China Trip Recap

Many thanks to Sloan for taking care of the Luke and Hope for 17 days!

As I look back, here are some of my highlights:

• Attending church at Kowloon International Baptist Church on two different Sundays
• The Peak...eating dinner on the Peak and being able to see the entire city
• The earthquake...amazing that I was in China on the day it happened...the National Day of Mourning, 3-minutes of silence, flags at half mast, television and newspaper coverage, etc.
• Excursions to Lamma Island and Cheung Chau
• Shopping at Stanley, the Ladies Market, the Jade Market, Causeway Bay and Lo Wu.
• Chinese-style meals!
• Taking morning jogs along the water front in Kowloon
• Seeing all the signs for the Beijing Olympics
• The amount of construction taking place in China
• The amount of people in Hong Kong and China
• Never did find a lefty in China!
• Finally found an Olympics t-shirt in Lo Wu

A quick thank you to my BSF teaching leader, Mike Pent, who gave me the idea to do this blog. This has been a great way to recap my thoughts on the trip each day and keep everyone informed back home. Thanks for taking the time to read it and post comments.

The next blog will be when the whole family moves over there...right Sloan?

Day 16 - Back to Reality

This was my last day in Hong Kong. My flight left for KC at noon (Hong Kong time, 11 pm KC time) and arrived in KC at 6:30pm.

In order to conquer the jet lag coming back, I scheduled a wake-up call at 5:45 am. I was out the door for a run then spent about an hour walking through Kowloon Park, which is close to the hotel. The park is pretty good size and many people were out exercising. I also found a pond with a bunch of pink flamingos. The other part of my plan to conquer jet lag was to stay awake for most of the flight. I only slept for about an hour of the flight and kept myself busy reading the rest of the time. I finished a book about John Wesley and got about half way through another on Hudson Taylor. When I arrived in LA, I was able to bet through Customs in about 5 minutes and my flight to KC did not leave for another 3 hours. Since I had some time to spare Uncle Phil picked me up for a quick trip to In-N-Out Burger for lunch...still the best! It was great to catch up with Uncle Phil and I am glad the timing worked out.

The flight to KC was pretty uneventful and I was able to stay awake for most of the flight. I arrived back in KC about 6:30 and was home to see the family by 7:30. Luke and Hope were standing at the door jumping up and down with excitement!

It was a great trip but it's good to be home!

Day Fifteen - Almost Over

Kind of got off to a rough start this morning at breakfast. I was looking under the hoods of a few pans, looking for my normal pancakes and waffles when I lost my appetite upon finding 2...yes 2...varieties of chicken feet, chicken feet salad or bbq chicken feet. Just seeing these things made me loose my appetite, so I ended up with a couple pieces of watermelon and toast.

From there we headed to our largest factory in China. We have been to 2 other factories that have roughly 20,000 employees, but we were just a very small portion of their business. This factory also has around 20,000 employees but we make up a decent size of their volume. This was an unbelievable factory...rated by the Chinese government as one of the top 100 factories (all industries) in the country. They have 5.4 million square feet of manufacturing space and 1.4 million square feet of dormitories. By far the nicest dorms I have seen at all the factories. For their workers, they have basketball courts, soccer fields, a bank, a grocery store, a library, and a post office. On site they also have a fire department. For their management, they had a Starbucks-style coffee shop and a very very nice restaurant. The dorms are pictured above.

A few parting comments on China. They smoke cigarettes everywhere...inside, outside, anywhere. Hong Kong just adopted similar laws to the US that basically ban it anywhere indoors but in China, they smoke everywhere. The Chinese people were very friendly and helpful. I learned quickly, the best way to get one of them to laugh or smile was to try to say something in Chinese...it always surprised them to hear a white person attempt to speak their language. One thing I forgot to mention on the National Day of Mourning...every tv station in my hotel last night (probably 30-40 channels) were all in Chinese and were showing the same program, which was coverage of the earthquake. All the foreign channels had a message about being blocked due to the mourning. I even heard from someone else today say that all bars in China have also been closed for mourning. The picture to the left is a government building in He Shan...notice the flag still at half mast.

We came back to Hong Kong on a ferry that took about 3 hours traveling down the West River.

