If you have to work on a Saturday...

Tomorrow, October 1st is National Day. This is when China celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Now, holidays in China are a little unusual, at least to an American like myself. The government dictates when the holidays are, and how long they are, but they also move the work days. By now you're probably confused so let me explain. For National Day the Chinese government gives the people three days but then moves the "weekend day" to create a five-day holiday. Usually, this means that people have to work two weekend days. These days might be both before the holiday or one before and one after (for example for National Day it's often the Saturday before and the Sunday after). This year the 1st is on a Sunday so the days off are the second, third and fourth. We should then have to make up the fifth and sixth, but there is another holiday that this year falls within this week. Mid-Autumn Festival (or sometimes known as Moon Festival) is Wednesday. Since the government gives the people one day for Mid-Autumn Festival only one day has to be made up and today was the day declared as the make-up day (each Winter the government releases a list of that year's holidays as well as make-up days).
If you have to work on a Saturday, today was about as good as it gets. School usually starts at 7:40 am. If I have a first period class (which I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays), I have to be there by 7:15/7:20. If I don't have a first period class, then I have to be there by 8:00 am. Today we had to meet in the parking lot at 8:50 am. We then took the whole school (which is only about 40 or so students) to a museum on the Japanese Aggression (the museum's word, not mine) in China. In case you didn't know Japan invaded China in the mid-1930s and weren't expelled until after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan and the subsequent ending of World War II. We left the museum around 11:15 and got back to school a little after noon. We were then dismissed for the holiday. Not a bad work day (especially considering I didn't have to do anything with the students at the museum we were free to explore on our own).

I'm sorry it's not very easy to read because it was at an angle. It is worth
making the effort to read though.

I've heard it say that history is what those who write the history books say it is. It was very interesting to see the history from a very different perspective than I usually see. One of my first observations was that nowhere in the museum did they ever call it World War II. The war within China was called, "The Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" and World War II was referred to as the "World Anti-Fascist War." Overall, I thought the coverage was much better balanced than I had expected, but there were a couple of interesting observations I made. At the beginning of the war, the Nationalist party (also known as the Kuomintang) were in charge of the Republic of China and the signs perpetually threw them under the bus blaming them for every advance the Japanese made (If you don't know anything about Chinese history, after the end of the last dynasty the Republic of China was founded with the Nationalist government in charge. After the Japanese were expelled from China a civil was ensued at eventually the communist party won and the Kuomintang or Nationalists fled to Taiwan where they call themselves the Republic of China, but the People's Republic of China calls them a province, albeit a rogue province). In the early parts of the war, the museum showed the Kuomintang (they never referred to them in this part of the museum as the Nationalist party) could do no right and the communist party was the great motivator and unifier. As the allies started to get involved the worked together with the Republic China's government (i.e. te Kuomintang), but the museum never calls them this as the tide changes and the Japanese are being defeated. In this part of the museum they almost always just say China. The communist party is never mentioned (because they weren't actually involved) and in one spot the Kuomintang is mentioned, but they are referred to as the Nationalist party (the only time in the entire museum the name Nationalist party is mentioned). This makes me wonder if there is a museum in Taiwan on this subject and if so, I think I'd love to see it to see the opposing viewpoint. I'm including a few pictures of some of the signs so that you can get a feel for the language.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well they covered the contributions of other countries, not just the Soviet Union, but also the Americans, Canadians, Australians, Britons and more. I also learned something I never knew before. Back in 1939, the Chinese took in Jewish refugees. I asked my boss about what happened to them (I want to research this more myself) and he told me that most of them moved to Israel after it was created (that makes sense), but a very small number actually stayed in China and have descendants who are Chinese citizens.

Note: the caption blames the Kuomintang.

I find the passport very interesting. It was clearly designed to be
for a man and wife, but this is for a woman and her
husband had his own passport, which was beside it on the wall.
The other thing I find interesting is if you can read German you can see
it's not even filled out correctly. Her birthdate is written beside
birthplace and her birthplace is beside birthdate (and I thought
it was bad that my first passport accidently said I was born in
Arkansas).

