Beijing Summary and Mom Q and A

This is mostly to answer some questions my mom had.

What was security like at the Hong Kong airport?

Security was very painless,  just a simple metal detector and putting our bags through an x-ray. Their “TSA” agents were much more friendly than US TSA agents.

What was the flight like? Were announcements in English, too?

We had to take a bus out on the tarmac to our flight, but other than that it went well. We even got a full meal for a 3 hour flight, so that was nice.

What was immigration like in Beijing?

Immigration in both Hong Kong and Beijing was very simple. Wait in a short line then present our passport. With our student visa we don’t even need to fill out entry or departure cards from Hong Kong.

How difficult was it to figure out how to get to your hostel?

Peter had looked up directions so it was very easy to find. The hardest part was navigating around all the people trying to sell us stuff.

You mentioned, "tried to find some place to eat" a number of times. Was it difficult to find food places or just making a decision or finding a place that spoke English?

Sometimes it was difficult to find a place that had food, but usually when we found one place we found a group of them surrounding it. So then we would have to decide which one to go to. We usually tried to find a place with English and/or picture menus and that had a good amount of locals.

Did you guys all share one room, or were you mixed in with others? How was it sharing facilities?

We were in a room that had 8 beds total (4 bunk beds) and we shared a bathroom/shower. It was never a problem sharing, because all of our schedules worked out.

Did they have food at the hostel?

Yes, they had a menu. The food was slightly more expensive but the convenience was worth the price.

Were most of the travelers non-Chinese?

There were no Chinese Travelers while we were there. Some people from Australia, India, Canada, and the US.

Was the hostel as nice as the pictures?

I didn’t see the pictures, but it was very nice. I meant to take my own pictures but forgot.

What was the coolest thing you saw?

The coolest thing for me that I saw was the Olympic Park, especially the water cube. This is because it was so amazing to watch the events that took place there on TV, and to actually be there made them seem a lot more real to me, and exciting.

For non-modern stuff, the coolest thing was seeing the size of the Forbidden City from above.

Was the tour to the Great Wall worthwhile? How much did it cost? How long did it take to get there?

The tour was worthwhile. We had a very good tour guide that was willing to do extra stuff, and was very nice and spoke good English. The whole trip (wall+ming tombs+lunch+transport) cost $350 RMB.

Have you been drinking the water?

In Beijing we avoided drinking tap water straight, but towards the end of the week we were beginning to get more risky by eating fresh fruit and vegetables.

Have you had any problems with food or drink?

I didn’t but Peter did.

What kind of food have you been eating? You mentioned dumplings, Peking duck, donkey.

All Chinese food while in Beijing. Usually some dish with rice. Something I learned is that even if rice is included with your meal, you have to ask for it separately after they bring your main dish out. This is because traditionally you give someone the rice at the end of the meal, and if you bring it out too soon it means you want them to leave.

Do you order a number of things and all share - like the Chinese people do at Village Wok?

Usually we would order our own things and just taste some of the others, or finish what they had left.

Were your travel partners good to travel with?

Yes. I probably would have liked to stay out later some nights, and we were a bit slow getting out of the hostel in the morning, but other than that they were good.

Do you think you'll travel anymore with them?

If they want to travel with me.

Do you have any ideas right now for other excursions?

Right now I don’t really know. There is a deal for round trip from Hong Kong to Manila for $106 US so I think I might do that some weekend. I want to go to Thailand, Taiwan, Tokyo, and possibly somewhere in Vietnam. I don’t want to do all of those that is just the list of places I could go.

What kind of train compartment did you have?

Hard Sleeper with 6 beds

How was communcation on the train?

All of the announcements were in Chinese, but the porters all spoke a good amount of English.

Were you able to sleep much?

I slept most of the ride.

Did it stop much?

It stopped a few times but I was sleeping during most of them.

How long did it take to get from the train station back to school?

About 30-40 minutes.

Accumulation of Blog Entries (Beijing Day 2 to Train Ride Home)

Beijing Day 2 (01/25/10)

This day we wanted to do a little less walking, after the long day of walking on Monday. We woke up and decided to eat in the Hostel instead of wasting time trying to find something to eat. The hostel had a pretty good menu for all times of day including their breakfast selection, the three of us got breakfast sandwiches, which were good.

We left the hostel headed north to a temple we had seen a top a hill overlooking the forbidden city. The park that this temple was in cost 2 rmb, and conveniently took the same card that the Beijing subway takes, so we could just scan that and enter very easily. We spent some time looking around this park and then headed to the top of the hill to the temple that overlooks the forbidden city. It turned out that this temple was a Buddhist temple, and included a giant gold Buddha. What was more impressive though was the view from that height. Although the ornateness of the forbidden city was obvious while we were inside, it was hard to comprehend the immense size of the complex while we were walking around inside of it. The view from this temple allowed us to see all of the Forbidden City, and the vast size and number of buildings. It was very impressive. We also got to look out over the skyline of Beijing and could see the mountains and the Olympic Park in the distance. It is interesting that most important buildings in Beijing are all along one central north south axis, the Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, this Temple, and even the Olympic Park (going from South to North). The temples and the square were made a long time a go, but it is cool they made the Olympics along this axis as well.

