A Promenade with Poon Choi

Rose garden park we discovered

Happy Easter everyone! It's been another great 2 weeks in Hong Kong with more exploration around the city, surrounding islands and new territories! Because my time her is dwindling down very quickly, I have tried to spend weekends that I'm not traveling, going out to different parts of Hong Kong. The weather here has only been getting more and more beautiful making day trips easier and more fun.

The first weekend after Beijing, I ventured out with another exchange student, Ali, to explore more of the downtown area (I always seem to see it at night but rarely during the day). We had no real plans or set destination so we just picked a place on the MTR that we both had never been and took it for a ride. We ended up in Jordan, a district on the Kowloon side known for it's bargaining markets. No purchases were made and instead we walked toward the water into Tsim Sha Tsui. To get there, we meandered along Nathan Road (the Fifth avenue of New York or the Michigan Avenue of Chicago) and managed to depart from the strip to discover Kowloon Park, a green open park plopped in the middle of the city. The back end of the park had an amazing rose garden with flowers that seemed to be on steroids. I had never seen them so huge! Finding the park was such good discovery. It was a great getaway from the busy downtown streets.

Boat departing in Victoria Harbour

After Nathan Road, we entered the harbour area where we took pictures of the bay and surrounding buildings. Around there, we found 5 different couples taking pictures after their  nuptials. It was funny to see so many and so close together. We though we kept seeing the same couple but looking through our pictures we realized they were all different! Ali and I watched the picture taking over an Italian lunch then ventured across the harbour via ferry to see the International Finance Center on the other side.

 Cheung Chau Island

The next weekend, I traveled a little further outside of Hong Kong, going to Cheung Chau Island with a fellow exchanger, Chelsea. The island, about a half hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, is known for its beaches, historic temples, and caves. It's a very small island with a large fishing harbour and a board walk extending along the length of the island. The day we went, the weather was perfect. We first ate a traditional Hong Kong lunch at an outside cafe, then walked up the island to see a few temples. One thing about the majority of southeast Asia is that each village has it's own temple for that community so technically there are thousands of temples scattered around the country. After the temple, we walked down the opposite side of the island to the caves at the end of the coast. The sun was setting so it made for a beautiful scene with the rocks and water.


The last exploration trip was sponsored by the Exchange Activities Committee and featured a day trip to the northern part of Hong Kong called the New Territories. This part of land is attached to China and considered one of the oldest and most historical of Hong Kong. We began the tour in Yuen Long by visiting various temples around the village. It was rainy that day so we decided to head to an early dinner. Yuen Long is also the origination of a traditional Hong Kong dish called "poon choi". The simplest way to describe this dish is like a meat stew, only without the stew portion. There was pork, chicken, beef, pig's feet, prawn, beets, potatoes and fried fish all in one bowl set atop a burner to keep it warm. And it was so big! Each bowl is supposed to serve 8-10 people however there were 11 in our group and we barely made it half way! Hong Kong people usually enjoy this meal for a special occasion or as a way to celebrate family. Obviously everyone serves themselves from the one bowl, so it makes sense. It was certainly a once in a lifetime dish and I'm glad to say I had the experience even if it was difficult to eat. After dinner, we stayed in Yuen Long and had an herbal jelly dish covered in fresh fruit and served with sweet milk. It was such a healthy desert but really yummy.


All of these trips make want to see more and more of Hong Kong. I am already dreading the feeling of going back home without going one more place or doing one more thing in the region where I spent an entire semester. The only thing is that the more I see, the more I realize how much there is to do and my list of sites only gets longer. I forgot to talk about studying...it only seems to get in the way! (sorry Dad).