Hong Kong Fantasy

Only decided to visit Hong Kong last weekend on last Thursday. This is really a very random and last minute trip. I bought the ticket and applied for my HK Visa on Thursday and just flew on Sat early morning. I just want to have a break as I would have a very crazy 2 months because of both my work and study. Year end is always the peak season for us and this is going to be my last semester for MBA course. I got to cover both work and study plus a management project to end my MBA course early next year. After checking my schedule last Thursday, I decided to go somewhere to enjoy my precious weekend which I don't need to work and meet up old friends. ; )

Disney is definitely one of the places that I want to visit in Hong Kong. So I went straight to Disney on Sat from airport. This is my first time visiting Disneyland and I really had a lot of fun.



Right after I reached, they just started the parade of the day. You can see all the different carton figures and a lot of performances over there, which is one of the biggest attraction sof the park.

After that, I started my adventures in Hong Kong Disneyland. There are four sections: Fantasyland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and Main Street U.S.A. The most attractive part to me is the Fantasyland which reminded me all the memory I had when young. They are so familiar with me and I really forgot all the pressures from work and life when I was there with them.

As you know, there are a lot of people in the park especially during weekend. I'm not so interested in those facilities. So I spend most of my time on the various performances and queuing for taking pictures with my favorite carton figures. One of them is definitely Winnie the Pooh. This is my favorite picture from the 100 over pictures I took in these 2 days. I just looked so cute with Tiger and Pooh. Do you guys agree? ; )

I actually went for 3 performances: Mickey's PhilharMagic, The Golden Mickeys and Festival of the Lion King. My favorite is actually Mickey's PhilharMagic. This is a magical 3D show with all the different carton figures though leading by Mickey. You can see all the familiar carton figures running around you because of the 3D effects and they even add in special effect like smell and water. That was really a lot of fun. : ) It's a pity that I can't take pictures as the normal camera can not present the 3D effect.

These are pictures for the Golden Mickeys which is also quite nice but I guess I was a bit tired that I almost dozed off or maybe it's just not as interesting as the 3D show. : Q

I actually spent about 30 minutes to queue for taking pictures with Mickey and Minny each. Though it's quite time consuming and tiring, I was so excited when I was standing next to them. It's just like your childhood dream came true finally. I guess that's the reason why they called it Fantasyland.

The last show I went is Festival of Lion King which is a 360 degree open stage for Lion King. The special effect is really good especially cute Simba. I believe it's a robot but the way it moves is just so cute that you got to witness itself.

The last and the best part of the day in Disney is the fireworks. It's really amazing with the special effects and the castle background.

After that, I rushed back to town to meet up with Tippy, Candy and Esther, the Hong Kong AIESEC MC members the same year as me. We have known each other since 1999. It's always good to meet up with old friends especially when my last trip to Hong Kong is already 2 years back. We went to a nice hot pot restaurant.

Thanks for Stella for offering me a nice place to stay in Hong Kong. Stella is also a very special friend of mine. We also knew each other since 1999 when she was in Taiwan for IPM. We are actually born on the same date but she is just 2 years earlier than me. : ) She is really capable that she actually bought this flat on Hong Kong island after working for only 6 years. The housing in Hong Kong is really very expensive. So I can only say she worked very hard and I really like the place a lot. ; )

On Sunday morning, I went to visit the Hong Kong Electronic Show, which is one of the major regional show for electronic industry. I guess I just can't ignore things related to my work. It's also great to meet Willy, one of my AIESEC seniors, again. It has been a while from our last meeting back in Taipei.

It's a pity that I didn't have time to try all the food that weekend. Thanks for stella that I had one of the best breakfast with the nice bread and special Hong Kong milk tea. That's really refreshing and a good start for the day.

Actually, I was planning to meet up another friend on Sun afternoon as he was working in Hong Kong because of the show. So I took the chance to walk around the city and tried the authentic dessert, the milk strew, while waiting. This one is really nice as it is very smooth and seems the shop I visited is a famous one as it's very crowded even in the afternoon time.