The NHL comes to Beijing

Arriving at the arena

China is an emerging market. There is more and more wealth in China and it is this wealth that not only provides my job but also opens up unique opportunities. This past week the NHL came to China for the first time (something the NBA has done quite a bit). The Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings played a game in Shanghai on Thursday and another in Beijing on Saturday. I decided to go to the Beijing game and I'm glad I did.
Outside the venue, there was what I can describe only as a carnival. There were booths with different hockey-related games and plenty of displays for taking photos. I didn't know about any of this ahead of time and so I wasn't there with enough time to participate (although even if I had known, I doubt I would have cared).

Before the game

Inside the arena, there was a program with playing cards (both entirely in Chinese) and a rally towel on each seat. Of course, the towels weren't for one particular team since neither was truly the home team. The surprising thing for me though was the number of foreigners present. I expected a number would come back as early as the subway I realized there were a lot more than I expected. Matter of fact, there was a group of about 6 to my left and a group of about 8 in front of me, plus a lot more not far away as well as throughout the arena. Almost all the people around me were Canadian (although sitting directly beside was a woman from South Africa), but the surprising thing was how many people appeared to have traveled quite a distance to come to the game. Both groups of Canadians (who didn't know each other) had traveled from Hefei, which according to Siri is about 550 miles away as the crow flies. One thing I found highly amusing is that in a crowd of 12,479 (If I'm remembering the number correctly), I was within shouting distance of one of my co-workers.

Before the game, they demonstrated the rules in both Chinese
and English. 

One of the 3 groups of cheerleaders. Much of their
presentation was very different from "typical" Chinese
culture.

The game was an interesting mix of East meets West. First, because Chinese people are not very familiar with hockey, there was an explanation of the rules complete with demonstrations (and presented bilingually). The early demonstrations were done with some of the people taking care of the ice, while the latter ones were performed by the mascots.  Throughout the game, there were also explanations displayed (only in Chinese) on the jumbotron. While the NHL certainly brought a lot of people with them (even the Zamboni drivers were not Chinese), there were two or three groups of cheerleaders who performed in a style that was decidedly NOT Chinese, but then there was also a performance that was very traditional Chinese with a woman in a traditional minority dress (I missed the announcement which said which one) and traditional Chinese instruments. The coolest example though of East meets West was in the opening "ceremonies." The Chinese are really big on bombastic over-the-top displays and the opening definitely fell into that category. Among other things, a multimedia presentation was projected onto the ice that included not only pictures of some of the players, but also video and pictures of historic Beijing landmarks. My words cannot do justice so I'll let you enjoy a video of part of the spectacle. I do apologize though. I have a new camera and didn't know the details of how it works. I took stills during the filming of the video and this interrupts it a bit. Nonetheless, I think it is enjoyable and so I hope you enjoy not only the video but my pictures of the venue, presentation, and game. By the way, if you're curious the game was a nailbiter that the Kings won 4-3 in a shootout.

Projected on the ice.

The dragon was definitely not typical to an NHL game.

Here come the Kings.

Here come the Canucks.

The great surprise

This past weekend I set out on quite a journey. I left Beijing about 8 pm on Friday night and took the train overnight to Baotou. Usually when I travel by train I travel hard sleeper (硬卧) but this trip I decided to travel soft sleeper (软卧).

My compartment.  I had to bottom right bed.

 In the hard sleeper there are six berths to a section (three high on each side) and the section is open to the train car. In soft sleeper there are only four berths to a section (two high on each side) and the section is closed off. I decided to travel soft sleeper because the ticket wasn't very expensive, only CNY 263 or about USD 38) and my trip was only for the weekend and I needed to be able to survive work on Monday.
I arrived in Baotou about 7:15 in the morning and took the bus to the Baotou Medical College where my friends L and T both work and live. I showed up at L and T's front door at about 8:15 in the morning. T knew I was coming, but it was a birthday surprise for L. When I knocked on the door T had L stand in front of it with her eyes closed.

The soft sleeper car. You can see that each
compartment has a door and can close.

