Could I possibly be cold?

I am cold.  I realize how absurd that sounds.  I'm also aware of how much grief I will get from friends and family in the States, especially those in the Midwest, for saying so.  Jeff and I consider ourselves very lucky to have escaped what has turned out to be a horrendous winter.

Being cold is one of the last things I expected here.  When we packed to come to Hong Kong, I checked the weather conditions regularly.  I kept getting the same answer:  High temperatures around 60-70 degrees (fahrenheit), lows in 50s and partly cloudy to sunny.  Sounded like a day in southern California to me.  Hong Kong sits in the northern hemisphere and is considered a humid, subtropical climate.  It's about 1,500 miles north of the equator; by contrast, Minneapolis is more than twice as far north of the equator (over 3,100 miles).  Given the weather reports and the geography, Jeff and I gladly left our jackets, sweaters and gloves at home.  In fact, we were somewhat intimidated by the prospect of the hot summers and typhoon season. In retrospect, we may have packed a little too light.  We have since learned that the coldest temperature ever recorded in Hong Kong is 32 degrees.

During our first couple of weeks here, the weather did not disappoint us.  We had beautiful sunny days, perfect for walking around and exploring the city.  Even the notorious air pollution was not very evident.  But then the clouds rolled in, just as the Chinese New Year weekend wrapped up.  On an elevator one day, I glanced up at the video display, only to see a "Cold Weather Warning," at which I laughed, because it was 55 degrees.  The hearty Minnesotan in me wondered how that could possibly rate a "warning."   Looking around, it appears the local population takes those warnings seriously.  Heavy coats, scarves, down jackets and boots started appearing on the sidewalks.  We attributed the apparel to fashion, rather than function.  But then then one morning we got up and it was so grey and misty, the beautiful view from our apartment was obscured.  In addition, we realized that our building has no heating system.  Fortunately, our building manager loaned us a space heater.  Apparently, the use of space heaters is pretty common.

While it's colder than usual right now, the grey, overcast skies are normal for February.  We have been told to expect it to warm up quickly beginning in April.  Until then, we'll be scouring the post-holiday sales for something warm to wear.


The road to Hong Kong

Bailey becomes a California girl on her 13th birthday

The opportunity to come to Hong Kong emerged last July when my company signed a letter of intent to acquire the firm where I am now working.  As we shared the news with friends and family, the most common refrain was "What about Bailey?" (our dog), or "What about the bees?"

Fortunately, the solution for our two beehives was relatively easy.  Since we started keeping honeybees a few years ago, we have been relying on the Bee Lab at the University of Minnesota (http://beelab.umn.edu/).  I attended their courses in beekeeping and participated in their Bee Squad beekeeper mentoring program.  They also have a program called "Hive to Bottle," which will manage the two colonies in our yard while we are away. 

One of the drawbacks of the opportunity to move to Hong Kong was that it was just too difficult to bring Bailey with us.  While it would have been possible to bring her, the realities were daunting.  First, Hong Kong requires a quarantine period for animals brought in from other countries.  And while there are ways to exempt out of the quarantine requirement, qualifying would have meant months of preparation and paperwork in the U.S. before putting her on an airplane.  Then there was the prospect of preparing her for air cargo.  The most direct nonstop flights are from the west coast, and the flight time alone is 15 hours.  Bailey is a pretty well-traveled dog, having accompanied Jeff on many of the road trips he takes for his sales job.  At last count, we determined that she has visited 24 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.  But her mode of transportation has always been by car.  Bailey has never been on a plane, and we started to think that at age 13, a trans-Pacific flight probably shouldn't be the way to introduce her to jet travel. 

Fortunately, my parents offered Bailey the ideal retirement spot in southern California.  Although my folks are "dog people," it's been a number of years since they have cared for one.  But they know Bailey pretty well, and she adores them.  So we began our journey to Hong Kong on January 12 with a 1,948 mile road trip from our home in Minnesota to Orange County, California.  We packed up Bailey, our luggage and ourselves and drove our Jeep through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada, before arriving in California on Bailey's 13th birthday.  As much as we hated to leave her behind, we know she is enjoying her sunny yard in Corona del Mar with two indulgent caretakers who enjoy spoiling their grand dog.  We miss her more than you can imagine, but we are grateful to my folks for giving her a good home.

