H
hkskyline
Guest
Ottawa, Canada
Ottawa Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/ottawa.htm
My friend invited me to visit Ottawa and stay at his place for the weekend. I didn't feel like studying anyway and wanted to get away from school for a bit, so I packed my bags and we drove to Ottawa.
1. The second half of my 2005 began with Canada Day festivities in the capital city.
2. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, who is defending his position in the upcoming January election.
3. Since Canada is a member of the Commonwealth, the Queen is the head of state. Her representative in Canada is the Governor General, who resides in this building.
4. The Maple Leaf is a beloved Canadian symbol.
5. Yet the British influence is still alive and well.
6. The highlight of my trip was the morning lineup at Parliament Hill, where I got tickets for two tours of the buildings.
7. Examine the details.
8. Did they move this from Philadelphia?
9. Ottawa was chosen as the Canadian capital city because it wasn't as vulnerable to an American invasion as Toronto or Kingston. Good choice it was. Parliament Hill sits high above the Ottawa River, and is quite a distance from the American border and the Great Lakes.
Detroit, Michigan
I was quite restless that summer. I was looking for a quick weekend getaway once again, and Detroit came on my horizon. I wanted to go to Chicago at first, but 3 days in that city wouldn't be enough to my liking, so I settled with a smaller city. Detroit was the final choice. I found a very cheap hotel deal in the outskirts of the city, and we were off.
Detroit Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/detroit.htm
10. Sunshine meets the beach
11. Detroit's skyline is dominated by the Renaissance Center, the giant GM headquarters complex. The folks across the river in Windsor used to joke that they could hear the gunshots in the Motor City from their quiet city at night.
12. Here's a close-up :
13. This reminds me of the Wintergarden in New York :
14. Henry Ford is one of the automotive legends in the US, and his museum in suburban Dearborn was well worth a visit. It's simply amazing. Not only were there cars, but also airplanes, trains, and even a concept house that sits on stilts and can be packed up and moved in a matter of hours.
15.
16. Detroit wasn't as run-down as I had originally thought. There are some abandoned structures, but they were not everywhere really.
Farmer's Market - St. Jacobs, Canada
St. Jacobs Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/to-stjacobs.htm
17. While I've lived in North America for quite some time, I don't usually frequent the farmers' market at all. I tend to hover around the supermarket instead and drive my car to and from it in a very environmentally unfriendly way. Before I flew back to Hong Kong, I decided to make a trip and see what it's like.
18. I should've bought some fresh produce here.
19. They sure look pretty.
Seoul, South Korea
If you asked me this time last year whether I was planning to visit Asia in 2005, I probably would've laughed off the matter. In fact, if anyone asked me even during this past spring, I would've shrugged off the idea. I swept Europe twice already, which I thought was more than enough for a year. But the opportunity came up, and I quickly booked a free ticket on mileage.
Seoul Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/seoul.htm
20. Since I was flying on mileage, I get a free stopover along the way. I picked Seoul because it was easy to fly back to Hong Kong from there, and cheaper to visit than Tokyo. Well, it was a good choice, but the weather wasn't very co-operative to me. Nevertheless, I had a great time, and the jet lag didn't destroy my itinerary.
21. I really miss these lively streetscapes.
22. Insadong was a treasure chest. Alley after alley of interesting things to explore. It was a holiday in Seoul so everything was closed, which was great because I had the streets all to myself.
23. There's something beautiful about the chaotic sign arrangement.
24. As you can see, the English signage wasn't helping.
25. The railway stops here - a very original shop design!
26. Unlike many North American cities, it's perfectly safe to venture into every one of these small alleys.
27.
28. Palaces were on my agenda once again in Seoul. There were two main ones that I didn't visit, and I managed to hit both this time. They reminded me of the ones in Beijing, but the Korean ones are a bit unique because they like using sand instead of stone pavements in a lot of places.
