In the Quest of the Fragrant Harbour

Definitive Post, Conclusion

2009-12-31T14:20:00.003+08:00

If you were like the many who thought that I was done, you’re wrong. I need to conclude the gargantuan endeavor that is this blog with one final post. I’ve been back in the United States for about a week and a half now, and I’ve begun packing and preparing for my return to the University of California, San Diego. Workload permitting, I’ll edit over this whole blog so it flows like a novel,

Back in the States

2009-12-21T12:02:00.000+08:00

So I’ve arrived in the United States. As if there was no turning back earlier, I’m pretty much back now. I forgot that winds work so that it takes much less time to go west to east over the Pacific than the other way around. To get to Hong Kong to San Francisco, it took thirteen-and-a-half hours. Going back, it took just under eleven hours, and here I am now, sitting in the domestic terminal of

The Last Night: Victoria Harbour

2009-12-21T06:01:00.000+08:00

So I finally got to doing the Star Ferry Night Harbour Tour as well. Like the Tian Tin Buddha, I just got to it, and it just so happened to be the last thing I got to do here in Hong Kong. Right now, I'm finishing up the blog before some concluding posts. Yeah, it's almost 6:00 a.m., but I've decided to pull an all-nighter today so that I can sleep through most of my flight. It makes sense,

Class Roundup: Hong Kong

2009-12-20T23:48:00.000+08:00

Though I am confident I did well in Hong Kong and the World, in no way did it end on the same high note that Humanity did. On the other hand, it was my last final, meaning that I was then done with the semester—a fact that I now feel was bittersweet at best. This final was organized much in the same way as my other finals here at HKU. Given the entire two-hour slot, there were two essays to

Psyched to Go Back

2009-12-20T11:04:00.000+08:00

It’s quite sad to see this whole experience ending with me seeing my newfound friends one by one. In some ways, it seems just yesterday when we were all introducing ourselves adamantly to each other. Eagerly we traveled together as strangers and in the process quickly became friends. In some ways it was just yesterday—just four months ago. Was it enough time? I’d rather not think about that—I

Tian Tin

2009-12-16T16:46:00.000+08:00

Tian Tin Buddha, Po Lin Monastery (寶蓮禪寺天壇大佛) I actually intended to see the Tian Tin Buddha my first week here. As it has now happened, I ended up seeing it the last. This is actually one of the few cultural icons of Hong Kong in my opinion. What makes it unique though as religious icons go, it's relatively new, having been started contruction on in the early 1990s.

Class Roundup: Humanity

2009-12-16T15:06:00.000+08:00

Humanity in Globalization ended on a high note in all regards. The final I felt I did quite well on, having used the entire two hours to compose two solid essays. There is one service here at HKU where you can pull up old examinations from previous terms, but being that the first time this class was taught, this particular resource became more approximate than anything else. For part of the

The Penultimate Capital, Part 3

2009-12-14T23:05:00.001+08:00

Gate of China (中华门/中華門) Confucius Temple (夫子庙/夫子廟)

Nanjing: My Mandarin

2009-12-14T19:36:00.000+08:00

Knowing how big this world is on foot, not that it’s any smaller by motorized transportation, I’m always worried about getting lost—especially in different countries. To this effect, I always try to learn the language(s) of where I’m going, so that I’m at least able to ask for directions. To this effect, I tried to make sure I knew enough Italian when going though Italy, though hearing my accent

The Penultimate Capital, Part 2

2009-12-14T17:27:00.000+08:00

Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum (明孝陵) Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (中山陵)

Nanjing: Purple Mountain

2009-12-14T15:51:00.003+08:00

Our first and only full day at Nanjing saw us starting out at Purple Mountain (紫金山). With Nanjing as one of the historic capitals of China, serving at times under the Ming Dynasty and under the Republic, Purple Mountain is located towards the east of the old city (as determined by city walls), and houses the mausoleums of the early Ming emperors as well as that of Sun Yat-sen. Well, we saw both.

