Fishing For Buddha in the Fog

Another delicious Hong Kong bakery breakfast and we hop on the subway to Lantau Island.

More excitement for the Tram Operator, a 25 minute gondola ride! I love getting some wind and an unexpected stop, and thankfully for me: we got both!

The Big Buddha emerged from the fog to remind us that the buildings aren't the only thing massive in Hong Kong. The Buddha itself was very impressive, but I was more amazed by the monetary and the vegetarian restaurant.



The respect and restraint involved in Buddhism also seemed to contrast with the some of the more individualist behaviours.

Afterwards we took a bus to a rural fishing village, it was incredible to see what non-urban life look like in Hong Kong. The houses were on stilts in one area, and as we were walking through this wharf style neighbourhood one room we passed had full on hardwood floors and a big screen TCL television, the room had decorative plants and two new recliners. You never know what to expect.



Our Bus ride back took us along the perimeter of the island and we had a change to see all of the other small villages along beautiful white sand beaches.

Then came the great juxtaposition. We paired the Big Buddha with a big Apple store. The assignment was sort of to compare the difference between business in China from Canada -what's the same and what's different. Myself and a few others were at a disadvantage for never actually being to an Apple store in Canada.

Like everywhere in China the architecture should be as accommodating as possible if everyone decided to rush into the store. This meant a very open space, and many staff members. Most of the store was similar, with the Chinese one selling more different product, but with both selling the same Apple products.

Many of the franchise businesses in China were very different from their North American counterparts. The KFC menu looked entirely different, and probably had more popularity in China. Starbucks drinks needed to be able to compete with bubble tea places so the drink flavours followed the same pattern (like the green tea red bean frappacino mentioned earlier). Packages were very minimal in their information and included specific directions, even with pictures. Then there was the presence of cartoons in almost all advertising, it seems every product requires a cute mascot.

The night wound down at the Night Market where we dined on spicy crab. The night market was similar to the one in Richmond but definitely much much larger. We walked the street sipping bubble tea and bartering desperately trying to spend the last of our Hong Kong dollars.

It definitely seems weird to think that Hong Kong will be turned over to China someday, I can't imagine that would go over well. The two have diverged and have less and less in common as they move forward.

It's A Small Globalizing World Afterall

Breakfast at the bakery, certainly one of my favourite things about Hong Kong must be all the delicious baked goods. The prices were just a little over a dollar Canadian each, it was still difficult to choose.

The Kowloon bus tour was quite similar to the Hong Kong one, right down to the rain. The rain is totally different from Vancouver rain, here we can just have good Gortex jacket, but in Hong Kong  an umbrella wouldn't even suffice.

The bus tour took us to the Hong Kong Museum. For a place geographically so small there is so much history! I really could've spent all day there. But! There was Dim Sum to eat.

It was one of the most expensive meals of the trip, but it still felt worth it. I really enjoy the family-style meals, even if splitting the bill is a little extra work. Dim Sum is also something I probably should've discovered as a picky child, it's a great opportunity to try lots of different things.

Returning to the hotel I was met with a notice regarding the fort in the hotel room. Note to self: don't build a fort in the hotel room unless you plan on taking it down yourself.

Our dinner that night (even though some of us were still full from Dim Sum) was a loud party atmosphere hosted by our donors -the Wong and Trainor behind the Centre for International Experience. The food was particularly delicious, I kept eating long after everyone had stopped. This was clearly one of those hang-out spots for people in Hong Kong, it was loud, busy and at one point some people started doing the moonwalk to Michael Jackson.

Our night finished at a former Cap students Beer Pong Bar. I really appreciate how keen people in Hong Kong (and China) are for games, usually drinking games. This bar was outfitted with table designed for Beer Pong, Dart boards, and a Ping Pong table for various games involving beers and balls. In this international city we ran into many people from North America. Even leaving in the elevator a guy was sing a song from a musical that we discovered we both saw at Granville Island theatre last summer.

Hong Kong Strong

After a late night of kareoke I woke up early with coordinated time zones to wish my mum a happy birthday.

Next was our bus ride to Kowloon. When we got to the Hong Kong border I didn't know if I had been asleep for 15 minutes or 5 hours, but it was time to get up. I knew that Hong Kong was a special administrative region, however I didn't quite understand what that meant until I when there.

On the Chinese side there was a security check to actually leave China, and on the Hong Kong side there was a whole new security check with bag scan to arrive in Hong Kong. Crossing the US border from Canada is actually significantly easier.

Hong Kong had a lot of autonomy, but for a good reason: it was a totally different place.

We had our check-in at the Dorsett Hotel where Christina and I decided to make a fort in our room that night and eat ice cream in it.

We took a ferry to the Hong Kong side where we took a bus tour in what gradually turned into rain. The size of Hong Kong took my breath away, it was like this was where the world came to meet. Culturally we would find out just how different Hong Kong was from China. Things were much more expensive there, but the quality was better. Ultimately it had the same comforts as any developed place would. No spitting, no strange toilets, it was another oasis.

Our bus took us to the cable car at Victoria Peak. As a Skyride operator I was particularly interested. It definitely paid to hang around at the top because the sky gradually cleared up thanks to the wind and revealed the Hong Kong city lights.



Our trip home was where the rain made a new appearance. Never have I seen a river moving so carelessly down the street. Almost everyone was keeping shelter indoors and it felt as though we were the only ones leaping across streets and stepping cautiously under covered areas.

After getting fresh towels and sheets, Christina and I used our time to create an elaborate sheet fort and held a low-key ice cream party.

Judgement Time

The marketing presentations consumed the morning. The only ones more confused than me must've been the Chinese students trying to keep up with the presentations. Given the time and the language being used it was impossible to satisfy all parties with the presentation. Still, I will never forget the four P's of marketing:
Place, Price, Product, and Promotion
And now I know what SWOT is, strengths and weakness of the product, and Opportunities and Threats in the market.

As much as international marketing is a foreign concept to me, much of it is so similar to just being adaptable. With regards to altering a product for the market, that's not to far from changing your own attitude and habits for a new culture.

Next was our long bus ride to Shenzhen to visit the watch factory. I was forewarned that Shenzhen was an international city, focused on production and development, and the watch factory echoed that warning. Peering over tables of intricate, simple processes done repetitively made me thankful for my own job back home. It wasn't exactly appropriate to pity the workers, since most of watch production cannot be automated, why not provide some jobs? Although there must be some irony to a high emphasis on turn out while making watches, keeping time.

Running late from the factory brought us directly to dinner with the university president who was willing to share a meal with us. Of course respecting power distance meant there was only one Cap student at the table, but the meal was proper none the less.

From there we moved to our last English corner with the students at Huizhou. This one was an open debate on a certain topic, my group was debating whether or not one should watch Hunnan TV. As I learned this particular TV station plays programs similar to our MTV -meaning lightly scripted reality TV. The students were divided into sides and each side had 5 seconds for someone to stand up to speak or they lost for that round. The objective was to come up with as many valid points as possible.

As the five second countdown began you could ensure that someone was going to stand up right at "...2, 1". The students, while a bit shy with their English, they were still very competitive.

We then hopped in the bus and went to KTV, a kareoke place. Kind of ironic really that the students and I had argued that there's better ways to spend time than watching reality TV, but everyone wanted to go to kareoke -which we can assume has more validity that reality TV?

Last little touch of globalization must've been the kareoke music videos of Vancouver in the 80s. When a song didn't have a music video instead we got clips of Vancouver in the 80s, random.