SAS Travelogue-Hong Kong

SAS Travelogue-Hong Kong

by Rebecca Smith

OK, so I never thought I would say this but I miss dirty yucky nasty rude Shanghai. Hong Kong was neat and all, but Shanghai beats it 10 times over for shopping and weather. It rained everyday I was in Hong Kong and then the sun came out 2 hrs before I had to be back on the ship. I think it did it to spite me. That bastard. Anywho, so the first day, I went up to Victoria Peak, which is supposed to be a fantastic view of the city, but I guess that must be dependent upon the weather, which was not in my favor since by the time we reached the top, the only thing there to welcome us was a mixture of rain clouds and smog and a freaking shopping mall. The entire city of Hong Kong is a huge shopping mall, all department stores, Starbucks and McDonald’s. It was disheartening. But onwards and upwards…well at least further on. OK, so since it was all rainy and cold at the top and we couldn’t see a damn thing, we decided to go get a coffee (hot chocolate for me). I was walking carefully down the stairs as I have of late had rather bad experiences in nasty weather. Despite all my cautiousness, I reached the last step and went flying. I fell on my ass in front of like 50 tourists, who just stared at me like I did something idiotic and God was punishing me for it by making me look a fool, and who were they to question God’s motives and dare to help me up. So I withstood the pain and embarrassment and helped my own bruised ass off the floor amid the stares of the mean westerners. The only person who showed any concern for my well being was the nice Chinese boy who made me a hot chocolate and asked if I was alright. Well, I like Chinese people a lot more than I like American tourists. Hmmmph!!! Ok, now that you are done laughing at my foibles, please feel the indignance at the tourists’ behavior with me. I want to hear an audible tut tut or harrumph. Oh well, tape it for me and send it to me. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to send me mail (hint hint), the addresses for all the ports and the send by dates are listed on semesteratsea.com. Please also check that site for updates about our itinerary and any other information about the program. (Do I sound like their PR department has me on the payroll or what?) Right, so then what did I do? Oh, well obviously we descended the mountain. Then Shayna and I went to Wan Chai, or Chinatown. I know I know, Chinatown? In Hong Kong, a territory of China? Isn’t the whole place Chinatown? Well, I didn’t name it, I just visited it. Well, that was a bust. So we walked back to the ship and decided to go to the Temple Street night market instead. Here is where the adventure begins. 8pm, we depart for the night market in a group of 7. Taxis can not obviously fit this many people, so we split up. But the first group just took off before we even got a cab. Well, now it gets interesting. We try 3 cabs, which have no idea what we are talking about when we ask them to take us to the Temple Street night market, before a nice Chinese Hong Kong native offers his help. He asks one cabbie in Chinese who says he does not know what the market is because it is only his second day as a cabbie. We are beginning to get frustrated. The man teaches us how to say it in Chinese and writes it down for us in Chinese, myugai (this is obviously not the correct spelling, but its phonetic and the best I can do using the Roman alphabet). Finally, a cab driver sort of understands what we mean. So he drops us at this small street filled with fortune tellers with caged birds. One we can’t see the first group anywhere, and are positive we will never find them or the night market. Two, we are super pissed because we think that if this is the actual market that it is the worst market we have ever seen. So we walk through it, get lost, find another street and eventually discover the actual night market. This is much better. Not as cheap as Shanghai, but closer to the quality and variety of goods the markets in Shanghai had to offer. Bargaining is an option, but the same tactics employed in Shanghai of just walk away and let them chase you out the door until they accept your meager offer of $2 US for a silk dress, just do not work. If you walk away, they put the merch back and start talking to someone else. They will not bargain lower than $10 HK off the original price. I am not sure if it is because we are American tourists, or if this is just the way here. In Shanghai, you were disrespectful if you did not try to bargain at least 80% off the original offer. Lord, do I miss that. So I bought a few things, but not as much as Shanghai, and went home. Next day, this girl and I walked down the waterfront to do T’ai Chi at like 8 am. It was early, so the humidity wasn’t so bad yet, and there was a cool breeze off the water. In the distance you could see the skyline of Hong Kong Island with its mountainous backdrop. Behind us was the innovative architecture of Hong Kong’s Cultural Centre on Kowloon (the island on which we were ported) and next to us was this neat fountain with colorful Chinese dragons and warriors and other sea creatures personified. It was just the most interesting setting for the serene activity of T’ai Chi. The T’ai Chi itself was amazing. The master taught us a simple form with 25 poses. He told us the history and meaning of each pose as well as what the warriors used it for. He showed us how to make the movement from one pose to the other continuous and fluid. He spoke English very well and was the cutest old man. He walked the girl and me to the tourist info office and told us that he went to university for education and spent