The Hillbilly Returns Home

After two weeks in China it was time to head home. The long flight gave this hillbilly a lot of time to reflect back on this latest adventure. I went on this trip hoping to see and experience something completely different than my travels before. I got that in spades.

I remember the very first time I traveled abroad. I was completely surprised by how modern and cosmopolitan everything was. I mean they actually had ATM machines in Paris! I had no idea I would be able to take money out of my account in the United States in a totally foreign country. I was completely shocked. It’s funny now that I look back on it, but it really did surprise me at the time. So I expected Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to be big cities with all the modern conveniences we have here in the states. For the most part they did. The banks are even open on Sunday.

However China was not exactly what I expected. It is a communist country, but it has a very capitalistic twist. Similar to the US, there are the “haves” and “have nots.” As you wander the streets, you may see a Jaguar, Mercedes or Ferrari dealership, plus there’s an abundance of upscale hotels, bars and restaurants. But once you get out of the main tourist areas and walk the streets, you see how a lot of the Chinese people really live. It’s not that pretty.

I expected to feel completely lost in a totally foreign culture, but the politeness and warmth of the Chinese people was so welcoming it made me feel at home. The sheer beauty of Beijing and Shanghai were a complete surprise. The amount of American food options was staggering. You expect to see McDonalds and Starbucks everywhere. But in addition to those staples, we saw KFC, Pizza Hut, 7-Eleven, TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse and a few others. It’s funny to me that these places do so well there considering how much “healthier” the Chinese eat. They eat a lot of rice, seafood, drink tea all day and are always on the go! They are in constant motion. The other thing that surprised me was the quality of service we received everywhere we went. We could walk into a store or restaurant and there were always at least 4-5 people available to help us. We never once had to try and find someone to help us. We would walk into our hotel and be warmly greeted by at least 3 or 4 people by the time we got to the elevator. The other thing that surprised me was how clean the cities were. These are cities with millions of people, but they are as clean as Disneyland. If any of you have ever been to Disney, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. You’ve noticed all the people constantly cleaning, picking up and sweeping the streets. It’s the same way in China. No matter where we were, there was always someone cleaning nearby. They even had flower boxes along the freeway ramps on Beijing!


My Favorite City
Well that’s tough to answer. I think it all depends on what you’re looking for. Beijing was by far the China I expected to see. It’s steeped in history. Between The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, The Heavenly Temple, The Forbidden City, it has a lot of amazing things to see. However Shanghai, is a fun and very modern city. While there aren’t as many “must dos” the city still has a lot to offer. There are some great neighborhoods to stroll, cool bars, great restaurants and of course, Pudong. As I mentioned before, Hong Kong is great if you have a lot of shopping to do. Since it was under British rule until 1997, there is still a lot of British influence there. It is still very Chinese in a lot of ways but is considered a separate region. They have their own way of doing things and they even have their own currency. It’s funny but people from mainland China are even considered visitors in Hong Kong.

The one thing all the cities had in common was the bright flashing lights on all the buildings. Here are these stunning skyscrapers, amazing feats of architecture and most of them have bright flashing lights at night. It almost makes them a little tacky, not quite Vegas tacky, but it is still a little odd. Can you imagine a Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons with bright blue lights running down and across the hotel every night? One guy we met in Shanghai told us it’s actually a law. All buildings over a certain height have to have some sort of lighting. Considering how tall some of these buildings are, this would make sense as a warning signal for airplanes. But it’s not just the really tall buildings that have them. Maybe it’s an ego thing, a way for the owners to make their buildings stand out. I’m not really sure, but it is one of the things that stood out to me in each of the cities we visited. In Hong Kong, they even have a “symphony of lights” every night. Several of the buildings participate. They have flashing lights and laser beams going off, all well choreographed and set to music. It makes for great free entertainment.

The Language Barrier & Other Issues
Whenever I travel, I like to try and learn some basic words/phrases in the host language, but Chinese is very tough to learn. The accents are very strong, almost harsh. After two weeks I’m sad to say, I only managed to master Hello and Thank You!

Beijing was the biggest challenge. Even at major tourist venues very little English was spoken, but we were still able to buy tickets and get where we needed to. Shanghai was a little better since a lot of business is conducted there and English is the global language for business. However, outside of the hotels, very few of the folks you encounter speak English. Do not expect taxi drivers, waiters/waitresses to speak English. A lot of the restaurants don’t have English menus. Obviously English is widely spoken in Hong Kong. Make sure you have someone at the hotel write the hotel address in Chinese for you. In case you get lost, at least you’ll have something to show to the taxi driver or pedestrians to find your way home. A lot of the hotels already have cards made up with key phrases and major destinations for the city in English and Chinese. These came in very handy during our trip.

But the language barrier should not hold anyone back from visiting this fabulous country.
The people there are more than willing to help you learn Chinese and often want to practice their English on you. Despite my lack of Chinese though, we were able to get by. It truly is amazing how easily two people who speak completely different languages can communicate with each other when both are willing to try and understand the other.


