The shortest flight on the trip was from Taiwan to Hong Kong - around an hour and then we were in one place for three days. Let's spend a minute talking about Hong Kong, one of the many SARs in China. Ironically the place known for SARS is actually a SAR (Special Administrative Region). This is how the People's Republic allows places like Hong Kong and Maccau to maintain their freedoms, economic powerhouse environments, etc. even though they are technically part of China (Hong Kong was handed back from Britain in 1997). It is an "international" flight from Hong Kong to anywhere in mainland China...odd. Aside from odd arrangements (SAR) with China, Hong Kong is one of my favorite places in the world and is one of the two places I could live outside the United States.
Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong Island and across the harbour Kowloon and the New Territories. The Island is what most people think of when they imagine Hong Kong - skyscrapers, the hustle and bustle of a city like Manhattan, steep hillsides and mountains, etc. Kowloon is a newer area across the harbour and beyond Kowloon are the New Territories and then the border with China. There are many more islands, one of which is where the airport is located, and that is where we arrived on Thursday night. Our hotel was on Kowloon so we faced the Hong Kong skyline across the harbour. You can take a ferry across the harbour or the MRT high-speed subway train underneath the harbour between Kowloon and HK Island.
On Friday we had a full slate of school visits - four total so we were going at 7:30am and wrapped up around 3:30-4 in the afternoon. Our final visit was the German Swiss International School, and it is on the way up to Victoria Peak (or "The Peak" as everyone calls it in Hong Kong). So, to end a long day of visits we went to a restaurant on the peak and had a snack and some drinks. It was actually kind of cool that high up (probably around 75-80 down below, but probably the high 50s up on the peak) and we were sitting outside and the heat lamps were on! That afternoon I had a meeting with a Vanderbilt alum at 6:00pm for late tea at the Oriental Mandarin Hotel in downtown HK Island. After that we were all meeting up that evening in SoHo to go out to a great North African restaurant with some school college counselors. HK is really pedestrian-friendly and from the hotel near the harbour up the hillside to SoHo I was able to take a series of elevated walkways and then the world's longest (and steepest grade) escalator. The escalator goes down in the morning and up after 10:00am (for commuters - smart).
Saturday was a productive day on the professional and personal sides. I had lunch with some very important Vanderbilt prospects - the Wans (the husband owns one of the largest shipping fleet in the world - HK is the world's second largest port after Singapore). Before I met them for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the Conrad Hotel I went down along the harbour and took some pictures and a video and then enjoyed the ferry ride across the harbour on a beautiful morning. Lunch went for a few hours, it was delicious, great Cantonese cuisine, and then I took the MRT train back to the Kowloon side to the hotel. I met up with Seaby and Becky and Becky and I decided to go hiking.
Hong Kong is impressively natural - 40% of HK Island is natural parkland and reserve in the form of "country parks" - that sounds so British. These parks include scenic hills, woodlands, reservoirs, coastline, and striking views all across Hong Kong. Based on the recommendation from Mr. Wan we chose to go to Tai Tam Country Park. Tai Tam is one of the largest, constitutes a large part of eastern Hong Kong Island, and includes a number of semi-mountainous peaks. We started hiking before 4:00pm and wrapped up after sunset at 7:00pm. The hike was fairly steep, but included amazing views of the harbour, the skyline, and the natural beauty of the island just minutes from the urban core of the city. Saturday night we went to the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon and watched the Hong Kong Light Show at 8:00pm. This is an actual skyscraper light show that runs for about 15-20 minutes, and it is just what it sounds like - the many buildings across the harbour light up in many different, extremely creative ways, and the whole thing is set to music. It is quite an experience and very unique.
