Final Thoughts On The Trip

I thought it would be good to give a final wrap up to the trip with some big picture observations.

First, I would like to commend Travel With Alan for putting together a fine tour.  It was reasonably priced.  All of the tour guides were wonderful (especially Patrick).  We had enough free time to explore on our own particularly in Hong Kong.  The accommodations were excellent in terms of quality and location.  The food for all of the meals was off the chart good.  In fact the tour might have been called a China Food Tour. On the negative side, the only tour component that I didn't care for was the jewelry manufacturer, but others seemed to like it.  I would have liked to see more "man themed" opportunities.  For example when we went to the porcelain  factory, it would have been nice to be able to explore some of the little shops outside the factory which sold all sorts of goods.

I was really impressed with how modern mainland China was.  There are freeways and modern cars and huge high rise apartment buildings literally everywhere with many more under construction.  I was left wondering where did all of the sewage go?  The people were all so friendly.  It was also very impressive all of the lighting that appears at night.  Huge buildings would entirely be lighted in moving electronic displays and TV screens. In Hong Kong, they add a laser light show each night at 8pm.  However, I found that laser light show to be a bit lame compared to the sheer magnitude of the building lighting.

Cheap food is everywhere.  While most of it was a bit bland for our taste, it was all quite good.  The grocery stores were quite well stocked.  McDonald's and Starbucks outlets were plentiful along with fewer numbers of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.  We only found one Subway.  

Health wise, we didn't suffer any illnesses, but we heard that several people did get sick.  We freely ate the food and drank the tap water in the hotels.  We didn't drink any water from other sources other than bottled water.  One person thought they may have contracted their illness from ice cubes in one of their drinks, but who knows?.  

WIFI coverage was plentiful so we didn't use our portable SIM card at all.  The connection speeds were excellent.  We didn't find Facebook or Google blocked at our hotels in China.  There were no WIFI issues in Hong Kong. It's important to bring power adapters  to fit the local power outlets.  All of our electronic chargers and my CPAP machine will run on both 110v or 220v power and automatically switch between the power sources.  

Culturallly, I was ignorant about one of China's heros:  Dr. Sun Yat Sen.  Fortunately we visited several sites devoted to recognizing his contribution to modern China.  Essentially he was to China like George Washington was to America.  I have a new appreciation for the Chinese culture.

The new and now 20 year old  Hong Kong airport is huge and thoroughly modern.  No longer do the airplanes have to weave their way through the skyscrapers to land at the former airport.  

Smog wise, it was hazy during the entire trip.  There might have been a couple of days in China that we saw blue sky.  On our last day in Hong Kong, we went walking and at one point I wiped the exterior of my nose and there was black all over the tissue.  I now understand why so many people wear filter masks when walking around.

Immigration checks occurred at every border.  Crossings were always busy but went pretty smoothly.  Since we had 10 year Chinese visas in addition to a group visa with the Travel With Alan group, This presented a problem for my wife when the immigration officer at the Chinese border from Macau spotted her 10 year personal visa.  She ended up needing to sign a withdrawal form to be dropped off the group visa and use her separate visa.  They didn't see mine, so I used the group visa.  I'd recommend that Travel With Alan scrutinize this in advance for future trips.

It was a great trip.  We are looking forward to returning in a couple weeks to do a longer  cruise trip which will add stops in Shanghai and Beijing as well as Korea and Japan before sailing to Vancouver via Alaska.  Stay tuned for that report.

Day 11 - Thu - March 9, 2017 - Hong Kong to Home

With this being our last day in Hong Kong and our departure to the airport not scheduled until 4pm, we had saved a special trip for today.

It seems that each of these final days in HK, we are getting more tired as we keep sleeping in later.  Today we got up around 9am and headed down for breakfast (which closed at 10am) before walking west along the waterfront about a mile to the old cruise terminal that we had walked to on our first day in China.  It is also the Star ferry terminal.  We purchased our reduced rate tokens (concession rate for over 60 year old people) from the vending machine at a cost of $1.50Hk or $0.19 US!  What a bargain!

The passenger only ferry runs every 15 minutes or so and takes about 10 minutes to cross to the Central Pier on the Hong Kong Island side from the Kowloon side where we had been staying.  The ferry wasn't very full. Once we reached the Central Pier, we walked to the large observation ferris wheel which we had observed from a distance and bought our tickets.  The concession rate cost was only 50HK$ or about $6.50 US.  It wasn't very busy and the ride was 15 minutes long or 3 loops around.  The views were terrific.

