Just as Miami was a good place for me to reaquaint myself with life in the states due to its bilingual culture, Hong Kong was a good place to ease my transition to China. As a former British stronghold, and current international business center, English is extremely common in all but the most remote corners of town. In addition, I arrived to the hospitality and fluency of my Uncle whose 20+ years in China would serve as a useful shield to full-fledged immersion right off the bat. As I mentioned, I was starting my China leg of the journey with Mike, a former roommate who had a couple of weeks off work and no better way to waste them. We made it to my uncle's condo in the outskirts of Hong Kong and sat down with map and guidebook to plot out or time in HK.

The plan was to apply for visas for the Mainland from HK and waste the couple of days necessary to issue them by hopping around the sites of the city. Our first day found us wide-eyed and a bit weary (the time difference is exactly 12 hours ahead of the East Coast), but we managed to accomplish a few notable tasks. The first of these was getting a late enough start that lunch was the first order of business in the city. We walked around until a local-looking establishment came into view, sauntered in, and took a seat. Needless to say, even in HK, two very tall and hairy westerners made for quite a sight. The locals had an english translated menu and we were able to order easily enough. We set to work with our chopsticks (I had an easier time of it with sweet and sour pork than Mike with fried rice) and looked around to realize we were the only two using chopsticks. Touche HK!

After lunch we put in our visa applications and crossed the bay from the island containing downtown HK proper to the touristy downtown of Kowloon. Hong Kong itself is a massive city and much of the growth of the city has been vertical. High-rise apartment buildings tower around the outskirts of the city like bristles on a hairbrush. The downtown area meanwhile, is populated by a number of architecturally intriguing structures which makes for a nice skyline.
In Kowloon, we decided to visit the museum of art and start trying to soak up some Chinese culture. Ceramics, scroll paintings, and carved objects (from jade to bone) dominated the exhibit with some really stunning examples of the artistic ability of one of the longest continuous civilizations in the world. Good stuff. Next we sauntered up the main street of Kowloon and tracked down a Buddhist temple nestled in a park in the heart of the city. Passing up the opportunity to pay homage with money and incense, we snapped some photos and headed on our way. We called it a successful mission and set out for happy hour and dinner before heading back to the condo and crashing for the night.

The following day we got up a bit earlier and tracked down train tickets to Beijing for Saturday (two days later). It turned out to be a heck of an ordeal as we didn't have sufficient money and couldn't find a bank. We spent most of the day searching out various train stations and banks, but it got us familiar with more of the city. We also got to watch the sunset over Kowloon from the opposite side of the bay. With so many people, smog is a real issue, but the scenery was nice nonetheless.

Our final full day in HK, we set out to on our most ambitious day. After a morning swim, we headed to the opposite side of HK Island, to the town of Stanley, where a massive open-air market draws hoards of tourists to spend their money. Mike snagged some gifts, but I abstained in the interest of budget and backpack space. We returned to the city (the ride to/from Stanley is a hair-raising trip along a narrow road in a double-decker city bus), grabbed our visas and went to the top of Victoria Peak for a peek at the city from on high.

After a beer perched on the edge of the mountain, we went down to join my uncle and his teammates for a genuine Chinese meal. The main event was watching Mike and I use chopsticks. Always glad to entertain.

The time had come, at this stage, to forsake the English soaked comfort of HK for the mainland, and the following afternoon we boarded the 24-hour train to Beijing. Train travel is the most comfortable and easiest form of travel for getting around the third biggest country in the world. For puny foreigners, there are two classes of sleeper berths, hard (six to a cabin) or soft (four to a cabin with a door). There is also hard seat which is kind of like riding in a dining car the whole way. We elected for hard sleeper, me with an upper bed (read: no head room, no view, and air-con blowing directly on you) and mike with a middle bed (more head room but me stepping on him to go to the bathroom). The trip was uneventful and Mike said the scenery was nice. We had brought along instant noodles (boiling water is provided) and cookies for food. I have to admit, we still weren't throwing ourselves completely into the fire, as my aunt was in Beijing on our arrival and graciously agreed to shepherd us from the train station to a hotel (and restaurant) for our first evening.

