Back to the States: Not The End

Wow. It's hard to believe that I have been home for a week now, much less that I was in Taiwan for a good six months. And of course, what kind of a blogger would I be without a post to tie everything up together? Thus I thought I would write a short little reflective post of my six months in Taiwan.

Those six months felt long and short at the same time although, to be honest, at the very end, I was getting pretty excited about going home. I've learned much during my time in Taiwan: much Mandarin, much about Taiwanese culture, much about myself, about what it means to be an Asian-American in East Asia, specifically Taiwan (and South Korea), much from my teachers, friends, classmates. experiences.

I admit, things weren't always easy: the first few weeks I was terribly lonely and terribly homesick, but I have made some great friends who taught me many things and opened me up to many new experiences. I feel that they really taught me the value of friendship and what it means to be a friend. I am not someone who has a great many deal of friends, but rather a small circle of close friends and even if you don't make a lot of friends while you are abroad, that's okay, because sometimes all you need are a few good friends. That being said, you should be open to meeting new people, especially locals; even if the meetings don't always lead to friendship, it's nice to interact with different types of people, see different points of views, different experiences.

As wonderful and fun as your friends can be however, sometimes you do need a little time to yourself and there's nothing wrong with going out and about on your own. In fact, some people I met have told me that sometimes they prefer travelling alone. Coming to Taiwan by myself was a little scary and even once I was here, sometimes I was afraid of travelling or going out to do things by myself in an unfamiliar place. But I've learned that there's nothing wrong with doing things alone; sometimes it's nice to have someone to share the moment with, and likewise, sometimes it's nice to have the moment to yourself.

Time flies by quickly even if it feels slow. Of course, when you're sitting in class, time might feel like it's crawling, but if you keep thinking things like, "I can't wait for this class to be over," "I can't wait for the weekend," "I can't wait for spring break" that's a lot of time lost right there. You don't always have to wait for break or a long weekend to go out and explore--I had a good amount of free weekends and I wish I had gone out more often to explore. Likewise, exploring doesn't mean having to leave the city--especially if you are in Taipei, you should go out and see what the city has to offer--after all it is your home for at least the next four months!

Make the most of your time abroad: this goes hand in hand with the point made in the above paragraph, but hey you're only abroad once (or twice) and only for a semester (or a year) so you should make the most of your time. Go out and be daring. Try new things, meet new people, choose fun exciting classes that have nothing to do with your major, learn a new language or improve your existing language skills, explore, take lots of pictures, blog, write journals, just get out there and fall in love with the city (or countryside!).

I can't deny that it feels great to be home, and that I'm having a surprisingly easy time falling back into American culture (but then again I haven't been out much and when I do it's to an Asian neighborhood--I do live in a Chinese neighborhood after all), but I would definitely go back to Taiwan in a heartbeat--there's still so many more parts of Taiwan I have yet to see, so much I have yet to eat, so much left to try, so much left to say, so if you thought my blogging days were over (for this blog at least), you're so wrong. My last few days were packed and I managed to get some last minute sightseeing done, so expect some posts on that as well as other posts about living in Taiwan or on my post-Taiwan life.

The semester may be over, but the adventures aren't!

香港: A Reflection

Okay, so I lied--I have one more post about our trip to Hong Kong. This really is the last one though, I promise!

I realized that while I have been relating everything we did in Hong Kong, I haven't really actually talked about my personal experience, about what it felt like to be in Hong Kong, and there's so much to say, hence this final post. Think of it as the epilogue to our adventures. Hehe.

Versus Taiwan

View of Taipei from Taipei 101: mountains, greenery, and city

Going from Taiwan to Hong Kong and back to Taiwan again is like a bit of a jolt because of the differences between the two. Now obviously it's a bit silly to compare a little region to a whole country and as I've mostly only been in Taipei and Taichung, those will be my points of reference for comparison. Taiwan and Hong Kong are not entirely different and there are some similarities between the two. For one, both Taiwan and Hong Kong use Traditional Chinese characters for writing as opposed to the simplified characters used in Mainland China (just one more reason to love Hong Kong!). Between Taipei and Taichung, Hong Kong would have to be more similar to Taipei, since both are more metropolitan, with more of a global influence. Like Taipei, Hong Kong has a fair mix of the rural and urban: despite the both of them being metropolitan areas, you can still find a lot of wildlife and greenery amidst the city life. Also the subway in both Taipei and Hong Kong (called MRT (for Mass Rapid Transit) in Taipei and MTR (for Mass Transit Railway) in Hong Kong--confusing isn't it?) are both efficient and convenient (and a lot smoother than New York City subways!). And despite its busy city life, Hong Kong still manages to be as clean and litter-free (both indoors and out mind you) as Taiwan.

