Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens

Last Saturday I went to Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens in Shenzhen. It is a mixture of tourism and scientific research opened in 1988. The garden is named after an artificial lake, Fairy Lake, situated in the middle of the garden. It is located in the Luohu district (northeast part of the city – my apartment is in the west), approximately an hour and 15 minutes by subway & bus from my apartment. It’s probably Shenzhen’s most beautiful park. Admission was 20 kuai ($3). It’s extremely large with foothills, valleys, rivers, and lakes before climbing half-way up Wutong Mountain (the highest peak in Shenzhen). The park is adjacent to Wutong in the east and the Shenzhen Reservoir to the west. The main attraction is the Hong Fa Buddhist Temple situated half-way up the mountain which was very crowded. There are also a conservation center, pavilions, trails, gardens, museums, a petrified forest, pagoda, snack bars, teahouses, as well as a vegetarian restaurant & hotel at the Temple.

The park is nice with lots of flora and fauna. It’s a pleasant, green retreat to get away from the city’s concrete towers. I did a lot of walking. Though you could have paid extra to take a bus to various destinations inside the park, I decided to get some exercise and use my legs. Just to get to the main area of the park from the entrance was probably 2/3 of a mile. Lots of hills and steps to walk (China is very much a country of hills & steps). I did not eat at the Buddhist vegetarian restaurant as I had already eaten lunch and was going somewhere else for dinner. The pagoda was really cool. It was a really tight circular stairwell to walk up but once you made it to the top, the views were great even with the ‘cloud cover’ (u hmm, smog...ssh…I didn’t say that – that offends the Chinese). The trails were nice. The lake was pleasant with families riding in little motorized as well as pedal boats. The petrified forest was interesting. I walked around for probably like 4 hours before heading back for the exit.

Another Stir-Fry Dish

Last Friday night, I made a quick little stir-fry meal consisting mainly of brown rice, tofu, and rice cakes.  I also added Ma Po tofu seasoning (Szechuan-style), black fungus, dried shiitake mushrooms, garlic powder, black pepper powder, onion powder, soy sauce, garlic chili sauce, sugar, water, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and rice bran oil.

All you have to do is add the frozen rice cakes to boiling water until they rise to the surface (about 5 minutes) before stir-frying them.  I also just steeped the mushrooms and fungus (the fungus will double in size) in warm water for about 20 minutes before adding them to the wok.

I don’t know if it was as good as some of my other meals I have made (really needed ‘greens’), but it was still very good.  This meal is very spicy/hot (due mainly to the Szechuan seasoning).  It makes my nose run a little when eating it but that’s OK!

Avenue of Stars

After arriving in downtown Hong Kong via the ferry, we ate lunch at an Indian buffet in Causeway Bay and then went to the area/district of Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) to sight-see.  We decided to go to an area (tourist trap, really) called Avenue of Stars (opened ’04) before checking-in at our nearby accommodations.  It’s loosely modeled after Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and since I have been to both, I believe HK’s is not as nice though some may disagree with me.  Though the views are beautiful of the Victoria Harbor waterfront, there are few places to eat, sit, get shade etc.  The Avenue of Stars honors celebrities of the HK film industry.  There are approximately 100 stars though I didn’t recognize any of them.

This biggest draw on the ‘Avenue’ is the statue of Bruce Lee which is really well-done.  Dedicated to the deceased (1973) martial artist, it shows a classic Bruce Lee pose.  Lee was born in America to parents of HK heritage but was raised in HK until his late teens before emigrating to America.  Lee then went back to become a HK actor.

Also nearby are the Museum of Art, Clock Tower, Cultural Center, and Space Museum.  We went into the Museum of Art ($10 HKD) which was very modern and nice.  There’s also a small replica of the 2008 Summer Olympics Torch nearby.

Shekou Port Ferry

A few weekends ago a friend and I went back to Hong Kong to hang out.  But this time, we took the ferry to get there instead of the subway alternative.  The ferry is more expensive but less troublesome and quicker; both in terms of traveling to Hong Kong and going through immigration.

We had to take the subway to the ferry dock at Shekou (Snake’s Mouth) port which is at the tip of the Nantou Peninsula in Shenzhen.  We then took the ferry to downtown Hong Kong.  You can also take the ferry to the Hong Kong Airport as well as a couple other destinations.

