10 Thousand Buddha Monastery

Located on a hill really close to CityU is this monastery, that actually has way more than 10k Buddhas. The 400 steps leading up to it are lined with life-sized golden statues of Buddha's followers, and the main temple contains 12,800 Buddhas which line the walls from ceiling to floor and fill the entire room. The surrounding smaller temples and pagoda are also filled and covered in Buddhas. Nadja and I hiked there after class last week and so far this is my favorite temple :)

Fat & Happy Buddha:

Pinay Girls Adventure!

Mons came to visit me from Manila!!! It was so much fun having her here... We had an action packed 3 days full of exploring, shopping and of course.. eating :) These were just some of the highlights:

Hiking on Lamma Island...

...partying in Lan Kwai Fong, sightseeing at Victoria Peak (no visit to HK is complete without it)...

...giving up trying to decipher chinese Dim Sum menus and ordering by just pointing to what other people were eating, and on another occasion eating fried Oyster Cake by the Temple st night market.

Kung Fu Corner

The HK tourism board organises a bunch of free classes/shows. One of them is the Kung Fu Corner that takes places on most sundays in Kowloon Park. In addition to Kung Fu performances there are lion & dragon dances accompanied by ceremonial drumming and a very graceful Tai Chi performance.

Beaches

Pictures of Tai Long Wan, our hiking group and Nadja & Nadja exhausted after the hike

A rather surprising fact of HK is that 70% of its land area is open parkland out of which 40% are nature reserves. So there is much more to HK than just the city. With all of HKs winding coastlines and islands, there are some pretty nice beaches in the area. On a saturday we went for a hike in the New Territories' "Sai Kung East County Park" along the Tai Long Wan (=big wave bay) hiking trail to the best beach in HK. The fastest way to get to the beach is via helicopter or boat, but as students on a budget we were left with the walking option. Let me tell you that hiking up and down hills in 32 degree weather, 85% humidity, no shade and no wind is no joke. But as you can see, it was worth the sweat:

Dragon Boat Festival

This festival takes place every year and is a national holiday. It commemorates a Chinese scholar who committed suicide by drowning in a river as a protest to corruption (he himself was wrongly accused of corruption). The people who loved him searched for him on boats and made noises to scare away fish from eating his body. They also threw in sticky rice cakes to divert the fish. On this day, dragon boat races are held throughout China and sticky rice cakes are eaten (not wasted :).

We watched one of the many dragon boat races from the very packed HK Stanley beach. The boats are adorned with dragon heads and decoration (leaves) and are equipped with a loud drum that keeps the pace of the rowers. Each race consisted of about 13 boats and lasted less than 2 minutes. Most of the teams we saw were from different companies. There was a scoreboard however in line with the asian spirit of teamwork, at the end of each race it was announced that "everyone is a winner"!

Tortoise Jelly

Food is probably my biggest preoccupation in HK. There is just so much good food here, and to top it off it is incredibly cheap to eat out. It costs about 5 times as much to cook at home than to go to a restaurant here. So expect more posts about food on my blog :)

On top of 'normal' food, the Chinese tend to each pretty much anything as long as it is "good for your health". An example of this is Tortoise Jelly which we of course had to try. Small stalls sell the jelly everywhere throughout the city. Most people eat it on the go. Tortoise Jelly is good for getting rid of the 'heat' in your body (heat refers to anything negative or bad in China). It is a concoction of tortoise shell and many bitter herbs.

My HK Apartment!

Moving day is finally here! I was so excited to move into my 'luxury boutique apartment' in downtown Kowloon. Now I'm at a walking distance to all the markets and a 2 min walk from an MTR station that will take me to anywhere in HK.

The studio is very unique, petite, modern, new and has everything that i need (including an induction stove, flatscreen tv, wifi and a hydraulic lift to store things under the bed)

My view onto Shanghai st. which is one of the oldest streets in HK

Market Extravaganza

After the whole housing situation was cleared, i was finally able to begin exploring the city. One of the main things that occupies tourists in HK is, of course, shopping. There is definitely no shortage of shopping opportunities here. However the more "local" shopping locations where you can (and must) bargain for goods are the HK markets. There are so many markets in HK! Bird Market, Flower Market, Goldfish Market, Ladies Market, Night Market, Jade Market, Fruit Market all located in the Kowloon are.. not to mention all the regular "wet" and "dry" markets (more info and pics on those later).

The great thing about HK is that you can walk everywhere or take the very practical and inexpensive MTR (mass transit railway) to get around.

An unbelievable variety of fish, frogs, turtles, crabs, shrimp etc... not to mention goldfish at the goldfish market!

Fruit Markets: By far not one of the biggest mangoes I've seen here

Jade Market: In China, Jade is treasured for its magical powers. Jade Bracelets are worn for protection.

First Week / Erste Woche

My first few day in HK were rather hectic. After realizing that under no circumstances would I live in the dorms of the City uni of HK, I checked into a hotel and began a 3 day search for a serviced apartment for my short stay here. Property prices in hk, just like any metropolitan city, are rather steep.

My experience with the City Uni of HK dorms taught me that photos on internet sites cannot be trusted! So I set off on foot and via subway and visited all the serviced apartments that I found online and still had a room available. This allowed to me start mapping out the city and see some of it, but sightseeing took the backseat to the apartment search. I found a place that was really nice and centrally located in Kowloon, but only available in 10 days. So with the help of the housing office at the nearby Hong Kong Baptist University I was able to stay in their dorms to bridge the time. One dorm room is usually shared by two people, but luckily most students go home for the summer so I had a room & bethroom to myself! Here are pictures:

Operation HK

On June 6th I flew to Hong Kong to complete a summer semester at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). This semester "abroad" is part of my MBA program. I will be here until the end of July studying two courses:

• Electronic Marketing
• Customer Relationship Marketing

according to the 2010 Asian University Rankings published by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), CityU ranks 15th among the top Asian universities

I've been to Hong Kong twice before, once on a family vacation and another time for a swimming competition. Both times they were short visits, so I'm looking forward to exploring the city and gaining insights into chinese culture!