View of Hong Kong from the Peak: harbour, mountains, and skyscrapers

In terms of the actual feel of the city however, I would have to say that the Hong Kong vibe is a lot closer to that of New York City's what with the bustling city that never sleeps sort of lifestyle and the busy streets and city set-up. There is even a large shopping center in Causeway Bay named Times Square after the one in New York City. As I mentioned in a previous post however, it's not quite the same (but can there be two cities that are exactly the same?). Plus while there were some areas of Hong Kong that sort of reminded me of some areas of New York City, I wouldn't say that being in Hong Kong is like being in New York. Hong Kong struck me as being quite technologically advanced, what with the moving walkways, computer internet access in the MTRs, the coordinated Symphony of Lights show. I guess in that way, it made it feel a lot faster than New York City.

Hong Kong: Asia's World City (香港 亞洲國際都會)

As I mentioned Hong Kong is deemed "Asia's World City," and, according to the official website, that entails:

• Non-stop intensity 
• Fascinating contrasts between East and West, urban and natural, modern and ancient
• Compact variety in the diversity of experiences offered to visitors and in the ease and speed with which visitors can get around
• Distinct trendiness by adopting and adapting global trends to create a uniquely Hong Kong style in both products and experiences

I think that these points pretty much encapsulate my experience in Hong Kong: intense, fascinating, efficient, and trendy. Perhaps it was the novelty of being in a new place, but I definitely found Hong Kong very intense and exciting, not in an overly stimulated way, but in a can't-wait-to-get-out-there-and-explore kind of way. The contrasts were something that both surprised and fascinated me. I guess I was expecting Hong Kong to be entirely city-like and more similar to New York City with its concrete jungle, but there was a lot more greenery and natural areas than I expected. And while I expected a certain mixture of East and West, I was slightly surprised by how much global influence there was in Hong Kong, either in the people or the businesses or even the street names. 

Going off of that last point, I was surprised by the amount of international visitors in Hong Kong, mostly Caucasians (remember the community of Caucasians comment?) and Southeast Asians. I don't know if it was because it was summer and so there were a lot of people there on vacation or if they actually lived there. It seems that there is large community of Indians living and working in Hong Kong, but I'm not so sure about others. While the Southeast Asians seemed more like they were in Hong Kong vacationing, visiting, and touring, the Caucasians seemed very much at home and at ease like they gathered in bars on a daily basis. A lot of them were in suits though so perhaps they were in Hong Kong on business. It was interesting to me because they were all in this kind of rich neighborhood, hanging out in bars and restaurants that I'm pretty sure were owned or run by Caucasians, mostly in the company of other white people. I hope I'm not coming off as judgmental because I understand being abroad and wanting to be in the company with people who speak the same language or share the same culture but it was almost like this bubble they had created for themselves. Furthering this contrast was the fact that we were mostly passing by this area on the moving walkway--along with a bunch of other Asians, all of us just passing by without entering the bubble.

I guess in part due to the large amount of Caucasian visitors and in part due to Hong Kong's history of being a British colony is why there is such a large English presence in Hong Kong (probably more so due to the latter than the former). A lot of places have names in both Chinese and English (and sometimes the Chinese name is just a transliteration of the English) and a lot of Hong Kongers speak Mandarin and English in addition to Cantonese (but maybe less English in some of the more traditional restaurants and establishments). The train announcements are also trilingual: in Cantonese, English (with a British accent), and Mandarin (with a Taiwanese accent I think). 

On that note, I've never been spoken to in so many different languages before. I've mentioned that on Korean Air (and in Korea in general) I was spoken to in Korean, while on EVA Air (and here in Taiwan) I was spoken to in Mandarin. Being Asian means the locals don't really think twice about what language you might speak. But in Hong Kong, I have been spoken to in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. I think they usually start off in Cantonese but sometimes when they hear me speaking with my roommates in English they might use English too. But as my roommates also throw in a fair amount of Mandarin in their English, sometimes people will speak to us in Mandarin. But in Korea, sometimes people who start off speaking to me in English would continue to use English even if I've responded in Korean, whereas in Hong Kong they usually switch over to Cantonese if I do (or perhaps that is just a testament of how terrible my Korean is).

Cantonese versus Mandarin

I often have non-Chinese friends ask me if there is a difference between written Cantonese and written Mandarin. Both yes and no. No in that there is a Standard Chinese writing system that allows you to understand the writing despite what dialect of Chinese you speak, but yes in that if you were to transcribe spoken Mandarin and spoken Cantonese and compare the two, you would see a lot of differences. For one thing, sometimes the grammar and word order is a little different between the two and for another, there are certain words and phrases (sometimes even characters) that are specific to one dialect or the other. Here is a nice video from YouTubers, Off the Great Wall, which talks a little about the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin:

I think in the case of reading spoken Mandarin versus Cantonese, Cantonese speakers are at an advantage over Mandarin speakers, since Standard Chinese is based off of Mandarin and so spoken Mandarin would still make sense to a Cantonese speaker even if it's not colloquial. So would you actually see any written Cantonese? Well for more formal settings (newspapers, business), you would probably use Standard Chinese but for more informal settings (writing a letter, on advertisements, blogging), you would be more likely to see written Cantonese. It's also a personal preference as I have seen some Hong Kong celebrities on Instagram writing in Standard Chinese, while others write in written Cantonese (while the Hong Kong fans usually comment in written Cantonese). Also because I'm so nice (okay I'm interested too), I kept a lookout of examples of written Cantonese to show you all.