The ferry left around 9 am and we got to the port about 8:30 am and were probably one of the last ones to board as we just made it after buying our tickets and going through immigration.  I mean, as soon as we boarded, the ferry literally started to back up to leave.  We were able to sit pretty much anywhere we wanted (it wasn’t packed) and after a few minutes, we decided to see if we can go outside to take some photos.  We were able to exit the cabin area and stand on the stern and look behind us and take some photos.  I’ve been on ferries before but I had never been on a ferry that moves the way this one did.  This thing booked.  You could really feel the engines moving and feeling the wakes being created.  But I was surprised that no one supervises you back/out there.  I mean, really, you could fall over or push someone overboard and that’s it.  One less person in the world.  It felt like no one would know in that one second someone was there and the next second, you have one less headcount.  Was pretty weird.  It takes about 1 hour to reach Hong Kong.  It was pretty cool standing outside watching the water and landscape.  It was a cloudy morning but it became a nice day by afternoon.  The ferry was neat and would do it again.  We took the subway back home the next day by the way (saves $).  The pics below are of the ferry crossing…

More Street Food

Below are some pics of a street stall food vendor in Baishizhou that I go to a lot.  I had previously shown you street food from this area, but that was from another vendor.  I come here for the Chinese pancakes.  The ones I love are in the center row, near her; the orange-colored ones.  They’re originally triangle shaped (like a pizza slice) and then she slices them up into bite-size pieces and places them into a plastic baggie.  She’s placing my order into the bag now.  She then weighs the bag.  For one ‘pizza’ slice, it costs about 3-4 kwai (less than 70 cents).  I’m not totally sure they’re called Chinese pancakes but I think they are.  I used to call them ‘pizza slices’ as that’s what they looked like to me.  But they don’t have cheese, so they don’t taste anything like pizza.  I’m not sure really what they taste like but they’re always delicious.  They’re without doubt my favorite street food.  They’re sold in a lot of places in the city.  Sometimes they have eggs in them.  Other times garlic chives, minced scallions, diced bell peppers, sesame seeds, and God knows what else.  They’re a delicious flatbread but unlike a true pancake, I believe they’re made with dough instead of batter.  But they’re great.  If I’m really hungry, eating two ‘slices’ is no problem!

It’s funny, when I took these pics, there was a man working behind her that yelled at me for taking pics of the food I presume.  I just laughed at him, paid for it, and walked away.  The reason I was laughing was that the Chinese take pics of us laowais (foreigners) all the time, but when the shoe is on the other foot, well…give me a break!  It was getting dark, so the pics are not as bright.

Lianhua Mountain Park

During Thanksgiving weekend, I went to Lianhua Mountain Park in downtown Shenzhen to get out for some fresh air and exercise.  It’s Shenzhen’s main and most central park.  The park has a lot of open spaces, winding paths, picnic spots, and flora.  I had to take a bus and the subway to get there but it was worth it.  As you can probably see from some of the pics below, even though it was late November, the weather was still warm and flowers/plants are still in full bloom.  Lots of Chinese flying kites.  At the top of the mountain via a slightly challenging walk is a bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping; this area is the focal point of the park and you can get a bird’s eye view of the city.  Deng is striding forward and looking over the city.  The statue was erected in 2000.  Deng was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat.  Deng was a reformer who led China to a market economy.  He’s considered the ‘father’ of Shenzhen and was the force behind the development of Shenzhen as a Special Economic Zone.  Near the park are shopping, a library, museums, and concert halls.

Shenzhen Museum

After the Sport Day at my school, I took the subway and went to the Shenzhen Museum in downtown Shenzhen. It’s located as part of a wing at City Hall/Civic Center and has three floors. There’s an old museum as well as a new one. I visited the new one which opened in 2008 and is very modern. The museum mainly focuses on the history of Shenzhen from sea battles, to handicrafts to modern developments. There are many displays in English as well as, obviously, Chinese. The museum was way better than I thought it would be and was extremely well done. There were many exhibits that were exceptionally detailed with life-size wax figures. It was very cool and I would go back again as there was so much to see and read. The museum was free too. As you can see from the pics below, the exhibits are fantastic. I especially valued the one of the lady making tofu. The museum also had a veranda on the third floor between exhibits where you can sit down and get some fresh air. I took a pic of part of downtown while standing on it. The last two pics are very interesting as you can see how quickly Shenzhen has developed in only thirty years; from a farming and fishing community to now a booming city.