Bailey enjoying her new front yard in Corona del Mar
(Photo courtesy of Maggie McCray)

 

Macau, the other SAR

TurboJet Ferry tickets from Hong Kong to Macau

Jeff studied Portuguese for five futile semesters at Georgetown, but he was glad to finally use it in Macau.   During our first weekend here, we headed off on a TurboJet ferry for the 1-1/2 hour ride to Macau.

Hong Kong and Macau are the only two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC).  Hong Kong was a British colony until the handover in 1997, while Macau was a Portuguese territory until 1999.  They operate under a "One China, Two Systems" principle, where both are autonomous territories that fall within the sovereignty of the PRC, but each maintains their own governments, police forces and legal, monetary, postal and immigration systems.  When traveling between Hong Kong, Macau and the PRC, one processes through full immigration and customs controls.  Whereas U.S. citizens need a visa to travel to the PRC, no visas are necessary to enter either Hong Kong or Macau.

Less than 40 miles southwest of Hong Kong, Macau is situated on a peninsula that is bordered by the Guangdong province of China and the South China Sea.  The economy is heavily dependent upon tourism and gambling.  Based on what we saw there, business is good.  There are multiple ferry services running from Hong Kong, Kowloon, Shenzhen and other cities with departures as often as every 15 minutes.  Perhaps it was due to the impending holiday week, but our ferries were quite full in both directions.

An older building reflecting the Portuguese architectural influences

At the ferry terminal in Macau, touts are waiting to pounce on passengers like us who disembark without telltale signs of excitement at the prospect of hitting the slots.  We maneuvered our way through the crowd and out into the parking lot at the front, where dozens of casino buses offered free rides to the center of the city.  We jumped on one bound for Casino Lisboa and soon found ourselves surrounded by the flashing and beeping of one-armed bandits and gaming tables that sound the same in any language.  We spent our day in Macau just wandering the streets with no particular plan.

Jeff & Carolyn in front of an aquarium
at the MGM Grand Casino in Macau

At one point, we decided it would be nice to eat Portuguese food for lunch.  Finding a suitable restaurant proved more challenging than we expected, so we stopped a couple to ask for help.  They turned out to be Portuguese and had lived in Macau for many years.  This was Jeff's big opportunity to practice his Portuguese.  They spent about an hour with us, amused and patiently showing us historic sites like the city hall and proudly pointing out Portuguese tiles and other architectural features.  They insistently walked us to all three of their favorite Portuguese restaurants.  Perhaps thankfully, they told us a prior commitment prevented them from joining us for lunch, but their recommendation proved a winner: we were the only non-Portuguese in the restaurant.

The Portuguese influence is evident in the building architecture, street pavers and large number of Catholic churches in Macau.  But the large, shiny casinos and shopping malls built by the Flamingo, Wynn, MGM Grand and others are starting to dwarf the beautiful old architecture.   Before we left, we wandered through a couple of the big casinos and even managed to lose 20 Macau dollars, which translates into about two and a half US bucks.  The contrast between the unique, Portuguese style streets of the older part of Macau and the new, shiny casinos that look the same no matter where you are in the world is one that we will remember.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

We have been hearing the phrase "Kung Hei Fat Choi" a lot over the past few days.  It seems to be the traditional greeting around the New Year holiday.  At first I thought it simply meant "Happy New Year."  But with a little research, I found out it really means "May you become prosperous."

The actual date of the Chinese new year changes each year because it is based on the lunar calendar.  Lunar New Year's day is usually the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice, and this year that is Friday January 31.  For the quantitatively-oriented, starting the New Year on the 31st is a hard concept to grasp.  The holiday extends through the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, so businesses are closed through Monday February 3 at least.