All this assistance was particularly helpful as the train station arrival area is devoid of anything, and getting a map to Beijing would have been a real pain, much less figuring out where we were or where we were going. Doable, but a pain. We used our free pass to the city to track down a youth hostel for the remainder of our stay (we were staying in Beijing until Mike had to return), grabbed a nice dinner, swapped stories (I don't get to catch up with my relatives in China too often) and called it a night.

Beijing has a wealth of tourist sites, and it made for a difficult task to see all we wanted in our short time in the city. The first day, we attacked the biggest (and easiest) fish...The Forbidden City.

This was the Emperor's walled palace in the middle of the city, complete with concubine quarters, official's quarters, and a quarter arcade. Okay, maybe not, but it had almost everything (including a Starbucks, which I'm pretty sure was added later). I'd seen photos of the place, but they don't do justice to the scale of the project. It is a massive array of buildings, gardens, plazas, etc. and recieves enough visitors that you'd think the emperor was still living there.

As it turned out, we were visiting during China's one-week fall vacation, so we had lots of company everywhere we went, but in the most populated country in the world, that's not entirely unexpected. After five hours wandering through the myriad buildings of the Forbidden City, we exited through the main gates (we came in the back way) to the impressive sight of Tianamen Square, and the all-seeing eyes of Chairman Mao watching our every move. Regrettably Tianmen was roped off for some reason or another, and we weren't able to wander around, but the size of the plaza was impressive nonetheless.

Whilst wandering around in the streets of Beijing or in any of the many tourist intensive areas, you get the feeling you are in a bad Seinfeld rerun (as if such a thing existed) and all your Chinese Uncle Leo's are chasing after you yelling "Hello!" It appears to be the only English the vast majority of Chinese know, and the use it with no discretion to draw the attention of rich westerners. Whilst walking by an art shop, a hearty "Hello!" drew our eye and we sauntered in to spy the wares of the dealer who knew some numbers in English and "Thank You". By the end of it, we were fully loaded down with scrolls galore and a pocketful of business cards to give to our equally dim-witted rich western friends. It was certainly not the first or last time we were gouged unwittingly, but for the artwork we picked up, we didn't feel the least bit cheated.

The day was a success thus far, so we pushed our luck and went to a nearby park which was supposed to have a nice overlook of the Forbidden City (good photo spot). Unfortunately, the main draws of the park were closed, either for reconstruction or due to the late hour. At present, Beijing is getting a major facelift for the Olympics, and new buildings are sprouting up on almost every block. All of the tourist attractions had evidence of refurbishing. Luckily, the Forbidden City was only being worked on at the fringes on our visit, but Beihan Park nearby had its major tourist card, a massive dagoba (think pagoda) in the center of a pond, completely wrapped in scaffolding and green netting. As it turns out, we had the wrong park as well, there was no view of the Forbidden City. There was, however, a nice walking trail around the pond, lined by aspens and willows, and a wall of glazed ceramic dragons. Very nice.

With that we called it a day and headed to our new digs in the hostel (actually a converted upscale hotel which was pretty posh, though a little light on bathroom facilities). We were riding high from our success in a foreign land, and elected to make the following day a big one, tackling a few temples, including the massive and impressive Temple of Heaven. In the morning, before heading out, we discovered the wonder of steamed pork dumplings at a local establishment. They were served with a bowl of starchy water, which could have served for washing your hands. Unsure whether it was for consumption or not, I drank mine and Mike left his. One of us was probably right. Then it was off to the Temple of heaven, a massive park-like area in the south of the city with numerous religious structures scattered throughout. I have to admit, I can't give a lot of commentary on this one. The entrance fee included a couple of the structures (all of which were closed for construction), but the others required additional payments, and my budget was yelling at me to keep my spending under control. We looked over fences at the sights and wandered the grounds for a while. There were some local performers singing and playing traditional instruments, none of whom were looking for donations, just out enjoying the day. Despite the lack of open sites, it was a nice, relaxing place. We caught the subway from there to the Lama temple in the north of the city. The Lama temple is a lamaist Buddhist (the Buddhism practiced in Tibet) temple with some nice restored structures, numerous shrines devoted to every iteration of enlightenment, knowledge and well-being you could possibly imagine.

