Last Thursday I travelled to Hong Kong to change my visa to a ‘Z’ visa, which will enable me to get my resident immigrant card. I and the British teacher who went with me for the same reason flew to Shenzhen and then took the bus to Hong Kong. It was a grueling trip, but definitely worth it to see Hong Kong. I never knew Hong Kong was such an international city, and it was so clean in comparison to most Chinese cities. Every language was spoken there, but everyone except the very old spoke English (that is not the case in China). While Hong Kong is technically part of China, it is not. We had to go through customs and change our money just as if it were a foreign country. Additionally, everything western (including TV stations) was available in Hong Kong, unlike in China.
Restaurants from every nationality were available. Naturally, we took the opportunity to satiate some cravings. I was especially ecstatic to find cheese at Marks and Spencer and bought several kinds. I visited several outdoor markets and bought some silk robes, scarves, and fish bone carvings. The carvings are quite special I think, because they are intricate globes carved with phoenixes and dragons. There are 10 globes (each one inside the other, much like those Russian dolls). These carvings will begin to get rarer and rarer because the young people do not want to sit there and hand carve these things. Everything is done on machines now. The youngest carver is in his 60’s.
After visiting Soho, the restaurant and bar district near the Harbor (on the other side of the island from where we were staying), we took the ferry back to our side of the island. To say Soho is the restaurant and bar district is a bit of a misnomer, since all of Hong Kong is a restaurant and bar district, but Soho has many quaint and quirky places, so it is rather famous. The buildings on the harbor were all lit up, reflecting multiple colors on the water. One could take the ferry in lieu of the subway for merely $2.00. The next morning I was also lucky enough to see the sunrise over the harbor.
Saturday night we returned to chilly Taiyuan. In order to make up lost time we had to go in to work Sunday. We were supposed to go in again this Sunday, but the students were so exhausted that half of Class A was out with fever yesterday, so I got the day off after all. We will make the hours up another Sunday. It was 30 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. Only six more days until the government turns on the heat.
Right now rows of leeks (giant green onions) can be seen everywhere. They are outside apartments, on roofs, in front of shops…The reason for this is that everyone is stocking up for the winter and these onions can be dried and then stored outside one’s window because as my boss put in , “they are not afraid of the cold”. They are very cheap now, but will go up 400% in the winter. I got myself a small pile the other day and set them out to dry.
I have been going to get a massage about once a week for the past month. The interesting thing about Chinese masseuses in Taiyuan is that most all of them are blind. The Chinese believe that blindness gives them special abilities so a blind masseuse is considered the best. I have been happy with all my massages from both the blind ones and the seeing. What’s even better is that they are only around 30 Yuan or about $5 for a full hour.
The Chinese have an interesting program in place to discourage young people from spending too much time on the computer playing video games. The program is designed to counteract the negative health effects of prolonged sedentary activities. Young people must sign in to computer games using their ID numbers. After 3 hours the system will tell the young person, “Stop playing now, and go get some exercise”. If the person stops playing then all his or her points will be saved, but if he or she continues to play he or she will lose the points. I think this is a rather good idea, although I know that trying to implement something like it in the US would create a huge public outcry about individual freedom.
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