Xiānggǎng - 香港 - A city where modern meets traditional

A city where modern meets traditional – Xiānggǎng - 香港

School kids

Täällä Hong Kongin sykkeessä aikaa on kulut viimeisellä viikolla niin julkisissa kulkuvälineissä kuin pienillä tripeillä läheisille saarille. Olen saanut tutustua Hong Kongin perinteisempään puoleen ja ihmetellyt kaikkia huipputeknisiä kaupungista löytyviä aparaattuksia ja sovelluksia sekä rakennuksia. Kurssit ovat myös vihdoin loksahtaneet aivan lopullisesti kohdalleen ja ‘’normaali’’ päivärytmi kolkuttelee ovella? Jokainen päivä taitaa silti vielä olla seikkailu tässä infrastruktuuritaideteoksessa.

Perfect way to start your day at CUHK

IASP group @ Lamma Island

What’s up?

It’s been a full week of many activities and experiences. This time I’m going to introduce some HK specialties for example the local RFID technology based smart card Octopus, which is actually used by 95% of the population. I’m also going to go through campus life and special trips. Sweet pictures through the new Canon G15 lens!

Backpacker

A dinner with two locals

On Sunday the 20^th I got the chance to meet up with the students who had been to our University in Finland and go out for dinner with them. They chose a nice restaurant without English menus and a traditional setting with little dishes and tea. Chinese dessert is something that I’m not that familiar with so we tried some of them there. In Finland we always have this fried banana and vanilla ice cream. Definitely did not get that.

These two girls had been in Oulu in 2011 and 2012. They praised the University canteen in Finland for it’s prices but didn’t like the fact that it’s so expensive to go out for example for dinner. The other one (2012) told how it’s actually weird to come back to a city like Hong Kong after Finland.  She now understands how crowded HK actually is :D Also people graduate here at a younger age and start their careers quite young. 

Incense 

It’s not as common as it is in Finland to complete your Masters on top of Bachelors. They advised me also where to go for different things like electronics and services (getting a haircut etc.) What a great way to explore the city! I’d always like to have a local guide when going to new destination.

Mong Kok – A gadget heaven

This part of Hong Kong is perfect for shopping electronics and little gadgets. I have never seen as crowded streets in my life as Mong Kok has on weekends. We were still eager to explore the relatively nice priced shops. I really wanted to compare the price of digital cameras between HK and Finland and ended up buying a Canon G15 powershot. The price was 220 euros less than in Finland. This beauty takes some awesome pictures! You must be a little careful when shopping here though since there is a ton of fake things around as well.

Apple Store HK - Central 

The Octopus card

This smart card is the most convenient thing ever! You are able to use it on public transport and many other places like 7-eleven, MC Donald’s, Starbucks, ParknShop and Happy Valley racing court. You are basically able to pay almost all your daily things with it. Octopus is also half priced on public transport for students and that makes it very convenient for CUHK people to head downtown. The cards generate over 12 million daily transactions worth over 130 million HKD. So when is this system arriving to Finland as well?

The Octopus

Final courses in school and E-Add/Drop

We faced the moment of truth on Monday the 21^st when it was finally time to lock our courses into their places on our schedule. I went to the courses last week as well but now we still had to confirm the spot there. The school information system that also has online registration for courses crashed for 30 minutes since there was more traffic on this site then there is probably for many of the most popular concerts when tickets go on sale :D  I somehow managed to get online at 9pm and get into all of my courses. Here are the courses I will continue for this semester. I wonder how many people clicked the button to get into these.

Marketing in China
Japanese Business
Business policy and strategy
Putonghua - Oral skills and practice
Putonghua - Vocab. and grammar

Lunch at the University 

Putonghua – Mandarin Chinese

I started my Putonghua studies two weeks ago like I told the last time. The courses are really intensive but very efficient and good at least if only the first two weeks are taken into account. Hope it continues like this ;) We have a lecture and a web lab with some exercises. Web lab also includes recording your own pronunciation and feedback from the teacher after little quizzes.