After leaving this temple, we walked to an Imperial garden and Beihai park nearby, which also included a Buddhist temple. This temple was slightly different though in that it wasn’t designed in the typical Chinese style. Instead it was designed in more of a Middle Eastern style, more like a Minaret. Both of these parks were very scenic, but after spending all of Monday and some time today looking at old Chinese buildings we were getting a little bored, so we decided to go see some more modern attractions.

We walked along the western side of the Forbidden City to go look at the Performing Arts Center. This building is about as far away from ancient Chinese architecture as you can get. It is a giant silver/glass, half egg shaped building surrounded by water. The only way to enter is through a tunnel beneath the surrounding pool, so there are no external access points visible, while you are viewing the building from above. Supposedly, because of its clash with the surrounding architecture some locals do not appreciate its presence.

We then headed to Tiananmen Square to see Mao’s Tomb. The security to get into the square was pretty tight. We had to pass our bags through xrays, and some people were patted down. Overall the square is pretty boring I thought, ignoring its past. It is a giant expanse of concrete surrounded by buildings. In the center stands an obelisk monument. and on the north side is THE national flag of China. Our original intention was to see Mao’s tomb but for some reason it is only open from 8 am to noon, and we were there at like 1 pm, so we decided to put that off until the next day. Supposedly there are many soldiers that are not in uniform throughout Tiananmen Square, I wasn’t really looking for them but it was still pretty easy to pick them out. If we saw a Chinese man that was in shape and walking around by himself without a camera, it was probably a soldier.

We then took the subway to see the CCTV building. (http://morfis.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/cctv-building-beijing.jpg) It was very cool that a building with this odd structure could still be structurally sound enough, to support its own weight. We tried to get inside, but unfortunately the park surrounding the building is still under construction so access is prohibited unless you are an employee.

Since we were getting tired of lots of walking, we decided to look for a Beijing Acrobatics show. Using the Lonely Planet Guidebook we found where the Peking Acrobats performed, and walked there from Tiananmen, but unfortunately we found out when we arrived that they were not performing because they were on tour elsewhere in the world. Although we were disappointed by that, the trip was not a complete waste because we found an authentic street market. This market was most definitely not tourist designed. It was made on a winding alley, with many vendors selling mostly food items such as fruit breads, and meat. We stopped to get a selection of fruits including some Jujube, which tastes kinda of like a grape, but has a skin like a kiwi and a large seed in the middle. I also got some baked goods but was disappointed to find they were not as sweet as I was expecting. We then stopped for dinner at a restaurant in this alley. The store owner spoke no English, but eventually we figured out that they had only one item for sale at the time so we ordered that. It was essentially fried tortilla’s with meat inside of them. They tasted good, and surprisingly the total bill for 2 plates of them, plus a salad dish, and drinks was less than 20 rmb.

One of our main objectives while in Beijing was to find a street market that sold trinkets (sadly the food market was lacking in that). We looked up in the Lonely Planet Guide and found a market that was very close to the hostel, and took the train back. This market was very touristy, but it had exactly the type of items we were looking for. The store owners were aggressive enough to grab your arm and pull you so that you would look at their products and then they would offer you a ridiculous price for them. It was a lot of fun to bargain them down if you found an item you actually liked. They would usually start at around 10 times the price and you would have to take awhile to get them down to something more reasonable, but I am sure they still made a lot on each purchase. Each bargain was accompanied by phrases like “You student, I give you good price”, “Its new year, I give you good price” or when you went for a low price “This Chinese money, not dollar.” Overall I enjoyed the extra fun I got buy bargaining, I got the same excitement I get while gambling, except in this case I actually got something for my money.

After the market and a short stop so I could buy new gloves (my new old navy ones middle fingers unraveled) we headed home for bed.

Beijing Day 3 (1/23/11)

This day we woke up and after eating breakfast in the hostel, we walked to Tiananmen Square to see Mao’s tomb. They don’t allow backpacks or cameras to be brought into the tomb, so we had to take turns entering. Matt and I entered first. After going through more security, and telling many people “No we do not have any cameras”, even though we and most people there have camera phones with them, we headed into the tomb.