Then he opened the door and told her she could open her eyes. L was glad to see me, but not super surprised. She had learned that she was having her birthday party that day (it was supposed to be a surprise, but surprise parties are SO hard to keep a surprise) and T had to tell her and the kids to get dressed by 8 am on a Saturday morning. She didn't know it was me and thought it might be a couple of American friends who live in Baotou, but she told me she did have an idea it might be me.
Nonetheless, we had a fabulous time. T had pre-ordered this amazing feast at a local Hong Kong - style restaurant and was able to order New York style cheesecake (now I don't think it really tasted like New York style, but it was definitely cheesecake. A BIG improvement from what we could find back when I lived in Baotou).
After lunch we went back to T and L's along with a couple of other friends and the 5 of us plus T and L's two kids played Killer Bunnies and then had more cake. This time it was a chocolate cake I had brought from Beijing.
There is a coffee shop located within my school and each teacher gets a food allowance each month that is tied to our ID card. In the cafeteria breakfast is 5 yuan, lunch is 20 and dinner is 10. Thus, for every work day in a month we receive 35 yuan. I almost never eat dinner at school. Sometimes I don't eat breakfast and/or lunch. I was also out of school for two weeks because of my surgery. As a result I have a lot of

The wash area

money left on my card and at the end of the year we will lose any money left on there. Thus, I ordered a cake from the coffee shop and carried it all the way from Beijing to Baotou on the train. The cake was chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling and chocolate ganache on the top (it was the same cake M had gotten me for my birthday). It came with happy birthday candles (that actually spelled happy birthday this time) and an ice pack to keep it cold. It was 96 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) in Beijing that day. The train was air conditioned, but not in the least bit surprising the ice pack completely melted before I made it to Baotou. The mousse also melted a bit and as a result the cake shifted, but when I got to T and L's we put it in the fridge and by the time we finished all our other celebrating the cake had re-solidified quite nicely.
On Sunday I got to see several of my Chinese friends living in Baotou before flying back to Beijing. It was really weird though, because I not only had dinner with L's (a different L) family, but then L #2 and I went to X's house and stayed until 9:30 pm. My flight didn't leave Baotou until 11:55 pm and arrived in Beijing a little after 1 in the morning. By the time I fought my way out of the airport (through the crowds) and wound my way to a taxi in the taxi stand and got home it was 10 minutes to 2 in the morning. I was shocked to see people outside my apartment complex eating barbecue. (basically in the pop up on the street type of restaurant/ street food.)

The western style toilet. Hard sleepers and hard seat
 (the only kind of seat on this type of train) do not have 
western style toilets. I actually do not prefer the western
 toilets because the bathrooms in China
 (and even more so on Chinese trains) can 
get really grimy and gross and there's nothing 
with which to clean the toilet seat.

On Monday, I was of course tired, but very happy because I had had such an awesome weekend and it was so much fun to reconnect with good friends (I got to see a total of 6 of my good friends while in Baotou for a total of about 40 hours).

A squatty potty

The fields of Inner Mongolia

Approaching Baotou

I made it to Baotou! Unfortunately, I had forgotten
my contact lens case. When I discovered this in route, I
ended up putting both lenses together in one corner of a plastic
bag (along with solution of course) and the buying a new
case in Baotou.

The two cheesecakes T bought. There was still an entire cake
uncut when I left their house on Sunday.

It shifted and cracked in transit from Beijing, but tasted great. 

The two cheesecakes T bought. There was still an entire cake
uncut when I left their house on Sunday.

This is at nearly 2 in the morning on a
Sunday night/Monday morning

The Baotou airport at 11 pm. I cheated a bit with this photo though.
I intentionally didn't show my gate. There actually is a good size
crowd there.

Interesting Recollections

So, one of the cool things that happens in teaching in general, and teaching abroad in specific, is that you have lots of interesting and somewhat random stories to tell. I usually try to write these posts on a specific topic or to tell a specific story, but that's a little bit difficult for telling these interesting stories because they are too short to make an entire post about each one, but also not really closely tied to each other to be one post. Nonetheless, I'm going to group them together today under the title "Interesting Recollections."