Tomorrow I catch a flight back to KC and back to reality!

Day Fourteen - China

Today we traveled to 2 factories, both Northwest of Hong Kong about a 2 hours drive. The factories are all starting to look the same now but we did travel into some areas that were a little less congested...more 4-5 story buildings than high-rises and a lot more agriculture as we are close to the Pearl River delta (I think). After visiting the second factory, Tim left for Hong Kong with both of our Chinese hosts, so Mike and I were left alone with our driver who speaks ZERO English! We were supposed to have a 1-hour drive to our hotel but for some reason he took a route that would resemble trying to get from Kansas City to Topeka and going through Emporia!! We would have corrected him but it took us about an hour to find a street sign in English and by that time it was too late to get it corrected! After a 3-hour ride, we finally got to our hotel. The hotels in China are very nice and pretty new but they mainly cater to Chinese guests and only a few of the staff speak English so it was interesting trying to order dinner!

On another note (and I may have mentioned this in yesterday's blog), all flags in China are at half mast for 3 days to mourn the earthquake victims. This is the first National Day of Mourning in 30 years and the first one in the history of China that mourns ordinary citizens!

Also, I forgot to mention in Sunday's blog that I ran into a couple on the subway that was from Canada. I told them I had a brother who lived in Winnipeg and they asked what took him there. I mentioned he was working for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the lady (probably 60-65 years old) mentioned she played the organ for a Layton Ford crusade a long time ago in Canada...there is more to the story but I probably shouldn't post it in my blog while in China. I can give more details when I get back.

You will notice a couple of funny things about the photo below...1) I took a picture of it...2) it's misspelled. I was got a pretty good kick out of this and also taking a picture of it. The sign was posted in our hotel lobby next in front of a miniature replication of a new housing development going up around the hotel...not sure why photoes are off-limits.

The weather has been absolutely fantastic for our entire trip until last night and today as it has been raining non-stop. It didn't really matter since we were inside factories all day but it does make the drive a little more interesting. I will say one thing about the Chinese, the rain does not keep them off their bikes or motorcycles. They all wear ponchos and don't seem too affected by the rain. Even the motorcycle taxi drivers have 2-person ponchos that attempt to keep the passenger dry as well!

Day Thirteen - Back to China

Overall, it was mostly a working day in our Hong Kong Buying Office. The highlight of the day was the pigeon I had for lunch...once again, served with the head on the plate! It came in five pieces, two wings, the chest cut in half, and the head. I luckily ended up with a small wing...not much meat but I did try a few bites. The rest of the meal was traditional Chinese...bbq pork, beef, octopus, broccoli, dim sum (I am still trying to figure out what is inside this but it is some type of dumpling)and fried rice. At about 5pm we headed for China. It took abbot 3 hours to make it from our office to the hotel. This time most of the drive was at night. In China, there must be hundreds of deaths each day on bicycles...as we were approaching the hotel, in the dark, in the rain, on a 4-lane street...all of a sudden a bicycle is coming down the middle of the street the wrong direction...I seriously thought we were going to hit him but it didn't phase our driver. We had dinner at a Japanese steak house inside the hotel. The meal was very good and very similar to a Japanese steak house in the States.


I am not sure how much coverage the earthquake is still getting in the United States but it is all over the papers & tv here. Today was the official National Day of Mourning for the victims, the first such day in 30 years. At 2:28pm, there was 3 minutes of silence. At our office, we all gathered in a break room and watched on tv a ceremony taking place in Tienanmen Square. The moment of silence had a different twist than anything I have ever seen...during the entire moment of silence...every car horn, police siren, tornado siren, etc. was to be sounded as a symbol of the country's wailing/mourning for the victims. This began 3 days of mourning that includes no public recreational activities (i.e. sports). I will always remember being in China on both the day the earthquake took place along with this day of mourning. Also, the earthquake has now been upgraded 8.0 on the Richter scale. Since the quake, there have been 24 aftershocks of 5.0-5.9 and 4 aftershocks of 6.0 and greater.

Below is an attempt to post a video I took of Chinese television...

Day Twelve - A lot!