I actually didn't manage to get a picture so I had to find this on Google

望右/左 (mong6 jau6/zo2) - Look right/left
I don't actually know if the use of 望 to mean "look" is exclusively Cantonese, but I have never heard it being used that way in Mandarin (correct me if I'm wrong!), but it was interesting that it was written that way on the streets.


的士 (dik1 si6*2) - Taxi

Another picture that I had to find off Google

If you were expecting the yellow taxis of New York City (although some of them are green now) or even Taiwan, I'm letting you know right now that taxis in Hong Kong are red and white so if you are in need of a taxi, don't go looking for a yellow cab to hail down.
I know for sure that 的士 is an exclusively Cantonese word for "taxi" because the Cantonese pronunciation is in fact based off of the English and if you were to read it in Mandarin (dí shì), it sounds nothing like the English word, "taxi".

士多啤梨 (si6 do1 be1 lei4*2) - Strawberry
If you couldn't tell from the jyupting, this is another one that is based off of the English pronunciation. When I was younger, I used to think that this was just the English pronunciation but with a Chinese accent--I didn't realize that this was actually how "strawberry" was pronounced in Cantonese (likewise cherry, which is 車厘子 ce1 lei4 zi2 is also the actual Cantonese and not English with a Chinese accent--although I guess that's technically what it is).

食好啲 (sik6 hou2 di1) - Eat better
This isn't an actual idiomatic phrase or expression but I took a picture of it because it captured two differences between Cantonese and Mandarin. The first is a difference in character usage. 食, which can be used to mean "to eat" in Cantonese is more commonly used in Mandarin as part of food related words: 食堂 (shítáng) for example is a cafeteria or dining hall, while 食物 (shíwù) means food. 食 in Cantonese is similar to how 吃 in Mandarin might be used, so for example, 食飯 in Cantonese and 吃飯 in Mandarin to mean "to eat" or 好食 in Cantonese and 好吃 in Mandarin to mean delicious.
The second difference I wanted to point out was the last character, 啲, which is an exclusively Cantonese character, usually added after an adjective such as with 好 (good) above as a modifier (similar to how -er is added at the end of adjectives to create adverbs such as faster, louder, fewer). The interesting thing about this character (and some other Cantonese specific characters) is that they don't exist in some input systems (my jyupting input does not in fact have this character and I had to write it out on Google Translate) and so sometimes Latin letters/simple romanizations are used instead, such as D in place of 啲.

香港 or 台灣?

"So do you like Hong Kong better or Taiwan?" I was asked by both my mother and one of my roommates. While I was not actively comparing the two, I have to admit, there were several points during my trip where I thought, "xyz is so much better in Hong Kong/Taiwan." For one thing having grown up in New York City Chinatown which is majority Cantonese people, I'm more accustomed to Cantonese dishes and really missed it while I was in Taiwan (and no I'm not just talking about 點心). I enjoy Taiwanese dishes, but admittedly it's a little hard to get authentic and cheap Cantonese food in Taiwan (I once ordered a 港式蝦較 at a night market in Taipei thinking it was the translucent shrimp dumplings, but it turns out that they were just normal dumplings with a shrimp-meat filling. Such disappointment). For another thing, having grown up hearing a lot more Cantonese than Mandarin (my Cantonese was a lot better than my Mandarin before I started formally learning Mandarin), I feel more familiar hearing Cantonese. Also and you can laugh at me for this statement, but Cantonese has to be my favorite language--there's just something about the way it sounds that I find really nice. I've heard people say that Cantonese sounds harsher than Mandarin, which really surprises me because I've always thought Mandarin sounded harsher. Another thing is that, like I mentioned above and in a previous post, Hong Kong has a very similar atmosphere to New York City, to the point that while I didn't think I was back home, I certainly didn't feel like I was in an unfamiliar place.

Thus far it looks like I prefer Hong Kong a lot more right? I guess for me, being in Hong Kong was a lot like being home without actually being at home and though I profess to love nature (I wanted to live in the mountains, then the forest when I was younger), I think that at heart I'm a city girl--or maybe what I need is that right mix of urban and natural. Yet at the same time, it's hard to compare when the time span I've been in Hong Kong was so short and going somewhere for fun and with friends is different than going somewhere to study or intern by yourself. I wondered to myself if I would have enjoyed Hong Kong so much had I gone by myself or had I been there to study (I did want to study there actually, but it was more logical for me to go to Taiwan to study because of CISLA and my language studies) or if it was the novelty of being in a new place that I enjoyed so much. Honestly I don't know, but I will say that being able to go to Hong Kong with my roommates and friends has been a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed everything that Hong Kong had to offer from the food to the sights to the culture and the people. Hopefully I get the chance to go back to Hong Kong (for longer than just a weekend please!) and explore further (although maybe not in the summer)!