It's a pity that I didn't manage to meet up with that friend as he was busy with meetings and I need to rush to airport to catch my flight back to Singapore. It is still a very refreshing trip for me and I really had a lot of fun in Disneyland. Now I really want to visit the other bigger Disneyland as this one in Hong Kong is really quite small. I believe the others would be even better.

Grace's Visit

This is really a very happening month. We have our 3rd guest, Grace, at our place this month last weekend. Grace is Ceci and my best friend. We knew each other since 1999 and Grace & I were working in the same company as trainees before. Grace is actually the first trainee in my company. Thanks for her so that I can adapted to the environment much easier at the beginning stage of my traineeship. That was really a great time when we four, Grace, Sandy, Jean and I were working together.

Happy Birthday! Grace! I was supposed to be here this weekend but decided to go Hong Kong instead. So we just practially just swapped and spend time with the same groups at different locations. It's kind of fun but I promise I would be back to Hong Kong again soon before my visa expires. ; )

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

On the flight back to Singapore, I watched this movie, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This is about a 4 best friends growing up together and never part from each other until the summer vacation when they are 16. They bought a "magic" jeans before they leave for different places as this jeans fit perfectly for all 4 of them though they may have different sizes. This magic pants seem change their life at that summer holiday.

The attractive part for me is the story for Lena. Lena is like any "good" girl in any group. She would not show off her beauty as that is more about the personality. Then she meet someone in Greece where her grandparents are. He is kind of "enemy" for her family. The story is like "Romeo and Juliet", but she managed to change herself and express her feelings because of him.

Guess that's the breakthrough I want also. I have been hiding my true feelings as I think I would be very vulnerable if I show how I really feel. So I actually run away from what I really want as I think I would get hurt easily especially on relationships. However, I decide to change all this by giving myself a chance to change and to try.

It maybe crazy but I have never done any really crazy thing up to now, but it would be different soon.

Oct 12th - Shanghai Day 4

My director arrived yesterday midnight. So today, we spend most of the time in the exhibition to look into the new products. Sometimes, it's great to have at least 2 people to visit this kind of show. Some discussion can really stimulate good ideas in terms of product planning. I guess that's the reason why people said that you can't create things without going out to observe people.

After that, we started our city tour of the day. We went to try the famous 南翔小籠包 finally. The taste is slightly different because of the crab meat but I find the ones from Crystal Jade is better as that is not so oily. : ) Maybe I'm used to the food in Singapore already.

After that, we went to this famous area called New World (新天地). Basically, this is a area with all the traditional shanghainese buildings but they renovate the place as the perfect dining and drinking area with the special atmosphere.

Quite surprised to see a familiar shop here. Pauliner is a famous beer store in Singapore that most of my friends like a lot but good to see something familiar la. : )

We actually came here for a good restaurant called XinJiShi recommended by Ying. Seems this restaurant is really famous and provided very nice good as the queue is so long. We have waited for almost one hour to get into the restaurant. Three of us just order 4 dishes. We thought the main dish is actually the strewed meat and just added in a couple others. In the end, the other 2 dishes the crab meat bean curt and the chilly thing are the one shocking us when seeing the bill. Anyway, this is quite a nice restaurant indeed and would recommend you guys to try if you are in Shanghai.

Anyway, was planning to leave on Sat but decided to go back tomorrow as some projects going on back in Singapore. In summary, Shanghai is really a big city with big area and huge population. However, maybe I just growed up and worked in another 2 big cities also. So it's not so impressive to me as the infrastructure is not as good as Taipei and Singapore. Nevertheless, this is still a fruitful trip to me and finally, I visited China after so many countries. : )

Oct 11th - Shanghai Day 3

Try to capture the last several hours before sunset to visit the Shanghai Old Street. This is the area with all the historical Chinese buildings. I thought it would be one of the best place to demonstrate the Chinese culture. However, it is too commercialized in my opinion. All the buildings are converted into shop space. The most strange thing to me is to have a "Starbucks" among those shops. It's like a alien among all the shops selling Chinese stuff.



This is the most famous dumpling shop in Shanghai. You can tell from the long queue they have outside the shop. They actually have a nicer area for dine in with a great view over the garden. It's a pity that I didn't try it as I think that's too much for one person. Maybe try again another day.