29. But if you look at the signage alone you might not know you're in Korea.
30. Korean palaces feature a lot of vegetation, which is something the Forbidden City lacks. The story behind that is Chinese emperors were afraid assassins would hide in the trees and bushes during the day and come out at night to do their work.
31. Lovely setting isn't it?
32. Window to the world
33. I think this picture was a little too dark, but I really like the door.
34. Good old Myeong-dong never fails to impress.
35. More narrow alleys!
36. ... and even soldiers from an era long gone!
37. Seoul has skyscrapers as well. There is an observation deck at the top of this golden beacon. If only it wasn't so smoggy I could've seen all of Seoul from here.
38. Toxic soup
39. A few buildings left a mark in my mind during my visit. One is the SK Tower and its facade.
40. The next one is Jongro Tower :
41. I could photograph this building from a million vantage points. How delightful!
42. The best part was fine dining at its top-floor restaurant, where I got a panoramic view of Seoul. The food was a little expensive, but it was very delicious!
43. Now .. the view :
44. The neatest thing was the restaurant was suspended above the rest of the building.
45.
46. More nice views :
47. 4 days later, it was time to say goodbye and head home to Hong Kong. I couldn't end a trip to Seoul without a tour of the amazing Incheon International Airport.
48.
49. Opening the sky, connecting the world :
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hongkong.htm
Hong Kong seems to transform itself into something completely different every few years. The skyline changed once again with a few new 70+ storey skyscrapers since I last came back. At this rate, my photos will be vintage in a decade.
50. I never really started plane spotting until I visited Europe. The North American airports I've been to didn't feature much international variety. Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and London Heathrow were eye-openers. I kept an eye on what types of aircraft were visiting Hong Kong International. There was variety, but not as good as the European hubs.
51. Air Mauritius ... an interesting visitor, as well as the yellow one from Brunei in the background.
52. Hong Kong opened a lot of new rail lines in the past few years. West Rail is the biggest one at 31km. The stations are bright and spacious, although ridership is below expectations. I guess people still like to travel by bus and not interchange a few times to get around.
53. Thank you for riding the KCR. Actually, I only paid for travelling one stop in the end even though I rode the whole line and back. Yes, I'm cheap.
54. I was talking with fellow Hong Kong forumer Sher last night and we noted that ten years ago Hong Kong's streets were full of the old non-air-conditioned buses from KMB and CMB. A decade later, the scene has completely transformed into a sea of golden air-conditioned buses. Here's one of the newer golden buses :
55. But the trams will always be the same, hopefully ... unless their chassis gets renovated, right HKT?
56. Yes, Hong Kong has a lot of very intense urban scenes.
57.
58.
59. When I first stepped into my home after a long period of absence, I noticed something different in the fish tank. Apparently the latest fad is to have pet clams along with pet fish. I wondered who would sell pet clams. Well, there's a goldfish market selling this stuff and more now, and the prices are really good!
60. Meanwhile I stopped by the flower market in a neighboring street and lost HK$430 buying two dozen roses ... long story. Maybe I should've substituted cheap geraniums instead.
61. I finally got my night photos to work, with the help of a tripod (thanks to a friend for that present - hope you're surviving in San Francisco!).
62. Oh ... the wonders a tripod can do!
63. I regret not taking even more night photos though and going out every night. I was a pretty good boy in Hong Kong. While the girls were calling me out to Lan Kwai Fong for "the drunkening", I was either eating dinner at home or touring the Peak with HKT at 11pm.
64. Hong Kong's skyscrapers like blinking lights. Even the new lighting scheme at the Bank of China blinks continuously.
65. Too bad it was so smoggy. The photos have that yellowish tone to it. But at least it didn't rain. I had many sunny days and nights in Hong Kong. I actually had a whole contingency plan on what to do indoors if it rained, but in the end I had so many sunny days I ran out of things to do in the outdoors very early.
