(34) Victoria Harbour

The best place and time in Hong Kong to take a walk - whether a pensive one alone or a romantic one with someone special - is at Victoria Harbour around 8PM.

Every night, the Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) and Central (HK Island) areas light up opposing sides of the Strait of Hong Kong. At 8PM on weeknights, lasers emanate from different buildings on either side to give a light show to passers-by. On big holidays such as Chinese New Year, the lasers are replaced by a fireworks display. Professional photographers set up shop here at night, taking high quality wallet-size photos for 10 HKD (~$1.30) each.

On that particular night, I took a boat ride across the Strait after the light show. Then I took an electric streetcar that runs from the east to the west end of Hong Kong Island - through the most developed areas, of course. Congee is a popular food in Hong Kong no matter then time, so I went for a midnight snack in Kennedy Town on the east end of the streetcar line - A large bowl of congee and fried turnip cake totaling 40 HKD (~ 5.20) for two people.

Album Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/VictoriaHarbour?feat=directlink

Next Episode: "Lamma Island"

(33) Plastics Engineering

My semester finished up today, so I'll spend one post talking about a cool class I took: MEEM3006 - Plastics Engineering.

The course focused on plastics and composites and the differences (in mechanical properties) between them and metals. I won't bore you with any math, but this stuff really applies to my life - specifically my major and my favorite sport. The Boeing 787 below is the first commercial aircraft to be built with composite materials. The prof also touched on types of composites found in tennis rackets: kevlar is light and flexible, boron is the heaviest, and carbon makes the stiffest rackets.


Getting to know my classmates was an experience in itself. Both lecture and lab are at night because they come to class after working a full day (8-6 in Hong Kong) at computer companies and engineering firms. One classmate is 29 and has a daughter!! I'm the only full-time student and exchange student; and the youngest by at least 4 years compared to anyone in the class. I got to know Daniel, one of my lab partners, really well. We would always talk about the working life vs. the school life outside of class. I got a glimpse of where I might be in 5 years, it's a funny feeling haha.

Also, here's a short album with pictures from the Plastics Lab at City-U (upload in progress...)

Album Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/PlasticsEngineering?feat=directlink

Next Episode: "Victoria Harbour"

(32) Eight Sages Range

Pat Sin Leng - English translation "Eight Sages Range" - near Tai Po Market MTR Station. If you look closely, there appears to be nine peaks...

May Day - May 1st - is a family-oriented holiday where adults barbecue and children play around in the parks. The Tai Po area offers a nice retreat for many Hong Kongers. Many families and young people took a short hike up Pat Sin Leng to Bride's Pool, a quiet stream and pond with playgrounds, barbecue areas, and picnic tables.

This is the 6th [ Lion Rock, Lantau South (just slightly), Lung Fu Shan, Pok Fu Lam, Sai Kung West, and Pat Sin Leng ] and maybe last Hong Kong Country Park that I have time to visit this semester. There are 24 Country Parks in Hong Kong in all; this website gives detailed info - attractions, scenery, landmarks, available public transportation etc. - on each park.

http://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/country/cou_vis/cou_vis_cou/cou_vis_cou.html

I strongly recommend checking out the Country Parks if you're ever in Hong Kong; but I think my pictures are doing a good job convincing you :)

You might also notice the albums for Episodes 31 and 32 are very short. I've passed the 500-photo mark on my Picasa page (521 to be exact). This actually the number of photos after I trimmed down every album. Space is running out on that webpage at the moment, I'll need to find a way to get more.

Album Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/EightSagesRange?feat=directlink

Next Episode: "Plastics Engineering"

(31) Win, Place, Show

Yup, Horses!

Horse racing is a favored spectacle for Hong Kong residents (especially the old people hehe...) and foreigners alike. The MTR (HK metro) East Rail Line takes a special branch route to Penfold Park Horsetrack on racing days, I think I happened to catch the first racing day of the year - I do think horse racing starts in late spring generally.

Another one of Hong Kong's landmarks, and I had never been to a horsetrack before. I saw gambling "tickets" for soccer matches, basketball and baseball games, as well as the horses themselves - I took a ticket as my souvenir. Horse racing in Hong Kong is sponsored by the Jockey Club; and surprisingly, the Jockey Club itself is non-profit and donates a large amount of earnings to charity.

