Trip to China

October 8-15th,2009
OK, so as most of you know I wasn't as excited as I should have been about going to China with Paul for a week. I felt bad about it but when he comes home and just doesn't have a whole lot of good to say about his trips there. Plus being half a world away from the kids was making me a bit anxious. So the day finally came, deep breath!
We flew to San Fran and landed there about 10 pm I think, I don't remember, I was a long for the ride! :) A short lay over and off we were to Taipei. This is a 13 hr flight, fun huh?! Paul and Steve (works with Paul at Empire Brands) fly Eva Air and go their version of business class. I didn't mind the seats, nice and roomy, room for your feet, reclined a bit more than US airlines and the bottom had a kick out for your feet. I stayed awake for a couple of hours then popped an Ambien (sleep aid) and I was out the rest of the flight. Nice huh? We get into Taipei and have a short layover there then off to Hong Kong.
A bit of a stinky place but I'll talk about that more later. On our way to the hotel in Hong Kong I get my first taste of the driving in China, and this wasn't even bad compared to what I would experience later in the trip.
We stayed at the Prudential in Kowloon. Not that that means a whole lot to you.
We got there and we were a bit early for them to have our rooms ready so we left our bags with the hotel and went walking.


Here we are in a park next to our hotel. The city is beautiful and very well taken care of. Beautiful gardens, road sides, parks, etc.


This is a picture of the "Ladies Market". Shopping here is fun except that they hover and don't give you any time whatsoever to look before they attack. At first I let Paul do the haggling on the prices but then I did it and thought it was fun too to see how low they would go on a price. Most the time they will come after you after you walk out after a no deal, the lady will so "my friend, I will do this price for you, I like you, this is my price!" It is fun and the people are nice.

This is me by the Fine Art Center (that is not the name of it but it is where they do the operas, plays, concerts, etc. Behind me is the island side of Hong Kong and the skyline you will usually see when you see pictures of Hong Kong City. Paul and I took the ferry across the bay to the island side to walk around for a bit.

So when we got into Hong Kong it was Saturday about noon. And late Sunday afternoon we went to main land China (Shenzhen City (spelling?)) But before we left we had some time to spend in Hong Kong. Paul and I went to Time Square, which is nothing like "Time Square" in NYU, this Time Square is really just a big clock put on the front of a big mall. We also walked through a local food market street type thing. We saw men unloading live fish from the back of a truck into water tubs of the store. Dead things, live things, stinky things, good things. We had an orange that was supposed to be out of this world according to Steve and Paul, but the one Paul and I had was good but nothing special. They had theirs back in April so maybe it was out of season.

Here is Paul in main land China (notice the Red China flags). So later on that Sunday we met Fuan (one of Paul's employees over there) at the hotel and then met our hired driver who was to take us to our hotel in Shenzhen. So we get to the boarder, which is right next to Hong Kong but like a 30 min drive, and our car is "randomly" selected to have an additional search. Normally they really check out your passports, check your temperature (swine flu crack down) and look at what is in the back of the car, the drivers open the backs for them. So we have to go to a different section and have us take our bags to an xray machine and thoroughly question our driver as to what he has in the back of the van. The driver told Fuan that it was liquid detergent, why he has it, no one knows. So we were held up for like 30 min but it felt like so much longer. Finally we were on our way, I think they made the driver leave the liquid detergent behind but I'm not sure.

We get to the nicest hotel I've ever been in let alone stayed at. Sorry I don't have the name of it but it was amazing. Very beautiful and excellent service. 5 Star hotel in China for the low price of about $90 US Dollars a night.

Lobby of the hotel, during the day. Beautiful! Imagine this at night with those amazing chandeliers.

Nice room, comfy bed, nice flat screen, and a circular shower and you can open the curtain so you can see the TV and it has a speaker in the shower so you can hear the TV as well.

That night we had dinner with Robert, Fuan, Jessen and Grace. Robert is the guy that heads up Empire Brands operations over in Asia. And the others are Roberts employees, so basically they all work for Paul's company. The restaurant is a nice upscale buffet at the top of the hotel and it rotates a full 360 in about 2 hours. That was pretty cool.
Monday was spent visiting factors, meetings, driving and praying for my life. Wow, Paul has told me about driving over in China before but you really don't get it until you experience it. Cutting in front of other drivers, stopping right in the road, pedestrians walking right now in front of you, cars and trucks driving on the wrong side just because they can! Thank goodness I made it home to my babies.

That evening we had dinner at a Japanese Steak House with one of Paul's factories (Porng Da). Yummy corn chowder, I tried Abalone (spelling?) I guess it is some sort of calm. It was ok, but would not have it again. I tried a bit of one of the big shrimp, let's just say it's a good thing it came with a really yummy sauce and it just confirmed that I still do not like shrimp. Paul is happy about that cause he always gets my serving. The white fish was good and oh my, the Coby beef was amazing. If you ever have a chance to have Coby beef (and afford it) then go for it, you will not be sorry.

After dinner we drove back into Hong Kong, back to our hotel.

Tuesday was the first day of the Electronics show at the huge convention center in Hong Kong. Paul and Steve met with another factory for a while then Steve, Jill (Steve's wife), Fuan, Paul and I walked the show. We would split up and take different aisles looking for anything new in the world of headphones. This is a huge show because practically every factory has a presence at this show that has any little bit to do with anything electronic. But we walked it in one day so we didn't have to go back the next day.

Above, just a few blocks from the convention center where the show was is a very nice church building. The missionaries show us one of the 4 chapels and hold meetings every day except Thursday. They do this to help accommodate all the workers who don't have Sundays off. If I remember right there is like 4 Cantonese wards, 2 Mandarin and a couple of others. This building also holds the area mission presidency offices.

We ate all our breakfasts at McDonald's (except for the one morning we were in main land). This is a hot chocolate with an M on the top.

Wednesday we spent as tourists. We went to the Sik Sik Yuen Tai Sin Temple. I guess it is a Buddist temple. It was beautiful but weird that there are people there praying and then there are tourist taking pictures, etc.

The grounds there are really pretty and peaceful.

This picture is in a garden that is right next to the Chi Lin Nunnery. This is what you see everywhere. Old China mixed in with modern China (notice the tall tall apartment complexes in the back.)

Below are pictures from the Chi Lin Nunnery.

Now, when I think of a Nunnery I think of Catholic Nunneries. Well, this is a Buddist nunnery.

Wednesday night was our last night in China. We went back down next to the water, across the island side of Hong Kong city.

This is video from the light and laser that goes on every night in Hong Kong. The video doesn't do it justice. It was fun and it was neat to see.

After the light show we went to dinner at Outback Steak House. Yummy, brownie with vanilla bean ice cream!!!!!!!!

Our last morning in Hong Kong we had some time before we had to head to the airport so we went to Victoria's Peak. It is a great view of the city but a real tourist trap.
Paul's favorite building in Hong Kong, "the claw".
Well, I made it. I loved the trip, loved the city, loved being with Paul. You may think it is funny that I didn't eat any of their food over there. The closet I got was the first night their we went to Din Tai Fung. Paul and Steve calls it the bun place. It is basically dumplings filled with pork, spinach, etc. We had buns that were just filled with pork, they were good and the rice was good. Chinese food over there is not anything like here in the US. They eat and use every part of duck, pig, cow, chicken, sea creatures (think octopus, etc). What they eat and how they eat it really creates a stink. The store fronts stink and this certain place down at the end of the Ladies Market and it just indescribable. Oh man!

Well, there is our trip to China. Thanks for looking and reading!