Trying to make the most of my last non-working day in Hong Kong, here is the short version: 8-mile jog...church at Kowloon International Baptist Church...Olympian City Mall...Ladies Market...Mong Kok...Flower Market...Bird Market...Causway Bay...Times Square (world's only curved escalator)...So Ho (world's longest escalator)...Indian food for a late dinner...time for bed.

I started this morning with an 8-mile jog along the promenade. I ended up meeting a guy on the run from San Diego and we ran for about 50 minutes together. He has been coming to China for 15 years and it was interesting to get his viewpoint on everything from the earthquake to the Olympics to doing business in China.

After the run, I took the subway (called MTR) to church in Kowloon Tong. It was a great service and it is an amazing experience to worship with them. One point of interest is that "amma's" (you have to read yesterday's blog to understand this) get Sunday's off and there were seven of them sitting directly in front of me at church. It's powerful to see different classes of people and many different nationalities all worshiping the same Living God.

After church, I headed over to Olympian City Mall...which, ironically, is about the only place close to our hotel where you can find Beijing Olympic stuff. The t-shirts are sold out all over the city, but I got a few things for Luke and Hope and the nieces and nephews.

At noon, I hooked up with Tim and Mike for a long afternoon of sight seeing and shopping. We started out at the Ladies Market, which is a street lined with booths selling everything from clothing to purses to watches to luggage. From there we walked through the Mong Kok district, which I have been told is the most densely populated district in Hong Kong with tons of high-rise apartments. As I have already notes, everywhere you go in Hong Kong there are people, but in Mong Kok it is truly beyond comprehension...in every direction the streets are packed shoulder to shoulder with people and this was just an ordinary Sunday in May...no special event! From there we walked to the Bird Market and the Flower Market, which are kind of self explanatory...store after store selling flowers/birds.

From there, we headed to Causway Bay to see the World's only curved escalator. Not sure why it's cureved but it was kind of interesting to see. While there we ran into a pop singing group, probably similarly Hong Kong's version of Hannah Montana...groupies were everywhere. After the curved escalator, we headed to the So Ho district which is home to the world's longest escalator! It is not one long escaltory but a bunch of escalators that string together for about a mile...it's outside and goes up the hill from the business district towards the peak. From there, we met a supplier at an Indian restaurant called Tan Dore's. The food was very good...the lamb was the best! After that it was back to the hotel...my day began at 5:30am with a run and ended about 10:45 after dinner.

Tomorrow (Monday) we have a working day in our Hong Kong Buying Office before heading back to China in the evening.

A few more pictures...Ladies Market...Mong Kok...Flower Market...Bird Market...Long Escalatory.

Day Eleven - Cheung Chau

This is going to be a long blog...it's Saturday...I left my room at 7am and just returned at 10pm! I started the day by heading over to the island of Cheung Chau (great recommendation from Kathy & Orin). It is a small fishing village located about 45 minutes away by ferry. I was able to walk around for awhile in the main shopping section before renting a bicycle to see the rest of the island. No cars are on island, just bikes! The island was mainly loaded with tourist from Hong Kong, not many foreigners. I hiked to a couple of look-out points, found a place called the Alliance Bible Seminary, and saw a few temples. Cheung Chau is famous for something called the Bun Festival but it just took place last Monday...barely missed it. One of the pictures to the left is from a look-out point the other is the very nice bike I was able to get my hands on.

It was back to Kowloon by 1pm to meet meet up with Tim then head to the Hong Kong Museum of History, which was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. The history of Hong Kong is quite interesting and revolves mainly around the British occupation, the opium trade, a war in the mid-1800's, and the signing of the 100-year lease in 1897. The cost to get into the museum was only HK$10 which is roughly $1.25 in US dollars...pretty good deal! We also discovered another thing about the museum...it is the one place you can go in Hong Kong to get away from people! On our walk over there we couldn't even walk side-by-side because the crowds were so thick, but as soon as we inside the museum, we had the place to ourselves! We kind of got rushed through the end of the exhibit because we needed to be back to the hotel by 3pm to meet up with Mike.

At 3pm we headed over to an area of Kowloon called the Jade Market. It is famous for all types of cheap jewelry...mainly jade but also pearls, necklaces and the usual assortment of trinkets. As usual, it was very crowded but the merchandise was interesting to look at.