Afterwards we walked east along the waterfront to the Convention Center enjoying the sites along the way.  There was lots of construction which diverted our path.  At the Convention Center, we found a small vendor selling soup and lunch for about $6.50.  It was really good.  I thought about continuing our walk to the North Pier ferry terminal, but it appeared to just be too long of a walk there and quite a long walk back to  the hotel, so we elected to turn around and head for the Wai Tan ferry terminal and catch that ferry back to our starting point on the Kowloon side.  We repeated the token purchase and enjoyed our last ferry ride in HK this trip.

On the Kowloon side we walked towards the hotel, but took a diversion to walk through the Park of the Stars which has handprints and bronze statutes of famous HK movie stars.  It was interesting.  Back at the hotel, we found a place in the hotel lobby to wait for our shuttle pickup.  By this time we had walked about 6 1/2 miles, and sitting down felt so good.  Angela hadn't finished the airline check in, but the Air Canada website was down all the time we were waiting and she couldn't finish it.

Our two shuttles picked our group up on time and we elected to ride in the second bus with Matthew, one of the guides.  It's about a 45 minute ride to the airport and traffic was really heavy.  At the airport we got in the check in line, but suddenly the Air Canada website became available and she checked in and we stepped out of line and headed for the immigration checkout area.  We cleared that easily and then went through security screening where my luggage was stopped for finger nail clippers.  After inspecting them and determining that they were no threat, we headed for our gate.   Along the way Angela cashed in a couple free Starbucks hot chocolate coupons from a purchase she made earlier.  

The flight left slightly late around 8:30pm local time due to its late incoming arrival, but it was a pleasant 11 1/2  hour flight to Vancouver retracing the route we flew to get to HK.  Fortunately the movie selections changed because we were in a new month and I watched a couple before getting a few hours sleep.  In the Vancouver airport, it's really slick that one can go directly to US immigration if one is flying into the US.  There's even a 'Welcome To The United States' sign.  Since we have Global Entry cards, we whisked through the immigration process.  Outside immigration we noted there was a two hour earlier Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle.  I checked for space availability and saw there was room, so we took that flight and arrived in Seattle around 6:30pm where our friend Bob picked us up.  We took him to dinner at a favorite local restaurant (Huckleberry Square) before he dropped us off at our home.

It was a great trip and good introduction to Hong Kong and China.  I'll post some summary observations about this trip in a short while.  

We'll be back in HK in a few weeks to do a longer trip, so stay tuned for that trip report. 

Day 9 - Tue - March 7, 2017 - Hong Kong

Today was a long day of touring Hong Kong.  We were on the bus shortly after 10am and headed to the Peak for a funicular ride up to the top.  It was cloudy and a bit breezy up there and worth noting that the day ticket purchasers were more than a bit annoyed that our group of 120 got priority on the funicular.  It was a good perspective from up there.

We didn't ride the funicular back down as our bus met us at the top and drove us down to the waterfront where we boarded a sampan for a 'harbor' cruise through the fishing vessel anchorage.  Some of those vessels sure didn't look seaworthy!  The sampan dropped us off at Jumbos which is apparently the world's largest floating restaurant.  The multi-course meal there was good but still not as tasty as the last meal in Guangzhou yesterday.  Another sampan took us back to the mainland where we reboarded the bus and headed for Recluse beach where there was a large set of Buddhist statues and a bunch of other colorful statutes.  We also found an ATM there and obtained more HK$.

Stanley market was our next stop and it was a giant flea market with a potpourri of items. Angela purchased some items including a Jack Wolfskin light jacket.

Back at the hotel, we were on our own for the evening, so we decided to walk to the Temple Street night market which was about a mile away.  This market was a hubbub of activity, colorful, and pretty cool.  I found a couple of aftermarket lenses for our iPhones plus a little device that will backup my pictures or music or docs from the phone to an SD card.  We ran into Brian & Bobbie from the tour as we were leaving.  They took the metro rather than walk.

On our walk back we found a cool display in Kowloon Park called Chorus which were choreographed spinnng speakers on large tripods.  There were also lots of plastic characters on display.  Just before reaching the hotel, we enjoyed a meal at the Gokddn Arches that only cost a total of $12 for the two of us.

Tomorrow we're on our own and plan to visit the HK toy history exhibit in the History museum.

Day 8 - Mon - March 6, 2017 - Guangzhou to Hong Kong

Today was our last day in mainland China.  It's been a full time touring and very impressive.  We started with a tour of the Tomb of Nanyue King which was discovered in the 1980's during a construction project.  The tomb dates back to 220bc and represents one of the best preserved finds of its kind.