66. I met up with the HK forum gang many times right away once I got back. Many were in town just before they jet off to the UK for school. I remember there were a few days when InitialD18 and I would scour the streets all day looking for stuff to see and to photograph. I think we both lost a lot of weight that we really need. Here's one forum meet at the new West Kowloon Cultural District waterfront promenade.
67. After 49 threads and counting, I'm going to focus more on the other side of Hong Kong beyond skyscrapers and neon here, since these aspects are not usually seen in the forum. You can check out my other parts of the Hong Kong series by visiting my website or starting with part 49 : Streets & Scrapers on the Island .
68. There are a number of fishing villages around Hong Kong still thriving with activity. Pick a few and enjoy their seafood like I did!
69. One of my favourite island escapes is Cheung Chau. The ferry ride there offers a very nice view of the whole skyline. Cheung Chau also has fishing roots, and is a popular local weekend getaway.
70. Hong Kong's sports history isn't as glamourous as neighboring countries such as China, South Korea, or Japan. But we did get an Olympic gold medal in windsurfing back in 1996. Lee Lai-shan is still a very famous Hong Konger today.
71. This boater decided to get to his craft by floating on a piece of styrofoam.
72. Maybe our next Hong Kong forum meet should be a beach party? I haven't been stung by a jellyfish yet while swimming in the ocean.
73. Now we depart Hong Kong and move on to my other travels of the 2nd half of 2005.
Hangzhou
Hangzhou Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hangzhou.htm
Travelling from Hong Kong to the mainland is quite cheap nowadays. I booked a tour to the Huadong region for less than US$200 all inclusive. There are expensive China-bound tours though, such as the northeast and western regions.
74. Hangzhou is a scenic city. You don't go for the skyscrapers, but for the parks and West Lake,
75. I really enjoyed the cruise of West Lake by electric boat.
76. I guess I can't cruise the lake on this boat.
77. Next stop : Wuxi, which I didn't know much about before this trip. But this is a very nice garden.
78. Wuxi also has a lot of modern buildings. Here is a view from the hotel room :
79.
80. I made a side trip to Wuzhen, which is something like a Chinese version of Venice, with homes built around the water and very narrow streets. The guide said it was a less commercialized version of Zhoujuang, which is probably right because the locals weren't really pushing to sell their wares to tourists.
81.
82.
Watch for my photo threads in the upcoming weeks as I take you to Suzhou, Wuxi, and Wuzhen!
Shanghai
Shanghai Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/shanghai.htm
83. Shanghai is a completely different story altogether. The city looks very furutistic, with a lot of bold skyscrapers popping out from left, right, and centre.
84. This type of intense urban atmoshpere is quite common throughout the city.
85. Chinese cities do a very good job with pedestrianizing streets. Nanjing Road is probably one of the brightest of them.
86.
87.
88. Shanghai also has a lot of history, thanks to its role as a major international port during the early 20th century, when many Europeans did business with the Chinese in Shanghai.
89. It was a good thing I visited before the National Day holiday. I can't imagine how large the crowds would get during the week-long holiday.
90. My impression of Pudong is a "work in progress". There are a lot of empty plots of land awaiting development, and I expect they will be filled up in the long-term. China is trying to curb construction to slow a fast-growing economy, so even skyscrapers will have to wait now.
91. That being said, I will go back to Shanghai to do a more detailed photo essay. I'm counting on you, InitialD18, to keep your promise, and HKT to get your China visa.
92. And now it's time to leave Shanghai and head to my last stop of my China tour.
Guilin
I actually haven't said much about my Guilin trip in the forum besides a flight report. The reason is I haven't been able to get to these photos in the past two months. At the rate I'm going through my photo CDs, I don't even know when I can get to them and post them online. I picked a few of my favourites to show in here, but watch out for more from this scenic part of China in the future!
