Once Again a Tourist

My parents arrived on Tuesday and we have been running around ever since.

How do I wrap up everything I have learned from my experience in the past few months and share it with them? Well we have to do two things. First, get out of Hong Kong because it is incredibly Western, and second we throw out the bad eating experiences. We won't be visiting the restaurant I wrote about earlier with the possible dog meat dishes, and we'll dodge the places that usually cause our stomachs to churn for days after eating. This decision, no doubt for the best, causes me to think I am giving them a gentler trip to China. China is getting sick. China is being dumbfounded when you enter a restaurant at what happens. Don't get me wrong we still go to restaurants which shock my parents about at what transpires within. It's just that the places we are going to are the highlights.


--Tues, Wed, and Thursday in Hong Kong--
We made an itinerary which has made things much easier on all of us.

On Tuesday we went back to the hotel and crashed. On Wednesday we walked to the Hong Kong museum of history, and Hong Kong museum of art. We then crossed to Hong Kong Island where we took the tram to Victoria's Peak and ate lunch with a beautiful view of Hong Kong below us. We returned to Kowloon and watched the nightly light display - Hong Kong has a permanent light show installation on the Hong Kong island. Every night at 8 pm you can sit by the waters edge and listen as music plays and 10 or so buildings light up to music and shoot beam of light into the sky.



On Thursday we went to Stanley Market on Hong Kong Island and walked around. We were exhaused from all the walking so we ended up heading back to Kowloon to check out some night markets. When we got back to the hotel we decided to take an hour break which extended until the next day.

My parents kept commenting on the cleanliness of Hong Kong, how everyone seemed to know english, and how people were so friendly. It's all true... let's go to China.


---Friday
We woke up in Hong Kong and jumped on a Ferry to Zhuhai. An hour and a half later we climbed on a city bus and rode across the city towards my home to drop off our bags off at my house. We were in China now, so everyone on the bus was giving us looks. Three Americans loaded down with bags on wheels. We dropped our stuff off and walked around campus grabbing lunch at Cafe To Be, a nearby restaurant owned by a student at my college. We returned home and met up with Ben and Janella who brought us out to small shop where I was measured and ordered a suit with two dress shirts. We then headed to GongBei where we at at a small food stand. After eating we entered the underground market and bought some some stuff including some $5 crocs (for Bonnie), cheap shorts for Ed, and a belt for Ben.

---Saturday
We woke up early and walked to UIC (the college I teach at) to go to Kai Ping with a buch of students and professors. We drove a few hours, and my parents were given a chance to see the Chinese countryside. We ate lunch in a small town near Kai Ping the soup was aweful and the food was so-so. We climbed back on the bus and entered the city of Kai Ping and walked around for two hours. The town had many towers which were used for protection but uncommon for the area. On the way home the bus driver got lost a number of times. When we returned we walked to food street (an area on campus named as such because it has many restaurants to choose from) and ate a late dinner with Ben, Janella, Joel and a few students.