We then moved to the Five Goats monument  which was the symbol of Guangzhou.  It was replaced by the Canton Tower which is the new symbol.

Lunch at Dongfang Hotel was the best meal of the tour so far.  It was full of flavor and included lots of veggies!

We said our goodbyes to our guide, Julin and we cleared the passport control without incident.  It was a two hour train ride through the countryside to Kowloon, Hong Kong. There were literally hundreds of high rise apartment buildings along the way along with very green scenery.  Patrick, our HK bus C guide, met us with a smile, and he distributed room keys for the Grand Stanford hotel which made the checkin go much smoother.

After checking in we wandered out to find some non Chinese food and pizza at the Pizza Express filled the bill! Once again we were in the hustle and bustle of HK before retiring for the night.

We now have two more days of touring Hong Kong before flying home.

Day 7 - Sun - March , 2017 - Touring Guangzhou

Much like previous days, we enjoyed breakfast in the hotel.  Our first stop was to visit the Chen family temple.  Chen is a very famous family name here and this temple is to commemorate the ancestors.

We then went to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen  memorial hall with its beautiful flowers and grounds.  Lots of locals were there.  As the founder of modern China, he's very much their equivalent of America's George Washington.

We then had another outstanding 9 course Cantonese lunch at the YiFeng Hotel.  Afterwards our coach dropped us off at the Qing spice market where we strolled through it.  Since there was some free time before dinner we elected to walk around the entire island the hotel is located on.

Dinner was on a scenic cruise on the Pearl River which divides Guangzhou and is China's third largest river.  Many of the commercial buildings were decoratively lit up as was the Canton tower.  

Tomorrow is our last day in Guangzhou and it should be eventful.  We do some touring, have lunch, and then take the train to Hong Kong.  Dinner will be on our own; mabe it's time for a McDonald's.

Day 5 - Fri - March 3, 2017 - China

After breakfast, we boarded our bus for the  transport to the border crossing into China from Macau.  We first had to exit Macau and then walk the 'no mans land' to the Chinese checkpoint.  Our group lined up in groups of 10 and proceeded through the checkpoint where we were greeted by our Chinese guides.  Our guide, Julie, escorted us to bus number C and we took our familiar place in the back of the bus.  

Our first stop was a photo opportunity at the statute of the Pearl Lady which is in the harbor.  It's a popular stop for the Chinese and quite scenic.  From there we made our way to a concrete replica of a Chinese sailing vessel where we had another 9 course meal!

After lunch and a half hour later we found ourselves at the memorial park for Dr. Sun Yak-sen, founder of the modern Chinese society at the turn of the century.  He is the equivalent of George Washington to Americans. It was really interesting.  Our last stop of the day was at the China-Hong Kong English School which was founded 25 ish years ago to educate the current generation of Chinese to interact with the world.  There was a brief presentation and my 9th grade guide, Raymond, escorted me around the campus.

At our new hotel, we were checked in, and then enjoyed yet another buffet dinner.  Angela and I elected to do a walk after dinner over to a pedestrian mall shopping area and enjoyed some really pretty lights as well as a Ferris wheel and a McDonalds.  

Tomorrow we're off to a pottery town and relocating to Guangzhou for a couple night stay.  Stay tuned for more.

Sun Yat-sen village

Day 4 - Thu - March 2, 2017 - Macau

Today after a sumptuous breakfast we boarded our buses and made our way to the Macau Ferry terminal.  There was a lot of elevator and escalator riding plus an immigration exit check before boarding our jet boat for the one hour ride to Macau.  

The walk from the gangway to the incoming immigration checkpoint was quite long and soon we were on a new set of buses to take a city tour of Macau.  We visited a fortress, the ruins of St. Paul's church, a portion of the downtown with its narrow twisting streets, and a temple.  I also enjoyed some excellent beef jerky which was for sale in many shops.  It was really interesting to see the Portuguese enfluence in this area.    After checking into the Sheraton Macau, we walked around the interior of the hotel and found one of the largest food courts we've ever seen and all of the venues were variations of various Chinese cuisines.  It was very impressive!!

We then found a large 3 story high end shopping mall before enjoying a feast at The  Feast buffet with all measure of seafood.  We ate with a couple who we learned were bikers and had some great conversation.

After dinner we walked 'the strip' taking in the sights of many oversized casinos.

We may not have access to the internet for the next 5 days, but I'll update thus blog when I can.