When I first returned to work after having surgery my students really made me feel good. First of all, every morning I get greeted in the hallway by choruses of "Good morning, Miss  Cannon" and other similar refrains. On my first school day back I not only got the standard greetings (which by the way come from many, many students, not just the 26 I currently teach) I also saw a lot of faces light up as students exclaimed, "You're back!" One student walked into the chemistry lab and saw me there and said, "Yes!" with a first pump. That definitely made me feel good.

Today as I was walking down the hall I heard a really loud roar coming up behind me. I turned around and saw one of the 10th grade classes coming down the hall. I indicated with my hands that they needed to lower the volume by taking both hands palms out and lowering my hands down. Several jokesters in the front of the class then lowered their bodies down. A moment later another student in the class shouted, "power walking." All the other students immediately went, "shhh!" They had all understood what I meant, but the one student (whom I had taught how to power walk yesterday) hadn't caught on...

One day in class I was working with a group of students when all of the sudden one of the students I was working with exclaimed, "我太帅!" (I'm so handsome!) When I replied (in English), "Really you're too handsome?" he just looked at me in shock. The rest of the class grew silent. I then said, "Why are you guys so surprised? You know I speak Chinese." One of my students then piped up with, "my mom returned home [from parent-teacher conferences] and declared, 'your chemistry teacher doesn't need a translator. She's the only teacher that doesn't.'"

One of my colleagues broke his hand a while back. As a result he was out for several days in a row and I covered his 6th grade classes (he also has 7th grade). The second day the students had me they started to wonder what happened to their teacher. When I told them that he had broken his hand they began to tell me that they were the trouble. They had already had 4 teachers that  year and this was the second one to break their hand (actually the first one injured her shoulder) and that one of the students had also broken her hand (I suspect from the story it was actually her arm). At the end of class I told them they had an additional homework assignment, not to break any bones over the weekend. Several students in the class then told me that they cursed me and I would break a bone over the weekend. I laughed and told them, "Get out of here." When they didn't leave the classroom, "No. Seriously. Get out of here. Class is over." When I saw them the next week I told them, "Look your curse failed. I didn't break any bones."

My favorite lesson plan in chemistry class is a limiting reactant lab where I give the students a recipe and a box of ingredients. I've already measured out the ingredients and using the recipe the students have to figure out which ingredient they will run out of first, how many cookies they can make, and how much of each ingredient they will have leftover after they are finished. Then they get to make the cookies (and eat them of course). Afterwards they have to write a paragraph analyzing how effective the analogy of stoichiometry to a recipe is (if you don't understand or don't know what stoichiometry is that's not important to this story...).

This is a fun lab and is usually the favorite with my American students, it was even more fun in China. In China not only are cookies not really a part of the standard cuisine, but people don't usually have ovens. Thankfully, the school has one in the teachers' lounge. As a result, this lesson became not only a chemistry lesson, but also a culture lesson and an English lesson. I had to explain terms like cream the butter and sugar together. I also showed them how to properly measure flour and other things. The students had a blast (and so did I), but they also made it more interesting. A couple of my students brought things to add to their cookies. One brought sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Another brought marshmallows. The funny thing is they were making different kinds of cookies (more or less randomly assigned by me) and the students happened to each be assigned cookies that their extra ingredients rather worked for. The student with the marshmallows had chocolate chip cookies (using M&Ms rather than chocolate chips because M&Ms are widely available whereas chocolate chips can only be purchased at import stores). The student who brought the seeds had peanut butter cookies. Some of the cookies had problems (not enough flour, too close together, too salty etc.), but most were still tasty and a good time and lots of learning was had by all.

Can you see the marshmallows on
top of some of the cookies?

peanut butter cookies with sunflower seeds,
sesame seeds (black) and even a few M&Ms.

Obviously these are only a handful of examples of the laughter and enjoyment that fills my day. As with an teaching job there are of course things that sadden, frustrate and upset me, but I chose to linger on the happy memories. I hope you enjoyed these recollections.

No papers? No papers.

There is a scene in the movie Hunt for Red October that I often think about. If you’re not familiar with the film, it stars Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin movie from `990. Sean Connery plays a Soviet Submarine Captain who, along with his officers, is planning to defect to the United States. Alec Baldwin plays Jack Ryan a CIA analyst who figures out the captain’s intent.

