View from Hong Kong peak, taken on in 2008. My old Hong Kong photos are all printed on paper.

I had a number of serious concerns, mostly because I didn’t know better. I only knew China from news reports, where they showed some hungry souls. I didn’t even know Hong Kong was not China at that time. So I thought our holiday would be without electricity, water, heating or eatable food. I even was concerned if we were going to stay in a hotel room or under the open sky. Furthermore, I was seriously concerned about becoming a political prisoner at my young age. Why? Because China imprisons people randomly, they said on TV. See what TV propaganda can make young people believe! At that time there was no wikipedia to check facts. We didn’t even have internet in our house at all. Maybe we were the backward people.

We did make a democratic voting: I voted for staying at home. Two other people of my family voted for me to go on this trip. Me going to China had won the elections. My dad stayed at home. He didn’t want to go, although he voted for me going there. So my mum and me joined a travel group of about 20 people visiting Hong Kong.

As I said I’m not sure if it was 1995 or 1996, but I do know it was December around Christmas time and we would spend the new year in Hong Kong. We flew from Zurich, Switzerland and the first surprise was that the airline fucked up big time. We had to wait at the airport the whole day. But we did get a reward for all the waiting, as we were told later.

For all those Hong Kong-greenhorns reading my blog: At that time the international airport of Hong Kong was Kai Tak (启德机场 – cantonese: Kai2 dak1 gei1 coeng4), which indeed was the most exiting airport that ever existed. And in retrospect I’m so happy that I could land there, sitting at the window at the right side of the plane. Seconds before the landing the plane makes an 50 degree turn to the right, the right wing pointing seriously to the ground. It seems like the buildings at the side of the plane are higher, than the plane itself is flying. I didn’t have any digital camera equipment at that time, let alone a mobile phone, but someone else did:

There’s no other airport than Kai Tak where the plane makes a 50 degree turn to the right seconds before landing

When I looked out of the window while flying over the city of Hong Kong I was positively surprised. No farms! Instead modern multistory buildings, some with luxury swimming pools on the top. On the first day this city took over my mind. I was seriously impressed. Everything was so modern, compared to Germany. The weather was awesome. Hot and humid in mid December. And you can buy all the cool fashion for fair prices.

I was also surprised how beautiful the women of China are. So much better than the German women. And the clothes they are wearing are also much skimpier, which could be result of the hot weather and the lack of unhealthy fast food. Equal to the beauty of the women was the taste of the local food. Strangely I was the only one of our travel group, who ate everything that was put on the table.

Then there was the new year party. As I mentioned previously, the airline had a few hours delay and therefore they sponsored a full blow new years party in a luxury restaurant including a all you can eat buffet of lobster and many other delicious specialties. I wonder why I didn’t get the same treatment when I got delayed 12 hours on my Chengdu trip 2007.

We also made a short trip to Guangzhou (广州), a real communist city at that time. This communist city impressed me the least. When I was standing in front of our Guangzhou hotel, I could barely see the top floor because there was only little air between all those dust particles in the atmosphere. Our tour guide said it was a natural phenomenon, not man made. I guess he was right: Naturally coming out of all the fires burning along the railroad track that brought us to Guangzhou. On the positive side, Guangzhou was the place where I fell in love with authentic Chinese food. I can’t remember what was on the table, but I can say for sure: It tasted great.

Although this trip was overwhelmingly impressive, my memories got blurry after a while, yet I never totally forgot about the trip. It took about ten years until I finally started to learn Chinese, and I’m sure that this China trip played a major role in my decision to learn Chinese. Therefore I’m really thankful that I could make that trip. This is how I discovered China. To everyone reading this: If you haven’t visited China yet, go there immediately. It could also change your life.

Seen on the Jet Ferry from Macao to Hong Kong: Please fasten seat belts
(If it is available on your seat)

I had been at the Hong Kong fake market in Kowloon and of course You can get all those bling bling jewelery You need for a real cheap price. Most, if not all of it, is fake of course. But there is another drawback, their stuff is outdated. I can see why people would by a Dollar Sign Ring 10 years ago, but today? Euro is the thing! I inquired about an Euro Sign Ring, but none of the vendors could help me with my request. This picture is from summer 2008, maybe they have Euro Rings now, tell me if You find any.

Caseway Bay buildings in Hong Kong Island are one piece of really hot property to own. Great waterfront view included!

How can Hong Kons’s real estate prices drop

I guess You have recently followed the news. You already know that there has been a number of sudden bankruptcies in the finance world. Sounding names like Lehman are down the drain now. This will place thousands of bankers onto the street within days. And I’m not talking about a few hundreds, no, thousands. While these guys occupied some shiny fancy bling bling luxury flats they have to settle for less. Lehman t-shirts and mugs can suddenly be found on ebay.

So what happens? Here is my prediction: These guys either have to get a cheaper place or leave the town in search for a job. High end luxury homes will suddenly become cheaper. If You always dreamt of buying some nice 50-something floor apartment with private pool, this might be Your chance. Watch the Hong Kong real estate market closely and You might get lucky.