Weekend Getaway to 香港 Asia's World City (Part III)

Wow, I ended up having more posts on Hong Kong than I expected, but as promised the third (and hopefully last) Hong Kong post! Enjoy~

The antics these two get into!

Day 3: Dim sum and the Peak

Sunday morning I finally got my 點心 (dim sum)--keeping up with traditions from back home, haha. In Chinatown back in New York City, Sunday mornings or afternoons are usually the time to 飲茶 with the family and can serve as breakfast or brunch (sometimes lunch too!)

飲茶, which literally means "drink tea" in Cantonese (it means that in Mandarin too, but 飲茶 is more a Cantonese phrase--Mandarin uses 喝 for drink), refers to going out for 點心 (although it seems that in some overseas Chinese communities the two are used interchangeably). Having grown up eating 點心, I am always at a loss on how to explain what it is to people who don't know. Literally meaning "touch the heart," I have also heard 點心 being interpreted into English as "pastries", "small snacks", or "light refreshments". I guess because of the small size of the dishes, people who aren't familiar with 點心 will think of it as a light snack, but actually we usually eat 點心 as a full meal, either for breakfast or brunch. I have seen people go 飲茶 by themselves, but usually we'll go with family or friends.

點心 is charged by the dish, and usually they are separated into sizes, 小 (small), 中 (medium), and 大 (large), with the small sizes of course costing the least and the large sizes costing the most. In a traditional 點心 restaurant, there would be ladies pushing around carts of food and if you want that dish, you would wait at your table for them to pass by and then call them over and tell them what you want, whereupon they will give you your desired dish(es) and place a stamp on your bill in the corresponding section (小, 中, 大). Most of the similar types of foods will be in the same cart, so the 腸粉 in one cart, the dumplings in one cart, the 甜品 in one cart, the steamed buns in one cart...et cetera. Nowadays at a lot of restaurants, you will just mark down what you want on the order sheet, and they'll make it for you, but I've always preferred the more traditional style with the carts and everything--that way you can see (and smell!) all the delicious food and get it right away. Plus there is something to be said about the bustle of the traditional 點心 set up.

So what type of dishes exactly can one expect to find in a 點心 restaurant? In addition to steamed dumplings and siu mai, you can also get different kinds of 腸粉 (which I think is translated into English as rice noodles, but they're not really noodles), steamed buns (both sweet and savory), 粽 (rice dumplings? I think they're called in English), meat dishes (鳳爪, 排骨), soups, and dessert dishes (豆腐花, almond pudding, red bean soups, pastries, 蛋撻). You can usually order a rice or noodle dish too for those who want more of an actual meal as opposed to a bunch of little dishes. And of course, we can't forget the tea--it is called 飲茶 after all! Most places will serve you a pot of hot tea as soon as you're seated and although it's usually complimentary to your meal (like a glass of water at a Western restaurant), some places might charge you for the tea. Usually they will ask you what kind of tea you want, some of the choices being jasmine, chrysanthemum, bo lei (pu-erh), green. The tea is really quite a nice way to wash down your meal and to counteract some of the oily foods you just had. If you want a refill, leaving the lid of your teapot slightly open will signify to the waiters that you want more tea.

Like so; image courtesy of Excited By Life!

This works as well; image courtesy of Travels in Translation

Anyways, I bet you are all excited to see all the delicious food we ate, so on to the pictures! I admit, having wanted to try dim sum in Hong Kong for the longest time, I had kind of high expectations--Hong Kong is the origin of 點心 after all! Plus I wanted to see how New York City compared in terms of authenticity and quality. We originally wanted to go to 一點心 (One Dim Sum), so we took the MTR to 太子站. As we were looking for it however, we passed another dim sum place 名點心 (Famous Dim Sum) and decided, why not? So in we went. It was about a quarter to eleven at this point and while the restaurant was not extremely busy, there were quite a few patrons in there. Unfortunately it was the order sheet instead of the traditional food-on-cart type of restaurant, but I'll let that one slide (it just means that next time I have to go to a more traditional establishment!). Since one of my roommates is a vegetarian, we made sure to get a fair amount of meat-less dishes. Actually many dim sum dishes have meat in them--in fact the best ones do, so sometimes you will be a little hard pressed to find good dim sum if you are a vegetarian. However I have been to vegetarian dim sum restaurants before and it can still be as good as the real thing (if you are ever in New York City, I recommend Buddha Bodai for some delicious vegetarian dim sum--and their mango pudding is a must too!)

As expected, we were served tea as soon as we sat down--unfortunately it was not free and cost HK $3 per person (which is only about 40 US cents per person, but still). One thing I noticed (also from going to 蓮香 two nights back) is that the tea is also used to wash bowls and utensils. In addition to the tea pot, we were given another little bowl in which we could pour the tea into to rinse out our bowls, cups, and spoons. Of course, the dishware have already been washed before, but I think this is just the custom here. Anyways, on to the food!