This group of buildings are actually build next to one of the famous garden, 豫園. It is famous for the setting of mountains and rivers inside the garden. Chinese are capable of creating their own space inside their home. I think that's a must for ladies at that time as they can not leave the house at all. If not, I guess they would be bored to death. I can't really go in as they are almost closed when I reached. See if I got time to visit it again these days.

Went for the famous crab(大閘蟹) for dinner with friends. Everyone told me to try the crab here as that is one of the hottest thing here. These crabs are actually from one of the famous lake in China, 蘇州陽澄湖. It is said to be the season for the male crab. So we just tried it. To be frank, I can't really tell the special part. Maybe I'm used to the heavy taste from Chilly Crab and Black Papper Crab. Guess I still prefer the one back in Singapore. : )

Oct 10th - Shanghai Day 2

Actually, I spent most of my 2nd day in Xiamen to visit one of my suppliers over there. To be honest, I like Xiamen more than Shanghai. The environment there is much better as they have a better city planning and people there seem to be much more friendly. Besides, that was actually a very interesting experience as that's the place that I have been nearest to Kinmen, one of the island belong to Taiwan. I promised my daddy that we would visit Kinmen one day as that's the place he served the army and I guess he had quite a lot of interesting memory and stories over there. Anyway, it's a rush day as I took the early morning flight to visit the supplier and came back at the evening.

After that, I decided to visit the famous Nan Jing Road which is one of the most famous shopping area in Shanghai. What amazed me is the buildings over there. This area was actually occupied by western in early 20th century. So the buildings there mixed up the component from both east and west. At night, it looked more glamorous.



At the end of Nan Jing East Road is Wai Tan where the first batch of these historical buildings built in 19th century. These are all done by the major banks or financial institutes back then. The buildings are really different and glamorous. It's a pity that I didn't take any picture as when I walk across the road they shut down all the lights already. I only managed to take picture for the other side of the river. That's the new area where all the new buildings are located. You can really the new and old Shanghai from these 2 banks of the river.

After visiting walk around the river, I decided to visit the famous Peace Hotel and enjoy the Old Jazz Band there. They are famous as they mainly played the old music from early 20th century. I really like the atmosphere and the music as we can't find that kind of OLD Jazz music from any other part of the world I guess. : )

Oct 9th - Shanghai Day 1

Reached Shanghai today to visit one of the trade show and suppliers. This is my first time visiting Mainland China. Thought it would be quite different as I have been hearing quite a lot about this place, surprisingly it's just like another big city to me. Maybe it's because I grow up in a city and all my life are spent in CITY up to now. So it's just ANOTHER city. However, this city is very similar to my hometown, Taiwan. Some of you might be aware that there is a huge number of Taiwanese living in Shanghai. I guess that's the reason why I can see so many Taiwan brands here, especially the food industry. These three are one of the best examples.



I really enjoy the Soya bean drink from the shop above. The Soya bean drink in Taiwan is very different from those in Singapore. It's thicker and you can really taste the Soya. Those in Singapore are more like Soya Bean Milk. The texture is really quite different. Good that I can try some home town food in Shanghai.

This is also something interesting that I saw on the roadside. It's made what we call new year cake that Chinese normally have during the Chinese New Year Period. However, this didn't taste as good as what I expected. Anyway, just try some local food then.

I was very shocked to see this shop as I just watched a old movie, 花橋榮記 (My Rice Noodle Shop), adapted from a famous novel by the contemporary writer, 白先勇. It's about a lady from this famous noodle shop in 桂林. I thought it's just one shop inside the story, but I realized that there is really such a famous rice noodle shop back there. So I decided to try this famous food as they seem to have chain stores.

The rice noodle is like the fish thick rice noodle we have back in Singapore. The taste is ok only but seems the business is quite good as that shop is full around 3 pm plus which is not the lunch hour.

After that, I just walked around the city and realized that there are quite a number of this traditional garden in Shanghai as this is one of the historical city. I didn't plan to visit this one but just come across it on the road.

After that, I started my city adventure by BUS. The bus is kind of old and the chair is very different though I always like to experience the life local people have. This is definitely a good way to experience as I totally understand how "aggressive" people here are when they are in bus or any other public transportations.