Photos from Shenzhen and Hong Kong

Here are the much anticipated photos from Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Enjoy!

Shenzhen
The city is new and expanding significantly. Here's a few pics of the skyline:




Here's the Lowu Commercial Center from the outside as well as a photo with our tailors:



Hong Kong

Here's some photos from the skyline and the city:




The Peak Tram:

Here's the subway:

Simposons Movie in Chinese...

10,000 Buddha's Monastary:



- no unibrow here...

Drinking on Saturday Night in Lan Kwai Fong:



Escalators:


Floating Restaurant:



Ferry to Macau:

Hong Kong: Day Three

On Saturday night, we ventured out to a few hotspots, including the Lan Kwai Fong beer festival, the Temple Street Night Markets, and the local arcade. The Lan Kwai Fong beer festival is held annually and is a true frat party on several social blocks on Hong Kong Island. The area is filled with bars, restaurants and clubs, and is thus quite lively in its own right. However, during the festival, yards of beer are served on the street and people are openly gulping beer, grabbing finger foods, and singing karaoke on the streets. It was a real sight to see...

The Temple Street Night Markets are more of the same from Beijing and Shenzhen, namely knock offs and other random Chinese goods sold by vendors on a particular block. Since we had seen so much of it already, neither of us were particularly excited by this. At the end of the evening, we found a local arcade and decided to go in. I got whipped several times by a few locals in Virtua Tennis, which I guess I am not very good at (nothing like 4 straight 40-love matches to give you that impression)...

The next morning, we decided to really dive into Hong Kong on Day Three. Specifically, we went to Stanley Market, right by the water in southern Hong Kong Island. Its home to an amazing market and some very nice sites. I'll post some pics shortly. At Stanley, I picked up a few paintings for my parents and sister Mechal/bro-in-law Chaim. They'll be in NYC in about 2 weeks, so enjoy...

Additionally, I picked up an ipod remote control for about $11 USD, much less than the retail price in NY. Finally, I picked up a random t-shirt depicting a kung fu master in the battles with "Noodles of Death". Yup, cool shirt. Howard also picked up a painting...

We decided to lunch at the infamous "Jumbo" floating restaurant. We took a small boat from the dock to the ship, and found one of the 6 restaurants suitable for our budget and palate. We ordered typical vegetarian food, but did not get our order for roughly 1 hour. We both complained, but got little response from the manager. Oh well... I won't be going back there anytime soon...

In the afternoon, we took the escalators to the Mid-levels on Hong Kong Island, on our way to the JCC for an all-you-can-eat BBQ. This was an amazing dinner, possibly the best of our trip, and only cost $220 HKD (~$28 USD). We ate sushi, salads, fish, steak, kebabs, sausage (yes, Howard had sausage!), chicken and lamb. Great times... The desserts were also amazing...

In the evening, we took the ferry to Macau, which took about 45 minutes. At Macau, we got stuck on the worst immigration line, which took another 30 minutes to get through (literally the entire ship was through immigration when we got through)... Once in Macau, we took the shuttle bus to our casino/hotel, the Casa Real. Our room is quite nice and we've enjoyed checking out the adjoining hotels this evening (The Golden Dragon and the Sands). Howard and I are both down, $18 USD and $30 USD respectively... We'll see what happens tomorrow...

Hong Kong: Day Two / Shenzhen: Day Three

My Friday was particularly interesting... I travelled in the morning back to Shenzhen to pick up our suits. We were both a bit concerned about getting them via our tailor's transport guy who would drop it off at the hotel for $10 USD. I wanted to verify the pickup, and since I had a multi-entry visa, agreed to travel alone back to the abyss... At Shenzhen, I picked up two "Ralph Lauren" polos for about $30 USD, an ipod case for $3USD, a replacement bag strap for Howard's bag for $3USD, and two "Mont Blanc" pens for $6USD. Then I picked up the suits, and let me tell you, the extra fitting was huge. These suits looked awesome... Not a bad morning...

I met Howard at the DHL in Mong Kok trainstation, which had a student rate for packages sent to Singapore. A 5kg package (roughly 10 lbs) would cost about $40 USD and get to Singapore in a day. Given that we needed to drop weight in our bags for our flights through Thailand (15kg max, which is pretty low, especially when Howard's bag alone is 7kg), we packed the suits and random items into the boxes and shipped them off.

After the shipping, we travelled off to the Monastary of the 10,000 Buddhas, which is on the northern end of Kowloon. We reached it by KCR (the train to Shenzhen). This was an amazing buddhist temple, with a massive staircase housing hundreds of buddha statues showing different faces and accents. At the top, the temple is very elegant with many smaller buddhas from floor to ceiling. Additionally, there are several buddha statues on the top platform, along with a beautiful pagoda. It's an amazing place and the amazing craftmanship of the buddha statues is quite breathtaking.