Entering into the tomb there was the option to buy some yellow flowers. We were afraid though that we might be the only ones without flowers, but luckily that was not the case. It turned out that the flowers were to place in this huge flower and plant display in front or the room that housed his body. This room had around 5 rows of potted trees, and many more flowers all surrounding a statue of Mao. The mood in the entire room was like a funeral. Following the line of people, we headed into the next room. In this room was a giant glass box, and within that box was the body of Mao, laying in his coffin, with upper body exposed. Also in this giant box were two soldiers guarding the body; I am sure that any anti-communist activity in that room would be immediately extinguished and the person most likely sent to jail.  It was very weird to see a human body that has been dead for many years just sitting out like that, especially the body of such a influential man in history.

Then we went to the military museum. The best exhibit was on "the war to aid korea and stop us aggression" it was weird to see a war from the enemy's side. The descriptions of battles were a little upsetting to me when they talked of it being good that thousands or “enemy” soldiers were killed, since most of these were US soldiers. They also have artifacts of killed US soldiers like their helmets and medals. It was also weird that they called it the "un troops" as if they aren't actually united nations. I have never seen an account with the UN as the bad guy but now I have thanks to the PRC. Other exhibits included exhibits describing the ancient Chinese territorial disputes, we got to see some cool ancient weapons, such as a multistage rocket arrow and a giant thing that shot around 25 arrows at a time all propelled by rockets. I am not sure if either actually worked but they looked cool.

The next stop was too the Capital Museum. This museum housed many artifacts from ancient china, and had huge exhibits of jade pieces, terracotta pieces, and a lot of other things. The museum was a little boring though because we had seen many similar artifacts at both the Forbidden City and other temples we had visited over the past two days.

After the museums we searched for another Acrobat show to see. Today we were more successful. We searched the internet on an iPod and found a place that was available, and called to get tickets, then headed there. Upon exiting the subway we accidently turned the wrong direction, and because of that got to the theater only 5 minutes before show start, but it turned out we had got very good seats. We were only 6 rows away from the stage, which was just the right distance in this theater.

The show was awesome. We got to see people be much more flexible and physically talented than I am. Climbing up polls with only their arms, and bending in ways I didn’t think were possible. They even brought Matt up on stage to make fun of him, by having him jump rope with a blindfold on. Then we got a quick dinner and headed back to the hostel.

Beijing Day 4 (1/24/11)

On Tuesday we had signed up to go to the Great Wall on Thursday. There were two options, one was less hiking and included a trip to the Ming Tombs, the other was a 6K hike on a rugged part of the wall. Thankfully, we had chosen the one with less walking, and when we woke up on Thursday still tired from walking the past 3 days, we were glad that we didn’t have a 6K hike ahead of us.

We ate breakfast then got in the van that was waiting for us outside the hostel (the tour was organized by the hostel). The drive to the wall was about an hour and a half long, and on the way I met some other travelers from around the world. We had a good conversation about world politics and such.

We got to the wall and heard about all the options for going up and down and exploring. We chose to take the Gondola up and the Alpine slide down. We got our tickets and headed up the mountain on the Gondola. When we got to the top we spent awhile just standing where the gondola dropped us off and admiring the impressive size of the wall as well as the beautiful scenery of the mountains around us. We spent the next 2 hours walking along the wall. In some places the wall is very steep to climb on. It still would be much easier to run along the wall then to run along the mountains, therefore making the wall easier to defend than attack. Most of where we were walking was more recently restored, but when we reached the end we got to see what the wall looks like when it hasn’t been restored for many years. There were trees and other plant life everywhere.

After taking many pictures and videos we headed down the mountain on the alpine slide. The alpine slide was a fun addition, although I got stuck behind this dumb couple that had the brakes on the entire time. At the bottom we were going to buy some t-shirts that were promised to us for 2 for $1, but it turned out it was a shameless lie and it was really 2 for $60, so we passed. Then we got on the bus and headed to lunch. We went to lunch at a family style place where they served us a few dishes and we shared them among people. After lunch we headed to the Ming  Tombs.

The Ming Tombs are the burial grounds of all of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. They buried them all underground in a giant concrete room under a mound. And around that mound were some temples and gates built for people to honor the emperor. The tomb was very cool, especially the huge stone doors that were made out of single pieces of marble. They had also been designed so that there was a large weight behind them that when they discovered the tombs they had to use a special tool to move the weight. The tombs included thrones for the emperors and boxes that used to contain the bodies of the emperor and empresses as well as many boxes of jewelry and such. The bodies are gone now though because during the cultural revolution the red guard burned them to get rid of the symbol of the “landlord.” After leaving this tomb, the tour guide asked us if we also wanted to go to another sight in the tombs, the entrance to the valley that contains all of the tombs. This entrance includes a long pathway with stone animals and statues of guards. For each statue there were 4 copies. Two pairs on either side of the pathway, one of each pair was laying down and the other was standing. This is because the ones standing are on duty during the day and the ones sitting are on duty at night.

