Author: Willem

I’m home ! !   Yes, it’s still Saturday, since we crossed the International Dateline from east to west.  As I sat here on my couch woozy from the flying it was hard to believe it was ‘this morning’ that the tall apartment buildings in Hong Kong flashed by driving out to the airport where I snapped the cute Canon printer billboard.   We left a little late (the flight path picture shows our arrival) and I had to run to make my connection at Incheon airport.   I think the held the flight for us, though.   South Korea continues to be in the news over the latest spat with their aggressive neighbor to the north.   Seoul is uncomfortably close to the border, as the map shows.

We made good time through the Shenzhen traffic and the two border posts just at sunset yesterday (first two pictures) .. a bunch of us is here at the Courtyard Marriott, some (me!) leaving today and some tomorrow.    The blurry picture is our arrival into Hong Kong last night and the bad boy International Commerce Center building teased me with a glimpse of it that I caught just before we entered into the Western Harbor tunnel to Hong Kong Island.

I could not check in on line but Asiana Airlines wishes me a Happy Happy Christmas.    Seems a requirement that even a cartoon Santa character needs to have a thick white moustache, right?

These pictures are all from around the restaurant where we had our team dinner Tue night, in the Futian district of Shenzhen. 

Pictures :  Those are little Santa Clauses on my head, and reindeer horns worn as a ‘scarf’ by my colleague;  yes –  that’s Harry Potter on the display screen for the movie theater inside Coco Park shopping mall;  plenty of bars such as the Lili Marleen bar and 1877 bar; some skyscrapers at night time are lit up with cool lighting like the diamond pattern on the building in the distance.

P.S.  The blue and red figure from Sunday’s post is Pres. Obama, of course .. did you get that? (I didn’t at first).  In American politics blue means Democratic Party and red means Republican Party. 

I had a hunch I need to make it out to Times Square out by Causeway Bay since that shopping mall hosts great exhibits year-round, and I was glad I did.     There is a collection of giant spray cans and figures outside to invite passers-by in, and inside the atrium of the mall there is a giant rotating wooden head, surrounded by an exhibition of giant wooden figures as well as little doll figures.     The one with the bandaged head and crutch is called ‘No War’ and makes a political statement, I’m sure.

I believe the International Commerce Center building in Kowloon has now opened its skydeck but alas – the smog in the city this weekend was terrible.   Check out the picture second from last that I took from the taxi on the way back to Shenzhen.   The apartment buildings are about 50 stories high.   The ICC building visible between them, goes up for another 60 stories : the skydeck is at the 110th floor.  But of course the view can only be appreciated on a clear day.

The last picture is the view if one looks back immediately after setting foot in mainland China after customs.   This building is newly renovated; on previous trips I found it covered up with scaffolding.

It should be no surprise that Christmas is embraced by the retail industry even though it’s a holiday with no religious significance in this part of the world.   So here are some pictures from Saturday.

Love Christmas, Love Hong Kong (and spend money in the process, of course!).   Don’t want to pay your supertaxes? Off to jail with you. (Looks like the rich are off the hook with paying super taxes in the USA anyway!).   These Monopoly floor decorations in Central Station is for a promotion by McDonalds.   Yes, they still sell the board game in the stores.    Tai Koo station is far out east on the Island Line and there I found a nice store called Muji (behind me in the reflection) with Japanese products.     I bought a white bone china dinner plate – to actually use in my apartment.   US$20 for the plate instead of US$1 for a cheap porcelain plate in China BUT the China plates are not flat – it’s really a shallow bowl. AND it’s not bone China, see?  The little toys clamoring for their escape is a scene straight from a Toy Story movie, also at this mall.

Click on the Visa billboard picture to get the original big size one and check it out.   Surprisingly, no USA icons : no Statue of Liberty, no Golden Gate Bridge.  What’s up with that, Visa?   The staid and uppity Peninsula Hotel did a good job of its Christmas decorations – the snowflakes seem to float in 3D since they are suspended by thin black cables.   Picture of a ‘Betty Boop’/ modern worldly girl that needs no handsome prince (is that him in the moonlight? no, looks like a monkey on the horse!) from the Peninsula Arcade next door.   Finally two pictures from the mall in International Finance Centre 2.    (Did Pinocchio play a trumpet in the original story?  I don’t recall that he did).

It’s Friday and I didn’t think I’d make it to Hong Kong : we all really thought we would be grounded and ordered to work this weekend.     We start the first round of system testing on Monday and we were struggling to get everything in place, 12 hour workdays notwithstanding.     But there we were, in the van : Willem, Will and William.   I hitched a ride to Hong Kong airport with the other two Wills.   The first picture shows a road sign in Shenzhen with live traffic densities, the second just another Shenzhen building.    Mickey Mouse in his Santa outfit is from a giant wall mural in Hong Kong train station, and the final picture is inside the train just before the last stop.   For the last few blocks to the Marriott Courtyard I took the tram even though I had some luggage to handle, since the taxis were in short supply.