  This is also noticeable walking down the street, although it isn't as prominent out on the street (thankfully!).  I will say, it only takes one person glued to their phone walking down the street to quickly make you annoyed.  They don't walk in a straight line or at a steady pace.  It is a little sad to see and I am trying to put my phone away a lot more.  Because of the phones, I think that we are not as observant of our surroundings as we should be.

Second, obesity is not a problem exclusive to the U.S.  I do believe processed food and electronics are huge contributors to this.  I won't get into that anymore other than to say my belief stems from my observations.

Last observation for today.  This morning I attended a 9th grade parent welcome meeting.  There are a lot of "Tiger Parents" here.  I am amazed by parents' comments every time I attend one of these functions.  Now, there were plenty of comments in the U.S. at similar functions that amazed me, it's just that here those comments are coming from the vast majority of the parents rather than a select few.  Parents who are wanting their kids to prepare for college in 9th grade.  By that I mean chose a college and let that dictate what you do or don't do in high school.  Parents who want to know exactly how much homework their kids should be doing every night.  Parents who are constantly checking on their kids' progress on their homework (even in high school). Parents who want to know how many AP/honors courses and activities their kids need to be in as a 9th grader to get into the best colleges.  My parents never harassed me about my homework or activities.  I was left to take care of it on my own.  Most importantly, I learned how to take care of it on my own.  I take that same approach with my kids.  This is probably why I am amazed at these meetings and why my kids don't particularly care for the "competitive nature" of this school.  That is not to say they don't like the school, just that they don't like how competitive everyone is when it comes to grades, scores and where you are going to college.  I will end by relaying what one of the student ambassadors said in response to some of these questions.  He is a 12th grader and wise beyond his years.  "Don't push your kids to decide where they are going to go to college now.  They won't enjoy their time in high school the way they should if you do that.  Then they will always be looking at how can they achieve the next goal and they will never enjoy the path along the way. It will just be getting from one goal to the next and then they'll die."  The room erupted in laughter at this last comment, but how true it is.