At 5:00 we headed to the main Hong Kong Island to have dinner with a supplier on Victoria's Peak. The peak has a view of almost all of the Hong Kong islands in all directions. When at the top you are almost eye-level with the tallest building in Hong Kong, which has 100+ floors. The picture to the left is the view looking down on the city from the peak. We had the best seat in the house for dinner...it is nighttime in the picture but we had a view of the entire city as the sun set and the city came to life with lights. We also had a great view of the laser show. The lady between me and Mike is the Sales Manager for the factory, the two guys on the left are brothers and own the factory. The lady on the right is married to the guy in the blue. You may notice a high chair to the right of the lady...also eating dinner with us was their 2-year old daughter and their "amma" or "helper" in English. In Hong Kong it is very common for the middle class (and up) to have an amma, which is a live-in maid, nanny, cook, etc. 24/7. They usually come from Indonesia or the Philippines. It costs about $500 USD per month but it is a regulated industry and you have to sign a 2-year contract. When you sign the contract, they are basically an employee and you are responsible for health care, insurance, etc. More in person on this one...kind of a strange concept. That's it for today.

Day Ten - back to HK

Today had been a working day in our Hong Kong Buying Office. We met with a few suppliers but it was mainly a day to regroup and summarize all of our findings from our factory visits.

Over the course of the week in China it was interesting to see the difference between a Hong Kong factory and a China factory. Both are in China but the reference is to who owns/operates the factory. At a Hong Kong factory, the management speak a lot better English and are typically US educated and their production areas are typically cleaner and more efficient. At a China factory, it's takes quite a bit of translation because they barely speak any English...our hosts have to try to translate from Mandarin to Cantonese to English and the production areas are usually not as clean or efficient.

Also, I finally found an Olympics shop in Hong Kong after asking about 10 people and I have only seen one person wearing an Olympic shirt. Not much Olympic pride here in Hong Kong but people in mainland China are quite proud to be hosting it. One person (born and raised in HK) told me they might consider wearing an Olympic t-shirt with another city/country on it but never one with Beijing on it!

The ironies of all ironies took place today. Of all the things that I have eaten so far on this trip...seafood, chicken feet, duck, goose, fungus, etc...we had Pizza Hut for lunch today and my stomach has not been the same since! On another note, we ate at a great restaurant for dinner tonight over looking the laser show in downtown Hong Kong. I had seabass, served American style, just the fillet...not the entire fish, which is the traditional Chinese method.

The guy in the picture below is using a hammer to do what a jack-hammer would normally be doing as he chips away at a concrete road.

Day Nine - shopping/factories

On our return to Hong Kong on Thursday night we stopped in Lo Wu to do some shopping, which is a mall just before you go through the Chinese border into Hong Kong. This kind of reminded me of Mexico with all the tiny shop selling everything from purses to watches to clothes, etc. One of the guys I was with was looking for knock-off Gucci purses for his wife and Mike, who lived in Hong Kong for 11 years, had a local shop that he has used on occasion for knock-off stuff. The shop in itself was only about 15 feet by 10 feet and the walls were full of purses and watches that looked out of style. We went directly to the shop and told the what we were looking for and they started pulling out catelogs for all the top brands...Gucci, Loui Vaton, Channel, Coach, etc. When you find something that you want, they say something in Chinese to one of the 2 or 3 guys standing in front of the store and they leave for about 10 minutes then reappear with exactly what you asked for. Anything you find in one of the catelogs they can get thier hands on within minutes. We had been in there for about 30 minutes and had at least 10 different knock-off purses laying on the floor when all of a sudden they started throwing everything into black trash bags handing them very quickly to the guys and they disappeared...within 2 minutes everything was gone and we were just kind of sitting there stunned! Apparently they got a tip that the government was doing surprise checks and apparently this was not legal...even in China. I walked out of the store and standing in view leaning on a railing on a floor just above us were about 8 red army soilders. It was quite a sight...even the locals with us had never seen anything like it! After about 10 minutes, the scare was over and all the bags returned! Mike commented, "put that on your blog"!

A few more general comments about the factories...as we visit the factories one of the things that I was not expecting to see is the number of 'white collar' workers. Each factory has an office close to the factory and usually the white collar workers are 10-15% of the total number of emploees. A factory we visisted yesterday had 20,000 factory workers and probably 2,000-3,000 people working in an office. They are sitting behind computers just like you would see in the States...a lot of programers but also marketing, sales, finance, etc.