93. Guilin is a very different city. First of all, lone hills pop out of nowhere in the middle of the city.
94. Hence the cityscape is extremely beautiful and unexpected.
95. The tallest peaks can also be climbed. I climbed two of these to get a nice panoramic view of the city. Too bad it was smoggy though. I wonder where did the smog blow in from. There's little industry in this tourism-dependent part of China.
96. I also cruised the river to get a glimpse of these hills as well.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101. There are a lot of such tourist boats cruising the river. But since there was a drought this year, the water was so shallow some parts were not even navigable.
New York City
My friends wanted to get away for the Christmas break, and I was obviously interested. We had a hard time figuring out where to go at first, because we weren't sure how the holiday schedule would turn out. In the end we got a whole week off, and I suggested going to Europe again. But the prospect of going to Europe three times in a year didn't go well, so San Francisco was next since I found a cheap package. After some more discussion we settled for New York in the end. Ah well ... you win some, you lose some.
New York City Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/newyork.htm
102. There's a lot to see in New York, but the reason why I wasn't too impressed was because I visited New York twice in 2004 already, so I wanted to fly off to somewhere different this time. But then, I got to see a lot of new things in New York this time around, too, like the Staten Island Ferry.
103. Now I've tried both the Staten Island Ferry and Circle Line, which should be enough to cover all of Manhattan from the water.
104. Here's Manhattan with Jersey City
105. I've always wanted to visit the Flatiron Building. Now that I had a chance, the front was under renovation.
106. I actually had very co-operative weather in New York. I was shopping on rainy Boxing Day and the 27th was absolutely clear.
107. I returned to Columbus Circle for lunch, opting for something a bit more fancy than the Wall Street food truck from my 2004 visit. Their Mediterranean beef was quite good.
108. The Top of the Rock was the highlight of my walking tour of Manhattan. The layout was great and the sunset was beautiful.
109.
110. A lot of my friends made it to New York this Christmas. I wonder if it was a mere coincidence but it was somewhat strange that so many of them decided to go there. Here's a postcard of Times Square to everyone :
111. Almost every time I fly transpacific they serve that brand of cup noodles.
Macau
Last but not least, I spent a weekend in Macau with fellow HK forumer HKT. We had a pretty wacky adventure in this former Portuguese colony. At first I thought he was an avid gambler from the way he portrayed himself and in the end he turned out to be no different than a curious onlooker like me . We walked a whole day without any food and parked ourselves on the side of the street observing buses passing by. He thought I was bored but he didn't know I was photogaphing buses with him. I just looked exhausted from the heat. Good times.
Macau Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/macau.htm
112. I didn't think Macau was that dense at first but from a higher vantage point it is indeed a very congested city.
113. However, Macau has done a far better job at preserving its history than neighboring Hong Kong. Its city centre is now a World Heritage site.
114. I guess no city in the Pearl River Delta is immune to smog.
115. The Kun Lam statue and Macau Tower
116. Now this is quite an interesting contrast taken at the Chinese border, where passengers were consistently hauling boxes of Pringles chips, a specific type of beer, and Tempo kleenexes across the border. How strange.
117. Race you across the border and see who gets shot first?
118. That's the new Fisherman's Wharf along the water. It just opened in 2006!
Conclusion and Thoughts
2005 was another busy year for me on the travel front, like the two previous years. I tried to take advantage of every study break I could knowing that once I start working it'll be hard to take time off to do long trips. That being said, I don't want to slow down my travels in 2006 either. I remember when I did my Year in Review 2004 thread I had a list of places I planned to visit in 2005, and in the end I was way off, so I'm not going to have a list for 2006 anymore. A lot of things in my life just happen at random these days. Who knows where I will fly off to next.
2005 Destinations
Europe - London, Frankfurt, Paris, Munich, Geneva, Barcelona, Brussels
Asia - Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Guilin, Macau
North America - New York City, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal
Total Flying Distance - 28,125 miles
Related Thread : December 2004 - June 2005 Half Year Summary
Happy New Year & Happy Travelling!
