Hong Kong Express

Who be hating mainlanders eating in the train,

take a look at yourselves in the mirror.

There has been some recent growing problems between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong people, with a recent video captured in the Hong Kong MTR of some mainland tourists improperly eating on the train and a response video by a mainland professor (visable here: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ0NzE0Njgw.html – youtube deleted it as it promotes hate speech).

While its horrible that this Professor has said some things about HKers (calling them dogs), a lot of what he has said is true.

1) The Hong Kong man scolding the mainland chinese was doing so in Cantonese. They can’t understand him. He is being abusive and not useful in any way.

2) Hong Kong people feel a level of superiority over Mainlanders, due to colonional past, basic law in Hong Kong and overall wealth of the SAR.

However with increasing growth in the mainland the Hong Kong people have been getting incredibly jealous, unhappy with mainland Chinese entering Hong Kong without realsing their economy requires them to survive.

A lot of things have changed, Hong Kong people don’t control all the factories now and instead work for mainland bosses.

3) Hong Kong people (in general) are just as rude, or more rude than the Mainlanders. Today, there’s a good example, I was sitting in a restaurant eating lunch. It was very cold, so the door was shut, however every time someone walked in or out, they would open the door and not close it. Very few people would bother to close the door after them.

Also, when boarding / exiting the train, you’ll rarely get given a chance to exit before people will push past you to get inside. For people who praise themselves as being more civilsed than Mainlanders, they should really look into the mirror.

This is one of the biggest complaints for HKers now. Another big topic is Mainland women giving birth to Children in Hong Kong (thereby the child getting permanent residence in Hong Kong) , criticising these women without realising a majority of the population of Hong Kong has entered this territory through similar means.

As a typical Hong Kong complaint, their hatred is directed at some inane group, rather than suggesting and lobbying the government for changes in immigration laws, or the basic law, so that mainland women won’t be permitted into Hong Kong on an immigration basis or abolish the one sided (racist) Jus Soli laws.

I’ve been considering using my expanded disposable income since coming to Hong Kong and have been considering buying property.

I’ve seen advertisements for www.smarts.com/www.aussieproperty.com on the Australia Network so decided to check it out and picked up this book.

(From http://www.amazon.com/Aussie-Expat-Luckiest-Person-Earth/dp/9810575467)

It’s a simple and fast book, but gives really good advise for you to make the best use of your time abroad as an expatriate from Australia.

I recently made a trip to Sichuan, one of the main purposes was to see some Pandas.

We paid the RMB 1000 each, to hug the cub pandas (6 months) old, and it was totally worth it!

The Panda’s were very calm sitting on our laps, until they stopped eating – then they’d squirm until the handlers gave them more food.

We spent some time in the research base, there’s quite a few adult pandas and some red pandas too, though the giant panda is the only one that gets all the attention.

We always joke that Chinese can sleep anywhere, this is true about Pandas – they’re really Chinese!

It’s the thing to do when riding the train.

Very cool watch

This is the first book I purchased and read on the Kindle.

I finished reading it today and loved the book. Although its set 60 years in the past, it’s given me a wonderful feel for the orient in colonial days.

I am constantly reminded that Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in; but for me, touching on “going native”, as coined many times in this book, or at least partially going native is the way to do it.

The young boy in the novel, was constantly accosted by his father for being more Chinese than the Chinese. He would explore Mong Kok at the ripe age of 8 to eat 1000 year eggs from the Dai Pai Dongs, roam through the Kowloon Walled City and into Opium dens and hang out with Triad members.

I don’t consider myself to quite “go native” as much as this, with things changing so much in Hong Kong over the past 60 years, but there is a wonderful romantic ideal to this young boys story, making me feel jealous that I wasn’t here 60 years ago.

Is a totally awesome city. I had a great time and can’t wait to go back.

So, in quest for the best Xiao Long Bao in Shanghai andv waiting in line for one hour, my quest failed.

The store had run out of plain pork, selling only mix-crab or all crab ones.

I went across the street to a store famous for fryied Dumplings. They were full of soup similar to the xiao long bao.

They were great! RMB5 for 4 Dumplings. I’m sure 4 would be enough for the average shanghaiese, but I ordered 8.