The food today was nothing out of the ordinary...we did eat at a very nice restaurant in Shenzhen...best fried rice so far on the trip!

I am learning a few words in Chinese (some thanks to Kathy)...coca cola mo ping (coke no ice)...mo why how (no appetite)...joe shawn (good morning)...shay shay (thank you)...knee how (hello). Those are not the correct Chinese spellings but you get the picture.

Motorcycle taxi's are everywhere in China when you get outside the city limits of Shenzhen...no helmets...sometimes 4 people riding on a 2-seater...ofter times going against traffic...it is quite a site to see. We have seen a taxi driver carrying a mom, young kid and and a baby...with the baby laying on the mom's lap asleep! The bicycle in the picture has a flat tire.

Day Nine - earthquake (b)

Earthquake coverage has picked up over the past few days and more and more people are talking about it. In the immediate aftermath I don't think we realized the magnitude of the disaster plus we have not really been watching much tv while in China because there is usually only one station in English. The workforce in China is very migrant, coming from all over the country to find work at factories in this area. We asked a supplier yesterday if they had many workers from that area. His response was that the Sichuan area does not supply very many workers because their economic conditions are stronger than other parts of China due to heavy tourism. He said that area is kind of the gateway into a beutiful part of China (similar to Yellowstone Park) where they get a lot of tourism. His other comment was in regard to the Chines belief in Ying/Yang (the black and white symbol?) Whenever something good happens, something bad happens to offset it. They all believe that the Olympics is the very good thing and that bad things will happen to offset it...there are 5 official Olympic dolls that are kind of the mascots for the Olympics here in China. They all represent a different region in China...one represents the Sichuan area of the earthquake...another the Tibet region that has been plagued by protests...another a region where a train crash occurred killing a couple hundred people...another an area of China hit by a terrible snow storm earlier this year...leaving only one doll left without some type of disaster associated with it. Also, in China, almost all the tv channels are called CCTV, which means China Communications TV and is run by the government. I was watching coverage of the earthquake on the English CCTV channel yesterday and a professor was commenting on the response of the Chinese government and how well they responded. The news anchor then asked if there was anything the government could have done better and the professor responded that the government could have done a better job if it wouldn't have been raining in the aftermath of the earthquake because that would have allowed for more helicopter support...so basically, the response was perfect except for something out of their control like the weather!

Day Eight - Thai pop songs

A few comments on Chinese living…the toilets in the factories that we visited yesterday were basically just porcelain holes in the ground...the same for management and the workers. Kind of a contrast to the nice hotels we are staying in. Speaking of the hotels, even in the nicest hotels, Chinese beds are just a little softer than a piece of plywood…not sleeping very well in China yet! Another surprising thing about China is the lack of beggars. In a little over a week now, I have only seen one person begging for money in either Hong Kong or China. The standard of living is extremely low and housing is not very desirable but the people do not beg for money…they are a hard working people. A note about the factory workers is that they work very tedious and detailed jobs...sometimes repeating the exact same task for 10 hours a day but they are all very nicely dressed…almost always in nice jeans and a nice top…it is also funny to see them coming and going from the factory’s talking on cell phones. Another interesting tidbit is that there is virtually no police or military presence anywhere, which probably explains why no one follows traffic laws! However, all of our factories are behind guarded gates that open when we pull up and close behind us.

We had a working lunch today and the supplier brought in McDonald’s!!! I had a double cheeseburger and fries (couldn’t drink the coke because it had ice in it). For dessert, instead of an apple pie, Micky D’s has the same type of thing but pineapple and a taro fruit instead of apple or cherry. Breakfast this morning was my usual…hash browns, pancakes, eggs, and banana bread…basically the same thing every morning…all the hotels have the standard American food to go along with everything else. Dinner was and interesting event. We are staying in a Chinese Resort area, ate dinner at a Thai restaurant on the hotel grounds, listening music during dinner by 2 people who were Thai natives, trying to sing American pop songs...see photo. The other picture was taken after dinner was basically over...it only shows about half the dinner...nothing unusual tonight, we were not with suppliers so it was mainly normal stuff.