Ottawa Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/ottawa.htm
My friend invited me to visit Ottawa and stay at his place for the weekend. I didn't feel like studying anyway and wanted to get away from school for a bit, so I packed my bags and we drove to Ottawa.
1. The second half of my 2005 began with Canada Day festivities in the capital city.
2. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, who is defending his position in the upcoming January election.
3. Since Canada is a member of the Commonwealth, the Queen is the head of state. Her representative in Canada is the Governor General, who resides in this building.
4. The Maple Leaf is a beloved Canadian symbol.
5. Yet the British influence is still alive and well.
6. The highlight of my trip was the morning lineup at Parliament Hill, where I got tickets for two tours of the buildings.
7. Examine the details.
8. Did they move this from Philadelphia?
9. Ottawa was chosen as the Canadian capital city because it wasn't as vulnerable to an American invasion as Toronto or Kingston. Good choice it was. Parliament Hill sits high above the Ottawa River, and is quite a distance from the American border and the Great Lakes.
Detroit, Michigan
I was quite restless that summer. I was looking for a quick weekend getaway once again, and Detroit came on my horizon. I wanted to go to Chicago at first, but 3 days in that city wouldn't be enough to my liking, so I settled with a smaller city. Detroit was the final choice. I found a very cheap hotel deal in the outskirts of the city, and we were off.
Detroit Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/detroit.htm
10. Sunshine meets the beach
11. Detroit's skyline is dominated by the Renaissance Center, the giant GM headquarters complex. The folks across the river in Windsor used to joke that they could hear the gunshots in the Motor City from their quiet city at night.
12. Here's a close-up :
13. This reminds me of the Wintergarden in New York :
14. Henry Ford is one of the automotive legends in the US, and his museum in suburban Dearborn was well worth a visit. It's simply amazing. Not only were there cars, but also airplanes, trains, and even a concept house that sits on stilts and can be packed up and moved in a matter of hours.
15.
16. Detroit wasn't as run-down as I had originally thought. There are some abandoned structures, but they were not everywhere really.
Farmer's Market - St. Jacobs, Canada
St. Jacobs Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/to-stjacobs.htm
17. While I've lived in North America for quite some time, I don't usually frequent the farmers' market at all. I tend to hover around the supermarket instead and drive my car to and from it in a very environmentally unfriendly way. Before I flew back to Hong Kong, I decided to make a trip and see what it's like.
18. I should've bought some fresh produce here.
19. They sure look pretty.
Seoul, South Korea
If you asked me this time last year whether I was planning to visit Asia in 2005, I probably would've laughed off the matter. In fact, if anyone asked me even during this past spring, I would've shrugged off the idea. I swept Europe twice already, which I thought was more than enough for a year. But the opportunity came up, and I quickly booked a free ticket on mileage.
Seoul Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/seoul.htm
20. Since I was flying on mileage, I get a free stopover along the way. I picked Seoul because it was easy to fly back to Hong Kong from there, and cheaper to visit than Tokyo. Well, it was a good choice, but the weather wasn't very co-operative to me. Nevertheless, I had a great time, and the jet lag didn't destroy my itinerary.
21. I really miss these lively streetscapes.
22. Insadong was a treasure chest. Alley after alley of interesting things to explore. It was a holiday in Seoul so everything was closed, which was great because I had the streets all to myself.
23. There's something beautiful about the chaotic sign arrangement.
24. As you can see, the English signage wasn't helping.
25. The railway stops here - a very original shop design!
26. Unlike many North American cities, it's perfectly safe to venture into every one of these small alleys.
27.
28. Palaces were on my agenda once again in Seoul. There were two main ones that I didn't visit, and I managed to hit both this time. They reminded me of the ones in Beijing, but the Korean ones are a bit unique because they like using sand instead of stone pavements in a lot of places.