his life teaching, and now he teaches T’ai Chi. He said he and his wife have been doing it for years. He told us that they both love all the same things and are life partners. They were and are destined to be together forever. It was sooooo cute. His wife was teaching the SAS group that was doing a T’ai Chi field trip. Then I went to Lamma Island which was a bust as it started pouring rain and became freezing cold and we were all soaked. So much for the beautiful beaches. We had spent 2 hrs at a Vegan café before that, so I guess we were just asking the weather to change on us in the middle of our hike. Oh well, I told you, the Hong Kong weather is spiteful. So we ran for the next ferry and went back to the ship. I didn’t feel so hot after that so I stayed in that night and went to sleep early. Last day in Hong Kong (also my birthday). I had a FDP where I had to listen to lecture by a presenter for Radio Free Asia. I was not really very excited by this as I was certain it was going to be a boring talk about the communications industry in Hong Kong. It was in fact nothing like what I expected. It was a lecture setting, but the topic was varied indeed. Mr. Han, our lecturer, told us of how he became involved in radio. He had always wanted to do it since he was a child but failed his voice entrance exam for broadcasting school years ago, because the Chinese government wanted to put forth one voice for the Chinese people. So instead he became an electric factory worker in Beijing and became involved in worker’s rights movements. He later organized a trade unionist protest organization in Tiananmen Square and was arrested for his efforts. The government sentenced him to imprisonment in a TB (that’s right, my friends, tuberculosis) cell in which all the other inmates were infected with TB. Two years later they were forced to release him because he had dropped below 85 lbs and had to have lung surgery due to TB and overexposure, and American human rights activists were hassling the Chinese government. So Mr. Han and his family set off for New York for his surgery, where he continued his activism and lobbied Congress to support the trade unionist movements in China. When he returned to China, he stayed one night in a hotel in Huang Zhou province before the police found him and deported him to Hong Kong never to return to mainland China for seditious acts against Beijing. His family was still in Beijing. He started a newsletter called China Labor Daily and was interviewed by a local media outlet. Someone in Washington was listening and called to offer him a job. He accepted and now works as a daily call-in program host for Radio Free Asia, a network sponsored by Congress but run privately. It is a network with the goal of “freeing the people of Asia,” much like Radio Free Europe in eastern Europe after the dropping of the Iron Curtain. Many of their correspondents are underground in China or other Asian nations and work under dangerous conditions. Only 5% of the callers are women. They call from all over China to Hong Kong to tell horror stories to Mr. Han about working conditions in socialist China. Government officials often call in as well, referring to Mr. Han as “the dinosaur” or “the last Communist” because while they are all using the language of free market systems, he still refers to the plight of the worker and fights for labor rights. Mr. Han is one of the few “outed” presenters. He has the luxury of working in Hong Kong, which is part of China but operates under a different system. The government in mainland China still has a large amount of control over the communications industry and information technology. There is a new debate over the governments bid to control the internet in China. They have 24 points that are not to be violated in the material posted or looked at on the internet, violation of which can result in life imprisonment. China’s entry into the WTO may force changes in their control of information. Yahoo Enterprises was the first company to sign a petition against these 24 points, on grounds that it violates ordinances of the WTO. I thought his story was very interesting and telling of the changes that are beginning to happen in China as a result of their entry into the WTO. He made a point of reminding us though, that though capitalism is beginning to enter China, democracy is not part and parcel with it. Nor is dictatorship necessarily aligned with socialism. His talk was very compelling, but I think he was having a bit of trouble with speaking in English because when it came time for question and answer, he did not always understand the question, or answer it. After this, I rode across Hong Kong Bay in a Duk Ling. It’s an old Victorian left over, a junk boat used by the fisherman of the late 18th and early 19th century. Its sails are very unique in that they look like dragon wings. It was really speedy and whipped around the bay. I met some New Zealanders that had traveled around the world over 7 weeks in the opposite direction from us, beginning in Australia over to LA, through Europe, down to Asia, ending in Singapore then flying home. I was so impressed. I only hope that when I am in my 50’s I can still flit about the globe without a care. Well this was Hong Kong. That was my birthday. I didn’t do anything to exciting for my 21st since we had to be back on the ship by 7pm and the pub is not open on nights in port or the night prior to and after leaving port. Hopefully tomorrow night I can have a belated rite of passage and celebrate my 21st in the typical American fashion. Hope to get some pictures developed in Vietnam and include some in my next entry. Till Saigon everyone!!!! Zaijian!!