Sunday was a relaxing morning before we headed back out to the airport for a flight to Bangkok. It was a great stop in Hong Kong - the school visits went well, alumni meetings were productive and enjoyable, experienced some amazing restaurants, and even had time to hike around Hong Kong Island. Yes, definitely a great place to consider living outside the United States.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Great Finger to China
During a quick stop in Taipei, Taiwan I had the great opportunity to see and enter the world's current tallest building: Taipei 1o1. This building is by leaps and bounds the tallest thing in all of Taiwan, so it sticks out like a sore thumb in this city, not known for a massive skyline like Shanghai, Hong Kong, or New York City. So, our guide said the structure has been nicknamed the "Great Finger to China." Just in case you were not aware, when Mao and the Communists took control of mainland China in 1949 the democratic republican government of China was forced to flee to the island of Taiwan, where they remain to this day. Taiwan believes it is still the "true" China and the country's official name is the Republic of China. This history and animocity between the two countries leads to the middle finger reference to Taipei 101.
Taipei 101 is quite an engineering marvel, but my favorite part besides the 88th floor observation deck view was the fact that it only took 36 seconds to get from the lobby to the 88th floor. I think that bears repeating - it took just 36 seconds to rise 88 floors! That is one impressive elevator. Unfortunately, like most of Asia, Taipei was experiencing a lot of haze and smog on the day we went up in Taipei 101, so the views are not as impressive in my pictures as they would have been on a clear day.
Taipei was a quick, yet worthwhile visit - we did see Taipei 101, walked around the city, had some great local cuisine, and found time for a Taiwan foot massage, but rest assured, work was done. We took counselors from Taipei American School out to dinner one night and then had a great visit to that school the next day where we spoke to the entire junior class - over 200 students - and then had a college fair where I ran out of all materials, so Vanderbilt was a pretty popular choice for those students.
Taipei 101 is quite an engineering marvel, but my favorite part besides the 88th floor observation deck view was the fact that it only took 36 seconds to get from the lobby to the 88th floor. I think that bears repeating - it took just 36 seconds to rise 88 floors! That is one impressive elevator. Unfortunately, like most of Asia, Taipei was experiencing a lot of haze and smog on the day we went up in Taipei 101, so the views are not as impressive in my pictures as they would have been on a clear day.
Taipei was a quick, yet worthwhile visit - we did see Taipei 101, walked around the city, had some great local cuisine, and found time for a Taiwan foot massage, but rest assured, work was done. We took counselors from Taipei American School out to dinner one night and then had a great visit to that school the next day where we spoke to the entire junior class - over 200 students - and then had a college fair where I ran out of all materials, so Vanderbilt was a pretty popular choice for those students.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Riding the rails to Motomachi on the Toyoko Line
After one heck of a day out at the Great Wall we came back into Beijing and boarded a plane bound for Japan. A few hours later we landed in Tokyo, stop number three on this trip. Last fall the time spent in Tokyo was pretty miserable because it was the first stop, so there was jet lag, and it was hot, the weather was in the 90s and really humid. This time it was far more enjoyable, we had cool, crisp days in the low 60s, anywhere you go after China the air just seems cleaner and fresher, so Tokyo benefitted from that perspective this time around. Time in Tokyo for fun was fairly limited this go around, we had days full of school visits (they were great, so the time was well-spent), but ate dinner at some great restaurants in the Shinjuku part of the city where we were staying.
Tuesday brought a new adventure because we scheduled a visit to Yokohama Int'l School and Yokohama (the third largest city in Japan) is about an hour southwest of Tokyo by train. How do I know that? For this visit we went local and took the Tokyo Metro and Japanese high speed train system to get to the school. It was quite an experience maneuvering the Metro stations, transferring trains, etc., especially during morning rush hour, but we made it to Yokohama with some time to spare. Yokohama is a beautiful city compared to Tokyo (a big, bustling metropolis). It operates at a slower pace, is on the water and has vast waterfront parks, it is extremely clean, very pedestrian-oriented, very hilly, and had beautiful homes. The counselor at the int'l school told us many people live in Yokohama and commute to Tokyo. A little bit of history too - Yokohama is near where Commodore Perry landed in the 1850s and "opened" Japan to the West. Despite the fact that the city has been destroyed by earthquakes and a U.S. bombing in 1945, Yokohama had many historical buildings, a Chinatown neighborhood, and was very green. It was neat to see an "off-the-beaten-path" Japanese city and spending time in Yokohama (and handling the overwhelming Japanese subway and trains) was a highlight of my time in Japan.