The courses are taught by Yale-China Chinese language centre. Putonghua is not the hardest thing to pronounce for a Finn but the tones are a different story not to even mention the characters. The language has 4 tones or 5 tones (depends if neutral tone is a tone for you). The first one is a high level one which is high continuously. The second rises from high to very high. The third makes a U loop and the fourth is a steep slope down from high to low level. For example Xiānggǎng  = 香港 = Hong Kong has the 1^st and the 3^rd tone in it. 

Course books for Chinese

I’ve had some fun moments with these. If you want to know what this is all about you can download the Pinyin chart to your Iphone to hear some Putonghua tones.

Btw Cantonese is spoked in Hong Kong so won’t be able to use all of my skills here. Here are some very relevant expressions in Mandarin without the tone marks though…

How are you? = Ni hao ma?

I’m good/very well = Wo hen hao!

What is your name? = Ni jiao shenme mingzi?

My name is… = Wo jiao…

Where do you come from? = Ni shi na guo ren?

I’m Finnish/from Finland = Wo shi Fenlan ren.

Happy Valley Racecourse

I have never been to a Horse racecourse before. On Wednesday we took the MTR to Causeway Bay to see what people do here for afterwork. This racecourse is massive and there is food and drinks available at the site. I bet 80 dollars in total and end up winning 81 dollars! NICE! This thing was worth of going to and only 10 HKD to get into. Good atmosphere also.

Happy Valley

A city with 7 million inhabitants

I’ve mentioned here a couple of times that the city is packed. It’s not that crowded in all areas like our campus that is located 30 minutes from downtown. Since the population density is 6480 people / km2   ( Finland 16 people / km2) you are not really able to avoid situations like this:

It is very interesting to see how this density of people also changes the culture. I think people don’t really care that much if they for example bump into eachother etc. inside the MTR. It’s normal to just move with the flow and look at some TV shows from your tablet…after 15 minutes some people notice that they went to the wrong direction. 

People having a picnic under the HSBC building

How many times have you visited Asia poll?

The first poll closed and there were 35 people who answered. Thank you for being active people! The most had never been to Asia or visited a place here once (59%). Quite a few (20%) had been here 2-3 times and also 14 percent more than 6 times! Some interesting statistics!

Lamma Island

Sunday morning was foggy after it rained Saturday. I had high hopes for the weather to be sunny but we couldn’t get rid of the clouds I guess. Still, our group headed to Lamma Island. This is the 3^rd largest island in Hong Kong. It’s easy to take the ferry since it runs every 30 minutes and the trip lasts a similar amount of time. Lamma has some nice beaches and is famous for it’s seafood. Some of the restaurants had sweet prices and a couple tried to offer us some very expensive meals. One of them tried to ask us if we wanted to have a 11 000 HKD dinner set for 12 people. I wonder how that dinner would have been since our 550 HKD dinner for 4 included 8 different dishes

Lamma Island

Lo So Shing Beach 

The island has two villages that are connected with a family trail. This trail has some awesome views even though our day wasn’t the best one for them. The biggest beach is nice but the view includes a power plant so I recommend a beach without the ''grey mammoth'' in front of you.

Lamma Island is good variation to the Hong Kong island crowds. Personally I’m going back there when weather gets a little warmer. +20 celsius wasn’t too bad though…

Lamma seafood

Skycrapers

I told that there are over 7700 skycrapers in this city and on Sunday I went to see some of these engineering jewels from a shorter distance. For example the HSBC building's modular design enables it to be dismantled and moved.

More about this and Hong Kong:

It’s getting very late here so I’m turning the lights off now but the city won’t.

