Our garden

Thurs. 5-15...Macau Day 2

TODAY WAS SUNNY!!!! partially....but it was good











We started our day at the cultural center. We sketched for an hour, then went through the museum to see the exhibit.





































We went down to the square again to have lunch at a Portuguese restaurant. I had to take another picture of this yellow church since it was sunny...and there were less people so you can actually see the funky ground. haha










In the afternoon we visited a couple temples.











The roof details were amazing and very ornate...



























The inscense rings were as tall as a person at one temple.
















In the back was a huge garden....















And lastly, a view from the front of our beloved Hotel Royal.....

Wed 5-26. Macau

Today we went to Macau, which was occupied by the Portuguese. We took a ferry over Wednesday morning. Our hotel, the Hotel Royal (with cheese) was quite a treat...





We went to a beautiful garden....FINALLY. In Asian culture, the garden is the highest form of art. Everything, from color to placement to number, means something. Even though it was raining and it felt like we were walking in pea soup, it was beautiful.




















































































The view from the fort.

We went back to the hotel, and had the most fabulous American buffet dinner.

Fri. 5-19. Villages

FRIDAY.
Old Territory: traves, rituals, & rooms...

bus tour of ancestral villages in Fanling & Kam Tin. Leung Yuk Tau, then Kat Hing Wai, then Shui Tau Tsuen & Shui Mei Tsuen (water's head village and water's tail village).

I love the roof lines of the old houses. Male Birthrights include a 700 square foot lot in order to build a 3 story house, from which floors are usually rented out. These are replacing the old, abandoned, and overgrown houses.

There are a lot of tourists (both foreign and local) that come through these villages... in Kat Hing Wai there were little old ladies with black hats that chased you down and demanded money to take pictures with them....creepy. There was no way out, other than to pay them.

Every once in a while there is a building that is a reminder of the Western Influence....

We sketched at an abandoned village....

And we climbed a tree that had overgrown an old house...they call it the Tree House....

It was a great day.

Thurs. New Territories: Vertical Sprawl & Search for Place

Today in our language lesson we learned proper table manners....and how to use chopsticks.... to pick up a lone PEANUT.

After we learned proper table manners, we went to the historic Luk Yu Tea House to demonstrate what we had learned. We had "Yum Cha", or Dim Sum, together with our Mandarine teacher. It was a lot of fun, but it is surprisingly hard to eat while you are drinking hot tea. At the end of it all, wo bao le (I was full).






We took a bus to the New Territories and went to Sunshine City. The Podium city is very strange. It is out in "nature", with mountains and forests everywhere...except for all the towers that are exactly alike, except for the color. 6 to 12 towers sit on top of a podium "city in a box", complete with mall, wet market, restaraunts, public spaces, arcades, pools, playgrounds, etc. The city-scape is incredibly dense and has an enormous, completely intimidating scale.

Prof Sanders and Prof Macloud pretended to be introducing us to Hong Kong and showing us where to live. We made the show people believe we were interested in buying, so they gave us a tour of 3 or 4 apartments.... now, when I say apartment, this is by no means a luxurious or spacial apartment like they might have you believe. Instead, most have 2 or 3 bedrooms, approximately 6' x 6'. Can YOU imagine living in a 6' x 6' bedroom? It was nauseating. Truely.

After seeing the Podia, we went to the Festival Walk Mall, by Arquitectonica. They love to shop over here. Man. Mall after mall after mall.

Wednesday. Constructed Section and Infrastructure.

::Enter Typhoon Chanchu::
HEADLINES: Group of Floridians visit Hong Kong...bring storms with them!






Today we transversed the city without ever touching the ground. It is completely possible to walk the city by using the malls. There is an incredible network of elevated walkways that connect the buildings.....and malls. Hundreds of malls. All indoor, of course. We spent all day inside these malls.


















We ended early (1 pm) due to the weather. A couple of us ended our day with McDonalds. mmmmm, tastes just like home :)