The scene that frequently comes to mind is one where the captain and one of his officers are talking about what they are going to do in America. The officer says he wants to move to Montana and buy a pick up truck or maybe an RV. They then have the following conversation.

“… And I will go from state to state… they let you do that?”

“Oh yes.”

 “No papers?”

 “No papers.”

Now, you may be wondering why in the world I’m writing about a nearly 30 year old movie and some random scene. Well, when I was a kid I didn’t really understand the significance of this scene. I remember asking my mother what they meant about papers and she explained to me that the Soviet Union wasn’t free the United States and so you have to have papers to do things. I really still didn’t understand this and I honestly think my mother and most Americans don’t truly understand its significance. However, I am now thoroughly acquainted with the concept.

In China all Chinese people have something called a Hukou (户口). A hukou is a family registration that is tied to your hometown. If you live outside of your hometown you have to register in the city that you live. If you want to get a passport (or renew it) you have to return to the city of your hukou. I’m sure there is even more to this concept, but I don’t fully understand it and the hukou isn’t really the point of this post.

Everyone who live in Beijing (or any other city) and doesn’t have his or her hukou in Beijing must register with the local police station. As a foreigner I must also register with the local police station. Matter of fact, every foreigner who even visits Beijing  (or anywhere else in China) must register, they just don’t usually realize it because the hotels take care of it for them.  Every time I leave China and re-enter the country I must go to the local police station and complete a new registration. I must also do this every time my visa status changes or I get a new passport (I will be picking up my new passport from the U.S. embassy tomorrow. I will then have 10 days to get to the Entry Exit Bureau to get my residence permit transferred to my new passport. After that I will have to return to the police station and once again update my police registration).

Here's today's registration form (with some important information redacted)

Every police station has different requirements for what you have to bring. Every time I register I have to take my passport along with copies of the photo page, my residence permit (or visa) and my most recent entry stamp, my original lease, a copy of my lease and copies of a whole bunch of my landlord’s documents. I’ve never met my landlord. I rent my apartment through an agency, but I have a copy of his national ID card and a bunch of other documents. I have no idea what these documents even are. To me they are rather strange looking. The office at the police station where I register is only open from 9-12 and 2-5 so every time I return to the country I have to leave work to go during their limited hours.

Now I think you understand why I started with the scene from Hunt for Red October. As you can tell, I am intimately familiar with the papers that they were talking about in that scene. I am also so much more appreciative of the freedoms we have in the United States (keep in mind I have to use a VPN to post on this blog because all blog sites outside of China are blocked because the government can’t control them).