Shabbat was quiet... We rested from our long journeys thus far and reflected on our next few weeks in China and Thailand.

Shenzhen: Day Two / Hong Kong: Day One

After a full evening the night before, we headed out of our Shenzhen hotel towards Lowu for our first suit fittings. Our tailor brought the partially completed suit jackets and pants for Howard and I to try, making adjustments accordingly. I added custom buttons from the shops nearby to finalize the look I was seeking from the suits. After the fitting, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed back to Hong Kong. I would travel the following day to pick up the final products.

Prior to leaving Shenzhen, Howard and I ran to an ATM to try to get cash for the train to Hong Kong (roughly $73 HKG for First Class - i.e. a seat). We waited for nearly 20 minutes on a line, only to have the guy in front of me jam his card into the slot. I have never seen or experienced this before and was truly dumbfounded. It was fascinating to see a guy force the card into the slot, when it was clear the machine did not want it. After about a minute, it was confirmed that he jammed the machine, and looking proud of himself, the guy ran off. Howard and I were utterly confused...

The train to Hong Kong was not too bad, roughly 45 minutes. When we arrived, we went to the YMCA hotel next to the Peninsula, since our reservation was at the YMCA. For those of you who do not know, the Peninsula is an old, posh hotel known for its amazing tea service (a must do for tourists, apparently). Unfortunately, our reservation was for another YMCA in a poorer location. The hotel was a nightmare - no internet, small room, hard beds, remote control malfuctioning. We were able to survive nonetheless.

That evening we travelled to Victoria Peak, taking the Star Ferry across from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island and the Peak Tram up the mountain. At the peak, we took in some amazing views (to be shared tomorrow) and had a nice quiet dinner. We then went back to the hotel for some rest...

Shenzhen: Day 1

We arrived at Shenzhen at around 1pm, following an 8:30am flight on China Southern airlines from Beijing. The first thing we noticed was the nice weather and blue sky, which we had not seen in Beijing. We immediately checked into our hotel, then ventured out to Lowu Commercial City for some suit shopping. First things first, Shenzhen is a magnificent city, much larger and substantial than just four years ago, when I was last here. The Commercial City is a massive "shopping mall", with five floors of brand knock-offs in handbags, clothing, watches, shoes, luggage, jewelry, etc. The fifth floor is home to the fabric market and various tailors who make custom clothing.

Howard and I went first to the fabric market on the 5th floor and found the same vendor for suit material that I went to four years ago (still the best quality mens suiting fabric in Lowu). We both found two nice suiting fabrics, one summer and one winter weight in Super 150's and negotiated a price of around $700 RMB (or $93 USD) for the fabric. We then negotiated with a a woman named Kelly who directed us to a fine tailor named Zhang Xiao Lin, who offered to cut the suits for us in roughly 24-36 hours, with a fitting tomorrow morning. The price of the tailoring is roughly $450 per suit or $60 USD each, bringing each of our totals to roughly $213 USD for two suits of roughly $700 USD value each. Additionally, I was pretty specific in my requests of the tailor, asking for high lapels, a tapered suit that was form-fitting, flat front pants, sleeve buttons that open, open stitching on the lapels, proper horn buttons, a cool colored lining (in this case, I went all Boateng with bring Orange), and side vents. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited for the fittings in the morning...

After getting our suits, Howard and I grabbed a late lunch, then ventured through the mall. I got some much-needed foot attention (it's tough walking on sandals for nearly 5 weeks) with a massage/pedicure. We visited several electronics and watch shops, as well as a few DVD vendors and some jewelers. Despite several trys, we were unsuccessful in making a deal on anything. I guess we didn't really need any of this stuff...

One thing that is pretty neat about the knock-off market is the model of operation. At each station, be it watch, DVD, or handbag, a catalog of products is handed to you and you pick out what you'd like. Within 5 minutes, the items you request are in your hand. I picked out a few Tag, Mont Blanc, and Omega watches, all of which were exactly identical to their commercial counterparts (as per advertisements from the vendor). These knock offs are pretty impressive. However, they wanted nearly $450 RMB or $60 USD for the fake Omega. I dont know if a fake $1000 watch constitutes a $60 purchase... Maybe i'm just naive.

After a full day at the Lowu Commercial City, we went back to the hotel and then headed out to dinner at an obscure pizza joint named NYPD Pizza. Although it was off the beaten path and very difficult to find, the pizza was quite good, made fresh before our eyes. A nice end to a long day...

Beijing: Day Three

This morning, we woke up in time to catch the bus to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We got to the ticket office around 9:15am and were put on a random coach bus, filled with random Chinese and European tourists (roughy 80% Chinese). Our guide was a small Chinese woman who took the microphone upon disembarkment from the station and spoke for nearly 45 minutes entirely in Chinese. She then came over to us and the random Europeans and told us that the trip was 8 hours, we'd be first eating lunch at the Ming Tombs, then exploring them, then getting on the bus to go to the Great Wall. This whole message took 2 minutes in English and 45 in Chinese! Confusing...

