Wandering Aidan Miniseries, Episode 4

Welcome to episode 4 of the Wandering Aidan miniseries, where Hong Kong is handed right to you! Today's episode is "Language".

To recap: There is no one Chinese language. The symbols are almost always the same, but there are various dialects, each pronouncing the symbols so differently that cross-dialect communication is impossible. The most prominent Chinese is Mandarin, but Hong Kong mostly speaks Cantonese.

There are two types of schools that you can attend in Hong Kong- local and international. If you go to a local school, you will learn Cantonese as your first language- your "walking around" language- but English would also be a required class, and you might see it popping up in a few other classes as well. Mandarin is also sometimes available. In an international school, you would likely learn English as your first language, and Mandarin as an optional second.

Note: This information was procured by my father, who was able to interview a coworker. Everybody give him a hand!

Thanks to that abundance of English classes- and the fact that Hong Kong was once a British territory- Hong Kong is heavily populated with English speakers. However, that's not to say we don't run into language barriers; or rather, accent barriers. Although their English is much, much better than my Mandarin, Chinese people sometimes have strong speech inflections that make them difficult to understand, like their tendency to avoid the plural, and their strong accents. Still, most of Hong Kong's citizens are surprisingly skilled at English conversation.

Almost all signs here are in both English and Chinese. Interestingly, even though Cantonese and Mandarin have their own characters for numbers, Arabic numbers (the ones that we use) are frequently written in place of them.

This is my dad's boarding pass from a trip he took a while ago. Not everything gets perfectly translated.

Fun Fact:
Just like in Denver, the people with the least English skills here are the taxi drivers. Luckily, we have a card that says the name of our apartment building in Chinese- we call it our "please take me home now" card.

Fun Fact:
I've been taking Mandarin lessons, and I've developed a theory: the occasional oversimplification of the English language in Hong Kong likely results from the simplicity of Chinese. For instance, to ask "How are you?" in Mandarin, you would say " nǐ hǎo mā?": you + good + question. To respond, you wouldn't say "I am well", but simply "wǒ hǎo", or "I good".


Thanks for reading!

Wandering Aidan Miniseries, Episode 3

Welcome to episode 3 of the Wandering Aidan Miniseries, written so that nobody will have an excuse to ask me about Hong Kong! Today's episode is "Geography and Wildlife".

I'll cover geography first. Hong Kong is actually surprisingly hilly- which makes the ridiculous amount of skyscrapers and civilization somewhat odd. The people of the island have learned how to preserve and take care of the slopes. For instance, many hills- mostly the ones near roads- are glazed over with concrete to prevent erosion (by the way, it's not nearly as ugly as it sounds. The hills still have a refreshingly natural feel to them). The hills are even assigned caretakers, who make sure that the hill is stable and that water is flowing properly through the drainage tubes. This is why most hills have small plaques with numbers on them: so that caretakers can easily track and identify them.

Fun Fact:
If you were to glance at a map of Hong Kong, you might be surprised at how much blank green space there is. Look closer, and you'll see that these are often marked "country park", or "natural park", or something along those lines. These areas may sound like fun places to play, but these "parks" are actually large chunks of sheer mountain. At least the mountains are thick with trees, so the "park" label has some justification.

This shows how mountainous Hong Kong is. Notice that there are three parts. The island on the lower right is Hong Kong Island. This can be considered the main part of Hong Kong, and it is where most people (including us!) live. The island on the lower left is Lantau. Though it is bigger than the main island, it is mostly only notable for housing Hong Kong's main airport and Disneyland.  Finally, the large chunk connected to the mainland is mostly the New Territories, with Kowloon at the part closest to Hong Kong Island. Kowloon is the place that we have visited- most recently for the laser light show- and is what I am usually talking about when I describe the mainland.

Fun Fact:

There are 263 islands larger than 500 square meters in Hong Kong.

This picture is centered around just Hong Kong Island, though a few tendrils of the mainland are visible on the right. All of the green blobs are country parks.