Your gallbladder was rotten

As you probably know from my blog post A rough few days, I discovered back in early March  that I had a rather large gallstone (1.8 cm). I had had a lot of rather excruciating pain, but the doctor in Beijing told me it could wait until July when I was finished working for the summer. I questioned this because this was the second really bad attack in three weeks and both had lasted days not the minutes or hours that I had read about. He assured me that it would be okay.
Nonetheless, I started speaking to my family and coworkers getting their thoughts on things in order to help me make a decision on what to do. Several people made some really good points. Among them: 1) "you don't want to wait and have it become an emergent situation and then have no choice on where you have it done." 2) "Gallbladder surgery is routine, but things do go wrong. If you're in a hospital in Beijing your family might not be able to find you" (because taxi drivers don't speak English and my family doesn't know their way around at all, but this one got me also thinking about the delay as my family tried to get an emergency visa to even enter the country). And one of the biggest deciding factors, 3) "As a Chinese [person], I would choose to have surgery in the States if I could." Thus, I decided to have surgery in the US and to have it sooner rather than later.
Having made the decision to have surgery, I now needed to figure out how to schedule surgery in a country I'm not currently in and get everything squeezed into two weeks because that was really all the time I could afford to take off from work. This is the point where I was really blessed (or used a concept the Chinese call guanxi). I have a brother-in-law who is a hospital administrator at a hospital not only close to my parents' house, but also where my Dad used to work and in-network for my health insurance (Thank you so much to my friend M who convinced me it was worth the extra cost to upgrade my insurance from worldwide excluding the US to truly worldwide - her main argument, if you need treatment for something you'll be able to go home for it). My awesome brother-in-law got  everything set-up for me. He found a surgeon who was willing to take my case with only minimal information coming out of China. The surgeon was also willing to schedule my surgery before he even met with me.
Thus, I departed Beijing on Friday evening the 7th of April (after having worked that day) and thanks to a beneficial time difference arrived at the airport closest to my parents on Friday evening (needless to say it was a LONG day). I met with the surgeon at 9 am on Monday and had my pre-op appointment at 11. My surgery was scheduled for Tuesday the 11th and my return ticket was for Thursday morning the 20th.
Of course things simply could not go that smoothly. Monday afternoon (before I'd even gotten the call telling me what time the surgery was scheduled for) I received a phone call from the financial department at the hospital telling me my preauthorization had not yet been granted. I asked her what I should do next and she said the procedure hadn't been cancelled, but I should call the office of my provider doing the procedure. Having not scheduled anything myself I wasn't sure who to call so I called my good ole brother-in-law. Super brother-in-law directed me me to a woman named Christina.
Over the next few days, Christina, a woman I've never met, practically became my best friend. To make an incredibly long story a bit shorter Christina harassed the US side of my insurance company for days, the surgery got postponed 3 times (from Tuesday to Thursday at 6:30 then Thursday at 6:30 then Thursday at 10:30 and finally to Thursday at 12:30), and I called and emailed the Shanghai office all night long Wednesday night to Thursday morning. Thursday morning at 7:30 I called the Shanghai office and was told it had been approved. Unfortunately, even when I checked in at 12:30 the hospital had not yet received the preauthorization and I had to sign a waiver. My surgery ended up not starting until about 2:45 and from something the surgeon said at my follow-up appointment it appears he did get notice it had been approved prior to starting the procedure.
Everything went really well. I woke up thinking I was in China and my first memory is someone telling me I wasn't in China and my replying, "I understand what you're saying about me not being in China, but I can't shake the feeling that there's where I am." I don't know if that conversation started with them asking me where I was or not. They asked me a bit later after several other conversations and actions had transpired where I was and I correctly identified both the hospital and the city. I suspect that is what started the previous conversation.
Several other things happened when I woke up including me having both my hands tightly clenched. They told me to unclench my hands, but I refused. They then proceeded to put the blood pressure cuff on my leg and a pulse ox monitor on my ear. Oh I did not like having that on my ear (remember my actions are all while coming out of general anesthesia)! I asked them what I had on my ear and after they explained I said, "well then if I unclench one hand will you take it off my ear?" "Yes." "Fine, which hand do you want unclenched?" They indicated the left. I unclenched it an spread my fingers wide. "There, it's unclenched."  They removed the pulse ox monitor from my ear, but didn't have to put one on my finger because there actually was already a thin disposable one there.
I declined all pain meds. I was in far less pain than many times before my surgery ( I estimated my post-op pain at 4 and at the doctor's office before my diagnosis I had estimated it at an 8.) i met my goals for release very quickly (pain control, eat with no nausea and pee). When I was in the PACU (post anesthesia care unit) one of the first things I asked was for the time. It was 4:45. By 7:45 I had eaten, gone to the bathroom twice, proven I was steady on my feet, asked for my IV removed (they hadn't done it yet) and was pacing my room in the day hospital. My nurse and the new nurse (it was shift change) came in and founding me pacing. They immediately began trying to get me discharged and by 8:03 I was dressed with discharge papers in hand waiting for my parents to return from dinner (and possibly a bit of shopping). I walked out of the hospital (having twice declined a wheelchair) on no pain meds and only wishing for a throat lozenge (the nurses said they'd find me one, but forgot) at 8:15 pm. In China they said I'd have to stay in the hospital for a week!
I got to go to church the following Sunday, which was Easter, and my sisters and their families all came over. I had an awesome time, but may have slightly overdone it, especially with the 5 inch wedges and running around the yard with the Easter egg hunt. After everyone left, I took three ibuprofen and fell asleep on the couch for about 3.5 hours before getting up and going to bed. I had to take Monday easy.
On Wednesday I saw my surgeon for my post-op follow-up. It was a couple of weeks earlier than usual, but necessary because I had a 7:25 am flight on Thursday. When I saw him he told me my gallbladder had been rotten and he couldn't believe it hadn't come out sooner (in the PACU a resident told me it had been really inflamed and that it was surprising it hadn't caused me a lot more pain). The pathology report showed in addition to cholethiasis (gallstones) I had both chronic and acute choleocystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder). I had feared I might be being a wimp pushing to have my surgery done now instead of waiting for summer, but clearly it couldn't have waited.

