China

Arriving in Hong Kong was a nice change for some students who had been getting tired of facing the harsh conditions of less developed nations, like Vietnam and India. We were docked in Hong Kong Bay in between Hong Kong island and Kowloon. The terminal to get off the ship led you right into a huge mall with any commodity one could ever want, and of course many Starbucks and fast food outlets. After walking through the mall for an hour trying to figure out how to get out, I thought I must have read the China brochure wrong; I thought I was here to see a Great Wall but it must be the Great Mall of China. Hong Kong is dangling off the cutting edge. I haven't been to many big cities in the states, with the exception of San Fran, but Hong Kong seemed to me like it could be on par with us in terms of technology, transportation, and fashion. Some of the styles were outrageous. Unlike any other port we have been to thus far, the people seemed not to make a big deal out of 700 americans being there, they just went about the hustle and bustle of their daily activities. The Skyline was incredible and every night at sundown the skyscrapers would light up with crazy patterns for a lightshow that was snychronized with music.
The first day we were there I got the urge to go skate. i talked to a few locals and found out where a skateshop was. I took a ferry across the bay to Kong Kong island where I hopped on a subway and headed to the hub of the city. I arrived in an area called Times Square where sure enough I found another mall, this one twice the size of the last; it was something like 12 stories. They also had an IMAX theater playing American movies that hadn't come out yet, plenty of upscale restaraunts, and all kinds of cool technologically savvy features. Hundreds of Hong Kongians were out for the evening including fashionable teenagers going to the cinema, business people in suits having dinner, and families going to shop. I made it the skateshop, and checked out some of the boards. The guys were blasting heavy metal and had a wall of pics of pro skaters who had visited their shop. The boards were sicc, but were a little out of my price range since I wasn't even sure if I would be able to bring it back on the ship. I ended up just taking some pics and going to have dinner at the mall. It was crazy being a foreigner in a place that felt so developed and like America.
The next day I hung around the boat and packed my bags since the boat was leaving that evening. We would travel to Beijing the next day and then on to Shanghai where we would meet our vessel. I checked out the local space museum with a couple of friends, and did a simulation walk on the moon. Later we took a trolley up to the top of the hill where we had some great sushi and saw the light show. Next we took a train to a nearby province called Shenzhen which is much less developed than Hong Kong. We flew out of there rather than Hong Kong because it was about half the price.
The next morning we caught our flight to Beijing, the heart of China. We took a cab from the airport, which took about an hour, to get to our hotel in the middle of the city. Beijing is huge. The city has many districts and lots of construction. The first day we visited the historic sites of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was interesting to see the chinese guards everywhere and the huge portraits of Chairman Mao. That night we went out to some techno clubs and did some dancing and drinking. We also stopped for late-night McDonalds which is a huge past-time in China.

The next day we travelled to the Great Wall and then onto the Olympic Stadium. At the Great Wall we took a gondola up to a top section and took some pictures. We were at a touristy area of the wall and there were hundreds of Chinese people there appreciating their history. The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube were cool to see simply for the great engineering and the creativity involved. That night we travelled out to Shanghai.

Shanghai is pretty amazing and offers a skyline as spectacular as Hong Kong's with a Space Needle type tower called the Pearl Tower. Shanghai offered much more traditional Chinese culture than did Beijing or Hong Kong, and appreciating it I sampled some Chinese noodles, saw some Buddhist temples, and explored the city. I also visited the local University with a friend of mine on the boat who studied abroad there. They had a huge statue of Chairman Mao in the middle of the quad. Our last day in Shanghai I finally got to skate. I travelled about forty-five minutes north of the city to Shanghai Mega Park; the biggest skate park in the world. I was expecting SMP to be packed full of young up and coming Chinese shredders but when I got there all I found was two travelling American skaters and a few Chinese bikers. Not what I expected, but I couldn't complain I had the world's biggest skatepark to myself. I rented a board from the shop and skated for a few hours. It was nice to get some exercise off the boat for a change...

Shred heaven...

-Chris