Tuesday brought a new adventure because we scheduled a visit to Yokohama Int'l School and Yokohama (the third largest city in Japan) is about an hour southwest of Tokyo by train. How do I know that? For this visit we went local and took the Tokyo Metro and Japanese high speed train system to get to the school. It was quite an experience maneuvering the Metro stations, transferring trains, etc., especially during morning rush hour, but we made it to Yokohama with some time to spare. Yokohama is a beautiful city compared to Tokyo (a big, bustling metropolis). It operates at a slower pace, is on the water and has vast waterfront parks, it is extremely clean, very pedestrian-oriented, very hilly, and had beautiful homes. The counselor at the int'l school told us many people live in Yokohama and commute to Tokyo. A little bit of history too - Yokohama is near where Commodore Perry landed in the 1850s and "opened" Japan to the West. Despite the fact that the city has been destroyed by earthquakes and a U.S. bombing in 1945, Yokohama had many historical buildings, a Chinatown neighborhood, and was very green. It was neat to see an "off-the-beaten-path" Japanese city and spending time in Yokohama (and handling the overwhelming Japanese subway and trains) was a highlight of my time in Japan.
The Great Wall of China, Take Two
We had a free day on Sunday in Beijing, and anytime there is a day available in that city an excursion to the Great Wall is a must for a little exploring. Last time we went to the Badaling site of the rebuilt wall, which had crowds like Disney World, so we spoke with our hotel concierge who recommended the site at Mutianyu. About an hour and a half northeast of Beijing, the Mutianyu location did not disappoint. This time we arranged a private car through the hotel and headed north early in the morning. The weather was great, the people at the wall almost nonexistent, we had whole sections of the Great Wall all to ourselves. The air was still a little hazy from Beijing (those factories no doubt working double time because of the Clean Air Day), but the views were striking. This portion of the Great Wall was very mountainous, extremely forested with pine trees, and was originally build back in the 500s AD and has since been rebuilt and restored.
Next time, if there is a third time I get to explore one of the world's wonders, I am planning to head out to Jinshanling and Simatai portions of the Great Wall, more than 2 hours outside Beijing. Hardly any tourists go that far out and those portions include the original wall, non-restored portions with visible damage from recent wars like WWII. It would be great to get out there on a Clean Air Day, which is usually when the professional pictures of the Wall sites are taken. But, Mutianyu was a great stop on this trip and the pictures are really amazing.
Next time, if there is a third time I get to explore one of the world's wonders, I am planning to head out to Jinshanling and Simatai portions of the Great Wall, more than 2 hours outside Beijing. Hardly any tourists go that far out and those portions include the original wall, non-restored portions with visible damage from recent wars like WWII. It would be great to get out there on a Clean Air Day, which is usually when the professional pictures of the Wall sites are taken. But, Mutianyu was a great stop on this trip and the pictures are really amazing.
I witnessed my first Clean Air Day
There is a phenomenon known as "Clean Air Day" in Beijing. If you have read this blog before than you will know that I believe Beijing has the worst air quality of any world city, it is awful. When you see my pictures you will know what I mean, all day long it is like the city is in a cloud - a dirty, dusty, brown cloud. With that expectation in mind, you can imagine my surprise when I opened the curtains from my hotel room on Friday morning (we got in late Thurs night) and was greeted with the bluest of blue skies...in Beijing. We were all speechless, we could not believe this was the case, no haze, no dust, it was truly a clean air day, a little too good to be true. It turns out the Chinese government, which controls the weather in Beijing, had declared a "Clean Air Day" on Friday because former President George H.W. Bush was in town, so that means best foot forward and the cleanest air I have ever seen in China. Sadly, when I opened my curtains the next morning, the city was once again engulfed in a think haze, the shuttered factories were back at work, spewing pollution into the air once again, former President Bush must have been on his way, but I will always remember Clean Air Day.