Plenty of gift shops were scattered throughout as well, in case you wanted a Buddha keychain to show your devotion to humility and sacrifice. The final stop of the day was the Confucian temple located close by. It was extremely run down, but was starting to get some of the ubiquitious scaffolding wrapped around its buildings to spruce it up a bit. As Confucianism isn't really a religion, the temple was sort of a shrine to learning and the most interesting thing they had was a warehouse of stone tablets engraved with some of the most important Confucian texts.

That night we met back up with my aunt to grab some authentic-ish Beijing culture. First, the requisite meal of Peking duck, an affair in itself. A full duck is carved up and brought to your table (they can do it at your table, but we didn't want to look like tourists, and we forgot to ask) along with some mini tortillas, a bit of sweet sauce (you might call it duck sauce, but it wasn't what you'd envision as such) and some greens. You wrap up a few pieces of duck with some greens and sauce in the tortillas and eat it up. Goood! To finish things off, they bring you a soup made from the duck remains, which you drink down steaming hot. After duck, we headed out to catch some Beijing opera. We thought we had an authentic theatre picked out and located, but when push came to shove, we ducked into a tea house (opened in the '90's but based on a very old teahouse in Shanghai) which had a selection of various types of entertainment (music, improv, gymnastics, and opera) played out over an hour and a half of tea and snacks. It all worked out well, and made for a very nice evening.

The following day was meant to be Mike's last full day in Beijing, so we decided to go see arguably the most impressive site China has to offer, the Great Wall. We returned to our dumpling restaurant for some more delicious dumplings, but decided we'd pass on the starch water and try for a bowl of one of the other soupy substances available. Upon arrival, I pointed at the first boiling pot I saw, Mike pointed at the dumplings, and we sat down ready for a treat. The dumplings were as good as ever. Unfortunately, the thing I pointed to was atrocious. It had the consistency of sneeze-snot, the flavor of salty beef, and was full of various types of beef fat and organs. I identified liver, intestines and kidney, but most of it I tried to swallow without tasting. Where are the Wheaties when you need them?

We made our way out the Great Wall with a nice Swiss woman we met at the bus station. Not knowing exactly what the deal was, we asked for transport to the site of the wall, and our driver nodded his affirmation. We were, therefore, a bit surprised when the bus stopped in the station and cut off at the end of the line. Our driver pantomimed we should just wait a minute. We followed him out to a beat-up van, which he implored us to enter. Since there were three of us and one of him, we did. We drove for a while and our driver faithfully delivered us to the wall, asked us for some more money and told us to be back in a few hours. We weren't thrilled with the deal, but since it wasn't a huge amount, we paid up and started our assent. On the way up the wall, we had to avoid some avid Uncle Leo's with waving Mao pocketwatches and "I Climbed the Great Wall" T-shirts, but once secured behind the entrance gate, it was smooth climbing. Our section of wall was neither the least nor most visited site, and since the weather was okay, but a bit misty, the crowds were extremely light. Most of the wall has crumbled over the years into a state of disrepair, and in places is just a mound distinguishable from the surrounding scenery, but not much else. In the tourist areas, however, effort has been made to keep the wall as it was, more or less, and at our site, the wall was clearly visible snaking its way along the ridgetops well into the distance (at least as far as our eyes could see in the mist).

We spent our few hours climbing and descending the roling undulations of the wall along the ridgeline before relieving our driver form his vigil. The only somewhat shocking and moderately distatesteful aspect of the site (aside from the Uncle Leos and their garbage of course) were the skilifts bookending the wall and the rail-mounted sleds available to slide down the hill from the top. I realize the ski-lifts were there to make the wall accessible to all (though at times walking on the wall was more difficult than any part of the walk up), but the sleds were a carnival attraction that sort of milked the authenticity out of our rebuilt shell of a once great barrier. Maybe it was just me, though, because I think Mike would have ridden it if he'd been alone.

Our return trip was uneventful, and Mike and I made a horrid attempt of toasting his last evening in Beijing by eating Indian food and drinking two beers in a empty rooftop dance club. We woke each other up enough to realize the time had come to call it a night and headed back to the hostel. The following day I once again faced the prospect of solo decision-making and solo idiocy. What could be more fun in a Communist country?