Kindergarten Concert

The kindergarten classes held a concert to show off what they've been learning the past few months.  The four classes took turns singing songs and reciting poems in English and Chinese on stage in front of the parents and helpers.  The kids did a great job!

Ian's been singing "It's a Small World" at home for a few weeks getting ready for this concert so I thought I knew what to expect from his class.  But I was surprised when the first 2 songs his class performed where in Chinese.  I shouldn't have been surprised (I know they're learning Chinese).  But I was still a bit overwhelmed as I watched my little 5 year old towhead performing on stage in Chinese.  And yes, I had to wipe away a few tears (what a crybaby Mom I am!).  Ian did fantastic - he knew the words, did the dance moves, and had a fun time doing it.  I was so proud of him.

Check out Ian (back row, left of center) and his class performing in the videos below (just ignore my amateur videography skills).

Chinese Songs

English Poem and Song

Sky100 Building

The best view of Hong Kong is a 360 degree panoramic view, 393 meters (about 1289 feet) above sea level on the 100th floor of the Sky100 Building.  The observation deck is all indoors - great for those of us with a slight fear of heights.

There are also interactive exhibits to learn about the history and culture of Hong Kong. 

 But a walk around the deck offers the most amazing views of Hong Kong in every direction.

The kids were able to point out our hotel and some of the other places we visited.  

This bird's eye view of Hong Kong was incredible!

More of Hong Kong

Here are a few more things we did on our "mandatory vacation" in Hong Kong.

SWIMMING

and lots of it!

The hotel swimming pool on the roof was a big hit with the kids.

 But, who wouldn't love it with daytime views like this...

and evening views like this!

Plus, we felt like we were swimming with the birds as hawks soared level with us - it seemed we could just reach out and touch them.

Unfortunately, a few of Leah's attempts to see the birds or admire the view made me a nervous wreck.  Looking at this picture still ties my stomach up in knots.

PLAYING

Our hotel was across the street from Victoria Park, a gigantic play area that includes basketball courts, tennis courts, soccer oops I mean football fields (but not grassy), numerous playgrounds, running tracks, swimming pools, and 1 large grassy area (very hard to find here).

We spent some time playing and getting lost at the park. We also discovered the park is a major hangout for Indonesians and Filipinos on the weekends.  Many of them work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong and on their day-off they literally camp out at the parks.  

By the end of the day, all the walk-ways in the park and this large field were filled with these groups just talking, eating, singing, dancing, and even sleeping.

EATING

Dim sum is the popular style of Chinese food served in Hong Kong.  The food is usually steamed or fried and served is small steamer baskets.  We ordered a variety of dim sum dishes to try.  Kyle, Cade, and Leah sampled it all.  Abby had a few bites but stuck with the comfortable and trusted bowl of noodles.  Ian was in tears not wanting to eat anything but eventually tried the dumplings and even liked them.  I was not as brave as the rest of my family; I could only manage to nibble a few bites.  They probably shouldn't even be called bites.  When we sat down at our table, I was grossed out by the lady next to me who was eating a fish head and leaving the tiny bones on her plate.  My stomach just couldn't handle any food at the moment, especially anything new and foreign.

Fortunately, Hong Kong has a much larger variety of restaurants than Macau!  We found a few familiar ones like California Pizza Kitchen and Outback.  There was also a surprising number of Italian restaurants, many of which we tried.  And best of all, we found a real, authentic Mexican place called Mr. Taco Truck!

We had real refried beans, guacamole that wasn't filled with corn, tasty salsa, actual flour tortillas, and horchata all while sitting outside on a street corner and listening to mariachi music and even a few Selena songs.  I had a flood of mission flashbacks overcome me.  It was a great night!

RIDING

We became experienced subway riders.

Cade, Abby, and Ian are great subway surfers (standing without holding on while the train speeds forward).  And everyone, including Leah, knew the names of the different stops.

SIGHTSEEING

There is so much to see and do in Hong Kong that we could never it do it all, even during our extended stay.  But we had a great time going to lots of different places and just hanging out as a family.  

We wondered the streets both day and night just to see what we could find.  Sometimes we found cool shopping markets, parks, or temples, other times we found dead ends, and one night we stumbled onto the Victoria Harbor light show.  Music played as strobe lights atop many of the high rise buildings on all sides of the bay flashed and danced to the beat.  But Ian and Leah stole the show.  They were not impressed with the lights so they created their own dance show, moving and shaking to the beat.  Leah even sat on her butt spinning in circles - who knew she could breakdance?

We found the Hong Kong Library, which was not too far from our hotel.  When we (meaning Mom) needed a quiet break, we went here to read some books (lots of books were in English) or walk around their art exhibits.

 We also found the Hong Kong Space Museum.  We spent a few hours at the museum partly because it related to Abby's homework but also because kids love museums.  All the hands on exhibits are fantastic teaching tools. 

One of our favorite finds was this traditional Chinese junk, the Agua Luna.  It's a touring ship that resembles an old pirate ship.  With it's red sails it's easy to spot in the harbor so we saw it often.  We even gave it a nickname - Shen's boat (hope there's a few Kung Fu Panda 2 fans who get the name).