The one thing that did bother me at first was the “male-dominated” culture. No matter where we went, Bruce was greeted first, served first and often times they even looked to him when taking my order at a restaurant. Even when I would give my credit card to pay for a drink or meal, they would still bring the bill back to him to sign. At first I was bothered by this, but then I took a moment to think about it. They were not doing this in anyway to slight me, it’s just their culture. I had to remind myself I was a guest in their country and I needed to respect their ways. The plus side of this was how polite, or “old-fashioned” as we would say, the men were. They were true gentlemen. They always opened the door for me or let me out of the elevator first. I know this will probably upset a lot of women out there, but I actually liked that. There’s nothing wrong with good old-fashion courtesy.

My Favorite Memories
Walking along The Great Wall outside of Beijing
Visiting the Summer Palace in Beijing
Having drinks on the rooftop of M on the Bund in Shanghai
Partying in Xia Tiandi in Shanghai
Listening to a Chinese band play Madonna music at Rendezvous in Shanghai
“Celebrity sighting” at the Sky Dome Bar in the Radisson Hotel (met the owner of all the Radisson hotels, a very nice and elegant woman)
The underground tram ride to Pudong
Drinks on the 87th floor of the Grand Hyatt in Pudong
The entire stay at Le Royal Meridien in Shanghai (a special thanks to Richard L. the Royal Club Manager)
The hot stone massage in Shanghai
The very steep tram ride to The Peak in Hong Kong
Partying at a variety of bars/clubs in Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong
Asparagus and mushroom soup, and the many other great vegetarian dishes
The efficiency of the Chinese
Variety of live music everywhere – Jazz, Spanish, Top 40, Soul
The beautiful gardens and landscaping throughout China

All in all this was a truly great and memorable trip. The beauty of the country, the warmth and generosity of the Chinese people, will remain with me for years to come. I would highly recommend a visit to this great country.

So to answer the question on my first post. Yes, it appears you can pull off a last minute trip to China! What did we ever do without the internet? I hope you enjoyed my journey through China. I certainly enjoyed sharing it with you. I'll be posting some quick tips, recommendations for traveling to China on the website soon.

Any recommendations on where this hillbilly should go next? I'm always open to suggestions.

3 Days Wet Days in Hong Kong

Unfortunately for us the weather forecast was correct and we had a very wet time in Hong Kong. It rained everyday while we were there, but we still got out and about to see the city.

As I said before, Hong Kong is like New York, but it’s like New York dropped in the middle of one of the Hawaiian Islands. It’s made up of several islands and is surrounded by huge mountains. However, they have built up into the mountains. It’s like the city has three different levels. So once again, we found ourselves walking up a lot of stairs. Unlike Beijing and Shanghai, it is not as green and spread out. It is much more compact and crowded.

The efficiency of the Chinese never ceased to amaze me during this trip and Hong Kong was no exception. They have built a whole network of walkways above the streets that connects the malls, office buildings and neighborhoods. It allows you to easily navigate around the city, while avoiding the craziness on the streets below. It was like a whole different world exists above the city.

We went to The Peak, “the pride of Hong Kong.” It offers a 360 degree view of the city. Despite the cloudy weather, it was still a magnificent view, especially at night. Due to the weather, unfortunately we did not get to see The Big Buddha, one of Hong Kong’s must sees. But we did make it over to Kowloon Island to walk along Nathan Road, the golden mile for shopping and have tea at the Peninsula. We partied in Lan Kwai Fong and got to listen to some great live music, including a Chinese Jazz band. I think I’ve heard more live music during my time in China than I have in the past 10+ years.

Despite the rain, Hong Kong was a good time but not as amazing as Beijing and Shanghai. It’s just a big city and a great place to go if you want to shop. There’s no sales tax, so it’s a great place to buy high end items. I’m glad I went, but I don’t know if I’d go back again anytime soon. It would be a great place to travel for business though.

Getting Wet in Hong Kong

We had checked the weather for Hong Kong before leaving Shanghai, knowing it would be considerably warmer. We are bummed to see that rain or chance of rain was in the forecast everyday while we’re here. It looked like Monday was the only day we might have without rain.

One of the suggestions our Hong Kong/Canadian friends made was to go to "the peak." It allows for some awesome views of the city. That is on the agenda for today (Monday) but as predicted we've woken up to rain. The forecast for the next couple of days is still rain and now even thunderstorms! Since it doesn’t look like we’ll have a good day clear day here, we’ve decide to go to the peak anyway. Hopefully the rain will make for some great black and white pictures. I just need to find some black and white film.

It looks like we are going to be warm and wet in Hong Kong!

First Impressions of Hong Kong

First impression - Hong Kong is similar to New York. It's crowded with people and tall buildings. It's a little claustrophobic, but it's still a hip, cosmopolitan city. It is considerably more expensive than Beijing and Shanghai. Given the long history of British influence, English is more more common here and they even drive from the right side of the car and on the opposite sides of the road. My gut was still telling me I wouldn't really care for this city. I do like New York, but I prefer a city with some warmth and friendliness. This is just tons of people, moving fast and not a lot of greenery. Shanghai and Beijing were both big cites as well, but they were spread out and had lots of parks. They were so well planned, they didn't feel claustrophobic at all.