Luckily for us, the menu had both Chinese and English and pictures on the wall too; I'm more familiar with the names of the dishes in Cantonese and while I can read a little in Cantonese, having both the English and pictures helped immensely for the dishes that I was less familiar with. The nice thing about ordering via the sheet is that all of your food will arrive at once. We also decided to try our luck with the 奶茶, but again, while it smelled fragrant, it was rather dry with an odd aftertaste--next time I think I'll get it iced so that I don't have to try to figure out how much sugar I should be adding. My vegetarian roommate got herself a 龍井茶葉蛋 (or just simply 茶葉蛋 tea egg) and we were a little surprised by how white the egg still was under the shell, but it still tasted pretty much 差唔多--you can't really go wrong with tea eggs (okay I lied--my cousin and I tried to make tea eggs once. The color turned out nice, but the flavor was just a little bit lacking, so I guess you can go wrong with tea eggs). Anyways, we also decided to go the traditional route and get 腸粉, 蝦餃, and some steamed 包, These are definitely must-haves when you go 飲茶. I generally like 牛腸 and 蝦腸, but as we wanted to make sure our vegetarian roommate could share in the delight, we decided to go with what they called the "Traditional rice noodle rolls" or 布拉滑腸粉, which was basically the 腸粉 without any filling.

With a good amount of 豉油 for flavor

Actually we weren't sure which options were vegetarian so I went up to ask and the woman kindly marked all of the vegetarian options on the order sheet for us (for those of you that are curious, the Cantonese word for vegetarian is 齋 (zaai1 in jyutping) and if you want to say that someone is vegetarian: 佢食齋 (keoi5 sik6zaai1)).

For steamed 包, we decided to go with the classic 叉燒包 (char siu bao) and a sweet 流沙奶黃包 (custard bun--the smooth round buns in the picture). I should have gotten a picture of the 流沙奶黃包 filling. Usually when I have it, the custard filling tends to be semi-solid, semi-liquid, but in this case, it was all molten and drippy and delicious. I like it both ways but be careful with the liquid center--it is hot and it will drip. And of course, we couldn't not go for 點心 and not get 蝦餃! These shrimp dumplings are a dim sum classic and favorite. I have even heard that the quality of the 蝦餃 is a reflection of the chef's skill. If you have never had a 蝦餃 before, they are basically a big shrimp (or shrimps, sometimes with other meats and veggies too) in a sticky translucent wrapper. Hence, the dim sum chef is judged on: first, the skin, which should be both translucent and thin, yet sturdy enough that it won't break when picked up, and which should not be so sticky that it will stick to the paper at the bottom of the steamer or to the other 蝦餃; second, the shrimp should be well cooked, but not overcooked and the filling must be generous but small enough to eat in one bite. The last item in the picture to the left above is a 原籠馬拉糕, or a brown sugar steamed sponge cake. It was soft and slightly sweet, nothing too flavorful, and one slice was surprisingly filling. In addition to the six dishes above, we also decided to get 小籠包, 燒賣, and 竹笙灌湯餃 for my vegetarian roommate. The former two are also classic 點心 items, which I always get. 小籠包, despite being a Shanghainese dish, is commonly found on any 點心 menu. Meaty and soupy these dumplings are a must try anywhere and despite being of a smaller size when served for 點心 it was not any less soupy nor any less delicious. 燒賣 is also referred to as a dumpling, but they're not quite dumplings. The filling is made usually of ground pork along with some veggies and mushrooms, wrapped in a (usually yellow) wrapping around the sides and bottom and then topped with a piece of shrimp. These are heartier and more dense than a normal dumpling and I'm sure you can get full on these alone. The 竹笙灌湯餃 juicy bamboo fungus soup dumplings that my roommate got looked good, but all her dumplings had gotten so soft in the soup that the skin broke.

All in all, this restaurant had pretty good food and friendly staff. It wasn't too bad either, at I believe HK $222 for the three of us, which makes it HK $74 per person; that is US $23.64 altogether and less than US $10 per person (about US $9.50). I do wish that there were more choices though as there were a lot of dishes that I felt were missing, but for a tiny little restaurant it had a decent selection and I was not disappointed by my Hong Kong dim sum experience.

Awaiting the tram

It was almost around noon by the time we left the restaurant and since one of my roommates had an earlier flight at 3 (mine and my other roommate's was at 5:40), she decided to head to the airport. With some time left before we had to leave Hong Kong (nooooo), my other roommate and I decided to do one last must-experience touristy thing: The Peak, otherwise known as 山頂, a mountain standing 552 meters (1,811 feet) high on the western side of Hong Kong Island where you can get a view of the surrounding areas. We took the MTR to 金鐘站 (Admiralty Station) and from there followed the signs to the Peak Tram. Of course, there was an extremely long line for tickets that even queued across the street, but surprisingly the line moved pretty fast (at least in comparison to the line for the 昂坪 cable cars anyways). I think that also might have had to do with the fact that there were two separate lines--one for if you just wanted tickets for the Peak, and the other if you wanted tickets to the Peak and to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Needless to say there were just as much people on the line for Madame Tussauds as there were on the line for just the Peak alone. When we finally got our tickets,there was of course more waiting, but the wait was not too bad. The Peak Sky Pass round trip ticket (which grants you access to the tram and the Sky Terrace) was surprisingly cheap at HK $83 (about Us $10.71) and even cheaper if you're a child or a senior. The waiting area was a Peak Tram Historical Gallery about, as the name suggests, the history of the Peak Tram, but it was hard to see the exhibit with so many people crowded there and waiting to move ahead. After we got through the ticket collecting gate, we still had to wait a little more, this time to actually get on the tram, but it wasn't too bad as the tram came regularly and fit a fair amount of people.