Ten Thousand Buddhas

2009-12-13T16:06:00.000+08:00

Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (萬佛寺)

尖沙咀，維多利亞港，同天星小輪

2009-12-11T15:12:00.000+08:00

The Trips that Never Happened

2009-12-11T14:35:00.000+08:00

I thought I was going to go out with a bang. To end my stay here, I was going to travel around—to Singapore, Japan, and South Korea to be exact. Despite my intentions though, I won’t be going to any of them in the near future, and while I’m a little saddened, I know I’ll get over there some day. It came down to a lack of earlier planning and the fact that I would have been traveling by myself.

The Penultimate Capital, Part 1

2009-12-11T08:40:00.000+08:00

The Eighteen-Hour Train Ride Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall (侵華日軍南京大屠殺遇難同胞紀念館) Purple Mountain (紫金山)

Class, Decorum, and Americans

2009-12-10T22:22:00.000+08:00

Despite what anyone tells you, Americans are not the rudest nor the loudest of them all. This point was proven to me the other day over a bowl of congee. I’ll try to speak tastefully, but this may be my one post to be frank without letting it all go. My friend from Scotland told me a couple months ago that she’s never met a mean Californian. Aww, that’s nice, was around the lines of what I

Nanjing: 300,000 at the Gate of China

2009-12-10T10:27:00.000+08:00

After freshening up at the hotel for a bit, it was only 3:00 PM, so we decided to get a bit of sightseeing in. The major thing that Nanjing is know for outside China is the Rape of Nanking as termed in American history textbooks, now seemingly recognized properly at the Nanjing Massacre. To this effect, we went to the appropriate memorial, named the Memorial for Compatriots Killed in the Nanjing

Chicken Feet, Shrimp Heads, and an Open Mind

2009-12-09T23:22:00.000+08:00

I suppose if you grew up with it, it wouldn’t be so odd. In some ways, I guess I’m a picky eater. Studying abroad though and seeing how other international students deal with these differences allows me to better see how I fall into line. I can now say that I’m more open than others to different foods, though I admit there is some stuff that I would rather not go near. A few weeks ago, my group

Class Roundup: Chinese Society

2009-12-09T20:29:00.000+08:00

Traditional Chinese Society ended yesterday, with my first final during finals week(s) and my fourth final overall. Being my first one during finals it was officiated in an authoritarian manner that I’m only used to for standardized tests. The professor had the exams on our desks when we came in then read verbatim off of an instruction sheet provided to him by the university. I know that it was

The Harbour at Dusk

2009-12-08T23:59:00.000+08:00

Nanjing: Planes, Trains, and the Paparazzi

2009-12-08T11:04:00.000+08:00

So my last full-fledged trip of this term started out as all the others—with transportation of course. This one required more than the others though, because as my travel buddies were aiming to save money, we opted to take trains over planes. Nanjing is 733 miles or 1,180 kilometers from Hong Kong and would have taken two hours to fly there. As trains go, the one going from Shenzhen (Hong Kong’

Germans All Have Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

2009-12-04T12:00:00.000+08:00

I guess I just can’t shake it off. Most incidents are minor and not worth mentioning, except perhaps in larger contexts, because a constituency is made of its smallest parts, right? At this point, I don’t plan to exempt myself from this observation, because I know I do it too—I just wish it would all stop. I guess the basis of this whole thing starts from a simple rule of thumb in English class

To Love Your University

2009-12-04T00:00:00.000+08:00

“What class are you going to?” asked one of my friends, a fellow political science major. “I’m going to my fine arts class,” I casually replied. “Why do you take an arts class? Are you taking it for fun?” “Well, yes and no. I have to take it to graduate, but I also enjoy it,” I said truthfully. “Why would you have to take an arts class? You study political science,” he said. “Yeah, and it’s

Class Roundup: Phonetics

2009-12-03T16:20:00.002+08:00

Here I sit in the medical library—three exams down, three to go, and that’s it to the semester. I think I did well enough on my last final, that being for Phonetics, one class which I’m glad to have taken abroad. It’s not so much that it’s bad back home, because it’s not; it’s more because I get to study phonetics in light of other languages here, and the best part is that instruction is still in

I Can't Hear the Music

2009-12-03T14:28:00.001+08:00

It’s been about a month now, but I’ve got this one incident in my head right now that I’d like to write down before it goes away forever. Normally, it wouldn’t be significant at all—you know, music on college campuses. Now this happening didn’t have to do with marketed music at all. It’s just one day, I walked out of the library, and the usually music-fee campus was alive with this impromptu