We left the tombs and headed back to Beijing. On the ride back most people slept. Thankfully when we got back the bus driver was able to drop us off at a subway stop so that we could go to the silk market for some trinket shopping. The Silk Market is a “mall” that is filled with street market like shops. I think it has 6 floors, and each is filled with stalls of different types (silk, clothes, trinkets, etc). We headed to the trinket floor. We each found souvenirs and bargained them down. It was convenient to have a group because we could start below each others’ prices, and tell them we had found them at that price elsewhere. We finished getting all of the souvenirs we needed for the trip and headed back to the hostel.

Beijing Day 5 (1/25/11)

Today we wanted to finish up what we hadn’t done yet. We started out by taking the subway to Summer Palace. Summer palace is a huge complex the emperors designed as kind of a lake house. We spent a few hours walking around the buildings and up to the top to get a nice view of the surrounding land, and the lake the palace is built on. We also walked out to an island, on a very cool bridge. One cool thing that we learned was the Summer palace is one of the first places a telephone line was put in in China. The emperors at the end of the 1800’s wanted a way to communicate with the generals in the Forbidden City. Up until that point I hadn’t really thought about how the emperors had existed during the more recent past (the last emperor was gotten rid of by the revolution is 1911). The palace was cool, but to really experience it you should look at my pictures. I am sure it would look better in summer but it was still very scenic in January.

After the summer palace we took the train to the Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas. Although the zoo is cheaper than the Minnesota Zoo (15 RMB), it is in much worse condition. The pandas have the best enclosure because they are what the zoo is famous for, but even their enclosure is in worse condition than the worst enclosure at even Como Zoo. It was cool to see so many pandas up close. The coolest part was watching them eat. Instead of grazing, they pick up the plants with their hands and bring them to their mouth.

As the pandas were the main thing we wanted to see we didn’t spend much time in the rest of the zoo. We saw some monkeys and some red pandas, both of which were cute, as well as some exotic North American species like a red fox. The tiger and lion enclosure was very sad. They are housed in what looks like a jail. There are animals behind bars in a room without any windows. All the cats have to do is pace back and forth on the concrete floor.

The last stop of the day was to the Temple of Heaven. We ended up getting there right after access to the actual temple was closed, but we could still enter the surrounding park and get some decent pictures from the outside. While there we tried to find a geocache, but with no GPS and relying on bing maps. Unfortunately, the maps were off so we were searching in the wrong place, oh well. We headed back to the hostel and on the way stopped for some dinner. I had some donkey meat, which overall was not bad tasting.

Day 6 Beijing and Travel

Today Matt and I woke up (Peter felt sick) and went to Lama Temple. Lama temple is a Buddhist temple with many large statues of Buddha. The main “attraction” is a 26 meter tall standing Buddha made out of a single piece of wood. The sculpting of the Buddha itself wasn’t very impressive to me. What was impressive was they found a piece of wood that was that big and able to be carved. Pictures are not allowed but it would be hard to capture its size with a camera. The statue has a Guiness World Record, and there is a virtual geocache related to that record, so I logged my first find in Mainland China.

Matt and I headed back to the hostel and then we all packed up our stuff and checked out of the hostel. We took the subway and then a bus to the train station. The bus was absolutely packed. What was dumb was that we spent about 10 minutes with everyone trying to fight their way onto the bus, even though everyone could have fit if it had been done in an orderly fashion. Instead it wasted time, was uncomfortable, and some people got left behind. Oh well such is there culture. At the train station we went through immigration then boarded our train.

Our cabin had 6 beds in it, 2 sets of 3 stories. They were surprisingly comfortable, and after talking and buying some food we all went to sleep. The rest of the train ride was mostly filled with sleeping. We made some trips to the dining car for eating and drinking, but other than that we spent most of our time in our room. On one trip to the dining car we got to meet some drunk Americans that were doing their part at contributing to the world image of Americans being assholes. They were yelling obscenities, that hopefully weren’t understood by everyone but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of them were.

By 1 pm the next day we arrived in Beijing, headed through immigration again, and took the MTR back to campus. 

Beijing Day 1 (01/24/11)

This day we woke up and headed out to try and find something to eat for breakfast. Unbeknownst to us breakfast isn’t a large meal in Beijing, and therefore not many restaurants were open. Some only had hard boiled eggs, but we wanted something more. We eventually asked some locals for directions, which was difficult because they spoke no English. We then found a place and ordered breakfast by pointing to things that other guests had. We ended up getting some steamed meat dumplings which tasted very good. We were very surprised when the total bill came to 31 RMB, enough that we would have paid 31 each if they hadn’t corrected us. For anyone keeping track 1 USD is equal to about 6.6 RMB, so breakfast was cheap. After breakfast we walked to the Forbidden City.

