The Bonanza Hotel Shenzhen

... love and generosity this past weekend when my friend (Henry) made arrangements for us to visit his classmate (from 22 years ago) in Shenzhen for the day at the amusement park called “Happy Valley”. It was the Mid Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) and we got a glimpse of not how important the Festival is but rather how important it is for family and friends to get together. I cannot think of any celebration we have that ...

... Walled City was estimated to have a population of 35,000 in the area the size of just a few city blocks!!! The city was demolished in 1993 and is now a lovely park in Kowloon!


An archive photo of the Kowloon Walled City


Sean and Lindsey - diplomacy in action in Kowloon Walled City Park ...

And so it begings! The trip of a lifetime, that is, in Hong Kong. What a crazy place! I arrived late at night and my first impressions of the city were limited to huge crowds, towering skyscrapers, and neon lights.
My first full day in Hong Kong was spent in traditional beginning-of-the-trip fashion: walking. All day and all over. This is useful for two reasons: orientating myself in my new surroundings, and keeping jet lag at bay. 5 blocks from ...

... would be complete without us running down the boulevard of stars to find Jackie Chan's hand prints and taking more suitably ridiculous photographs. Except perhaps, running through the tube station, which turned out to be quite a hike, in order to catch the last train home. At which point I fulfilled one of my lifetime ambitions. Oh yes, I ran up an escalator the wrong way. It was a momentous occasion!

The next morning, although really it was still the middle of the ...

... block", thanks to the herbal clinic on its ground floor, where you can get free medical consultations. As you can expect, the temple is jam-packed on Chinese holidays, and especially on Chinese New Year, when droves of worshippers are waiting outside the temple before midnight and rush in to the main altar to offer Wong Tai Sin their glowing incense sticks, as soon as the year starts. As the ...

... slurp.... sec, i gotta mop e floor. macau is also well know for its pork chop buns. so after breakfast we happily bounced to tsuen wan station only to realise we were @ the wrong "wan" station. It should be sheung wan. There's a lot of station that ends with "wan" in hk eg. zhong wan (central), tong luo ...

... 638 pages of photos barely manage to scratch the surface. Still, Portrait of a People is a very good place to start peeling back the layers." - Time Out (read the entire China Portrait review here) "'Tom Carter is an extraordinary photographer whose powerful work captures the heart and soul of the Chinese people." - Anchee Min ...

... as Karen had recommended. And it was a great view. I also went to the ladies' room. Wow, I think the view there was even better! It was a great bathroom, all the walls and floor where grey-veined white marble, as well as the centre sink, that was 3 water spouts all directed toward a low point in a piece of irregular marble. The back wall was floor to ceiling glass, looking out over the Hong Kong skyline. I then walked outside, but then I found ...

... others. Arguably in Western cultures, the disintegration of the family unit has paralleled an increase in anti-social, selfish behaviour. Perhaps we can blame the education system - not the teachers. The Chinese education system is strictly prescriptive and demands high levels of knowledge and almost no ability to interpret, explain or make judgements. Perhaps students are simply never encouraged to think about what is happening around them. Whilst this is undoubtedly true ...

... her in the restaurant, albeit empty. This is all about economic necessity and personal sacrifice. As she said, "I'm free in the mornings, so it makes sense to work some more." The money she'll be able to send home this month from her 4 jobs will treble the family income. This is a 21st century reality. If you feel like complaining about your lot in future, think about her first! I will.