I dreamt to live in a high building for a long time, now it’s true. All the other condos are so small!

Property agencies in Hong Kong are countless. You can find them in almost any street and English speaking is available. If You want to use the online way You can check out this post: Find appartments, flats and real estate online.

The whole thing is a guess, but it might turn out true. Then properties, especially high end luxury homes, can be bought for a reasonable price. If You are not sure, just have a trip. Stay a week in Hong Kong and look around what is on offer. You also might consider to buy some luxury flats and then sell them later for a better price. Anything is possible in Hong Kong at the moment.

Just after entering the horse racing arena You can see the crowd waiting for the race to begin

Horse Racing is probably one of the most popular sports among Hong Kong people, every Wednesday evening during the season You can go there and watch the excitement that fills the valley air. The first race starts around 7pm. Also the racing is connected with betting. Place Your bet on Your favourite horse and see if it wins. Horse racing is a great way to lose Your hard earned money.

Have a look at the horses before You decide on which You want to put some money.

Yesterday jockey Prebble had a great day. He won the first 3 races in a row, however he lost badly in a later race. Blame it on the horse. Each horse does only one race per evening, otherwise it will get overheated like roasted beef, but jockeys often do several races per evening. There is a total of 8 races each evening. Horses have funny names like “City Surfer”, “Wait for me” or “Holi Ravioli”. It was a great night as I won $HK 5 net. This must be the secret of all the rich Hong Kong people.

Broadband… just what I need. I can surf the web with this SIM chip, right? Somehow it didn’t work. So I asked myself: How can I go online in Hong Kong using my mobile phone. I went back to the shop and asked. I was told I have to make some settings which are not really explained in the package. Here is what You have to do:

1. Call the service hotline 179179
2. Go through the service hotline menu until they ask You if You want GPRS broadband service.
3. Confirm that You want broadband

After You have done that You have to wait until Your SIM chip’s data service is activated. It’s normally less than 24 hours. At the moment of writing this, using broadband with a prepaid CSL SIM chip costs You $HK 5 per month basic fee + data transfer charges which are not listed on the product. Should be cheap. Once this is fine You have to do some settings on Your phone. Depending on Your phone You only have to make some settings.

However, if You make these settings You won’t have the real internet. You will only be able to get some old-fashioned, outdated WAP-internet. That’s the part they don’t mention on the package and even the staff in the CSL shops often don’t know about this kind of limitation. Don’t trust them. Anyways, if You decide for a CSL prepaid SIM chip, here are the WAP settings

If You want real internet using CSL then You have to buy one of their contracts which start around $HK 50 a month. Luckily there is an alternative. Give Vodafone Hong Kong a try. Their prepaid does support real internet, yet they also block something. Voice over IP programs don’t work with CSL prepaid or Vodafone prepaid. The APN (Access Point Name) for Vodafone prepaid is “internet”, no username or password required.

Those of You who are curious about the Visa issue, no news, still the unfriendly pre Olympic rules are in place. Maybe we can see something after the Paraolympics. maybe October 1st.

So the Olympic environment protecting measures kick in. Thousands of companies have been temporary shut down, as well as a lot of stinky cars are removed from the now enjoyable roads. Beijing’s new air quality has gained admiration locally and internationally. Officials have announced, they will try to keep the air clean even when Olympic athletes have left the sports venues. This sounds like a nice step.

But what happens to thousands or maybe millions of employers and employees? Will they get any compensation for not earning money. If they are not allowed to reopen after the Olympics all their assets will be worthless. Families who have invested all their savings in a production plant have now a worthless asset only a fool would be interested in now. I highly doubt Beijing will pay compensations.

Long term environment protection laws are a step in the right direction for a clean future, however short term a previous mistake will probably repeated. Changes are made suddenly, without proper notice period and the people loose. It has happened countless times in Chinas history and is about to happen again.

The Chinese stock market is suffering and a part of the reason is, China introduces laws or changes existing laws suddenly. This is not a proper business environment. Who will trust a government that changes rules unpredictably? The drop in Chinese stock prices reflects just this.

China is still a great place to make business, but it’s still nothing solid to build on. Companies should have a backup strategy just in case.

Then the Chinese government should keep in mind that China also consists of other cities with bad air.

I went for the green psycho looking Kitty. Even the cup features Hello Kitty. Awesome!

All 16 collectible Hello Kitty Dolls, these are labelled Hello Kitty Messengers.

As I’m not that crazy about MC D’s I will only get those Kittys that interest me most. Namely the Schoolgirl Kitty wearing the short skirt in the top row, left side. Then I will get the almost white innocent looking one, and one of the pinkish Kittys. Maybe one or two others for friends I think these are great items to bring as a present. These are just as Asian as Asia can be and are the most original presents You can bring home from Asia among green tea, other green specialities and fake products.