Hong Kong Week 3

Day 1 - Monday 2/20

Came back from Beijing, went to class and went back early-ish to wake up for Shenzhen on Tuesday.

Day 2 - Tuesday 2/21

Went to Shenzhen, went to class, and went for our first pizza in Hong Kong.  Pizza was pretty good and was close-ish to US standards.  We went back a few more times.

This was our view everyday when we went to class and left class... Good view

Pretty large slice - $40HKish

How to ask for a beer in a bunch of languages

The pizza place

Day 3 - Wednesday 2/22

We must have not done much again... I only have food pictures.  We went to eat thai in Wan Chai.  The curry was a little watery but the chicken satay was amazing.  Decent prices.

Another bently another day

Where I regularly got my mango slush with aloe jelly - >=2x a week

yum

Day 4 - Thursday 2/23

There are some pictures here, so we probably recovered from Beijing and the immediate Shenzhen day trip, not to mention that we have 3 hours of class every night (Mon-Thurs).  We decided to do more touristy stuff, we realized that our time in HK was near the 50% mark and we were really slacking.

It was a rainy day but we pushed on.  We went to the mid-level escalators that link Central (where all the big office buildings are) and the mid-levels (an hilly area up from Central).  These escalators move 81000 people a day and is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world.  (Notice the word system.  It is not just one big escalator).

We ate some mexican some where up a few escalators.  The food was pretty good for not being in Mexico.  We were feeling adventurous and even got a pitcher of margarita at lunchtime. =)

There are stairs too if you want to exercise

Chorizo burrito

A lot of trees on walls

Laundromat

The guy that painted those lines must have been drunk

 After going up and down the escalators (probably took 15 minutes), we toured the art street.  Here's a sample of what we found.

Not sure what this means

There were many asian women with funny hats... here's one

here's one more

yea...

I wonder how much this is

After our tour, we parted ways.  They went back to the apartment.  I went to school early to do some work (Can't really remember, it was way too long ago).  On the way, I saw a huge crowd gathering in front of a swatch store.  Intrigued, I pushed my way through the crowd (I got better at this in Asia) and snapped some pictures.  Let me know if you actually recognize anyone.  I think it was some sort of store opening.

Streets of Central

We went to our last class for the week and turned in early for our Friday morning flight.  Shanghai was next...

Shenzhen Trip 1

This was only a day trip but it was a day trip the day after we got back from Beijing.

Shenzhen is a very large city (twice the size of Hong Kong) right across the border from Hong Kong and is located in mainland China (so you need a visa to get in and your HK phone probably will not work).  The trip to Shenzhen only takes about 2 hours from Central Station in Hong Kong Island(this includes immigration x2).  We decided to go for a visit because my roommate knew someone there.  The someone was an exchange student that went to our school from Shanghai.

I really didn't know what to expect.  When you know someone is going to show you around, you really don't do much research.  When we were first greeted with a view of the city, we saw that it was pretty large and developed.  I was expecting more of a town and not a full city.

In the border terminal between Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Our first view of Shenzhen

 We had gotten up rather early to make our meeting so we missed breakfast.  We dropped by a local restaurant to gather some strength.

Oh.. what to pick.. McDonalds or Chinese McDonalds

We went with the chinese version

Egg Souffle

Mochi with filling

 Ok.. maybe we went to both...

Hah... actually we only got coffee at McDonalds.

After a quick breakfast, we went to the train station.  It took like 20 minutes to get a ticket... sooooo maaaanyyy ppllllll

Line.. 

to get this...

 Our first stop was a very large building... like.. I couldn't get it into one picture large... I think it is a convention center of some sort..

Very large building.. If I remember correctly it is supposed to resemble a bird?

View of downtown Shenzhen from the base of the very large bird building

Walking up to the very large building

sooo. biggg

One end of the building

Sculpture at building

Nice...

How you get such a picture... 

Park on the other side of the building

Tai Chi Dude

 After walking under the large winged creature, we strolled through the park and made our way to the concert hall.

Concert hall dude

Famous ppl sigs I'm guessing

Inside

Outside

 After our tour of some of the architecture fininshed.  We made our way to get some lunch.

Sculpture outside CoCo Park

Iono

Inside the upper level of CoCo Park

After getting inside, we made a straight line straight to the food court.  We had the option of hotpot or something else.  After having hotpot in Beijing and loving it.  We chose hotpot.

Where we ate

O yea probably... Some of the stuff you use to make the sauce you dip your cooked food into

Pig Brain

Some of the food laid out to cook in the steaming pot

More raw food

My mix... I just threw a bunch of stuff in

Iced tea-ish taste

Shrimp were alive-ish.. I guess we know they are fresh

Cooked Pig Brain

 After our 2 hour lunch (hot pot takes awhile to eat), we went to the Dongmen Market to browse and potentially buy something.

McDonalds is everywhere.. and look at the type of building it is in

Mad peeps

O wat a silly restaurant

Their mascot.. a piece of yellow poop.. all their food is shaped like poop.. it may be funny but I heard the food is not goood

Stuff they sell in a really cheap market

Dice you roll with your partner to see who does what chores

Anything for 0.25USD

Chinese Brand shoes

Walking along

Bubble tea.. one of my staples in asia

um...

Look at the one in the middle

Uh oh.. competitive pricing

So many watches..only 1.75 USD each

It started to rain

Yes.. it is what you think it is... i bear on a horse

We found a genuine Cuoci tag on the groud!