29. But if you look at the signage alone you might not know you're in Korea.
30. Korean palaces feature a lot of vegetation, which is something the Forbidden City lacks. The story behind that is Chinese emperors were afraid assassins would hide in the trees and bushes during the day and come out at night to do their work.
31. Lovely setting isn't it?
32. Window to the world
33. I think this picture was a little too dark, but I really like the door.
34. Good old Myeong-dong never fails to impress.
35. More narrow alleys!
36. ... and even soldiers from an era long gone!
37. Seoul has skyscrapers as well. There is an observation deck at the top of this golden beacon. If only it wasn't so smoggy I could've seen all of Seoul from here.
38. Toxic soup
39. A few buildings left a mark in my mind during my visit. One is the SK Tower and its facade.
40. The next one is Jongro Tower :
41. I could photograph this building from a million vantage points. How delightful!
42. The best part was fine dining at its top-floor restaurant, where I got a panoramic view of Seoul. The food was a little expensive, but it was very delicious!
43. Now .. the view :
44. The neatest thing was the restaurant was suspended above the rest of the building.
45.
46. More nice views :
47. 4 days later, it was time to say goodbye and head home to Hong Kong. I couldn't end a trip to Seoul without a tour of the amazing Incheon International Airport.
48.
49. Opening the sky, connecting the world :
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hongkong.htm
Hong Kong seems to transform itself into something completely different every few years. The skyline changed once again with a few new 70+ storey skyscrapers since I last came back. At this rate, my photos will be vintage in a decade.
50. I never really started plane spotting until I visited Europe. The North American airports I've been to didn't feature much international variety. Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and London Heathrow were eye-openers. I kept an eye on what types of aircraft were visiting Hong Kong International. There was variety, but not as good as the European hubs.
51. Air Mauritius ... an interesting visitor, as well as the yellow one from Brunei in the background.
52. Hong Kong opened a lot of new rail lines in the past few years. West Rail is the biggest one at 31km. The stations are bright and spacious, although ridership is below expectations. I guess people still like to travel by bus and not interchange a few times to get around.
53. Thank you for riding the KCR. Actually, I only paid for travelling one stop in the end even though I rode the whole line and back. Yes, I'm cheap.
54. I was talking with fellow Hong Kong forumer Sher last night and we noted that ten years ago Hong Kong's streets were full of the old non-air-conditioned buses from KMB and CMB. A decade later, the scene has completely transformed into a sea of golden air-conditioned buses. Here's one of the newer golden buses :
55. But the trams will always be the same, hopefully ... unless their chassis gets renovated, right HKT?
56. Yes, Hong Kong has a lot of very intense urban scenes.
57.
58.
59. When I first stepped into my home after a long period of absence, I noticed something different in the fish tank. Apparently the latest fad is to have pet clams along with pet fish. I wondered who would sell pet clams. Well, there's a goldfish market selling this stuff and more now, and the prices are really good!
60. Meanwhile I stopped by the flower market in a neighboring street and lost HK$430 buying two dozen roses ... long story. Maybe I should've substituted cheap geraniums instead.
61. I finally got my night photos to work, with the help of a tripod (thanks to a friend for that present - hope you're surviving in San Francisco!).
62. Oh ... the wonders a tripod can do!
63. I regret not taking even more night photos though and going out every night. I was a pretty good boy in Hong Kong. While the girls were calling me out to Lan Kwai Fong for "the drunkening", I was either eating dinner at home or touring the Peak with HKT at 11pm.
64. Hong Kong's skyscrapers like blinking lights. Even the new lighting scheme at the Bank of China blinks continuously.
65. Too bad it was so smoggy. The photos have that yellowish tone to it. But at least it didn't rain. I had many sunny days and nights in Hong Kong. I actually had a whole contingency plan on what to do indoors if it rained, but in the end I had so many sunny days I ran out of things to do in the outdoors very early.