A view from our balcony (usually we see the beach, but we can see this if we look sharply left). The mountain in the distance is a good example of a country park. Not all parks are totally unusable, despite their appearance; some have hiking trials snaking up their sides.

The mountains continue behind our building, forming a cozy alcove as they shield us from the city. This is the view from the window out back from our apartment.

A sample of mountainous roads. The slopes are no match for the citizens of Hong Kong!

                                   

Next up is wildlife. I'll give you the report.

Wildlife Report

(Man, it's been a while since I've done one of these!)

Dogs
Okay, they're not exactly wild- but if they were, they would be the most prominent wildlife here. The promenade, a large brick path by the sea, is swarming with dogs and their owners at dawn and dusk.
(photo found online)

Wild Cats
These adorable felines are found on and near the promenade. Their appearance suggests that they were once domesticated, but perhaps escaped. They mostly come out in the evenings, and retreat whenever someone approaches, so they're not a common sight.

Fun Fact:
Shortly after this photo was taken, one kitten leaped out of the bushes, swatted the other one in the face, then darted back in.

Barking Deer
Officially called the muntjac, or muntiacini, the barking deer is native to Southern Asia . They can be found in the "parks" of Hong Kong. We rarely hike there- mainly because of the heat- so we have yet to come across one.
(photo found online)

Fun Fact:These are the oldest known deer in existence.

Butterflies
Butterflies, like the tailed jay seen here, are also frequent visitors of the promenade. There are 235 species residing here in Hong Kong.
(photo found online)

…And those are just a few of the animals found here. There are also a few rarer animals, like porcupines and pangolins.

This, in case you were wondering, is a pangolin.

(photo found online)

Hopefully we'll be able to catch a glimpse of one of these dragon-like creatures while we're here. Like I said before, the weather has prevented us from exploring the parks and wetlands of Hong Kong, but now that it's cooling off, we might seek out some exotic animals one day.

Thanks for reading!

Wandering Aidan Miniseries, Episode 2

Welcome to the Wandering Aidan Miniseries, where every post means one less inadequate description of Hong Kong from me! Today's topic is "Shopping and Currency".

First up: shopping. Luckily, we have a few shops in our peaceful apartment complex, but sometimes we need to fight through the dangerously busy city in order to find what we need. Unfortunately, there are a few things make shopping quite difficult here.

1. The city isn't laid out in a complicated way, but it has no landmarks. No matter where we go, it's just more of the same buildings, making it necessary to inspect every street name closely and map out a route beforehand.

2. Very few of the stores are familiar, so we have to put in more effort that usual to find out what shop we should go to. The effect gets worse in shopping malls- the shops are spread out across several floors, so we often only have names to go by, as we can't see the storefront until we're right next to it. We often end up wandering the halls until we see something that looks useful.

3. Finally, Hong Kong uses a different currency that we do, named Hong Kong Dollars. Because of this, we need to calculate the price of an item before we can determine how expensive it is.

Most of our shopping gets done fairly easily and quickly downstairs, but every once in a while, we come across something that is oddly hard to obtain. You'd be surprised at the seemingly common items that we have to grapple with the city to acquire. Take graph paper, for example. None of the shops downstairs sold it, so it took a whole trek through the city- and quite a long one at that, with many failures- to finally get our hands on a few simple sheets.


Speaking of Hong Kong currency:

An assortment of Hong Kong money, confusing me. From traveling the world, we've learned that America is just about the only place where every bill is the same shape and color. It turns out that the color system makes it easier to identify bills from one quick glance.

