I have the coolest grandma!

Last week, I had a very special visitor in Hong Kong!!
Grandma's flight landed in Hong Kong on the 18th and she was able to stay for about 7 days. She stayed at the Holiday Inn at Tsim Sha Tsui, not too far from my dorm in Kowloon Tong...Maybe about 12 minutes by taxi. Grandma came just in time to watch me accept an award for my poetry!
I took her to visit all the best spots...Jumbo Floating Resturant, Mr. Wong's, all over the HKBU campus, on the Star Ferry, to the Peak, Monkey Mountain, Repulse Bay, Tin Hau Temple, and I even brought her to classes with me! It was a blast!

Love you Grandma! xxoo

Pictures from Temple of Heaven (Beijing)

I have been so busy with school work lately, I forgot to update my blog! Here are some more photos of Beijing :) All of these photos were taken at Temple of Heaven (my favorite place in Beijing!) The gardens and architecture are too beautiful to describe.

ps--the last "picture" is a link to the video I took of some locals singing. Check it out!

Outside one of the gardens, just as the sun was setting!

a local writing prayers on the walkway

Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square

Inside Forbidden City with Emma

First stops in Beijing, Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. Both of these places are very close to each other and have a load of history to them.

Forbidden City is supposed to be one of the best places to visit while in Beijing. The architecture is beautiful and it is such a peaceful place compared to the rest of the city. Forbidden City was established as the Imperial Palace during the Ming dynasty.. I don't really know too much about the history of the place, but from what I understand, Forbidden City got it's name from being an area where commoners were not allowed to be. Forbidden City also played a big part in establishing Beijing as the capital city of China. Today, many come to visit and all are allowed. It is a very large area of land and is definitely an interesting place to visit.

Right after Emma and I walked through Forbidden City, we got some lunch, got some souvenirs, and headed to Tian'anmen Square. Tian'anmen Square is very famous (or infamous) for the Tian'anmen Square Massacres of 1989. Many Chinese people, mostly students, were killed while protesting the communist government. While walking through the square, it was incredible to think that all of the protests and killings had happened right there. It is an extremely large area, but during my visit, the Chinese people were happy and celebrating China National Week in the same area where thousands had been killed. It just gave me a bizarre feeling..

Besides the interesting history of the places, I found the people to be quite...well...interesting too. First thing I noticed was their manners (or lack thereof.) For Chinese people, it seems perfectly acceptable to spit anywhere, anytime and push people out of the way to get wherever they are going. And they love to try to take advantage of tourists. The woman who sold us the Chinese flags tried to sell them to us for 20 Yuan. After much of a struggle for the three of us, Emma and I were able to haggle them down to 5 Yuan for both of them...a much more reasonable price. Probably the funniest thing that happened was the Chinese requesting photos with us. They were very excited to see westerners, so we posed for no joke, over 20 pictures with Chinese people. It was ridiculous! They all lined up to take photos with us...so Emma and I put on our panda hats and waved our Chinese flags...and looked like the biggest tourists ever! So funny!

A photo request that we were happy to complete :)

Beginning of Beijing Trip..

Emma and I left our dorms for the Hong Kong Airport several hours (and by several hours, I mean 10 hours) before our flight left. Long story short, we weren't sure if we would be able to get there early in the morning for our flight, so we just decided to stay overnight at the airport. In hindsight, I'm still not sure if it was a good or bad idea. Either way, we were convinced that nothing bad could happen...our thoughts: if we stay overnight at the airport, there is NO possible way that we will miss our flight. Nothing will go wrong. Unfortunately, this was a bad assumption. Very bad assumption.... When we went to check in, Emma was able to get her boarding pass just fine, but for me, it was a different story. China Air informed me that my booking had been canceled and that I no longer had a spot on the flight. Since I booked through Expedia, I immediately called them to find out what had happened. Once again, they were less than helpful. They told me that someone had called to cancel my booking on my behalf and since check-in was over in 30 minutes, they told me to buy my ticket directly through the airlines. Thank God there was a spot left on the flight! So, yes, big hassle, but I finally got my ticket and Emma and I arrived safely in Beijing three hours later.


We checked into our super awesome hostel, Salitun Youth Hostel and we were so happy! It was a little bit hard to find, but luckily we had the address in Chinese so our taxi driver knew where to take us. Our room was super clean and nice, the staff was friendly, and the food was delicious! (And they had three cute kittens!)

Emma and I went out for duck for dinner at a restaurant just a few minutes away from our hostel. Delicious :) Later in the evening, Emma and I met up with the other exchange students who were staying in our hostel. It was so exciting to see everyone!

what a crew!

Beijing--Hong Kong

I just arrived back in wonderful HONG KONG!
Beijing was sooo fun! Over the next few days, I play to update my blog with pictures of the hostel I stayed in, the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, Tian'amen Square, bizarre foods, and good times with friends!


xx

My International Number

Hey Everyone!

Just wanted to let people know what number they can reach me.....+85266766182

Now off to Beijing!


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