66. I met up with the HK forum gang many times right away once I got back. Many were in town just before they jet off to the UK for school. I remember there were a few days when InitialD18 and I would scour the streets all day looking for stuff to see and to photograph. I think we both lost a lot of weight that we really need.
Here's one forum meet at the new West Kowloon Cultural District waterfront promenade.
67. After 49 threads and counting, I'm going to focus more on the other side of Hong Kong beyond skyscrapers and neon here, since these aspects are not usually seen in the forum. You can check out my other parts of the Hong Kong series by visiting my website or starting with part 49 : Streets & Scrapers on the Island .
68. There are a number of fishing villages around Hong Kong still thriving with activity. Pick a few and enjoy their seafood like I did!
69. One of my favourite island escapes is Cheung Chau. The ferry ride there offers a very nice view of the whole skyline. Cheung Chau also has fishing roots, and is a popular local weekend getaway.
70. Hong Kong's sports history isn't as glamourous as neighboring countries such as China, South Korea, or Japan. But we did get an Olympic gold medal in windsurfing back in 1996. Lee Lai-shan is still a very famous Hong Konger today.
71. This boater decided to get to his craft by floating on a piece of styrofoam.
72. Maybe our next Hong Kong forum meet should be a beach party? I haven't been stung by a jellyfish yet while swimming in the ocean.
73. Now we depart Hong Kong and move on to my other travels of the 2nd half of 2005.
Hangzhou
Hangzhou Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hangzhou.htm
Travelling from Hong Kong to the mainland is quite cheap nowadays. I booked a tour to the Huadong region for less than US$200 all inclusive. There are expensive China-bound tours though, such as the northeast and western regions.
74. Hangzhou is a scenic city. You don't go for the skyscrapers, but for the parks and West Lake,
75. I really enjoyed the cruise of West Lake by electric boat.
76. I guess I can't cruise the lake on this boat.
77. Next stop : Wuxi, which I didn't know much about before this trip. But this is a very nice garden.
78. Wuxi also has a lot of modern buildings. Here is a view from the hotel room :
79.
80. I made a side trip to Wuzhen, which is something like a Chinese version of Venice, with homes built around the water and very narrow streets. The guide said it was a less commercialized version of Zhoujuang, which is probably right because the locals weren't really pushing to sell their wares to tourists.
81.
82.
Watch for my photo threads in the upcoming weeks as I take you to Suzhou, Wuxi, and Wuzhen!
Shanghai
Shanghai Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/shanghai.htm
83. Shanghai is a completely different story altogether. The city looks very furutistic, with a lot of bold skyscrapers popping out from left, right, and centre.
84. This type of intense urban atmoshpere is quite common throughout the city.
85. Chinese cities do a very good job with pedestrianizing streets. Nanjing Road is probably one of the brightest of them.
86.
87.
88. Shanghai also has a lot of history, thanks to its role as a major international port during the early 20th century, when many Europeans did business with the Chinese in Shanghai.
89. It was a good thing I visited before the National Day holiday. I can't imagine how large the crowds would get during the week-long holiday.
90. My impression of Pudong is a "work in progress". There are a lot of empty plots of land awaiting development, and I expect they will be filled up in the long-term. China is trying to curb construction to slow a fast-growing economy, so even skyscrapers will have to wait now.
91. That being said, I will go back to Shanghai to do a more detailed photo essay. I'm counting on you, InitialD18, to keep your promise, and HKT to get your China visa.
92. And now it's time to leave Shanghai and head to my last stop of my China tour.
Guilin
I actually haven't said much about my Guilin trip in the forum besides a flight report. The reason is I haven't been able to get to these photos in the past two months. At the rate I'm going through my photo CDs, I don't even know when I can get to them and post them online. I picked a few of my favourites to show in here, but watch out for more from this scenic part of China in the future!