We've found that country-hopping sometimes results in a few left-over coins. This is our collection (every row is sorted by value, going up from left to right). Note that the sizes of Hong Kong, Singaporean, South African, Czech, and Euro coins all correspond with their value, the only exception being the Euro penny, which is still obviously of a lower value because of its color. This is another area in which U.S. money is lacking, and the fact that the numbers are frequently unmarked- for instance, nowhere on a dime does it say "ten cents"- compounds the problem. By contrast, Hong Kong coins are easy to get used to because they say, in huge numbers: TWENTY CENTS!!! or whatever value the coin is worth. Singaporean coins are equally friendly, with the added benefit of being unreasonably shiny. Seriously, it seems like Singaporeans polish their coins. Anyway, back to American currency. Interestingly, we seem to be the only country that has nicknames for coins. British coins, for example, are just called 2-pence coins, 5-pence coins, 50-pence coins, and so on. We never realized all these difficulties with American money until we got examples from other countries.

                                     

Thanks for reading!

Wandering Aidan Miniseries, Episode 1

Welcome to the Wandering Aidan Miniseries, "Comparing Hong Kong to Denver" where I describe what Hong Kong is like so everyone will stop asking me! The first episode is "Weather and Transportation".

As usual, the first things I am inclined to mention are the heat and humidity. The heat wouldn't be particularly devastating on its own, but when you add in the unheard-of humidity, it gets dangerous just to set foot outside. Hong Kong has made us learn to build our day around the temperature- for instance, if we set out for a run at any time other than early morning, it's like jogging through a desert while wearing a jet-black parka. Surprisingly, though, it's starting to cool off here as fall arrives. People told us that it would cool off, but honestly, we didn't believe them. Of course, there is no chance of snow, and I doubt it will get cold enough for the trees to shed their leaves, but we have still experienced quite a few refreshing breezes over the past few days.

Another area where we have had to be more flexible is transportation. We don't own a car here, so public transport is essential. Luckily, another difference between Hong Kong and Denver comes into play here, and that is the fact that Hong Kong is full to bursting with taxis and shuttles. Have you ever wondered how we get into the city for all of those crazy adventures? We have a wide range of options:

-If we want to go to Stanley Plaza, we need to take the public light bus (or minibus) that ferries passengers back and forth between locations. Stanley isn't the only stop, but it's the only one we've used so far.

-If we want to go to the city, we can come along for the ride on the apartment complex's personal shuttle…

-…However, the shuttle only stops at one or two key points, so we have to take a taxi if we need more precision. Luckily, a taxi can be called straight to the apartment, and the process almost invariably takes less than two minutes.

-There is a tunnel connecting the island and mainland parts of Hong Kong, but our preferred method of crossing is the Star Ferry, a convenient, back-and-forth boat that docks every five minutes.

-If everything else fails, a subway exists down in the city's inconspicuous underground. We almost never ride it, but it can be useful for traveling unobstructed, especially when traffic acts up on the busy streets.

-Finally, we use our own feet quite a bit, especially if a bus or a shuttle doesn't stop at the exact location we need. Hong Kong can be punishing if long walks wear you out.

As for the way back, we can usually return the way we came. However, that can't be done if we arrived in a taxi. To make matters worse, taxis can't be hailed down in Hong Kong. Instead, we have to seek out taxi queues, which are found at shopping malls and hotels (and when we finally do find one, we're drawn to it like moths to a light, since we often stay in the city for tiring lengths of time).

The light bus.

The Star Ferry. Note- these pictures were found online, not taken by any of us.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about Hong Kong- a.k.a. material for a new episode- just plop them in the comments section.

A Peaceful Beach… In Hong Kong?

Greetings, blog followers! After my last blog post, my family dragged me off on even more adventures, so I still have some stories to tell.

On our first day after the last update, we took a taxi to Big Wave Bay Beach, an exceedingly pleasant and wide open beach that has large waves (hence the creative name), unlike the beaches around our apartment. The beach is on the far east side of the island, which is relatively undeveloped.

We rented a boogie board (a small, foam surfboard) so that we could ride the waves.

The one problem was getting a ride home. As we wandered around the parking lot, a shuttle rolled up and stopped. We boarded it- having no idea where it went- figuring that anywhere was closer to civilization than where we were. Eventually, we hopped off and sprinted for a taxi, which finally took us home.