- Niklas

My new home – HONG KONG

                           First two weeks

Uusi opiskelupaikka, uusi kaupunki, uusi kulttuuri ja uudet ihmiset. Saavuin Hong Kongiin aamulennolla 8.tammikuuta tiedostaen sen, että tulisin viettämään vähintään seuraavat puoli vuotta kyseisessä paikassa. 24 minuutin pehmeän ja rauhallisen Airport express MTR (Mass Transit System = Paikallinen metro) matkan jälkeen todellinen Hong Kong avautui silmien edessä samalla kun ovet Hong Kong Central asemalla päästivät minut tutustumaan uusiin hoodeihin ja normaaliin MTR-järjestelmään. Pikaiset vaatesulkeiset pienen lämpötilaeron johdosta ja itseohjattu kierros keskustan ihmistörmäilyautoissa. Ihmisiä, paljon ihmisiä. Mitä, kuka, häh?

Hong Kong

Onneksi kahden viikon intensiivisen ohjatun ja itsenäisen orientaation jälkeen en ole enää niin ulapalla, mutta myönnän että ei tätä metropolia kokeneena matkustajanakaan ihan muutamassa päivässä kartoiteta ulkomuistiin. Chinese University of Hong Kongin mieletön kampus ja IASP (International Asian Studies Programme) ihmiset ovat tehneet startin hyvinkin helpoksi. Ei huonompi mesta tämä Hong Kong muutenkaan. Tästä lähden avaamaan kokemuksiani ensimmäisiltä viikoilta uudesta kodistani.

Korean BBQ

My morning flight to Hong Kong arrived on time. I finally reached my new home! This sweet city is going to be my home for at least 5 months from now on. I will go through some of the moments from the first two weeks. During the first week on campus I participated in orientations for exchange students as well as did some orientation by myself. Classes began this week and we had some time to explore Hong Kong by ourselves and meet other international students in a welcoming party. Let’s go!

WEEK 1:

Arrival to Hong Kong was really nice since the former exchange students from Finland were waiting for me in the IFC mall for dinner. We ate some great Tim Ho Wan dim sum (Michelin star dim sum) and I prepared myself for the semester to come by asking a ton of questions from these people. After this short introduction I took a taxi to the campus that is located more than 20 kilometers from Hong Kong Central. Tall towers and the endless concrete jungle turned into green hills while we got closer to CUHK. This is the point where I realized my hall is going to be located higher than I thought. I had seen the map and some pictures but didn’t think it’s going 2 kilometers of stairs until reaching it. I ended up climbing the hills with my luggage…I was soaked. Fortunately half the way up the hill some local student advised me where to go to take an elevator to make the journey more comfortable. The trip takes quite long even though you use two elevators inside tall buildings located on campus. Buses didn’t run that late anymore. The other surprise of that night was that I didn’t have a blanket or a pillow so I ended up sleeping in 12C with all my clothes piled up to make a little nest for me.

Over 7 million people and 7700 skyscrapers

The next 5 days were full of different orientation activities and a lot of paperwork. The lectures included music videos from former students, security briefing, IT-information and CUHK history and future. The university turns 50 years this year so I picked a good time to come here! A lot of special events and things will take place while I’m here! We also had an academic advising session and a meeting with the Finnish consulate. Already some Finnish chocolate and salt liquorice?

I also visited IKEA to buy all the needed things to my little room in Chan Chun Ha hall. Personal space got a new meaning from the moment I opened my door. I have one roommate. I think United College is a great place to live on campus though. The dorm or hall has floors for boys and girls and rules are quite strict. There is always boiling water for your noodles and tea though!

My Crib in Chan Chun Ha

On Friday night it was time to enjoy the Welcoming dinner with some 12 dishes or more. I lost the count…

Saturday was the first day when we really got to explore some Hong Kong sights. I participated an arranged city tour with all the other IASP students. We headed to Victoria Peak and saw Jackie Chan’s house. Very touristy but fun…our guide was the best comic I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not sure if all of his comments were supposed to be funny but we found them awesome with the other students.

VICTORIA PEAK - HK skyline

The Peak Tram

The next destination during the city tour was Aberdeen floating village. We also did a little sightseeing with a sampan boat there. Some 6000 people live in their boats in Aberdeen. I think it is nice how people lead their daily life inside this huge city in these boats.