We happened upon a little area called Lan Kwai Fong. It's a well known area, of cobble stone streets lined with cool bars and restaurants. As we were walking along we noticed a little place called the Keg. The Keg was a very small open air bar but it was full of folks. As we came in we noticed everyone was watching a hockey game (via sling box).

Given that it was such a small place, everyone started introducing themselves and talking. Turns out everyone in the bar was pretty much from Canada and was there to watch Vancouver play Dallas (Dallas won). We wound up talking to guys from Canada who are now living in Hong Kong.

After living in Los Angeles for so long, where people just can't take the time to be friendly, I'm always amazed by how easy it is to meet people when traveling. Our Canadian friends, RM & CH were just so friendly and great to talk to. After living here for over a year, they were more than willing to take some time out from watching the game to give us some great "must dos" while in Hong Kong. That is one of the things I love most about traveling. All it takes is sitting next to someone at a bar, restaurant or tourist attraction and hearing English spoken. The next thing you know you are having great and entertaining conversations with perfect strangers.
Thanks to RM & CH for making a great first impression for Hong Kong.

Made it to Hong Kong!

We've just arrived in Hong Kong. I'm so happy to see my blog is back in English! I was not able to access the domain directly while in Beijing or Shanghai so I had to go directly to the blog address and then everything was in Chinese. Luckily, I could remember where most of the buttons were so I was still able to publish my posts. But it's nice to be able to navigate in English again.

We're staying at Le Meridien Cyberpot which was recently awarded "Best New Hotel in Asia." I don't think I'm going to like this hotel as much as the ones in Beijing and Shanghai. While we have a great ocean view, we are staying up in the hills, about 10-15 minutes away from the main city center. We have to take a shuttle if we want to go anywhere. Plus it's a very tech-oriented hotel. Ya'll know how I feel about technology. It's got that techy, cold feel to it. I looked into booking another hotel, but at this late a date, the options are limited unless we want to spend and arm and leg!

I miss my butler!

The Black Martini...

Have you ever had a black martini? Well I can now say I have! I've never even heard of black vodka, but apparently it does exist. So of course does the black martini! hhhmmmmm.

A black martini just sounded too intriguing to pass up, so I broke one of my cardinal rules when traveling. I ordered a martini. In most places a martini is the very traditional martini made with gin, not vodka. The few times I've tried a martini when traveling, I have not enjoyed it. After getting served one with black olives (possibly black olive juice and way too much vermouth) once in Budapest, I decided to stay away from martinis when traveling.

Well last night after much searching, we finally stumbled upon a little area called Xin Tiandi (New Heaven & Earth). According to Frommer's, it is Shanghai's“trendiest lifestyle destination.” It is a small area of trendy restaurants, bars and shops, primarily lodged in traditional Shanghainese stone housing. It was a very cool, and apparently, very popular area. We walked into an awesome restaurant/bar called T8. The décor was totally hip, all dark wood and glass. It looked like the kind of place you could order a martini. After Bruce raved about how good his was, I decided to go for it. Just as I was getting ready to order my traditional Kettle One martini, I noticed the black martini on the menu. So I went for it. I figure I love black Sambuca, so black vodka should be good, right? It can't be as bad as black olive martini in Budapest. And I was right. As the waitress had warned, it was a little strong, but I'm glad I tried it. I might just have to rethink my martini ban, well except when traveling in Europe. I'll have to keep an eye out for black vodka when I get back to the states. Who knows, the black martini might just be the signature drink at my next party. So you might just be trying one soon!

Pudong – From farmland in 1990 to major city representing China's future

Today we went to Pudong which is just across the river from Shanghai. It's a huge city that has sprouted up in less than a decade! It is tuly amazing how this huge city has just sprung up and is now host to major companies, skyscrapers and the 3rd tallest building in the world (they are in the process of building the tallest building in the world, unless Hong Kong finishes their building first).

As for the 3rd tallest building in the world, it's 88 stories high. The first 50 floors of the building are office space and then the Grand Hyatt occupies floors 51-88. Thanks to MJ's recommendation, we went to the bar on the 87th floor of the Grand Hyatt to have a drink. We had to take three elevators to get there. It was actually kind of freaky to be that high up. Unfortunately the smog is really bad here today, so the view was not as stunning as I'm sure it can be. But it was still worth the trip.

Just getting there and back was a lot of fun. It was like a ride at Disneyland. We took a “tram” that runs under the river to get there. The tram is basically these pod like cars that travel through a dark tunnel with a sort of light show playing as you move through. It was kind of like the old space mountain ride at Disney, but it moved at a much slower pace. All in all a fun day.

Now we're off to dinner at a hot restaurant along the Bund. Again, thanks to MJ for posting some recommendations.

Look out Hong Kong, here we come!