Our next adventure took us back into the city, to an area that we are familiar with- the whammy lady underpass. They must be shockingly good at cursing, because even after our second visit, we still don't have a clear photo of them.

After that was over, we boarded the Star Ferry and let it carry us across Victoria Harbor, over to the mainland. We sat down and waited expectantly for the daily laser light show (it occurs every day at 8:00 pm). When the show did come, it was stunning. All the animated patterns on the buildings pulsed in time with the music, as did a few spotlights and green lasers that occasionally shot through the air. Hopefully, I'll be able to record a video next time, because the show is nearly impossible to describe.

Thanks for reading!

Bonus: Skewed Perspectives!

This is what I've been working on for photography class in Hong Kong.

Next up: Back to Boring!

The Klingbeils on Tour

Greetings from Hong Kong, blog followers! Since we have a relative visiting, we're touring the city left and right. Here's an account of what we've been up to.

Day One

On our first day of the Klingbeil 2014 Hong Kong Tour, we explored the Stanley Market. The Market is a winding path of charming stores that snakes around the more sophisticated Stanley Plaza shopping complex. We found that you can buy nearly anything in this market, and since it's just one path with no branches, it's nearly impossible to get lost. The best part is that the market is entirely covered with sturdy, tarp-like roofs and walls, giving the market shade and a cozy atmosphere.

My personal favorite store was one that specialized in personalized items. I ordered a stamp of my name  (plus its Cantonese equivalent) and was allowed to watch the carving. The shopkeeper was indescribably skilled in etching these symbols, carving a beautiful, clean stamp in just over five minutes. Watching him work was amazing- he would carve a shape, his quick hands verging on blurry, and when he wiped away the messy dust, a perfectly crisp symbol would be there as if by magic.

Carving the stamp.

The finished product, with an example stamping at the top. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the top of the stamp is a horse, since I was born in the year of the horse- 2002.

Day 2

Day two was slightly less interesting. We toured a part of the city that we hadn't visited before, browsing through the unusual stores.

Notice the tree bark for sale. This wasn't the only odd thing we stumbled across- we also noticed swallow nests, of all things. Swallows make their nests out of straw, which is glued together by saliva. Apparently, people have made a business out of removing the straw and selling what's left over. And as if all that wasn't strange enough, we also found a restaurant specializing in food made out of snakes.

Bamboo is a commonly used material for scaffolding here. Although it sounds odd, and maybe a bit unreliable, bamboo is actually a very strong and light material that is ideal for construction.

Also in this area was the world's longest consecutive line of escalators. Our visiting grandmother lost her balance and almost set another record- the world's longest human domino effect.

My model of the escalators.

Day 3

Our most recent adventure was a trip to the Peak, a mountaintop complex with several hiking trails. The Peak- and the tram that ferries passengers to and from it- is a well-known symbol of Hong Kong. Oh, and the tram goes up the mountain at about a 60-degree angle, which is why we are never riding it again.

In keeping with the Peak's mountainous theme, we hiked a trail with a sudden drop-off to the immediate right. To envision the trail, think of a stereotypical movie scene in which the heroes are hiking a dangerous mountain, and one wrong step means certain death. Then, add foliage and a fence.

The view from the nature trail.

The gigantic Golden Orb Spider.

The view from the tram station.

Dad fights Bruce Lee at the station. This is actually an elaborate wax figure.

Thanks for reading!

Bonus: Photos from around the complex!

Here are a few less exotic snapshots taken around our apartment complex.

Since the torrential rain that occurred not so long ago, every waterfall in the area is gushing with excess liquid. In fact, the rushing water makes such a racket that we're noticing waterfalls we never knew existed

Another waterfall, on the mountain behind our complex. The building on the right is ours.

                                                   

P.S.: Nearly all of today's photos were taken by my photographer grandmother. Give her a hand!

Up next: Adventures in Big Wave Bay!