The tram is here!

The tram ride was surprisingly fast...and surprisingly steep. We arrived to the Peak in less than ten minutes and we weren't even going that fast, and then there was the angle. It wasn't really something that you could tell unless you were sitting at the edge of your seat, in which case you would feel yourself start to lean back, but when you looked out the window, everything was at a funny angle. It was a little scary to think about actually.

There was a rainbow in the sky! I don't know if you can really tell from this picture though

There were tons of shops and restaurants in the Peak Tower

The tram actually took us to the Peak Tower and from there we still had to take a few escalators up to Sky Terrace 428 (so named because it stands 428 meters above sea level) to get a view of Hong Kong. Each visitor was also given a touch screen audio tour (available in six languages: Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and French) and a set of headphones to borrow. The audio tour gives visitors a little historical background to the Peak and Hong Kong and if you wanted to learn more about any of the many areas highlighted on the map, you could simply click on it to hear more about it or see a timeline. The view of course was amazing--it was too bad it was so hot and sunny though. It made it a little hard to see and you had to be careful with the metal railings--they were scorching. There was also a Sky Terrace employee standing there to take pictures for visitors--it was kind of funny actually listening to him calling out different poses for people. I think it would be worth it to go to the Peak at night and see the Hong Kong skyline. I'm sure it would be amazing.

Going up!

The view was amazing!

The clouds are too!

Declare your love at The Peak!

I Love You Hong Kong!

I know I keep saying this, but look at that view! Can you imagine watching the sun set from here?

Panoramic shot from the Peak

If it weren't so hot, we probably would have stayed a little longer, but as it was about two, we decided it would be best to leave and start making our way to the airport. :( There were a lot of cool shops and restaurants in the Peak Tower and while we didn't buy anything we did browse a little (well I did) and then it was back down via the tram!

Post your Love to the Future~

Going down!

Can you see the angle we were going at?

It's a little easier to see here

The fountain signifying where you can buy your tickets for the Peak

Afterwards, we headed back to Hong Kong International Airport via the Airport Express and from there we were just in the airport waiting to board our plane back to Taiwan...but not before we had one final meal, in the airport, but still--I was determined to get something quintessentially Hong Kong.

Must we really leave?

They even broadcast flight times on the Airport Express TV too

雲呑麵 and 蛋撻

And that, my friends, concludes our weekend getaway in Asia's World City.

Everyday Cantonese Dim sum Edition

• 飲茶 (jam2 caa4) - Literally "drink tea;" it used to mean to go out for dim sum
• 點心 (dim2 sam1) - Literally "touch the heart;" dim sum consists of many different types of Cantonese cuisine, served in small portions (so you can eat more obviously hahaha) usually in bamboo steamers
• 腸粉 (coeng4*2 fan2) - Usually translated as "rice noodle rolls" these are not actually noodles, at least not in the traditional sense, although they are made of wide strips of rice noodles (or same ingredients at least) and can be eaten alone or with a filling such as beef (牛腸 ngau4 coeng4*2), shrimp (蝦腸 haa1 coeng4*2), dried shrimps (蝦米腸 haa1 mai5 coeng4*2), barbecued pork (叉燒腸 caa1 siu1 coeng4*2); it is usually served with a slightly sweet soy sauce
• 粽 (zung3) - Often referred to in English as "(sticky) rice dumplings" these are made of sticky glutinous rice with filling that can be savory (such as meat, salted egg yolk, vegetables) or sweet (red bean, yellow bean, bananas) and wrapped in a bamboo leaf, often in a tetrahedral shape (although this depends on the region); in addition to dim sum, these are also eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival in the fifth month of the lunar calendar
• 糯米雞/珍珠雞 (lo6 mai5 gai1/zan1 zyu1 gai1) - A variation of 粽 which is rectangular and also made of glutinous rice and filled with chicken, mushrooms, and Chinese sausage (sometimes a salted egg yolk) and wrapped in a lotus leaf before being steamed
• 鳳爪 (fung6 zaau2) - Literally "phoenix claws," this classic dim sum dish is actually chicken feet which have been deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce, then steamed giving them a moist, tender texture and a dark red color, although sometimes they are cooked plain (in which case they will be white) and served with vinegar
• 排骨 (paai4 gwat1) - Spare ribs, usually cut into cubic pieces and can be fried, steamed, or braised
• 茶葉蛋 (caa4 jip6 daan6*2) - Tea eggs; pre-boiled eggs with cracked shells which are then boiled again in a soy sauce-tea mixture (sometimes with additional spices) for flavor; the cracked shell gives the eggs a marbled pattern
• 蝦餃 (haa1 gaau2) - Shrimp dumplings; these are a classic dim sum dish and how well it has been made can be used to judge the skill of the dim sum chef
• 燒賣 (siu1 maai6*2) - Siu mai; these are considered dumplings though they are not quite dumplings in the traditional sense; made of meat, mushrooms, and veggies, they sort of resemble a little pouch of meat and are usually topped with a piece of shrimp (sometimes crab or peas are used instead)
• 小籠包 (siu2 lung4 baau1) - Soup dumplings; these are actually a Shanghainese cuisine, but have since become a popular dim sum menu item, and are smaller than your traditional 小籠包
• 包 (baau1) - These are your steamed buns and they can be stuffed with savory fillings, such as barbecue pork in 叉燒包 (caa1 siu1 baau1), chicken in 大包 (daai6 baau1), or sweet, such as custard in 奶黃包 (naai5 wong4 baau1)
• 蛋撻 (daan6 taat3*1) - Egg custard tart; a popular dim sum dessert item, the crust can be anywhere from soft and flaky to thin and hard, although ones served at dim sum tend to be of the flaky variety