93. Guilin is a very different city. First of all, lone hills pop out of nowhere in the middle of the city.
94. Hence the cityscape is extremely beautiful and unexpected.
95. The tallest peaks can also be climbed. I climbed two of these to get a nice panoramic view of the city. Too bad it was smoggy though. I wonder where did the smog blow in from. There's little industry in this tourism-dependent part of China.
96. I also cruised the river to get a glimpse of these hills as well.
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101. There are a lot of such tourist boats cruising the river. But since there was a drought this year, the water was so shallow some parts were not even navigable.
New York City
My friends wanted to get away for the Christmas break, and I was obviously interested. We had a hard time figuring out where to go at first, because we weren't sure how the holiday schedule would turn out. In the end we got a whole week off, and I suggested going to Europe again. But the prospect of going to Europe three times in a year didn't go well, so San Francisco was next since I found a cheap package. After some more discussion we settled for New York in the end. Ah well ... you win some, you lose some.
New York City Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/newyork.htm
102. There's a lot to see in New York, but the reason why I wasn't too impressed was because I visited New York twice in 2004 already, so I wanted to fly off to somewhere different this time. But then, I got to see a lot of new things in New York this time around, too, like the Staten Island Ferry.
103. Now I've tried both the Staten Island Ferry and Circle Line, which should be enough to cover all of Manhattan from the water.
104. Here's Manhattan with Jersey City
105. I've always wanted to visit the Flatiron Building. Now that I had a chance, the front was under renovation.
106. I actually had very co-operative weather in New York. I was shopping on rainy Boxing Day and the 27th was absolutely clear.
107. I returned to Columbus Circle for lunch, opting for something a bit more fancy than the Wall Street food truck from my 2004 visit. Their Mediterranean beef was quite good.
108. The Top of the Rock was the highlight of my walking tour of Manhattan. The layout was great and the sunset was beautiful.
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110. A lot of my friends made it to New York this Christmas. I wonder if it was a mere coincidence but it was somewhat strange that so many of them decided to go there. Here's a postcard of Times Square to everyone :
111. Almost every time I fly transpacific they serve that brand of cup noodles.
Macau
Last but not least, I spent a weekend in Macau with fellow HK forumer HKT. We had a pretty wacky adventure in this former Portuguese colony. At first I thought he was an avid gambler from the way he portrayed himself and in the end he turned out to be no different than a curious onlooker like me
. We walked a whole day without any food and parked ourselves on the side of the street observing buses passing by. He thought I was bored but he didn't know I was photogaphing buses with him. I just looked exhausted from the heat. Good times.Macau Photo Gallery : www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/macau.htm
112. I didn't think Macau was that dense at first but from a higher vantage point it is indeed a very congested city.
113. However, Macau has done a far better job at preserving its history than neighboring Hong Kong. Its city centre is now a World Heritage site.
114. I guess no city in the Pearl River Delta is immune to smog.
115. The Kun Lam statue and Macau Tower
116. Now this is quite an interesting contrast taken at the Chinese border, where passengers were consistently hauling boxes of Pringles chips, a specific type of beer, and Tempo kleenexes across the border. How strange.
117. Race you across the border and see who gets shot first?
118. That's the new Fisherman's Wharf along the water. It just opened in 2006!
Conclusion and Thoughts
2005 was another busy year for me on the travel front, like the two previous years. I tried to take advantage of every study break I could knowing that once I start working it'll be hard to take time off to do long trips. That being said, I don't want to slow down my travels in 2006 either. I remember when I did my Year in Review 2004 thread I had a list of places I planned to visit in 2005, and in the end I was way off, so I'm not going to have a list for 2006 anymore. A lot of things in my life just happen at random these days. Who knows where I will fly off to next.
2005 Destinations
Europe - London, Frankfurt, Paris, Munich, Geneva, Barcelona, Brussels
Asia - Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Guilin, Macau
North America - New York City, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal
Total Flying Distance - 28,125 miles
Related Thread : December 2004 - June 2005 Half Year Summary
Happy New Year & Happy Travelling!