a traditional hong kong

I arrived to Beijing last Friday night, but we just now got an internet connection in our room. Still only one port works, so my roommate and I share, but we get by just fine. I didn't realize how difficult reading articles in Chinese can be without an electronic dictionary. Kinda pathetic. My roommate is a recent graduate from Bowdoin College; he is hoping to join the foreign service--and in the mean time, trying to improve his Chinese through this crazy summer program.

I wanted to make one more post about Hong Kong, though-- or rather, the backwaters of Hong Kong. 大澳 Tai O is a small fishing village on Lantau Island (one of the islands that constitutes the Hong Kong SAR and is home to the International Airport as well as a small Disney Land-- I wanted to go, but, well, no actually, I didn't want to go). My good friend and native Hong Konger, Vennesa, and I rode a ferry out to Tai O and saw some pretty neat stuff. I really wanted to see the Giant Bronze Buddha, but unfortunately there were very heavy rains the first few days I was in HK so there were mud slides that prevented us from taking a bus up to the summit.


Digging for clams or oysters.

Because the waters around Tai O often change with the rain and of course with the daily tide changes, all of the houses were on stilts:



This was quite an amazing site-- I've never seen a community quite like this. And perhaps the storms of the previous days had scared off all the tourists, but it seemed like we were the only visitors--so we truly got to see some of the daily activities of residents on the island--which included some seriously Mah Jong playing, in addition to playing cards and just sitting around chatting.

One of the things that was also very interesting about this community, and Hong Kong in general, was the overt religiosity as displayed in shrines to local gods, small shrines to Gong Yu and/or Guanyin (universal gods that bring in wealth/money and protect children, respectively), ancestral halls, and (on Hong Kong Island/Kowloon) Christian Churches.
A shrine to local gods. The divine bureaucracy reflects the existing bureaucracy on earth--so each township has a god, and then there is a god for the county, and so on and so forth.

The curator of a local temple let Vennesa and I burn incense and place it in front of the gods. This was a really awesome experience-- a big Thank You to Vennesa for translating everything he said to us. He was really excited to tell us about the history of the temple (it was from the Ming Dynasty, so very old) and some of the features/history of Tai O.
If you look closely, you can see graves on the side of the mountain. According to Geomancy (Taoist-ish), this type of funerary grounds is particularly good because having a mountain behind and water in front is believed to be very auspicious.


It's amazing that this community is only 30 - 40 minutes from the busy, bustling city life of Hong Kong--especially given that pre-economic-boom Hong Kong was probably very similar. The curator (that's not the right word) of the temple said that this type of change is inevitable, that it's not a bad thing. But he still chooses to live on the island in the fishing community--he was extremely proud to be from Tai O. At the same time, he said wouldn't want his nephews and nieces to go to school in this community-- their opportunities would be greater in HK.


Here in Beijing we're learning a lot about education opportunities and some of the obstacles children face both in large cities and in rural communities. It appears that almost everyone believes that an entire education reform needs to take place, but due to various reasons--one of the most common barriers that Chinese teachers/educators point out to us is just the Chinese traditional culture of testing into school-- any change will be a long, long process.

glamour shots from HK

Here are some neat pics of HONG KONG ISLAND:
(this one is from across the water on Kowloon Peninsula)
(this is the same shot, but from behind--taken atop Victoria Peak:)

Hong Kong is really beautiful-- I had no idea that almost 80% of what constitutes the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong is actually mountainous greenery:

These three were all taken from Victoria Peak--one of the oldest tourist attractions in HK. A tram has been operating since the 1880s to bring people up to the top of this mountain where one can see the city and the scenery juxtaposed next to each other.

The influence of the British colonial rule from the 1840s - 1997 has had a lasting effect on the culture, cuisine, and architecture of the island, peninsula, and surrounding areas that make up the SAR. In many ways, HK reminds me of Shanghai--especially the business district:

One of the notable differences that I have experienced between Hong Kong and all the many cities I went to in China last year, is that Hong Kong is very CLEAN. I haven't seen anyone spitting (which happens everywhere in the mainland, even inside a Walmart, I remember), people actually take time to put their garbage in trash receptacles, and there are not heaps of rubble/trash just laying around. This truly makes it feel like a different country, because so much of the character of the Chinese cities I visited last year had a grittiness that was articulated by the filth. In a good, interesting way.







Another major difference I've noticed is that there is not a noticeable wealth gap as there is on the main land. One of the most alarming aspects of visiting Shanghai was seeing the massive hotels with bellboys and redcarpets literally right next to slums where houses were made of tin roofs and dirt floors. I realize I haven't been to that many places in Hong Kong yet, but from what I've experienced, the 'slums' are either far removed from the nicer areas, or there just aren't slums that are comparable to China's in the first place. I would say the wealth gap was one of the most depressing things about the cities in China, so Hong Kong has been really enjoyable and pleasant thus far.








Another interesting thing we encountered was the diversity of the city. We went to Kowloon Park on Sunday and were surprised to see many Filipinos, Indians, Southeast Asians (perhaps Malay or Indonesian), and blacks lounging around eating and chatting. There were also large group of Muslim women singing prayers together in Arabic:




We're going to go some temples today, so hopefully I'll have more great pictures for ya. It's been frustrating being here because no one understands Standard Mandarin Chinese... each time I've tried to speak to people in the language that I've been devoting myself to tirelessly for the past two years, they stare at me blankly and reply in Cantonese (they are completely different languages... I can't speak any Cantonese). For the most part salespeople/waitresses can speak sufficient English so I haven't had too much problem, but at one store I asked for directions in English and the cashier didn't know what I was saying-- it's as if he knew how to sell me things, but no more than that!

An Ambitious end to 2008

Boy oh boy, I am about to take off... in fact, I've got about 25 hours before my dad and I will drive into DC for my flight. Plenty of time to start packing, right?

I can't believe I'm going back! 3 months last year just wasn't enough. This summer will be like last year, but on Steroids: class for three weeks in 北京 Beijing, preparing us 1) for teaching at day camps in two rural villages (I will be teaching Geography and Art to 5th - 7th graders in Chinese) and 2) for making at least three large presentations and have several one-on-one meetings with rural educators about American education programs (I will be presenting about the effect of Mentorship programs on individual and communal development)!!!! After three weeks at 首都经贸大学 Capitol University, we will travel to 海南 Hainan (large island south of China), followed by 湖北 (a province in central China). We'll finish up in Beijing, a day before the Opening Ceremonies (the auspicious 08/08/08)!

Currently I am planning on traveling to Thailand and Malaysia from Aug 9 - Aug 25, but we'll have to see where I am with my visa.... I don't think it'd be a good idea to be added to the Chinese 'black list'.

And assuming that doesn't happen, I will be going to 哈尔滨工业大学 Harbin Institute of Technology up in Harbin, China for the fall semester! Harbin is located in Manchuria (in between Russia and North Korea), and is famous for its ice festival. An American study abroad agency has a program at this university, so I will be taking two Chinese language classes in addition to conducting research in Chinese for my undergraduate honors thesis. My research focuses on the ways parents' rural-to-urban migration patterns affects the education of their children. So, basically, I'll be hangin' out with kids and asking them how they feel about the college entrance exam. Any guesses for what the responses will be?

Hopefully I'll be able to update you all on where I am and what I'm doing--perhaps more than last summer, and in smaller doses, hah.


Have a happy Father's day!! In China, Father's day (父亲节) is celebrated on August 8th... sorry Dad, I'm going to miss both of them!