The entrance to the complex was guarded by many soldiers including some not in uniform, as almost if to say “we are hiding among you.” We walked underneath Mao’s portrait, and passed into the inner part of complex. We followed a very long marble pathway, through another gate, and eventually to the main gate of the inner palace area. We purchased tickets (40 RMB) and audio guides (40 RMB) and headed into the inner Forbidden City. The audio guides were nice because they automatically sensed where you were and told you interesting facts about that area. It got a little annoying toward the end of the day though because they weren’t very accurate and would start playing when you weren’t even within sight of the thing it was describing. The basic storyline of most of the stories was “Emperor meets lady, Emperor ‘falls in love’ and sleeps with woman, woman has baby, people fight over whether that emeperor should be Crown Prince and inherit the thrown.”

The complex is very cool. Most of the buildings are very similar, but it is impressive how much detail is put into every building as well as how many total buildings there are in the complex. It must have required a factory for manufacturing each part of the building. Other interesting parts of the City included some ancient fire hydrants, essentially big pots of water that were kept from freezing in the winter, and a system for ranking the importance of buildings. Little animals were placed on the corner of the roof. The main palace had 11 animals, and other buildings and gates had anywhere down to one animal. The emperor also had many throwns and expensive stuff available to him. These items were displayed throughout the complex. It is hard to describe the complex in any detail beyond which I have, without being boring, it is mostly impressive because of the immense size and detail.  See my facebook album for specific things in the temple. These are links to all of my pictures I have taken. 

HKUST

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069938&id=1594620218&l=c636fa5b74

Olympic Park

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070835&id=1594620218&l=e90757e3ab

Random Beijing

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070833&id=1594620218&l=8b32614e91

Forbidden City

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070834&id=1594620218&l=8e0b907c9f

Great Wall and Ming Tombs

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070836&id=1594620218&l=ed3749a398

Summer Palace, Beijing Zoo, Temple of Heaven

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070838&id=1594620218&l=9c33cf133b

One odd thing was on two occasions we had some Chinese people come up and ask to take their picture with us. They would make a peace sign and smile. It was weird.

After about 5 hours exploring the palace we left and headed to the Olympic Park on the subway, where we hoped to find something to eat. For some reason though, as soon as we exited the subway there was nothing insight except the Bird’s nest and the Water Cube. We were very hungry and since the subway is very cheap (2 RMB for anywhere) we headed back in and after asking the subway information desk where we could find something to eat we eventually found a stop with convenient food. We got off the train at this stop and luckily found someone who both spoke English and knew where food was. He led us to a place with duck, and we followed his directions. The three of us shared a whole duck and some other dishes. We had to be shown how to properly eat the duck. You have to take a piece of meat, a piece of skin, a piece of onion like stuff, and a piece of celery, dip them all in a soy dipping sauce and place it in a tortilla like wrap, all with chopsticks.

After dinner we took the subway back to Olympic Park. The buildings looked very cool at night. It was very impressive to know that less than two years ago the Olympics had been held there. The architecture of bird’s nest, the water cube, and the tower was very cool. It was especially cool for me to stand next to the water cube and know that many of the world tickets are held by that pool and will stay that way for a long time. I would have gone into the cube but they had a concert going on inside, so I couldn’t.

Eventually we took the subway back near our hostel and walked the rest of the way, where we quickly went to bed after a long day.

Travel to Beijing (01/23/11)

This day I woke up at the early hour of 6:30 to go meet Peter and Matt. Although this was earlier than I usually prefer to wake up one added benefit was that I was able to see Sunrise. Watching the sunrise over the islands in the distance was very beautiful. After a slight delay, we got on our way to the airport. We could have taken the Airport express directly to the Airport, but for some reason that costs way more than taking a train to a close stop plus a bus the rest of the way $3 USD versus $25 USD. The Hong Kong Airport has a very cool design and there is lots of shopping. The Airport is less than 15 years old and is substantially better than any airport I’ve been to in the US. Security and Immigration were painless, and after eating we boarded a bus to drive us across the tarmac to our plane. The airport and the airplane both had announcements and signs in English which was useful, because I speak no Chinese.

The flight wasn’t very scenic, the only exciting thing was some nuclear power plants. Immigration in Beijing was very simple as well, and I got to add some more stamps to my passport.  The Beijing Airport is a very cool building. It is the largest terminal in the world, and has a very cool roof design. From the Airport we took the Beijing Metro to Tiananmen Square. We walked out of the subway to the sight of two things that define China to the world, The Gate of Heavenly Peace featuring Mao’s Portrait, and Tiananmen Square with the Mausoleum, it was a very cool introduction. Peter had found directions previously to the hostel so we started our way to the Hostel.

