Hong Kong

Nimen hao dajia, from Hong Kong! I've had an excellent time the past few days here in HK. Jet lag has been pretty tough, but I'm finally starting to get over it I think. My friend from W&L, Arthur, who lives on Hong Kong Island, has been an amazing tour guide. After a ridiculously long plane ride on Friday-Saturday (left the States at 8 AM on Fri. and got here at 6 PM Sat.), I arranged to meet Arthur on Sunday, and we spent the afternoon exploring Kowloon (where my hotel is). We found some cool shops, including several "outdoorsy'' stores, one of which had a climbing wall. We also took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor, which is absolutely beautiful - incredible mountains rising up out of the ocean in all directions, and skyscrapers everywhere. Monday and Tuesday were spent driving around Hong Kong Island with Arthur. We had lunch on Monday at a nice Indian restaurant in the village of Stanley, which is right on the beach, and we also checked out Stanley Market. Unfortunately, Victoria's Peak, the highest point in HK, was covered in dense fog (and then a torrential downpour of rain), so there was no view, but we still had fun in the cafe on the summit. I did a little shopping at Pacific Place, one of the nicest malls I've ever seen in my life. We basically drove all over the island on Monday and saw everything. I've had some great meals - Cantonese, Thai, lots of dim sum! - and the city has so many incredible restaurants. I've also been amazed by how efficiently the city runs - the subways and public transit are easy to navigate and, in my opinion, everything is much more technologically advanced than in most US cities. I spent some time in Times Square yesterday and then went back to Arthur's place for the highlight of my HK experience - a hot-pot dinner! A hot-pot is basically just a smorgasborg of various meats and vegetables that you dip with your chocksticks into a large pot of boiling, spices-laden soup to cook. It was so good, and Arthur's family was really nice to include me for such a wonderful meal. After that we went to Mid-Levels and Soho to check out some of the clubs for a while, and then I returned home pretty exhausted. I'm still at the hotel now but will leave shortly for my flight from HK to Guilin. In the morning, I'll take a riverboat down the Li Jiang to Yangshuo. Thanks for checking in, and I hope everyone's well!