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I am back from Hong Kong!
I am back into the swing of things since my travels. This trips primary reason was for my second Visa run. I am now legal to stay in China until the end of my internship. I was very lucky to have Diana along with me. She is back in China for the summer and spent some time in Shanghai visiting me.
Hong Kong is a very exciting city and easy to say there is nowhere like it. It has a very pretty setting within green hills and the ocean. We spent most of our time on the island part of the city. The density is very high and there are people everywhere. Most locals seemed to be quite friendly which surprised me. For most Americans, it could be exciting but a stressful place to live. It is very fast paced and there is very little space for anything. Most residences are very small. We enjoyed local cuisine, local culture and many good sights for any architecture major. I also noticed that there were many more Churches in Hong Kong. They had public signs saying “Jesus Loves You” and similar phrases which is not
I.M. Pei Building
Chinese American Architectokay in mainland China. Of course, I couldn’t read it and Diana translated for me.
Language is also a very different thing there. Hong Kong is still part of China but many people speak Cantonese and English. Mandarin Chinese is not the primary language and many Hong Kong People don’t speak standard Chinese very well. Diana couldn’t understand many of the local people when they tried speaking to us.
Shenzhen shares a border with Hong Kong and this is where we went through customs. The final day of the trip was in Shenzhen and I wanted to see a popular new building by Steven Holl (American Architect). It is almost complete and is supposed to be a very sustainable building.
While in Shenzhen we discovered a very nice tourist area and beach that I didn’t know was there. It was conveniently close to the Steven Holl building and we spent the whole day in that area. Because many of the people there were tourists, we could tell they weren’t used to seeing foreigners. I had many eyes on me at all times. Chinese from less international areas of the country rarely, if ever see travelers from the
west.
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Aunt Susan
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Please clarify a comment
Thanks for the blog. I read your narrative to Kansas Dawn and we have a question. We don't understand the sentence that is before "There were many eyes on me". Your were writing about the beach. If you can, please reword it. Maybe Kansas and I are just not awake yet this morning but those two sentences seem to contradict each other and did not make sense to us. I am glad you and Diana are able to spend time together. Has the time away from the USA gone quickly for you? You have less than two months left in China, right? Since I am traveling to the family reunion near McPherson in a couple weeks, I am not sure when I will be going to Salina next. Cameron gets married soon, but I don't remember the date. I might go to Wichita for that but I'm not sure. Where is Diana going to school next year?