A group of white boys walking down the streets of Beijing rolling suitcases behind them can not help to look like tourists, and because of this we got some annoying offers. We had many people come up to us and after “Hello, Do you speak Chinese?” they preceded to try and sell us trips to the Great Wall. So many people came up to us then and throughout the week that we joked about it whenever we were encountered by a stranger. After escaping these people we walked toward the hostel. Our walk included a stop to buy some Chinese Communist hats. Upon arrival to the hostel, we paid for our entire stay (540 RMB each) and went to our room to unpack. Each of us got a key card to the room, which was operated by RFID, and a key to a locker to store our stuff in. The room housed 8 people total and we shared a bathroom with a shower. The beds were comfortable and sheets and pillow were included.

After getting settled, we headed out to try and find something to eat. There were many options for us, and the process was only made more complicated by the aggressive shop keepers that would try to physically pull us into their store before we could even look at their menu. Eventually we found a suitable place, and sat down for an interesting meal that included a full fish. For this meal and the meals for the rest of the week we tasted each other’s food but mostly we ate our own dish. After dinner we explored the area, and found a more touristy area, with lots stores.  Then we headed back to the hostel to sleep. 

First few days at HKUST

This is only a brief summary. In these two days I went downtown to a street market to get some electronics and a swiss army knife knock off for cheap. We also went to a department store called Taste, to get some supplies like comforters because of how cold our rooms got at night. Prices here were more expensive than the street market, but still cheaper than the US. I got a quality comforter for 99 HKD, or about 12 USD. The campus has a store on it, and surprisingly the prices there are actually cheaper than they are outside of campus. It’s way nicer than the ~25% mark up the places at the U of M charge on campus. 

First Day

I started off the morning waking up to meet Peter and Matt, the people I am traveling to Beijing with. We met outside Matt’s hall and after taking some pictures of the water and the view, walked up the hill to get something to eat. They had both arrived a couple of days before me and knew their way around campus enough to get us to the restaurant. At the restaurant they had many selections of Asian food plus a McDonalds, but I choose to go with the Shrimp Dumpling Noodle. The only silverware available was chopsticks and a spoon for the broth so I got to practice using chopsticks, which is especially difficult with dumplings in broth, and I ended up cheating for some and just stabbing them. At lunch we met a student from University of Illinois that had been here last semester, and he informed us of where we could get all of the things we still needed.

After eating, I went paid for my housing and then unpacked. I walked around campus by myself after that and explored down by the ocean. The view was very beautiful.

Later, Peter, Matt, and I met up and set out to find a beach that we could see was just down the shore a little bit. We eventually found the stairs leading down to it, and after a long but scenic walk which include seeing a waterfall, we arrived at the beach. We explored the shore a little and climbed on some rocks to try and get a little farther away from campus, but eventually they got too steep so we had to turn back. The beach had a lot of garbage washed up from the water which was disappointing, but the view was still very cool, and we got to watch the tide start to come in.  Our journey back up the mountain/hill was a lot more difficult than going down, which would be expected, but we eventually made it to the top, and then went for dinner. For dinner I had roast duck, and I got to see the guy who made it cut the head off of the friend duck, and then very quickly slice it up to put on my entrée.

After dinner I went to bed. 

Throughout the day it was annoying that I didn't have a key. Every time I wanted to leave I had to have someone lock my door, and when I came back have them unlock it. 

Check-in

When I finally arrived to HKUST, I went into my hall to check in. The person did not speak much English, but I was eventually able to convey my name and information. Everything went smoothly, except that the didn’t have a key for me. The previous occupant had lost it, and they hadn’t made a replacement, so the lady had to unlock my door for me. After I was in, I made my bed, set up my internet, then crashed. I needed to sleep after my long day. 

Travel 2

The flight took a little longer than expected due to some circling around Tokyo because of a closed runway, but I finally landed. While circling I really liked being able to look out over the ocean. I could see the curvature of the earth in the distance, as well as the shipping vessels below me, that although they are huge, looked miniscule in comparison to the vastness of the Pacific.

My experience in the Tokyo-Narita Airport was pleasant. TSA agents should take a class from Tokyo’s security in niceness. These people at least looked like they didn’t hate the world and everyone in it. They were friendly and helpful to the tourists going through. After going through security, I had an hour in the Tokyo airport. The first thing that I had a problem with was the moving sidewalk. I knew that they drove on the left side of the road, but it initially confused me that the sidewalks were going the wrong way. I found a little shop, and I found my new favorite candy, Green Tea Kit Kats. They taste like Green Tea Ice Cream, and are delicious. I also celebrated being of legal drinking age and bought myself a Sapporo Beer. It tasted bad, and was more than $7 USD, but being able to buy it was what made it special.