Day Eight - earthquake (a)

Just wanted to get a few more thougths included in the blog. For some reason I can only post comments to this blog while in China, I cannot view it or see the comments. So for those of you that have left comments, thank you and I should be able to read them when we get back into Hong Kong on Thursday night.

I have responded to several people in e-mails about the earthquake but I don't think I have mentioned it in this blog. We were at a factory on the day it happened and the factory owner we were traveling with didn't even know it had happened until Mike saw it on the Internet on his Blackberry when we were riding to dinner. He told us that Sichuan was about a 2-3 hour plane ride away...he was not sure how many miles but I think it is about a 1,000 miles away. Needless to say we did not feel anything. The local people here have not even mentioned it unless prompted by a question. It is interesting to watch a Chinese newscast (in English) and see the spin they put on it. Basically glorifying the response of the government and how quick they responded. A little different than how skeptical the media can be in the U.S. The current death total is ~12,000.
I took this picture on my run this morning...it is the sun rising over a lake by our hotel...you can barely see the sun through the smog/pollution but it was still a "Goodview".

Day Seven - Goodview

This was our second day in China and today we visited 2 more factories. The one thing that has been somewhat surprising about the factories is that they are basically right in the middle of neighborhoods. The factory workers have the option of living in the neighborhood or in the dorms provided by the factory...kind of like in college living on or off of campus. Both factories today only had in the range of 80-120 employees and they were in buildings that just looked like a regular office or commercial building. It is interesting to note that I still have not seen anyone left-handed in China. Also, another contrast from Hong Kong to China is the number of people wearing eye correction glasses. In Hong Kong, about half of the people we met with were wearing glasses (not sure about contacts) but in China you don't see it very often...I have been told that you will only see it on the factory owners or management but not on the line workers...and in the 3 factories so far I have not seen any workers wearing glasses.

This morning I decided not to go for a jog since it was my first day in China and the hotel felt like it was in an area that was not very safe. I mentioned that to the guy I am traveling with and he said that crime is basically just petty theft and almost never anything against a foreigner. He recalled a time when something happened to a foreigner in Shenzhen and they caught, tried and executed the criminal in 3 days! Not sure if that make me feel any safer or not! Tonight's hotel is in a gated community and has a pretty long outdoor jogging track so I will probably go for a run in the morning.

The lunch meal to day was traditional Chinese...baked duck, sweet & sour chicken (they only order this because the of the Americans), chicken feet, tofu, scallops, bbq beef (not okie joe's style!). Dinner was at a buffet at our hotel (very impressive...check it out at http://www.goodviewhotel.com/ it only costs about $100 USD per night) and consisted of American, Japanese, and Chinese food. They were all giving me a hard time for eating 2 servings of both pizza and ice cream. I did venture out a little by trying oysters covered in bacon but even bacon could not make that taste good. In mainland China it is not safe to drink the water, kind of like in Mexico, so I have been drinking a lot of Coke and Pepsi for the past 2 days. I started counting today and I think I had about 10 cans today alone. Usually a 2 or 3 with both lunch and dinner plus the suppliers are always asking us if we want something to drink...so that adds several more each day.

Another interesting fact...gas masks are provided in all the hotel rooms in China...that's it for tonight. The two pictures are views from my balcony...I know, it's rough but somebody's got to do it!

Day Six - entering China

This was the first day into mainland China. The owner of the factory picked us up from our hotel for the car ride into China. It is interesting to note that you have to pass through two border crossings...one leaving Hong Kong and another to enter China...kind of strange since it's all one country now. We crossed the border at Shenzhen, which is a town of about 10 million people that basically did not exist 20 years ago. When China opened it's borders to foreign investment in factories about then, this became a major economic zone due to it's proximity to Hong Kong. We drove for about an hour through Shenzhen and to our factory and it was high rise after high rise and construction in every direction.

In Hong Kong they drive on the left side of the street similar to the U.K. but as soon as you cross the border it goes back to normal. Another contrast to Hong Kong is that jaywalking is illegal and you can even get arrested for it but in China there are bikes every where and people cross the street wherever and whenever they want. Also, there is basically no regard for driving laws...people routinely cross the double-yellow line and drive on the wrong side of the street, regardless of oncoming traffic.

