Hong Kong

Skyscrapers stand tall by day and blaze brightly by night.  An awesome sight to see.

Hong Kong is comprised of 4 main areas: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories and the Outlying Islands.  More than 70% of Hong Kong is mountains and forests, most of which is in the New Territories.  Almost 95% of HonKongers speak Cantonese, however we had no trouble because English is widely spoken and street signs are bilingual as well as most restaurant menus.

Walking along the Fenwick Pier seeing the city sights.

Turtle shaped building - museum.

The Blooming Bauhinia

The Peak is the highest point (396 m) on Hong Kong Island since 1888.  A beautiful view of the city and an area for the rich and famous.  Here you see single dwelling homes of the very rich.

We travelled in a sampan to see Aberdeen's main attraction, the typhoon shelter, where the sampans of Hong Konger's boat-dwelling, fisher folks, used to moor. 

We returned to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant for lunch.

The Sung's found us in Hong Konk and we enjoyed supper with them.

View from our room on the 51st floor of the Nina Tower Hotel.  There were 80 floors on this tower of the hotel and 41 floors on the other tower of this hotel.

Saturday morning market in Hong Kong.

The High Speed Train to Guangzhou

The high speed train to Guangzhou.

Countryside all the way to Guangzhou.

The Ancestral Temple of the Chen family was completed in 1893.  The funds for the Ancestral Hall came from the various clans in the Guangdong province, with the Chen surname.  The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall covers a total area of 15,000 sq m.  It has 19 individual units which are connected by long corridors, halls, rooms, pavilions and courtyards.  The buildings have beautiful decorative schemes on them which a variety of materials and techniques such as wood carving, brick carving, stone carving, stucco, pottery figures, iron and copper ornaments, surface painting and murals were used to create the mist decorative effects.  This building is one of the Important Heritage Sites.  Very impressive.

The mission of the Museum was to collect, preserve, research and display folk arts and traditional crafts from the Guangdong province.

Zhongshan all lit up at night.

The End to an Amazing China Adventure

China's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow & Yangtze River Cruise for 19 days was an amazing experience.  I heard the ancient history stories, saw the incredible China of today and now wonder what the Chinese culture will be like in the future.

Because of the mega change in the last 15 - 20 years, the cities are a huge mass of concrete and towering buildings with exceptional architectural design.  All of Canada's population could fit into 2 of China's cities (Beijing & Shanghai), with room to spare.  It is really hard to imagine that millions of people live in one city.  There isn't a lot of space between buildings, the roads are a mass of overpasses and underpasses with traffic moving quite smoothly, a lot of green spaces for people's enjoyment and the cities were all well kept and clean.

The food each meal were traditional Chinese dishes served on a round swivel glass tray in the middle of the table, where we were able to help ourself from the bowls of food placed on the tray.  We were given a small plate, soup bowl, glass, cup and chopsticks (we were also were given a fork).  I got better at using chopsticks by the end of the 19 days but still have a lot of room to improve.  The food was quite good, some dishes I didn't care for but there was always plenty of food so I certainly didn't go hungry.

Bus #1, Lisa's group, had people from Canada, US and New Zealand.  We travelled and ate together each day getting to know one another and experiencing China together.  There are so many memories of our journey through China.  One such memory is the squat toilets and no toilet paper in the bathrooms.  A novelty at first, but...I welcomed the sit down toilets on our return home.

Another great memory for Elaine and I was meeting up with the Sung family in Hong Kong.  It was so great of them to find us there.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to use the subway, as efficiently as Dennis, to find them.  We had a great visit as we enjoyed our final night's dinner with them.  Thanks Dennis and Jennifer for taking time to meet us in Hong Kong.

2015 China...A Memorable Experience!

Macau - China's Little Vegas

View of Macau from the ferry.

Macau city streets.

Kun Iam Temple is Macau's oldest temple dating back to 1627.  Its roofs are decorated with porcelain figurines and the halls are also richly decorated.  Inside the halls you can smell incense burning and see  beautifully decorated alters where people stopped to pray. In the temple's terraced garden,the first American treaty was signed in 1844.

Burning incense.

Buddha figure in the garden.

Largo do Senado, Macau's most important historical building houses the government buildings.  It is so named because the body sitting there refused to recognize Spain's sovereignty during the 60 years that occupied Potugal.  From Macau's old city wall, we were able to view the city.

The canons are still situated at their original positions on the wall for the protection of the city.

The most treasured icon in Macau is the Ruins of the Church of St. Paul.  The facade and stairway are all the remain of the early 17th century Jesuit church.  The church was one of the greatest monuments to Christianity in Asia.  A fire, in 1835, destroyed everything except the facade and stairway which you can still see today.