Arquivo do Autor: lucaslongo

Beijing Summary

Wow… lots to say here since my last entry…
First of all here are some pictures of the Forbidden City. Just getting there was tough – I had to know the name of it in Chinese so that people would know what I was talking about – had to call John to tell the taxi driver where to go.

Here’s a quick video:

Then I took a Rickshaw since I was at the exit of the city – the guy offered to take me for 10 RMB – about USD 1. I said OK… then he said that we could take a quick tour around the old Beijing City – I said sure… after 40 minutes peddling around he stops at an empty ally and says that I have to pay him for the tour – 260 RMB – about USD 30!!! I got so pissed off that walked away leaving 50 RMB with him. He screamed and yelled but I yelled louder attracting some attention saying that it was no good – he did not give the price before and that the “official” tour price was bullshit.
In any case… tourist traps…

At night John took me to eat the famous Peking Duck – amazing – really. Went with his wife, kid, nanny, driver, father and mother. We ate until we could not any more – and all for about USD 85!! Of course John did not let me pay for a single thing during my entire stay… “My city, my treat!”
The following day I went to the Great Wall with and organized tour… some tourist traps along the way but very interesting. We saw the Ming Tombs, a jade factory, a silk factory, and a traditional tea house where they explained some kinds of teas and their benefits to your body. Very interesting.
Here are some pictures and videos:
Ming Tombs and Great Wall Pics:

Ming Tombs Video:

The Great Wall:

Jade Factory:

Silk Factory:

Beijing

Now in Beijing – crazy city – full of smog, people, cars, and bycicles. I decided not to unpack my bike once again because it is just too crazy and if I get lost there would be no way to ask for directions. Plus the cabs here are extremely cheap.
Met up with John Chen – a friend from college who lives here with his wife and kid – showing me around the nice restaurants in town and a bit of the night life. Very interesting.
Went to the Forbidden City today – very impressive and huge but the day did not contribute too much for sighseeing. Apparently they force rain whenever there are any rain clouds around – so that is what they did today. Very light drizzle, but I was told that every single day it is foggy because of the pollution. Next year all building stops because of the Olympics. That will probably allow the people in Beijing to see some blue in the skies.
Going to Tokyo on Friday – excited about that. No internet where I am staying so will be a while until I post some more pictures.

Fireworks

Went to Kowloon again to watch the fireworks celebrating the 10 years of the handover to China. It was absolutely packed… so many people. Went with Thomas and his kid Alexis – very cute and smart kid 🙂
Rode the subway for the first time – ultra high tech. There are no dividers between the cars – the entire train is a continuum making it very cool to look down the train and see it bend on the turns. You use the Octopus card – you simply hold it close to a reader and your fare is paid – the amount you pay depends on how far you go – just like the highway tolls in Europe. You can also use this card to pay for food, ride the tram, ferry and so on – basically a debit card. It is already being embedded into cell phones, watches and even jewelry. Very high tech.
We then went to his house on the eastern side of the island to drop his kid off and to eat something. Went to a delicious Chinese restaurant inside the Cyber Port – an office hub for media and technology companies… another amazing building.

Interesting Details

The taxi doors open by themselves – the drives controls them.
Every building has plastic bags to wrap your umbrellas in not to wet the floors inside.
It’s clean – very clean – I did not see one single cigarette but on the floor. Trash cans with ash trays are everywhere.
The Ferrys cost about 10 USD cents – the ones that go farther away like to Lama Island costs about 1.25 USD.
Bamboo is used as scaffolding.
Taxes here are only 16%. The only things that are taxed here are alcohol, cigarettes, cars, and gas. I might be missing one.
Local restaurants do not have napkins… if you want one, they will actually sell you a little package of Kleenex 🙂

Hong Kong – Kowloon

Besides being humid (90% humidity) it has been raining all day long for the past two days. Took a “day off” on Friday and on Saturday was “forced” to stay in because the rain was relentless… well I actually tried my luck by going to Kowloon (in front of Hong Kong island) but the rain did not stop – so I hung around yet another shopping mall and went back to the hotel.
At night went out with Thomas and some of his friends. Very fun dinner at Tapas and then went to a members only club called Key Club. Lots of fun but I was beat from the past two days of partying and went home around 2am.
Today the rain stopped so I went back to Kowloon and walked around the Walled City Garden – not too exciting. Then went into yet another shopping mall where there was some kind of show.
Today is the 10 year anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from England to China. Should be some major fireworks tonight.

Lama Island

Trying to catch up on my posts here…
After touring the bay in Hong Kong as I mentioned, I took a random ferry and ended up in Lama Island. Basically a fishing community + a power plant and a single wind powered generator. Walked around and shot this little film:

Macau

Bizar to see all the signs in Portuguese and in Chinese. Like Hong Kong, Macau was handed over back to China about 10 years ago but it is still under Portuguese law (hence a huge number of lawyers in the area) and will have a formal border for the next 50 years… part of the hand over agreement. But unlike Hong Kong, the Portuguese have been here for the past 500 years while the British were in Hong Kong for only about 100 years.
All in all it is a small area full of casinos – that and construction are the main businesses of Macau. So much so that apparently the government has a surplus of cash every year – that is how much money gambling brings to the table. There are about 10 very big casinos and about another 10 being built. One to be noted is the Venetian – HUGE, HUGE, HUGE… looks like there could be over 1000 rooms in the place and it will include real canals, gondolas and replicas of the bridges and some monuments of Venice. Most of these constructions are being built on reclaimed land (landfills). Real estate prices have quadrupled in the last 5 years. On the other hand, the northern part of Macau holds one of the highest population densities in the world!!
I am incredibly thankful to Miguel and Diana who informed me all about Macau, took me all over the island, and explained to me how it all worked there. We had a great Chinese lunch with a bunch of other Portuguese expats – great fun.
Here are the pictures:

Quick Post

Just got home (3am) after an early start – went to Macau and met with Diana and Miguel, a Portuguese couple (interior designer and architect) friends of Andrea’s.
They took me all around Macau, had a great traditional Chinese lunch, saw the other islands and outskirts of Macau and came back to Hong Kong. Went straight out to meet with Thomas, Mirada + friends at a restaurant then to the nightclub JP’s magazine was hosting a party. Great time… too tired to fill in the details, select and upload pictures… so tomorrow there will be more details.
For now, here is a quick video I did yesterday when I went to the Zoo through the escalators, went all the way down again to the ferries: