Life last week. HK style.

                          Hong Kong life last week and beyond

Kuukausi vaihtui ‘’talvisesta’’ tammikuusta helmikuuhun ja eteenpäin mennään täysillä kuten aina! Välillä täällä jo unohtaa olevansa keskellä ihmismassaa ja eteenpäin ei kuljeta ihan niin turistina kuin aluksi, mutta silti arjenkin seassa on aina jotain uutta ja mielenkiintoista. Lähipäivinä olen tutustunut yliopiston harrastusmahdollisuuksiin, eri ruokaloihin (sekä paikalliseen känkky.comiin) ja käynyt muutamassa spesiaalissa tapahtumassa kampusalueella sekä keskustassa. Ilman suhteellinen kosteus ja kiitettävät kävelymatkat luentosalien välillä antavat myös oman lisänsä arkirytmiin. Lieneekö paikallisten hidas kävelytahti hikoilemisen välttelyä?

Skyline

Yliopiston 50.V juhlavuosi antaa meille mahdollisuuden nähdä tämä paikka varmasti parhaassa kuosissaan! Viime sunnuntaina koko vuoden kestävät juhlat polkaistiin käyntiin kulkueilla ja jonkinlaisilla päiväfestareilla.

Tällä viikolla normaali opiskelurytmi on tuonut kalenteriin monia ryhmätyötapaamisia ja deadlineja. Olen myös muutamana pitkäksi venähtäneenä iltana syönyt maittavia kuppinuudeleita, joihin veden saa erittäin kätevästi suoraan kiehuvan veden automaatista asuntolan käytävältä. Toisaalta tämä ei poikkea paikallisesta meiningistä aivan kauheasti. Muutamana aamuna olenkin törmännyt ihmisiin, jotka ovat menossa suorittamaan iltatoimia samalla kun itse kävelen aamusuihkuun.

Tämän lisäksi ehdin nähdä muutamia tuttuja, jotka reissasivat Aasiassa ja suunnittelin itsekin mm. reissua Filippiineille ja Singaporeen. Hong Kong on erittäin hyvä spotti lähteä kiertämään Aasiaa.

Seuraavaksi tarkempaa tietoutta menneestä viikosta in English:

Life. Last week and more:

WEATHER

The weather here in Hong Kong has been warmer than I thought. After Beijing I felt like this is a sauna with the humidity. I wonder how it feels like in a couple of months when ‘’winter’’ is over? We have had some nice days but fog/smog/mist ruins the sunny day sometimes. Last week temperature highs were somewhere between 24-26 Celsius degrees. Winter = Summer for me here and Summer = ?.

SPORTS

Last week I explored the possibilities to do some sports at campus grounds. We reserved a squash court and played some good old ‘’Kössi’’. This was a nice way to start the week. We also went to the running track next to University sports Centre to do some sprints and jogging. Walking at campus is also good exercise like I described in the chapter about my arrival here. There are actually two big sports fields at campus.

RHYTHM OF LIFE

People lead their lives here with a very different rhythm than I’m used to back home. It is quite common to do some tasks at night or hang out quite late in the common room. I was the person who stayed up somewhat late to do some projects and homework but now it seems like I got to bed early. There has been a couple of days when I’m going to take a morning shower while someone is walking to bathroom to brush teeth before going to sleep. I think the ‘’campus lifestyle’’ also affects this. Maybe students don’t do this when they are off-campus?

Morningside College Canteen 

TRAVELING

Hong Kong is a great spot to travel to some destinations in Asia. Some good places to go to might be example:

•  Malaysia
•  Singapore
•  Taiwan
•  Mainland China
•   Philippines
•  Japan
•  South-Korea
•  Thailand

I met some people from Finland who had been on a trip in Southeast Asia for 5 weeks. It looks like  the experience is worth it! A flight can be easily priced as low as 140 euros to Kuala Lumpur, 150 euros to Singapore and 150 euros for Taiwan. I’m sure it’s possible to get them cheaper for example from a travel fair or something but those prices aren’t too bad either!

I have booked one trip to Philippines and last week bought flights to Singapore! It’s going to be sweet. It’s time to head to Philippines After Chinese New Year’s with a big group from the Uni.

This is exactly what I wanted to see too…different cultures here in Asia. We have also talked about this matter in Marketing in China. There are so many different types of areas in Mainland China. I also read an interesting article from a Finnish newspaper that each city in China from the biggest till the 75^th ranked (by population) has more inhabitants than the whole population of Finland. 

For example the city next to Hong Kong border called Shenzhen has more than 10 million inhabitants!

FOOD

I’ve already talked about something about the food here in Hong Kong but I still have to tell you guys – this.is.a.food.mecca!

This city has everything you like, don’t like and didn’t know you could like. Sometimes it happens that you just eat something without really being sure what it is and OH YES! Also the reverse effect has happened.

Some of my favorite things so far:

•          Hot Pot dinner
•         Dim Sum
•          Korean BBQ
•          Fried rice noodles at campus (Singapore style and Beef)

A website called OPENRICE tells you exactly what to get for a great dinner here:

http://www.openrice.com/english

Korean BBQ vol.2

Some dessert? 

SCHOOL

I signed up for 9GAG career event but was a little disappointed by the fact that they only spoke Cantonese during the lecture. Should learn some more Cantonese as well. 9GAG is a Hong Kong startup. The company creates humorous pictures and people share them in FB etc.  I wonder if some people got an internship there for the summer :D

Great day at campus - after 300 stairs I finally made it to Chinese class

What would it be like to work at 9GAG?

DOWNTOWN

There are many places to visit downtown Hong Kong but I highly recommend high spots and the harbor at night since the skyline looks great with billions of lights and millions of windows.  Last week I visited a rooftop terrace in Lang Kwai Fong in the 29^th floor and found the view extremely nice!

Sunset at Victoria Harbour

Aqua Luna

Hong Kong lives every hour every day

I find the public transportation system here very convenient since the MTR (Mass Transit System) takes you almost anywhere. I’m probably not able to count and don’t want to count the amount of time I’ll spend standing in the MTR during these months. About  90 per cent of passenger trips are made on public transport in HK and the network handles around 12 million passenger trips a day. 

GET READY FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR’S

Next week it’s time to celebrate the Chinese New years! The first day of the year of Lunar New Year and year of the Snake is 10^th of February. On the 11^th there will be huge fireworks downtown and we will go on a boat that sails in Victoria Harbor. Pumped!

Preparations for the Lunar New Year!

- Niklas (河尼克)