The lobby of Carolyn's office building, World-Wide House

Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday celebration in Hong Kong of the year.  In the run up to the holiday, we have seen trees decorated with "red packets" spring up everywhere.  Building entryways have become crowded with mandarin trees and large chrysanthemum plants.  Shopping (which is normally the center of the universe in Hong Kong) shuts down and people typically have a big New Year's Eve dinner with family.  One particularly amusing tradition is that on day three, you are supposed to avoid family as that is the day you are likely to quarrel.  On New Year's Day, there will be a Lion Dance outside our apartment building and a big parade in Central, followed by fireworks over Victoria Harbour in the evening. 

Red packets and crisp, new bills for giving "Lai See"

Gift giving is a big part of the New Year celebration, and the "red packets" are the key to it all.  Red packets, or "Lai See" which means "good luck," are little red envelopes, typically with Chinese characters on the front.  One puts money into them to give away.  But there is an art to that as well.  It's customary to put just a single bill into the envelope (not multiple bills or coins), and the bills should be new and crisp.  People literally line up for hours at the banks to exchange their money so that it will be just right.  The amount given should be an even number, and it should not involve a "4" since the words for "four" and "die" sound very similar in Cantonese, and that's considered bad luck.  The red packet should be presented with both hands.  And the last rule to remember is that you don't hand them out until after the New Year has started.

After a crash course on all of this from a work colleague, I went on a frantic search for some red envelopes and crispy new bills to put in them.  The housekeeper and doormen at our apartment building seemed genuinely pleased to receive the little red envelopes from us, while somewhat amused at our attempts to say Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Jeff presenting our doorman with Lai See

Home Sweet Home

Our home base in Hong Kong for now is at #2 Macdonnell Road, in an area referred to here as "the east mid-levels."  The island of Hong Kong is very hilly, and the Central district is situated right on the water, across from the Kowloon Peninsula (which is also part of Hong Kong).  The mid-levels is a residential area that sits on the side of the mountain above Central and below Victoria Peak (altitude = 1,811 feet), the top of the mountain. 

Since space is so limited in Hong Kong, most housing is in high-rise apartment buildings.  Our flat is on the 27th floor and overlooks Central.  We are in a "serviced" apartment, a pretty common form of housing here.  Serviced apartments are a hybrid between a furnished apartment and a hotel suite.  Ours is about 650 square feet, has one bedroom, one bath, a sitting/dining area and a wall containing tiny  appliances that Jeff refers to as the "Barbie kitchen." 

Despite the significant downsizing from our house in Minnesota, we are very comfortable here and love the great view from our perch.  We have already started looking for a larger, more permanent place, but aren't in a big hurry.  The building is in a great location - I have gladly traded a nasty Twin Cities commute for a one-mile walk down the hill in the morning (and yes, I have to hike back up in the evening, but I need the exercise).  A real bonus is that my daily walk to and from the office traverses the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens.

Our view of the Central district and Victoria Harbour from the 27th floor of 2 Macdonnell Road

The year of the Horse

A Green Wood Horse in Macau to celebrate the New Year

Jeff and I have the good fortune to celebrate New  Year's twice this year - as usual on January 1 and then again during the Chinese New Year on January 31.  We hope this means that 2014 will have twice the luck and fortune for us as we embark on a new adventure.  Carolyn has landed a new job overseeing the integration of a company her employer acquired in Hong Kong.  Jeff's company is being very supportive and has asked him to head up Asian sales.  We expect to be in Hong Kong for 18-24 months.

We arrived in Hong Kong one week ago, as the city begins its preparations for New Year's celebrations.  We have learned that 2014 will be the year of the Horse.  According to http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/2014/2014Zodiac.htm, the Horse is a favorite animal of the Chinese.  They believe that the Horse is not only a symbol of traveling, but also a sign of speedy success.  We hope that this means that our adventure will not only be successful, but also give us the opportunity to explore and learn more about Asia.