Time Flies

It's been a busy few days....Friday we had a corporate tour of Ocean Park an aquatic theme park in Hong Kong, we even got to try out a couple of rides. After the tour we headed to Victoria Peak for a view of the city at night, unfortunately the clouds rolled in and we couldn't see a thing. Saturday morning we headed out to see the city, here's a photo of me an Elaine on the dock of the Hong Kong Island Pier...


After our tour we hopped the ferry to Macau, its about an hour away for some gambling. We checked out the MGM and the Wynn only to find that the games we wanted, roulette and craps were no where to be found. They had been replaced by odd games like Sic Bo (a three dice hi/low game) and Baccarat. I tried my luck at Sic Bo an made a few hundred HK$'s.

We headed over the the Grand Hotel Lisboa and found a hopping craps table. Luckily we caught the last ferry of the night home 4am after buying some scalped tickets...what a fun night. Here's a photo of me by the Grand Lisboa...

Night at the Races

Day 4 of non-stop classes, today we met the President of Pepsi China and the former CEO of Wal*Mart China, so it was a very interesting day. Did you know that they sell live chickens and fish here? I've finally managed to take some photos of the school...or at least the view from HKUST, here's a photo:

Last night we headed out for our first "fun" event to the Happy Valley (Horse Race Track). We had a private box with our own sushi chef...the food was excellent. I managed to win 3 races, I'm up about US$2, so I'm not quiting my job and traveling the world. Happy Valley is in the middle of Kowloon surrounded by highrises, check out my photo of the 4th race.

Hong Kong...well class

Dylan and I arrived to Hong Kong on Sunday only to find out that our hotel is out in Kowloon City by an old abandoned airport....no metro stops, no fun things to see....Luckily I got to hang out Sunday night in Harbor City with co-workers who were in town for Toy Fair. Indra picked a great restaurant House of Jasmine, the food was picturesque and yummy. It was great to catch up with my old co-worker Anne who now works in the Korean office.

Monday was the start of classes at HKUST (#1 in Asia for MBA), I tell you EVERYONE is number one here. Our first day consisted of 10 hours of classes on the communist party.

Today, we had a short day only 7 straight hours of classes on Macroeconomics...these folks take education VERY seriously. Tomorrow we head to Victoria Peak, so maybe I'll have a photo or two...unfortunately Dylan leaves tomorrow so I will be on my own.

Fingers crossed for pictures tomorrow!!

The Price of Tea in China

So while tea may not be cheap, our little market a block of the Bund is. Last night Dylan and I purchased all of the pictured goods (yes including Beer) for 16Yuan or ~$2.50

YuYuan Gardens

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the late posts, our hotel the Metropole had horrible internet connections and the Chinese internet restrictions were blocking my uploading and viewing of my pages, we are in Hong Kong now, so I'm catching you all up.


Day 2 Shanghai, we did a walking tour (self navigated) of YuYuan Gardens and the surrounding Old City, the Gardens were the most picturesque of anything I've seen thus far, here's a photo.

After the YuYuan Gardens we walked around the "lanes" which are the old Shanghainese style houses. Most of these areas are being torn down to make way for more shiny skyscrapers, here's a street shot.

Tea Time in Shanghai

Last night we took the Z1 bullet train to Shanghai, we stayed in the sleeper cars which were quite nice, our roommate, a nice Chinese man who spoke no English was not a big fan of the company...we arrived in Shanghai at 8am and lounged at our hotel the Metropole. After resting up and taking a much needed shower we set off for the Bund promendade. We met some other tourists from Xian and they took us to a tea house for a traditional tea tasting. We sampled 6 different types of tea and had a very fun time. I'll upload a photo later, I'm having internet problems.

Acrobatics Show

Last night we saw an amazing acrobats show at the Chaoyang Theater, tickets are around RMB 180 for second row seats. Here's a shot of the performance.

Happy New Year!!

Dylan and I celebrated New Years last night Beijing style...we started with Peking Duck and then headed on to "Bar Street" that means overpriced beer (upwards of US$10) and karaoke style singers. Today we headed out to the Great Wall on local Bus 919...we are beginning to think that all buses are called 919 since we were sent to 5 different areas for the one we wanted. The Great Wall was vast and rugged. Here's a photo: