a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
On my walkabout Monday night I saw that the empty Chutney’s Grille on the Hill restaurant building here on 15th Ave is now clad in wood. The building is ultimately destined to make way for a new four-story, mixed-use apartment building.
It was a sombre day in the USA with the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Here are three pictures of the same downtown Pittsburgh scene from my hotel room window Monday night and Tuesday. The very tall building on the left that runs out of the picture is the headquarters of US Steel. It has 64 floors and was completed in 1970. Its outside is steel and it is called – quick, want to guess? – the Steel Building. The Gulf Tower next to it with the colorfully lit top at night has 44 floors and was completed in 1930.
This building is in Capitol Hill in Seattle not far from my house. (The picture is from TIME magazine). There used to be a neighborhood bar in its place where my friends and I would go to many times for a beer! Anyway .. the building is very, very green (energy efficient) and the target for it is to collect energy and use it so sparingly that it can be run ‘off the grid’. I cannot say that the flat roof flush with solar panels does a lot for me from an architectural point of view but hey .. it soaks up the sun rays. (Yes, we do have sun in Seattle!).
Thursday was overcast and cool which made for good picture-taking weather. All the buildings are from the central area of Stellenbosch.
Today we started out on Hollywood Rd on Hong Kong Island where all the antique shops are, stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and then went to International Commerce Center which has opened its obsevarion deck just a few weeks ago.
Pictures – Man Mo temple on Hollywood Rd burns a lotof incense (spiral coils)! The International Commerce Center comes in at No 4 according to a chart on the observation deck. Notably Chicago boasts two skyscrapers in the top 10 : Willis Tower (Sears Tower’s new name) and Trump’s Tower. (Message to Mr Trump : stick to real estate and stay out of politics). The blue floor with a model of Hong Kong is at one’s feet when stepping out of the elevator on the 100th floor. The tower is in Kowloon, so that’s Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbor. The observation deck has little mascots (to make it interesting for young visitors?) The picture shows a little of the side, and that’s me in the ‘take a photo’ cube.
We noticed that there’s a number of floors above the observation deck .. that is actually a Ritz-Carlton Hotel (!) occupying floors 102 through 118. It has the world’s highest swimming pool and bar within a building. The 30,000 sqf Presidential Suite which costs 100 000 HKD per night ($US 12,500) is on floor 117.
These pictures are from my outing to Shenzhen yesterday. It was foggy and drizzling, so not the best day to go skyscaper hunting in the city.
From the top down –
Entrance to the Grand Theatre metro station (this is by the mix-C shopping mall) where the cab driver from Dameisha dropped me off / .. and there it is, the King Key Finance Center disappearing into the fog. Not sure of the name of the building in front of it / This is an administrative building of some sort close by / The Shung Hing Square tower (tallest in Shenzhen but about to be overtaken by the King Key Finance Center) / tree with orange spring blossoms at the base of the Shung Hing Square tower/ this is a dorm building for University of Shenzhen students / in the background with the China Southern Power Grid building in the front / the pink step building might belong to Huatai United Securities (that’s what the billboard on it says)
The next few pictures are from inside the mix-C shopping mall .. a tea seller / a hovercraft demonstrated in Toys-R-Us / a 3D puzzle for the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai / Wonderwoman and Medusa (?) at the MAC cosmetics store .. Pow! take that!
Now outside again .. the World Finance Center is also close by the other two towers the first picture of the base and the next from farther away and finally an Art Deco-y apartment building nearby (with the tree in front of it sprouting little green leaves).
It was a long Monday at work – Mondays always seem long! but at least I can post these pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Outside China Town (OCT) theme park. Disneyland or Six Flags it is not – but there is a spectacular and steep aerial tramway up the mountainside to provide panoramic views of Dameisha, the beach and the bay down below.
They do celebrate Valentine’s Day in China, and this year it coincides with the Chinese New Year’s Day – very rare since the new year’s day is late on the calendar this year.
It turned out that my fears of masses of people trying to get into Hong Kong on Friday through the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border was unfounded; I sailed through with no trouble at all. I stayed at a Marriott Courtyard Hotel on Hong Kong Island, very reasonably priced at US$100 per night, a tall 30 story structure with only 6 rooms on every floor (picture below is from my hotel room). The room was very cozy, the bed had six perfectly firm pillows, the glass shower stall a large oversized ‘rain’ showerhead .. and the food in the restaurant was superb.
I was so tired on Friday night, and sat there enjoying a crisp Asahi beer and fried halibut with jasmine rice and Thai asparagus. Saturday I crisscrossed the city on several missions, to the bookstore, to the jewelry store, to the toy store, and they were all successful. I also learned that the New Year’s parade (another parade other than the January one) and fireworks was only going to be tonight, so I missed that. But I did go to the New Year’s Fair in Victoria Park; I will post more pictures later this week.
I took the bus to downtown to go pick up my passport with the new visa in, at the office. I stayed there for a bit to catch up on my e-mails as well.
More pictures while roaming around on the streets of Hong Kong.
Pictures from exploring Hong Kong.