Last week didn't have a Monday
On Sunday we departed LAX for a 17.5 hour flight on Singapore Airlines across the Pacific Ocean to Singapore. This is the second time on a cross Pacific flight I have managed to find time to sleep for around 8 hours. That is a good thing when you are in one place for that amount of time. The other time was spent eating, reading, and catching up on some movies like Juno, The Kingdom, and Michael Clayton. If you haven't seen The Kingdom then it is a must see, great movie. We landed in Singapore and then had a short layover, caught a flight to Shanghai, and landed on Tuesday at noon. Left LA on Sunday, arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday...gotta love the International Date Line.
Unfortunately that meant the time spent in Shanghai was somewhat influenced by jet lag, although it wasn't too bad. On Tuesday night we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower, one of the signature landmarks on the Pudong side of Shanghai. Pudong is China's financial and commercial center, home to many of the world's tallest buildings, and it is across the Huangpu River from the Bund and Puxi - the older parts of Shanghai. The Pearl Tower was built in 1994 and started the construction boom that is now Pudong (used to be farmland). Why did we go up in the Pearl Tower? It is one of the world's tallest towers, the complex has 11 spheres, and in one of the largest spheres hundreds of feet in the air we had dinner in a revolving restaurant with great views of Shanghai. Next door is the World Financial Center (Google this building), a behemoth of a building with 101 stories, it will be the 3rd tallest in the world when completed this year.
The next two days were spent working - a.k.a. visiting international schools. The most exciting of which was our attempt to find the British Int'l School and that involved our cab driver stopping and asking people on the street where to go, as every Chinese person near the intersection stared at the two gringos sitting in the backseat. China does not have GPS or any navigation systems (again, blocked), so it is always a wild ride attempting to find locations like these international schools. After two days of work we boarded a domestic Air China flight (beef or chicken for dinner) for Beijing.
Unfortunately that meant the time spent in Shanghai was somewhat influenced by jet lag, although it wasn't too bad. On Tuesday night we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower, one of the signature landmarks on the Pudong side of Shanghai. Pudong is China's financial and commercial center, home to many of the world's tallest buildings, and it is across the Huangpu River from the Bund and Puxi - the older parts of Shanghai. The Pearl Tower was built in 1994 and started the construction boom that is now Pudong (used to be farmland). Why did we go up in the Pearl Tower? It is one of the world's tallest towers, the complex has 11 spheres, and in one of the largest spheres hundreds of feet in the air we had dinner in a revolving restaurant with great views of Shanghai. Next door is the World Financial Center (Google this building), a behemoth of a building with 101 stories, it will be the 3rd tallest in the world when completed this year.
The next two days were spent working - a.k.a. visiting international schools. The most exciting of which was our attempt to find the British Int'l School and that involved our cab driver stopping and asking people on the street where to go, as every Chinese person near the intersection stared at the two gringos sitting in the backseat. China does not have GPS or any navigation systems (again, blocked), so it is always a wild ride attempting to find locations like these international schools. After two days of work we boarded a domestic Air China flight (beef or chicken for dinner) for Beijing.
The Backlog Blog
Ah, at long last I am finally getting a chance to post something for my Spring 08 Asia Tour. The title is very appropriate as - and I apologize - I have been neglect in my postings and I am backlogged for three stops on the trip. Why? You may be asking, would I be so behind? Well, one simple answer, the People's Republic of China. Apparently the Communist government of the burgeoning superpower finds Blogspot to be a threat to the People and therefore has blocked it (along with Wikipedia and other sites that could corrupt the population). Therefore, while much happened at stops one and two, Shanghai and Beijing, I was unable to chronical the events on a daily basis. That all ends as of today because I will be back on track and after a few postings this evening from Taipei, the backlog blog will be a thing of the past. Let's get started...
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