Weekend Getaway to 香港 Asia's World City (Part II)

As promised, here's Part II!

Art in the MTR

Day 2: Cable Cars, Big Buddha, and A Symphony of Lights

Saturday, we decided to head out bright and early so that we would be able to make the most of our day. Plus, we planned on heading over to take the cable car to see the Big Buddha and, at the advice of my roommate's Hong Kong friend, it was an all day thing, so best to go in the morning. But first things first--breakfast!

I'm not sure what animal this towel creature was, but Pooh and Oswald seemed to like him

We decided it would be best to get breakfast nearby in the interest of saving time, but since we were not really familiar with the area, we decided to ask the reception desk for recommendations. We were staying at the Y-Loft, which was an inexpensive, nice little hostel. The people working there are also super nice and super friendly and can also speak Mandarin and English. The receptionist working there ended up suggesting this 茶餐廳 close by and even wrote the directions and name of the restaurant down for us. A 茶餐廳, which literally means, "tea restaurant" and can be found all throughout Hong Kong, is basically an affordable restaurant whose menus feature Hong Kong cuisines and Hong Kong-style Western dishes. I think they are open all day and you can go there for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

We found the place with relative ease but then we got a little confused when it came time to order. The menu was entirely in Chinese and while three of us could all read Chinese (although my Chinese reading skills are quite lacking in comparison--but to be fair my two roommates are Taiwanese so their Mandarin speaking, reading, and comprehension are a lot lot better than mine), we didn't really know what exactly the dishes were.

My roommates ended up getting noodle soup, while I decided to go for a more Western style breakfast (which I admit I kind of chose at random) and each set (or 餐) came with a beverage of your choice--we all chose 茶. We were confused when they brought out 奶茶 for us though, but apparently the tea that they served us when we sat down was not the tea that came with our meal--it was in fact the milk tea, which we learned from the kind patron sitting in the booth next to ours. In any case the breakfast was pretty good, although I was wishing I had gone for the more traditional Hong Kong style breakfast. The 奶茶 on the other hand was not quite what I was expecting--it smelled very much like the 港式奶茶 that we have back in Chinese bakeries in New York but it didn't quite taste the same. Granted, you were supposed to add the sugar in yourself but as I didn't want to load too much sugar into my cup, my 奶茶 didn't quite taste as I was hoping.

Afterwards it was on to the 昂坪 cable cars to see the 天壇大佛. From 柴灣站 we took the MTR to 中環站 where we transferred over to the orange 東涌 line and rode the train to 東涌站  to buy tickets for the 昂坪 cable car. We realized then why my roommate's friend told us that it was an all day thing--the lines were long and stretched across several ramps. We were on line for about an hour before we made it to the ticket counter and there were at least six counters as well.

The view of Lantau Island was nice though

We decided to get round-tip tickets for the standard cable cars opposed to the Crystal Cabin cable cars just because it was cheaper and the wait for that line a lot shorter, plus we all felt like being in a glass bottomed cable car going over the mountains would be a little too much in terms of stimulation. Fans of heights we are not it seems.

The line on the right was for the Crystal Cabin cable car--it had a lot more people and was going a lot slower

Each cable car can seat eight people I think; since there were just three of us, and the next group just had two, they put us all in the same cable car. Despite the long line though, the view was so worth it.

I couldn't not get a picture of these two in the cabin car! 

Enjoying the view

That view! I think that's Hong Kong International Airport off in the distance

The view down below--you can see a trail (probably not leading up to the top) that people were actually walking

Almost there! Can you see the Buddha?

I think all in all the cable car took about roughly 20 minutes to get to from 東涌 to the 昂坪 highlands. From there we walked around the 昂坪市集 (Ngong Ping Village) area which, in addition to the 天壇大佛, also consisted of the 寶蓮禪寺 (Po Lin Monastery), a few souvenir shops, some restaurants, convenience stores, and smaller food stalls.