We ate a two very nice restaurants again today...the only odd thing was a Peking Duck served with head intact! Tim and I have learned not to sit next to one of our hosts because they just keep piling on the food and they don't really take 'no' for an answer. Also, it is a beautiful sight when they bring out a fruit plate because that means the meal is almost over. The food today was actually pretty good but the food just keeps coming for 1-2 hours...usually at least 10 dishes!

We are staying at the Marco Polo hotel in downtown Shenzhen tonight and will see two more factories tomorrow.

Day Five - Lamma Island

Woke up this morning and decided to try to find a church here in Hong Kong. After a little searching on the Internet, I found an area fairly close to the hotel that had a Baptist Hospital and University along with a church. I took a taxi to get there and it cost me HK$50. The service was in English and there were a few other tourist-types there. The paster and worship leader were also Americans but basically everyone else was Asian. It was a contemporary service and we sang a lot of the same songs we sing at our church in the States. It was a great experience to worship with fellow believers in this foreign land. Like everything over here, it was packed with people. I would say the pews had a capacity for 200 but there were probably 300 people total including all the folding chairs in the back and in the isles. I don't think they have fire codes here in HK. When church was over I decided to take a risk and try to take the subway back to my hotel. Upon getting to the subway it took me about 10 minutes to figure out which way to go and then another American (carrying a Bible) asked me if I needed help then pointed me in the right direction. Once again the subway train was packed with people.

When I got back to my hotel, I met up with my Tim and Mike for a trip to Lamma Island. The island is a fishing village and has a nice beach. We took a pretty long hike over the island (very hilly) to see a village on the other side then headed back for lunch at a seaside Seafood restuarant. Once again, there were people everywhere...7 million people live in Hong Kong and you never really find a place without a crowd. The closest I come is the a jog at 5am. Today's menu included fresh lobster and scampi that were both alive in water tanks before being served to us for lunch! In true American fashion, I ordered some french fries and ketchup and used chopsticks to eat them! In all, we spent about 6 hours on the island before heading back. Tim and Mike went to Catholic Mass and I headed back here to update the blog.

Tomorrow we head into mainland China for the week to visit several factories.

Day Four - Stanley

I woke up this morning (Saturday) at 4am and could not get back to sleep so after laying in bed for about an hour I got up went for a 10-mile jog along the waterfront. I found a route that went for about 4 miles one direction. Again, the view was great and there were quite a few people out and about for a Saturday morning.

After the run, I met Mike and Tim for breakfast then we headed for a part of Hong Kong called Stanley. It is famous for it's shopping district where you can find a wide range of stuff from $6 polos to Chinese style clothes to luggage...all in street/market setting. It is interesting to note that there is absolutely no Olympics gear to be found. Olympics signs are everywhere you look in public places promoting the summer games but you can't find anything to buy. One shop owner told us that it is only available in Beijing. To get to Stanley we took the Star Ferry from our island (Kowloon) to the main island (Hong Kong island) then took a double-decker bus that winded back through the mountains (really just large hills) to the other side of the island. If you look at the picture to the right, we ate lunch at the restaurant with the blue awning.

For dinner last night a large group of us met at a restaurant called the Spring Deer. The highlight of the meal was the baked Duck. From start to finish the meal took about 3 hours and it seemed like they just kept bringing food out the entire time. That's it for today.

Day Three - chicken feet

We are meeting with 3 additional suppliers today in Hong Kong. (It is interesting to note that I have not met anyone in any of our meetings that is left-handed) When our first meeting was over, the supplier took us out to lunch at a very nice Chinese Seafood restaurant. I am starting to get used to chop sticks but apparently the waitress at the restaurant didn’t think so because she brought me a fork! Meals with suppliers are interesting because they just order a ton of food and then we just try a little of everything. Today it was mostly chicken, pork and beef dishes but I did try some squid and an entire fried chicken’s foot. The funny part it that they guy I was traveling with said to eat the entire thing because the bones are really just tough cartilage but after crunching through it and washing it down with a lot of Coke, I noticed that all the locals had little bones on their plates…similar to how we eat Chicken wings. So far, no side affects but I will keep you posted. This is a picture of me eating a chicken's foot!