And, of course we found the Hong Kong Temple.  Kyle and I took turns doing a temple session and being with the kids.  Some of our Macau Branch members were there that day so we got to be with them too. 

Hong Kong Big Bus Tour

 What better way to get to know Hong Kong than on a tour in an open-top bus.  

The sights and sounds of the city all around us, wind in our face, and no need to tire our legs out by walking made for 2 enjoyable days of touring.

 With a recorded commentary of the sights and history of Hong Kong, we learned and saw lots of interesting things.

This is a typical street view of a business district in Hong Kong.  Towering buildings for offices, expensive shopping malls, and restaurants, are lined with giant advertisements, lots and lots of people, and honking cars and buses.

Squeezed in between the tall buildings and packed tightly together are street vendors selling things like clothing, shoes, bags and purses, toys, souvenirs, jewelry, electronics, and food.  Some of the more popular markets, like the "Ladies Market" even close the streets to vehicle traffic to accommodate the large increase in pedestrians during peak shopping hours.

One of the stops on the tour bus was the Man Mo Temple.

It is one of the oldest temples built in Hong Kong and is dedicated to 2 gods, Man - the god of literature, and Mo - the god of war. 

The building is filled with a heavy haze of smoke as worshippers burn incense in different forms, including these hanging incense coils.

Just be careful walking through the temple because ash does fall from the coils - Cade and Kyle learned the hard way.

 The bus tour also took us along the beautiful, coastline towns of Stanley and Aberdeen.

 The most popular beaches in Hong Kong are found along this southern part of the Hong Kong island, including Repulse Bay.

In the mid 1800s, pirates occupied this bay.  But the British Navy battled the pirates to protect their Hong Kong residents shipping and foreign trade.  They were able to "repulse" the pirates out of the bay, thus giving the bay its name.

High rise buildings are everywhere in Hong Kong

but it's difficult to show in pictures just how tall and daunting they really look from below.

Here's a few attempts by our photographers Cade and Abby.

The tallest building in Hong Kong (and 4th tallest in the world) is the Sky100 building (another post will cover our visit to this building).

Interestingly, we learned that the number of floors in a building can be deceiving.  The number 4 is unlucky in Chinese (the number 4 sounds like the word for death) so many buildings do not have a 4th floor and some skip all floors with a 4 in it, like 14, 24, or 40-49.  Therefore, a building with 68 floors may really only have 52 floors.  

This golden bauhinia blakeana flower statue was given to Hong Kong from the Chinese government in the 1997 handover ceremony when Britain returned Hong Kong to China.

In a similar handover ceremony from Portugal to China in 1999, Macau was given a golden lotus flower statue (we still need to visit this site in Macau but we'll share pictures when we do).

During our 2 day tour of Hong Kong, it's hard not to notice all the construction projects.  Maybe it's our engineering and construction backgrounds, but Kyle and I are still amazed at the use of bamboo for scaffolding.  While eating lunch on a pier one day, we even got to watch a group of guys hang over the water and tie bamboo together to form scaffolding on the pier.

But, the craziest thing we learned about on our bus tour was unfortunately not captured in pictures.  While driving by an underpass, we saw a number of older women pounding on things.  We discovered they were "villain hitting", a common voodoo practice in Hong Kong.  This practice is used to put a curse on an enemy.  First, details or information about the enemy are written on a human-shaped piece of paper.  Then, the sorcerer hits the paper with a shoe (we really saw women doing this!).  Then, the paper is burned and the ensuing curse can last anywhere from 1 week to all eternity.  

Crazy - but I'm not making it up.  We could only have learned this stuff on our awesome big bus tour!

The Peak

While waiting for a work visa to be issued, our visa-free time in Macau expired.  That means we had to leave Macau until we get the visa.  So, we took the kids out of school, packed up a few suitcases, left our apartment home and are now living in 2 hotel rooms in Hong Kong playing the waiting game or in other words enjoying a mandatory vacation without a known end date.  We're relaxing, sightseeing, touring and discovering there's much more to Hong Kong than just Disneyland.

Locals and travel experts agree a must-see in Hong Kong is The Peak, which is atop one of Hong Kong's tallest mountains, Victoria Peak.  The Peak offers amazing views of the city and harbors and includes beautiful gardens, trails and 2 shopping centers.  Visitors to The Peak can walk the steep road, take a bus or taxi, or ride the tram.  

We chose the tram.  

The tram was built in 1888 and was originally used to transport the residents (rich, British officials) to their homes on Victoria Peak.  Now, it is one of Hong Kong's popular tourist attractions.

The tram travels a distance of 1.4 kilometers (less than 1 mile) while climbing 400 meters (about 1/4 of a mile) to The Peak.  A few places along the track were very steep and reminded us of the Disneyland roller coaster, Grizzly Gulch, where after climbing a steep hill a mining car breaks and falls backwards through the mine.  Thank goodness, this tram did not malfunction and fall backwards! 

It was a little overcast and breezy at the top but the views of Hong Kong's skyscrapers and Victoria Harbour were still breathtaking.

And, that black spot at the top of these picture means it's time to get a new camera. 

 

Here's a few more pictures of The Peak we took with our phones.