McDull again, haha

Giant lucky kitty outside one of the souvenir shops featuring...yep you guessed it, lucky kitties

Since I wanted 豆腐花, we decided to recharge and rest for a bit before making our way up to 天壇大佛. I don't know if I ever mentioned this in any of my previous posts, but Taiwan 豆花 (as it is called in Mandarin) is just not the same as the 豆腐花 I grew up eating in Chinatown. For one thing, in addition to being served warm, Taiwan's 豆花 can also be served cold (which admittedly can be pretty nice during the hotter weathers) with a variety of toppings from fruit (which I quite like--I had a delicious mango and watermelon one once) to 珍珠 (which took me completely off guard the first time I had it--in fact it was also the first time I had 豆花 in Taiwan), red beans (which isn't too bad either), peanuts (which I liked better than I thought I would), to taro, to a mix of the previously mentioned ones. The ones that I am accustomed to were the warm ones in Cantonese style, which is with a slightly sweet ginger syrup, which I had not had in a long time, so needless to say, I was quite excited when I saw the little stands selling 豆腐花, sold both hot and cold.

With the ginger syrup in a little spoon

The syrup had a more gingery taste than I was accustomed to, but it was delicious nonetheless and refreshing too

Then it was on our way to the Buddha!

A little hot, but the weather was otherwise perfect

Those stairs!

就嚟到啦!

The Offering of the Six Devas; three of the six Devas

The view was amazing!

Look at those clouds!

天壇大佛--it was truly an awe-inspiring and humbling experience to stand before this Big Buddha

Stairs again. Luckily going down the stairs was a lot easier than going up

Afterwards, we decided to head over to the 寶蓮禪寺 and as they had food there (vegetarian only because of the Buddhists), we decided to take a snack break there.

寶蓮禪寺

菠蘿包, 春捲, and a refreshing bottle of cold 豆漿

It was about three in the afternoon by the time we left 昂坪市集 and took the cable car back down to 東涌 so we decided to hang around for a bit in the area before heading to dinner and then back to Victoria Harbour for A Symphony of Lights show.

But first...ducks!

For the 10th anniversary of the iSquare mall in 尖沙咀 in 九龍

They even had ducks inside the mall!

Victoria Harbour at night, with many tourists awaiting the famed A Symphony of Lights show

At around a quarter to 8, we headed back to Victoria Harbour to catch A Symphony of Lights, which was basically a daily light show involving music and...well, lights. I wish I could have caught it on camera but alas, my phone camera and actual camera aren't the best when it comes to nighttime shots. For anyone planning a trip to Hong Kong, A Symphony of Lights is deemed a must-see and I wouldn't disagree--but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I wouldn't say that I was disappointed per se, but again, it wasn't what I was expecting. I think it was definitely worth experiencing but from all the pictures and all the reviews, the lights were not as bright and flashy as I expected. It was cool though how the whole show was coordinated and how the lasers and the building lights flashed on in time with the music. So while it was a worthwhile experience, it wasn't quite the amazing fantastic light show that I thought it would be. Still though, you should go for the experience if nothing else. Who knows, maybe the weather wasn't right for it that day and you'll have better sights when you go.

Afterwards, we decided to head on over to 銅鑼灣 Causeway Bay because I had been raving about this famous Japanese matcha ice cream place I wanted to try, Via Tokyo. When we got out of the MTR station however, we were a little unsure about which way to go and decided to ask an elderly man who was standing there advertising a new restaurant that opened up. However, as I didn't know the name of the street in Cantonese and he didn't know it in English, there was a bit of confusion until we thought to show him the location on the map. Luckily another local who was passing by had overheard us and offered to take us there since he was also going in that direction. It wasn't too far from where we were actually and the guy, I believe his name was Sam, was a little on the quieter side but quite sweet and helpful. We finally made it to Via Tokyo to find a line queuing out the door which we were not excited about (we had been on our feet practically all day after all), but we soon learned that the line was for if you wanted to eat inside the (rather tiny little) store, but we decided to 拎走 (have it to-go) so we were able to go right in and order. We decided to go with the 生果抹茶雪糕白玉餡密 (Fruit Matcha Soft Cream Shiratama Anmitsu), which, in addition to the matcha soft serve, also had a ton of fruit (bananas, kiwis, strawberries, and mandarin oranges) and some mochi as well. Granted for its tiny size, it was a little expensive at HK $52 (about US $6.71), but it was good and definitely worth a visit. Though a quick note--if you 拎走 it will melt pretty quickly considering how hot and humid it was outside.

All in all, it was a full and tiring, but fun second day in Hong Kong. The weather was perfect if a little hot and we got to see such beautiful views of Hong Kong. It was hard to believe that our trip was more than half over and that we would be returning to Taiwan the next day. I know that I for one did not want to leave Hong Kong and that I would be making the most of my last day in Hong Kong.

Stay tuned for Part III!