Aberdeen 

The last place we visited was Stanley market which is just one of the places to get some cheap goods in Hong Kong. Bargaining is fun here! There are many restaurants next to the market and expatriates like to come here to drink a beer or two.

The tour ended downtown where we went to see the symphony of lights that is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show by GWR. It was somewhat crazy to see how full Hong Kong downtown is…more than 7700 skyscrapers leaving NYC behind with ‘’only’’ 5800. 7 million people packed in this megalopolis. (With only 1104km ²  land area though)

WEEK 2:

My classes began with some Chinese for beginners. I really liked the course even though still confused about those tones and the whole language. It will get better I’m sure. My goal is to learn the basics and some simple expressions. Maybe I’m able to get around Beijing by using Mandarin the next time? I’m sure the pronunciation is easier for a Finn than an American based on the first lectures.

Good Morning CUHK!

I also got into my Marketing and Management courses and we began with some very interesting lectures. An elevator pitch during the first lesson of organizational behavior and structure was quite nice! I find it really interesting that everyone has an English name here…very random names for some people. They will first introduce themselves with the Chinese name and after that they might tell that you can call them Jennifer without the Jen –> Nifer. I will get my Chinese name next week and it will probably be somewhat random for them as well :D

The facilities here are great. There is a learning garden with some sunrays blazing through the glass roof that is actually the bottom of the central campus pool.  Classrooms are well equipped and the view from the ones I have is amazing (not on a foggy day though). There are also 12 canteens that provide a large variety of local and non-local dishes. The area is like a small city inside a city. What university has it’s own subway stop only meant for the Uni. Campus?

''The Pool'' @ New Asia College

CCHH rooftop terrace

The learning garden

The local students and their student associations are very active in promoting and marketing their events and new cabinet here. It is a CUHK speciality to do these clapping/singing routines...also during lectures. 

Wednesday included a welcoming party for all the exchange students (not organized by the school) living in Hong Kong. This was a great networking possibility and I also met some friends from Finnish universities here. A lot of glow paint in this networking event :O On that Wednesday I also ended up waiting in the supermarket line for 35 minutes…apparently it’s not the best idea to do your groceries at that time (7pm).

Uni. Supermarket Line

 

On Thursday we took the MTR to go to Mong Kok for the night market. The amount of lights and people is overwhelming once you have been studying in Oulu for the past year. This is another place to bargain for some nice stuff (also a lot of fake stuff that is not so nice). Can’t stop noticing that Angry Birds is copied everywhere. You can probably get anything with that red chick! Also went to a Hot Pot fast food restaurant. Hot Pot is kind of like fondue but with lots of different things. So good!

Hot Pot Fast Food

Second weekend started off with a trip to Lantau Island to see Big Buddha. To get there you can take a bus or the cable car. We chose to see the sights from high up and took a gondola for 8 people. This multinational group got to do High Fives with the Buddha and also walked the wisdom path…will we be wise after that? This island has some great hiking routes like many places in Hong Kong but this time we didn’t have time to hike too much. I will do some serious hiking in the coming weeks for sure! 9 hours after we returned to campus and this time I took the bus up the hill.

Cable car to Lantau

Tourist group 

High Five Buddha!

To wrap up the first two weeks I’d say we got a very good group of students here to experience Southeast Asia and that the time here has been somewhat hectic but rewarding.

Guarding the city

I will also provide a very interesting link to see how people here live. Go to http://hongwrong.com/michael-wolf-hong-kong/ to see 100 Photos of 100 Rooms of 100sq ft.

Hong Kong is tall and for that reason apartments are not cheap…not cheap at all. Restaurants and barbershops can easily be located in the 6th floor (or a lot higher) so they are not the easiest things to spot since the amount of billboards is quite amazing. 

HONG KONG STYLE

                                                                        - Niklas -