I then boarded my final plane and sat down in my seat. From that point on I don’t really remember much until close to when we were landing, I just fell asleep and didn’t wake up, even when we were taking off. Upon landing in Hong Kong, I got off the plane and went down a very long hallway to Immigration. Immigration was painless, but if I had been a little later it would have been more difficult. It was 12:30 am and they were closing one of the two visitor stations for immigration, but they didn’t coordinate which one was being closed and ended up closing both and sending everyone from one to the other. Luckily I was already in line and just got to watch annoyed travelers.

After immigration, I grabbed by checked luggage on a cart and headed for the taxis, all of which was simple, I didn’t even have to go through any type of customs. The taxi driver loaded my luggage in, and I showed him a piece of paper with a translation of my destination and then we departed. The ride from the airport was very cool. There are lots of tall buildings everywhere. It seems every opportunity that there is to build a building, they build a building that is more than 30 stories tall. The journey to HKUST included lots of bridges and tunnels, and was on the “wrong” side of the road, which was exciting. 

Travel 1

            We arrived at the airport with about 3 hours until my flight. I went and checked in my bags. The first bag weighed 50.0 pounds (limit is 50), the second 53.8. Thankfully they let me take without an extra charge. Then we all went up to the terminal, and exchanged some Hong Kong and Chinese currency. After exchanging money, the three of us sat in the terminal and talked for a while because I had plenty of time before my flight. With about 2 hours left until take off I decided to say my final good byes and go through security. My mom had scouted the best line, so we walked down to it, and hugged goodbye. We then parted ways with promises of keeping in touch. Going security was very fast, and I even “got” to go through the new body scanner. On the other side I found my gate and got a soda to drink. Before leaving I called Courtney and bought a lottery tickets, which I won $1 on, to bad I can’t cash it in for a long time.

Boarding was painless, and I got lucky and got one of the last spaces in the overhead bin even though the flight was completely full. After everyone was loaded we taxied to a spot to de-ice the plane it was funny to see the plane shaped wet marks on the tarmak. We had a smooth take off and soon were flying over the scenice western Minnesota and South Dakota landscape. The flight had wifi for purchase, but I didn’t want to pay for it. It did however provide access to delta.com, which was nice because I could track the plane’s position, and send messages to people by attaching a message to my itinerary which I could send to them.

Although the view of South Dakota may not have been great, when we started over the mountains the view got much better. The mountains looked very cool from the air, and I took some pictures, which I will post. I spotted Missoula, and when we got closer to Seattle I got a very cool view of Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately however I wasn’t able to see the Seattle skyline.

After landing in Seattle, I got off the plane and luckily my next plane was only 2 gates away. Seattle’s airport had the luxury of free wifi, so I checked my email and Facebook and chatted with Courtney and my mom. I only had about 45 minutes until boarding, and didn’t want to journey to another terminal of the airport so I was limited for food options. I ended up getting a burger and fries. I took advantage of my last access to US cell phone service and texted my mom sister and Courtney, and called Courtney one last time. Then I boarded the plane which was even easier than it was in Minneapolis.

I was still on the wrong side of the plane, so after take off I couldn’t see the skyline, and the entire way along the coast of Canada and Alaska all I could see was water, but the view of the mountains was even cooler on this journey.

Currently, I am somewhere between Alaska and Russia (but can see neither). I have watched Wall Street, and am currently watching Salt on the media player, as well as playing some games and watching some episodes of some TV shows.  The media player is pretty cool. I can track details about my flight such as altitude, speed, and the outside temperature. As well as entertain myself with other things. Other that that I have slept some, read some, and been served the some soda, peanuts, and a meal that had some shrimp salad, a brownie, a beef noodle thing, and some other stuff (picture included). Right now I am eating one more meal, an ice cream sandwich and a Coca-Cola. I still have 4.5 hours left in my flight and the outside temperature is -75 F. Over halfway there!

Oh also my mom figured out that my due to my flights, I will have 19 hours of sunlight today. Jet lag here I come. 

Updated Beijing Plans

We received notice that train tickets are all sold out from Guangzhou to Beijing because of the Spring Festival. So instead we chose to buy plane tickets, which are about 3 times more expensive, but it is much less travel time. This will also make it so we aren’t rushed in Guangzhou. This is kind of disappointing but it should turn out ok. The rest of the plans stayed the same. 

Class registration:

On Wednesday I registered for all of the classes I would be taking. I  was able to get into all of the classes I want assuming the instructors approve me. My schedule is posted on here. I lucked into getting no classes on Fridays, being able to take Chinese, a class that will count toward medical school/ my degree, fill some Gen Eds and take a class on Chinese history from their perspective.