Tonight we went out to dinner with one of our co-workers who is native to Hong Kong along with his wife. We went to a restaurant famous for Roasted Goose called Chan Kee which is in the city/area of Hong Kong called Shan Tseng. The goose got brought to the table in one piece, head and all! It tasted pretty good…I thought a lot like beef. The meal also included a dish of broccoli & scallops, a dish of chicken and another of beef. For dessert we went to a famous place around the corner called Lucky Dessert. Every dessert on the menu had some type of fruit in it….not you typical American desserts of ice cream, cakes or pies. Once again, we ordered 4 things and we all got a little taste of each. The mango pancake was my favorite along with the baked banana.

We have the weekend to see the sights in Hong Kong and to do a little shopping (especially to make up for missing Mother's Day)!

Day Two - working day in HK

I ate breakfast this morning in the hotel restaurant. They had a wide selection of Chinese-type foods including some type of grilled salmon but luckily they also had the usual items….I had waffles, French toast, bacon, fresh fruit, and a chocolate muffin. We worked out of our Buying Office in Hong Kong this afternoon. Lunch was at a Thai restaurant within walking distance from the office. We ordered numerous different dishes and I was able to try a little of everything…lamb chops, beef curry, fried noodles, chicken lettuce wraps. The best was when I asked our host about one of the dishes and she said “It’s some type of fungus”. Now that sounds appetizing! I did try one bit but it was not too tasty. We played it safe for dinner tonight since we were on our own again…pizza.

A few observations so far as we have been around the city a little bit. High-rise apartment complexes are everywhere and clothes are usually hanging out to dry from nearly every window. They use bamboo sticks for scaffolding…even for the tallest buildings.

Day Two - morning jog

I had a good nights rests for the first night in a new time zone. I was able to sleep from about 11pm until 5am, which is pretty much my normal sleeping schedule. Since I was awake and had no where to be until 8am, I decided to go for a 7-mile run. I stopped at the front desk to ask for a map and the hotel address in case I got lost and the clerk looked at me like I was crazy! As I left the hotel the streets were pretty much empty except for a few taxi’s lined up outside the hotel. I decided to make my way down to the waterfront to the Star Ferry which is only a couple of blocks away. As I rounded the corner into the Ferry station there were at least 100 Chinese people working frantically to insert ads into the morning newspapers before loading them into vans. It was quite a site and needless to say I will be taking my camera tomorrow morning. I found a good route along the waterfront that was about 2 mile down and back on a pathway/boardwalk by the Hong Kong Cultural Center. I had a great view of downtown Hong Kong across the water as the sun was coming up. I was also happy to see quite a few other people jogging and walking!

Day One - arrival in HK

This is the first official entry from Hong Kong. The flight to Denver and San Francisco were uneventful. the 14-hour flight from San Francisco was quite an experience...Business Class is the way to go! We were given socks for the ride so we could take off our shoes along with a tooth brush and tooth paste. The seats recline almost all the way back, so that was nice as well. The first couple of hours were occupied with a lunch that included warm nuts, 2 salads, dinner rolls, ribs & potato's, and cheesecake for dessert. After lunch I slept for about an hour then decided to try to stay awake for awhile. Basically everyone else on the flight was sleeping but I managed to stay awake doing some BSF and reading a couple of books...Blue Like Jazz and Passion for Jesus. I also spent a few hours going through the travel guides from Kathy & Orin. My co-worker brought DVD's for every season of the office so I spent about an hour watching several episodes. That was about a 7-hour stretch and by then I was having a hard time staying awake so I took a 2-hour nap. When I woke up we still had 3 hours to go but the time went by fast as I was back to reading and getting up to walk around. All in all, the flight was a lot better than I was anticipating.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, we took a shuttle to our Hotel which is on the island of Kowloon. The Swifts will appreciate that we can see the lazer shows at night from our hotel. The hotel is very nice and everything is first class. For dinner (keep in mind that we were eating dinner at 8am KC time) we decided to stick to American food. We went to Dan Ryan's and had ribs! I offered to try some Chinese food close to our hotel but both of the guys I was traveling concurred that we will get plenty of that over the next 2 weeks.