A foreign land within its own country

Oh no!

I found a cool place where you could take
your picture with drawing that looked
3-D. Unfortunately, I didn't
have anyone to take my photo so
I got a couple of the posed photos
that you had to pay for. I'm actually
in part of a fake tram...

After I left Thailand I headed to Hong Kong for six days. Hong Kong is a very interesting place because it is part of China, but it isn't part of China. Hong Kong Island was a possession of the British. Then they added Kowloon (which is Cantonese for nine dragons). Finally, the British leased the New Territories from China for 99 years. This lease of course was initiated before the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1984 it was

Hong Kong Island has these really narrow
trams often called ding dings because of the
sound of the bell.

Here comes the tram

decided that all of Hong Kong would go back to China on July 1, 1997. Part of this agreement included that Hong Kong had to remain the same for fifty years. So far it has been 20 years and there are already a few changes (largely related to putting in a more and more pro-Beijing leadership), but Hong Kong is classified as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) and banking-wise and in a few other ways is considered a foreign country from the mainland (for example Hong Kong passport holders can attend international schools and other things only open to foreigners in China).

The tram logo

Me on the tram

This trip was my second time to Hong Kong. The first time was 14 years ago. Several things have changed. First, as an American, I don't need a visa to go to Hong Kong (never have), but last time Chinese citizens needed a visa. Now I don't believe they need a visa (although I'm not positive). Before I had to have a re-entry visa and ended up with 8 stamps in my passport! I had a stamp for exiting the mainland and then one for entering Hong Kong. One for exiting Hong Kong and then one for entering Macau (another SAR that was returned to China in 1999 by Portugal), a stamp for exiting Macau and one for entering Hong Kong again and finally a stamp for exiting Hong Kong and entering the mainland. Now. this time I arrived in Hong Kong from Thailand so it was a little bit different, but I didn't get any Hong Kong stamps at all (a little disappointing). When I arrived in Hong Kong they just gave me a little arrival card with the information that is usually in the stamp and that the papers said I needed to hold on to until I left.
While I was in Hong Kong I did most of the usual things - I took the tram up to the Peak, took a cruise through Victoria Harbour and so forth. There were two main highlights for me: a guided tour of the Hong Kong history museum and catching a Lion and Dragon Dance. The Hong Kong history museum had free tours. It was really nice. We had a tour guide who took us throughout the museum not only telling us about the history of Hong Kong, but also sharing his personal family experiences as they related to the history. The Lion and Dragon Dance was also really cool. This is a quintessential Hong Kong Chinese New Year celebration that I happened to wander across (I actually had to do quite a bit of waiting, but it was pretty cool). One thing that was unusual was that the dance I saw had purple lions in addition to the traditional yellow and red ones.
Finally, the last thing I did was also kind of interesting - I took public transportation to the China -China border at Shenzhen and crossed into the mainland on foot. I then took Shenzhen public transit to the high-speed railway station and returned to Beijing via high-speeded train (about 10 hours as opposed to 24 hours from Hong Kong by non-high speed train).

The view from the top of the peak

Another picture from the top

Me at the top - the headphones are because I
am listening to an audio tour.

A woman asked me to take her family's photo so
I asked her to take a photo of me.

This was a display in the mall at the top of the peak. These
are all candles.

The purple lions

The dragon

Go lions, go!

A night view of Victoria Harbour

I took the ding ding all the way to the other end. There I ran
across a fun market. These are common on the mainland
too.

Meat anyone?

The midlands escalator. It's a series of escalators that take people up
the hill in the central part of Hong Kong Island.

Approaching the intra-China border