Good byes

In the days winding down to my departure I had to start saying goodbyes and making final preparations for the experiences. First the preparations. I got travelers checks, which was interesting because the AAA agent thought that I had taken my mothers drivers license and check to buy them, but after some phone calls I got them. I also had to get a way to have a phone. This meant either dealing with AT&T to unlock my phone, using one of our old phones or buying a new one. AT&T was not very helpful with this endeavor, not many of the employees knew anything about it. I eventually (the day before leaving) got the unlock code.

Other shopping trips were also taken for last minute things like socks, and the most essential thing, muffins from Sam’s Club.

I packed up all of my stuff, and cleaned up around the house. Somehow I am going to have to live for 4.5 months off of 2 suitcases and some carry-on bags.

Goodbyes:

For the end of winter break I went skiing with all of my friends, and then stayed at a friends cabin. I went out to dinner with Courtney’s family at Green Mill, which was very nice. My mom also made red-pepper pasta for me at home for a goodbye dinner as well as some very healthy cheese and chocolate fondues. It was nice having a home cooked meal, and I am guessing that I will miss that. My mom also took me and then me and Courtney out for Sushi.

I had a sad goodbye with Courtney the night before leaving, because we chose for her not to accompany my mom and sister to the airport, but we have promised to send each other packages often.

I said goodbye to my dad (and the cats, and Harley) the morning I left because he had chosen not to accompany us to the airport, and then at the early hour of 5 am my mom, my sister, and I headed for the airport. 

Beijing Trip

My travel partners and I are finalizing our plans for our trip to Beijing. The current plan is to take the train to Guangzhou from Hong Kong and stay there for a night. Then we will take the train from Guangzhou to Beijing. In Beijing we will be staying at the Youth International Hostel, which is 1.5 miles from Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. We still have to finalize what we will do in our 6 days in Beijing but we will for sure see the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Olympic Village, and the Great Wall. Then we will take the train back to Hong Kong.

Preparation

Selection of Destination


I originally intended to study in Europe, and was considering Athens specifically. This fall I looked at the U of M's study abroad options again, and this time I noticed the program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The more I looked at this program and the location the more I wanted to go there.

I could continue to take technical courses such as microbiology or thermodynamics, it was cheaper than the programs in Europe, and the location of the campus was awesome. The campus is right on the sea, overlooking mountainous islands in the distance.

On Campus Preparation 

After deciding I talked to the campus coordinator about what I had to do. I applied to the University, and started to submit my necessary paperwork for that the Study Abroad Center requires. I talked to many advisors about what classes I should take, and other details. My largest problem was that the Biomedical Engineering program is very difficult to study abroad in, but eventually I figured it out.

A few weeks later, I received an email telling me that I was accepted to HKUST, although I assumed I would get in, it was still exciting. After that I had to turn in a lot of paperwork. Insurance, Hong Kong Visa, Housing, and some more forms for the Study Abroad Center. I mailed all of that paperwork to HKUST and then all I had to do is wait.

Plans for Secondary Travels


Another student from the U of M that was going to HKUST contacted me about going on an excursion to Beijing. The plan was to take the train from Hong Kong to Beijing and spend some time there then take the train back.

The only real hurdle in this plan was getting a tourist visa for mainland China. While Hong Kong has been a part of China as a Special Administrative District, a separate visa is required to enter Hong Kong versus mainland China. The process to get this visa is not simple. Your passport must be delivered to the Chinese consulate, and the closest Chinese consulate is in Chicago. Also through a dumb rule, the passport has to be delivered in person. It does not matter who that person is,  as long as it is not the mail person. Companies in Chicago have taken advantage of this by charging a small fee of $43 to walk down the street and get a sticker placed in my passport. After considering some options, I decided to pay this fee and trust my passport to this company. This was a risk though because if something went wrong I would not have my passport for traveling to Hong Kong. I called the office of mychinavisa.com and the assured me my passport would return in time.

I sent my passport out with the necessary paperwork and a check, and about a week later I got it back. During this time I had gotten my Hong Kong Student Visa so when I got my passport back I put that sticker in as well. It is cool to look at the pages of my passport with the Hong Kong and China Visas and know that because of that I can go back and forth whenever I please.

Another problem with the Chinese Visa, is I had heard that although you apply for example a multiple entry 12 month visa, sometimes the consulate could decide that they want to only give you a 1 entry 3 month visa. It was especially good to get my visa returned and see the Entries: M.

Flight

Some time during all of this my mom and I bought my plane tickets. I wanted to avoid as many snowy airports as possible, so eventually we found a flight for around $1200 round trip that would go from Minneapolis, to Seattle, to the Narita-Tokyo Airport and finally to Hong Kong. I leave MSP at 9 am and arrive at HKG at 11 pm the next day. With a 14 time difference. So in total about 22 hours of travel.