Sai Kung

Just did a lovely hike in Sai Kung, and saw my first Cantonese cows hiding out in the bushes!





Apparently cows in Hong Kong don't pronounce the 'm' and so instead of saying 'MOOO' they say 'NGOOO.' (Like how dogs bard differently in Korea.) I was surprised because Hong Kong is so into being bilingual, but apparently this doesn't count for cows. Is this true Henry?

Sweet Tofu!!!

This is my blog with lots of pictures for those with a short attention span. You can read my rantings about hiking in Hong Kong on my other blog, for longer attention spans: http://www.asolitaryplace-fiona.blogspot.com/

Tibet! Tibet!

Just thought i'd comment on how the media in Hong Kong and China seems to be dealing or not dealing with the Tibet situation at the moment.

Incidentally, when Bjork did a concert in Shanghai last month she dedicated a song about independence to tibet and yelled 'tibet! tibet!' at the end and caused alot of anger and threat to not be able to return to China.

Since the protests the English language Chinese paper i get here has had lots of interesting articles and reports. They are mainly about how the Dalai Lama is an evil man, and have very different reports about the number of people dead as a result of the conflict than the BBC reports.

From Wednesday's paper; "Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang yesterday again urged the international community to see the Dalai Lama's 'true face' and offer no support for his secessionist activities."

None of the reports focus on any actual events that happened, but only on defending China. Eg, front page yesterday was about international Chinese students claiming that the western media coverage is bias. Meanwhile, when i was in mainland China last week i was watching the English channel, which spent about half an hour going through differnt foreign reports about the tibet protests and really detailed critique of all their arguments. I think the segment went on for longer, because i fell asleep.

So anyway, I think i'll continue to get my news from BBC, and my sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing propaganda from 'China Daily.'

Tea Diaries: Part 1

This is part of my backlog of tea experiences. I'll post them all up eventually.


This is bubble tea from the great smile Taiwanese cafe, just nearby. It's great bubble tea, i like to think because they're Taiwanese, and it's not too sweet. Good pearls.

From memory this is hot mango tea. Also from a Taiwanese place.

And hot peach tea. Too sweet.

This is a really creamy bubble tea.

Not Very Good Pasta

This week i got to have dinner at the home of my classmates, Kit, Jennifer and Priscilla. Very exciting!

First challenge is chinese mushrooms. I don't think they suck up the sauce as much.

Check out this very cute small person!

Next challenge is eating pasta with chopsticks.

And i only managed to get one piece of aluminium in the pasta - if you look really close you can see it in between Priscilla's teeth. I guess putting metal in food is one of the important elements of the western culinary experience. It reminded me of a time when my mum made sweet and sour pork with glass in it. Do you remember that mum? Do you? Eh?

Yangshau

We spent easter in Yangshau, Guanxi province, Southern China. The place is mad - with beautiful mountains and villages, but unfortunatly a touristic town centre. At least they had great french crepes!


The tao of mongolian hot pot.

Tai Chi

Climbing. Over 300 routes! Unfortunatly we only got to do 3.

Cycling around rice paddies, getting strange looks from little old ladies.

Trains! Yay for long distance trains! Who would've thought you could fit so many people into a tiny compartment, but the Chinese.

Tea Times!

A few weeks back we went to Guangzhou (Canton) just over the border in mainland China, for some tea tourism!!!

When you see anything that says 'Made In China' (including Tim) it probably came from Guangzhou. It's full of dodgy factories, dim sum, and luckily for us...TEA!

There are streets and streets of tea merchant shops, so we had a day of tea tasting, which makes you feel really weird in the head after a while.



Jasmine flower tea!

Tea shop

Tea ceremony table

Tea bags! But bigger! For when you really really need to stay awake....

Tea sets! Hoorah!

And i think there's some other stuff in Guangzhou to see... but who cares?! Hooray for tea!

Do Not Stare at Monkeys!

I went on a hike. It was good. From the top you can see many places in Hong Kong. And you can even see into China.

Here is a police line, sectioning off a dead body that was about to get helicoptered out.

There are monkeys in the national park. Here is a feral monkey. They like to attack, especially white people.

There are signs telling you how to behave around monkeys.

Here is a monkey. I did not stare at it.

Notice this man is staring at the monkey. He didn't read the sign.

Dragon's Back

But how can there be hiking in Hong Kong? It's just a city of sky scrapers!
Wrong! There are many hikes in Hong Kong. In fact, 70% of the entire country (special administration regions, sorry) is designated national park. I don't know why i sound like a tourist broshure right now. Anyway, here are some photos to proove it.

Dragon's Back walk is a section of the Hong Kong Trail, and it is a spectacular ridge that goes up and down (like the back of a dragon, duh).

This is where we started

The view from the ridge out over a bay whose name i can't remember.

And there's a beach at the end! And a cafe with horrible ex-pats but tasty food.