May 26, 2004
As I have mentioned, Hong Kong has one of the best settings of any city in the world. It is devoted to business, and shopping. We did our part to help the economy here, even though it is a sticker price shock coming from China to Hong Kong. They tell us the mainlanders who come here (in
increasing numbers) come to shop for luxury goods. They are here.
We have had an exciting few days. Here’re some of the highlights:
1. Last night, we went to the Chinese University of Hong Kong to visit with one of our alumni who heads the Yale–in China program. He got us a speaker who was very interesting—from the US Department of Commerce. Hong Kong is still the dominant player for US business in south China. Mark’s apartment overlooks a harbor in the new territories, and he catered a wonderful Indian dinner.
2) Today was the Buddha’s birthday–something over 2500 years ago, a holiday celebrated by over 300 million people. One of my friends who teaches at Hong Kong City University met several students and me. She took us to a Buddhist temple, where the “local people” go. Not many tourists there! Buddhists tend to pray on specific days for specific things, rather than having “church services” like we do., so being there today was special. We got to “wash” the Buddha.
Because it is a holiday, there was a party on one of the outlying islands, Cheung Cheu, which required us to take a ferry. There were 100,000 people there, including us. The festival honors the Daoist gods, one of the three main religions of China, and features children in costume providing food for the ghosts on the island. In the 90-degree heat and 87% humidity, it was a challenge, but since it happens only one day a year, and that was today, some of us went.
Finally, we went to a non-touristy restaurant with my teacher friend. She ordered for us–probably the best meal of the trip. We each had a lobster, scallops, and roast duck, —I’m almost hungry again. I know I ate differently than you did tonight.
3) We just got back from the Felix, a sightseeing place atop the Peninsula Hotel overlooking the harbor–a fitting way to end the trip.
It is about 1:30 am right now, and I am about packed for my next adventure. The class flies to Chicago at 12:30 tomorrow, and JR and I leave about 2 hours later for Myanmar. That is a new country for me, and I am eager to go there.
I may not have as ready access to the email there–it is one of the poorest countries in the world