Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Ngoc Linh Do, from University of Waterloo, Canada
August 27, 2012, Monday
I arrived in Hong Kong at 7pm. This was the very first time I have been in Hong Kong; therefore, I was full of excitement, curiosity, as well as nervousness. I could not wait to explore the city. While waiting for the CityU Shuttle Bus, I became friends with a very nice girl from Texas, who is now my best friend here.
The Shuttle Bus came at 9pm and took us to the CityU residence. Slowly, the city appeared beautifully and colourfully in the dark night. I was a little bit reluctant about my decision to go to Hong Kong. However, I was happy that I came here. I was in love with the city at the first night, first sight.
August 28, 2012, Tuesday
I woke up quite early in my first morning in Hong Kong. The residence was so quiet and peaceful with birds chirping and a sweeping sound of the morning workers around the residence. I started to unpack my belongings and got ready to go to the university campus. My first impression about the campus was that “CityU’s campus is smaller than my home university.” Nevertheless, when I had my campus tour I realized that the facilities are superb. The school provides an excellent study environment to students.
While we were at the welcoming area for international students, we had a chance to see the president of CityU, Professor Way Kou, who looked nice and friendly. My first day at the university ended with a dinner with my new friend at Canteen 1; the food was not as good as I had expected but I had a good time with her there.
While we were at the welcoming area for international students, we had a chance to see the president of CityU, Professor Way Kou, who looked nice and friendly. My first day at the university ended with a dinner with my new friend at Canteen 1; the food was not as good as I had expected but I had a good time with her there.
The third night in Hong Kong was well spent on the Peak. It was utterly fascinating. A group of exchange and international students decided to go to the Peak this night. The Peak is known as one of the famous attractions in Hong Kong. The old style tram caught my attention; I honestly thought it was there for display, surprisingly enough we actually rode it. It was a pleasurable ride because the higher it got to the top, the more and more impressive the night view of the city was. As we reached our destination, the full view of the city at night emerged right in front of my eyes. This view was incredible and shocking. The city is lit brightly by millions of colourful lights which created a very beautiful picture.
August 30, 2012, Thursday
My fourth day was at the busiest area in Hong Kong, Mong Kok. I was overwhelmed by how crowded the place was. People were everywhere, trying to get through one to another. I wondered where all of those people were coming from. The streets were full of stores with all kind of goods varying from cheap prices to expensive ones. I was there from evening until midnight, but the crowd never lessened. It seemed to me that the city never sleeps. The local students also took my friends and I to a popular clubbing street known as Lan Kwai Fong. The street was packed with people dressed up formally drinking and having fun. After coming to Mong Kok and discovering the many things it has, I figured I would most definitely come back here later in time.
August 31, 2012, Friday
On Friday, I was taken to Victoria Harbour which has a very nice view of the city at night. Every night at 8 o’ clock, there is a light show called the Symphony of Lights that attracts many visitors. As we reached our destination, the show began. In my point of view, it was such an amazing scene in Hong Kong. The buildings along the harbour located on the opposite side were illuminated into numerous colourful lights shooting out into the sky in every direction. Later, we took a ferry to go to the other side of the harbour in order to get a full view of the city. It was a beautiful sight, one of the best since I’ve arrived to Hong Kong. The seawater was also brightened by the lit buildings conveying a sparkling scene.
Labels: 2012/2013 Semester A
Monday, September 17, 2012
Panhuber Christian, from University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Austria
September 8, 2012 (Saturday)
After arriving in Hong Kong for nearly one and a half weeks, my friends and I decided that we should live the city for
the first time. Going to the beach seemed a great idea to experience Hong Kong’s
beautiful nature. Therefore we took
the ferry from Central all
the way to Lamma Island as we have been told that the beach
there was beautiful.
Being spontaneous, we ended up doing
more hiking than swimming as we had planned. I
would say the highlight of the day was when we walked through woods full of spiders. We had fun watching my friend, who was
not particularly fond of spiders, being scared to death. Luckily,
we finally managed to find the beach and enjoy the sea for the first time in Hong
Kong.
September 9, 2012 (Sunday)
On Sunday we decided to visit the beach again, this time to the Sai Kung Beach. After taking diverse means of transport and a 40 min walk which was not tough at all thanks to
the beautiful landscape along the way, we finally arrived.A couple of meters away from the beach, we found what we were actually looking for: A small waterfall with a narrow but deep pond suitable for some cliff diving. Having survived a couple of jumps from the cliff, we decided to head home. Only to find that there were amazingly long queues at the bus station. After a long ride, we were finally back to civilization.
September 12, 2012 (Wednesday)
Monday to Wednesday are
the days in which my lectures are concentrated. Today, all my courses officially
started and so I was busy with
attending
different classes, out of which the most challenging had to be Mandarin.
September 13, 2012 (Thursday)
As Hong Kong is a really interesting city and there is so much to see, my
friends and I took every chance to explore the city. Today, we decided to do a
bit of sightseeing in Hong Kong
Island near Central. Following the route suggested in a travel-guide book, we
passed by temples, museums, parks and used the Central-Mid-levels escalator which is supposed to be the longest outdoor
covered escalator system in the world (pretty long title, isn't it?). The escalator brought us all the way
uphill from Central to the Mid-levels without having to take a lot of stairs.One of the highlights of the tour was Hong Kong park, a beautiful park surrounded by skyscrapers (of course) with a waterfall and artificial caves.
September 14, 2012
After doing a bit of research on the internet, we decided to visit the Tsin Shan monastery in the New Territories today. Equipped with a screenshot of Google Maps, we were pretty confident of finding our way
there.
The maps were more difficult to read than expected, so instead we chose to follow our gut instincts and chose the path that we believed would
lead us to our destination. Our instincts were proven to be wrong, as
after searching for an hour we still saw no sign of the monastery. That’s when we
resorted to the old-school method -
using a compass, and found out that we went in the exact opposite direction. Those who have actually been following my blog may have recognized that my sense of
orientation is… virtually non-existent. That left us with no choice but to head all the way back, to the
other end of the path which thank
god led up to the right direction.
Although, after
climbing a steep road uphill, we
found out that the monastery had already closed half an hour ago.
Labels: 2012/2013 Semester A
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