When we got to the Ming Tombs, we grabbed lunch at a cafeteria onsite. We sat down and were immediately surrounded by the other caucasions on the bus. The servers brought out a massive bowl of rice, then some random chinese dishes to consume with the rice. The food was shockingly not terrible. Here's a photo of the rice and our Spanish bus mates:



Well, after lunch we explored the Ming Tombs for roughly an hour. This could've been greatly interesting, but instead was an utterly aweful experience. The tomb is way underground, with just a handful of huge red boxes and some thrones. Not too exciting. Here's some photos:

Photo of the State Operated Souvenier Store


One of many poorly phrased signs at the Ming Tombs









After the Ming Tombs, we took a 30-45 minute ride to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. We were given 2 hours at the site, so Howard and I decided to take the "cable car" up the mountain, and walk to the highest points of the Wall from there. As it turns out, the "cable car" is actually just a simple one seater "bumper car"-like seat with a harness. The seat is taken on a track up the mountain, at pretty sharp angles. When you arrive at the top, you are roughly half way up the mountain, with a good walk to the top of the Great Wall:


Apparently getting off the ride while its at an 75 degree angle is dangerous (who knew?)

Finally, Howard and I got moving up the Great Wall. At points, the path is very steep, without stairs, making it difficult and somewhat slippery to walk on. Additionally, there were so many tourists, it was often difficult to maneuver. In about 45 minutes, we were able to reach the top of our section of the wall. What an amazing view:







We walked back, but could not find the path down the mountain. Alas, we ended up taking the "cable car" back down the mountain. On the way down, the ride is quite faster, and with the windy path of the cables, it could easily double as a roller coaster, with the right conductor. Unfortunately, our conductor followed the rules and rode the hand brake all the way down:




At the bottom, we found a bunch of bears in a mini-zoo, which is apparently an attraction by the Great Wall (yes, this is about as random as it comes, but I now finally understand what a "Bear Circus in Elmira" means). By each bear section there are plates of food to throw at the bears. This was a fun pastime for about 5 minutes. The result was a few good bear pics:

We then got on the bus and took the 2 hour ride back to Beijing, by Tiannamen square. Exhausted from a full day, Howard and I grabbed a quick dinner at a local tea house restaurant, with live entertainment, including a band for chinese folk music and shadowboxing. Here's some photos:

The next morning, we'd fly to Shenzhen...

Beijing: Day One & Two

We left Istanbul via Emirates Airlines en route to Beijing with a stopover in Dubai. Emirates is a truly amazing airline, offering top notch service and amenities to its customers. On our flight to Dubai, we had an advanced TV system that included more than 500 TV shows, movies, video games and other forms of entertainment. Pretty awesome. On our flight to Beijing, the system was a bit more limited, but we were still given several video and audio channels. Additionally, since this flight was overnight, they gave us a nice overnight pack with socks, a toothbrush, blindfold, etc. When we arrived in Beijing, we walked right through customs pretty quickly, and were in our hotel shortly after (roughly 40 minutes from the airport). We both immediately grabbed some sleep and awoke the next morning for some exploring.

Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven, part of a large park roughly 20 minutes from our hotel. This was the place where the Emperors would come to worship. Here's a few photos:












On our way around the park, we saw a group of pre-teens and teens who were cheering for a Chinese pop star as part of commercial for TV. What was weird was this one random caucasion guy right in the center of the chinese teens. Needless to say, it served as a good laugh:





Our next stop was Tiannamen Square. This was beyond belief. The space is enormous and seemed to go on forever (think Washington Monument Plaza times ten). There were several statues representing communist values, glorifying the worker, on display. Here's some photos:











At the square, we ran into a couple of Chinese students learning English in the university. They escorted us around the square and to the Forbidden City, where they took us to an Art Exhibition. In there, we saw some magnificent works on rice paper and on canvas. I picked up one painting on rice paper depicting the game of 'Go' being played by two elders.

After that, we grabbed a quick lunch at a local Chinese restaurant, before heading into the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is another huge facility, housing the emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties in a one million square meter space (almost 11 million square feet). It's too difficult to describe without photos, so here ya go:











We finished up the Forbidden City around 6pm and headed back to the hotel. After a short rest, we grabbed dinner at a local place (American food, shockingly) and went back to bed...

The next day, we woke late and tried to get on a bus to the Great Wall, only to find out that we missed the last bus of the morning. We decided to walk around the city, head to the Pearl Market and see local life. The merchants were very pushy, holding our hands and forcing us to see their merchandise. It was a strong contrast to the markets in Morocco, where the merchants were verbally pushy, but not physical. We did manage to buy Beijing Olympic 2008 hats (also a Nutrilite ad from the subway and a photo of Pearl Market):





For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant. Check out this awesome tuna roll:

Good times all in all...