Album Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/WinPlaceShow?feat=directlink

Next Episode: "Eight Sages Range"

(30) "Days at JCAC"

The semester's end is approaching, and I was surprised to find this slipped under my door one day.

"Days at JCAC" is the yearbook for my hall: Jockey Club Academy. During the year, our "reporters" collected stories from residents, RA's, sports teams and players, exchange students etc. "Days at JCAC" is then edited by fellow residents and proofread by Melody, an American exchange student, in English.

There were some Hall Activities I missed from the fall semester, including:

- Aquatic Meet in September
- Athletic (we'd call it "track") Meet in October
- English Corner and Putonghua (Mandarin) Salon, where native Hong Kong students practice their language skills with mainland Chinese students and/or English speakers.
- German cultural night; Rebecca, one of the RA's, is a full-time student from Germany.

This semester, some Hall Activities were:

- High Table Dinner, which is a formal dinner party reserved for students of each hall.
- Hiking trip to Tung Chung, in March (I hiked here in late January)
- Sports Competitions; we won soccer, got 3rd place in boy's and girl's basketball
- Cooking and Singing Competitions (JCAC won the singing, sweet)

I even made an appearance on page 21 (lower right), in an article about the Basketball Competition.


Next Episode: "Win, Place, Show"

(29) A Quick Thank-you

About a week ago, I got an e-mail from Ms. Sassi from the Study Abroad Office at the University of Texas-Austin. This is a screenshot she sent me, showing my blog linked to Blackboard at UT.

This is simply a post to show my appreciation! It's been a pleasure sharing my story with my friends, and this blog could help make another difference by inspiring more students to go to Hong Kong.

Besides this news, I had a nice run last week. I found out I got an academic award back home in UMD... I've also finished most of the daunting schedule mentioned in Episode 24 - pulled a couple all nighters in the process too. I actually had some free time on Friday and went down to the park to shoot hoops for the first time in weeks.

Next Episode: "Days at JCAC"

(27-28) School Days

Landmark fountain outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University (AKA Poly-U among native students) - the school's logo is in the center.


A plasma ball inside the Hong Kong Science Museum.

Let's talk double feature! Two museums, two title pictures, two learning experiences (hence "School Days" haha), all over two weekends.

So sorry for the delay. I've been doing way too much typing lately...
The Hong Kong Museum of History and the Hong Kong Science Museum are located in one complex in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Poly-U photo was included because the university was also right there, convieniently enough for those guys.

The HK Museum of History: "The serious one", we know Hong Kong is a seaport now, but you would never guess that it's been: a riverbed, marshes, a sea, a range of volcanoes, a desert, and a lake all in that order in the last 350 million years. Of course, HK owns a colorful history after humans got there, too. The Hong Kong area was first settled by people of the Maha tribe, a Southeastern Asian people who are the ancestors of Vietnamese people now.

Later on, Hong Kong was settled by three more tribes:
Punti - translation - "Natives", Cantonese
Hakka - "Guests", nomads who could have originated as for north as Mongolia
Hoklo - "Min People", from Fujian (province) or Taiwan

Last but not least, Hong Kong went through a period of colonization by the British and Japanese. The final exhibit (on the recommended path) was a video of the Hong Kong Reclamation by China on June 30, 1997 (my birthday!)

The HK Science Museum: "The fun one", according to the brochure there are ~700 exhibits, ~400 of which are hands-on; the exhibits cover every branch of science. The most attractive one might be the "Ability Test", you get your own scorecard and go all sorts of exercises: strength, balance, reaction time, puzzles, memory, eyesight etc.

The World of Mirrors was awesome! You'll see my friend and I had a lot of fun with those :) There were also exhibits on Electricity (where I learned apparently I conducted 1 more Volt than my friend haha), Food Science (you need to bike about 3 miles to burn off a small bowl of rice), and Optical Illusions among many others.

Both of these museums take an entire day to cover, and they are must-sees while in Hong Kong!

Album Links:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/SchoolDays1?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/SchoolDays2?feat=directlink

Next Episode: "A Quick Thank-you"