Hong Kong- the final city

I think we had become used to being in the minority, and now in Hong Kong we are seeing many more non-Asians; Europeans, Americans, British, and Australians are in abundance. This is a very cosmopolitan city, sophisticated and urbane, with designer shopping and upscale restaurants galore. We have been very spoiled here by the service! Our hotel, The Conrad, sits on top of a four-story mall that contains, in addition to all the stores you might see on the Champs D’Elysee, an AMC cinema, where last night we saw “He’s Just Not That Into You” in English with Chinese subtitles. In Hong Kong you reserve a seat for the movies, and on entering the theater we were given fleece blankets to cover our legs as we sat in the huge comfy seats. The theater was filled with young women who giggled and gasped all during the movie, making much more noise than would have been tolerated in a US theater, but all in great appreciation of the film. A chick flick- just what we were in the mood for.

We have not seen the sun at all since we arrived in Hong Kong, with the exception of a few fleeting minutes on the day before yesterday. A grey heavy fog lies on the harbor and between the hills, and at times it lifts enough to see the water. I took the Peak Tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, the famous site where the British retreated during the Japanese invasion of the city and found this sign advising motorists of what is probably the prevailing road condition. It would have been a marvelous view if it had been a clear day. However there is plenty to do on the ground level, and we have been to the excellent city history museum, the lovely Hong Kong Park where we saw three brides having their photos taken, and had an authentic Chinese dinner at the Hong Kong Country Club with one of Victoria’s Harvard colleagues. The subway is very easy to navigate; very modern and clean like all the subways we have been on in China. I also went to visit the Giant Pandas.

What is missing here is evidence of the ancient history that was present in mainland China. Hong Kong is much more about the future, and I suspect the standard of living is much higher. It feels like just a big, busy city, and except for the fact that the vast majority of people are speaking Chinese (Cantonese) it could be any port in the world. The influence of the British is strong- all the staff at the hotel wear formal morning suits- and all the signs in the city are in both English and Chinese. You can easily get around without needing any Chinese interpretation.

Unfortunately I developed a bad head cold over the past three days which has put a damper on my excursions. In that way the timing of our heading home is good. Tomorrow we will start our long journey into the time warp of losing twelve hours of our lives somewhere over the Pacific. We leave Tokyo just about the same time we arrive at home. I still can’t quite figure out how that works… From Hong Kong- over and out.

Seeing the Great Wall of China was like seeing the ancient buildings of Rome. I felt completely insignificant, yet aware of the tiniest, most distant connection between myself and the people who built it, and in that way was able to imagine what it might have been like to create something that would still exist centuries later. I wondered if there was anything built in the last two centuries that would still be around two thousand years later. As you approach the access area on the highway there are glimpses of the Wall lining the hills, like scales along the back of a dragon that rise and fall, then disappear behind the ridges. I hadn't realized how mountainous the land is north of Beijing, and how extraordinary it is that they brought up the stones for the bricks used to build the wall. You come up to the public area and there are at least fifty buses, all discharging Chinese tourists along with a few Koreans and Indians, who pay their admission and start the steep walk up to the first tower. It's quite windy, and you have to hold on to the railing to keep from slipping on the smooth steps which have been worn down over the years. My tour guide, Jack, seemed very nervous about my safety, and he kept asking me if I was alright as we hiked up to the top of the first ridge. I thought I did pretty well for an old lady, but maybe I looked as if I might tip right over. He said his next tour was taking a group of hikers on a four day Great Wall trek, a tour that involves sleeping in small hotels along the wall and hiking about ten miles each day. Sort of like walking the Appalachian trail only you are on pavement.

There were all types of people on the Wall, old and young, Chinese and foreign. Everyone seemed to be as amazed as I was, in awe of the vastness of it, the view from the top, the sense that it was once a lonely, cold, desolated place for soldiers to keep their post. I'm glad I added on this trip to Beijing- it was well worth the time and expense just to climb up on that wall.



Prior to the Wall excursion we stopped for an exploration of the Forbidden City, the largest surviving palace and home to the Emperor for five centuries. Right in the center of Beijing, it was, of course, swarming with tourists. I wondered how so many Chinese could be there on a Thursday morning, obviously on vacation, many with tour guides, pushing up to the gates and clamoring to get a glimpse of the various court buildings around the grounds. It felt like Disney World during school vacation week. I have seen these tourists everywhere, including at the Olympic grounds, which although empty of athletes still attract thousands of Chinese people. Now they charge admission just to go inside the buildings- the Water Cube, and the Bird's Nest stadium, and I imagine that the people who are coming to see these buildings now are the ones who couldn't afford to get into the Games last year. The Olympic grounds are probably four times the size of Tienanmen square, but there is nothing to do there other than to walk around and try to visualize what it was like last summer. It was sort of sad to see all those buildings, and the vast housing area that was built for the athletes, sitting there unused. There are still many signs around the city heralding the Olympics, including one on the hillside up by the Great Wall, and I wanted to say to the city, Get Over It! The Olympics are done, and they need to move on and find some good way to put all that infrastructure to use for the benefit of the people.

One of the things I have loved are the various signs posted around the historical and tourist sights.
Commit No Nuisance ! I have no idea what they had in mind with this one.


Perilous Hills! This was next to a wall in a garden- a little perilous but I doubt very tempting for climbers...




















A mandatory part of every tour is a visit to some sort of government sponsored store, which is always disguised as an "educational" part of your tour. For example you might be taken to the pearl store, where a young lady opens up a live oyster, demonstrates that there is indeed a pearl inside, then with great smiling and fanfare leads you into the next room where, voila! there is a huge showroom with pearl necklaces and rings galore. Or the silk factory where you get a lecture on the life of the silkworm followed by a sales pitch on the benefits of sleeping under a silk quilt ( which did look pretty cozy). The tour guides are quite apologetic about imposing these side trips to the stores, but it's clear that they are required to do this. I could not get a straight answer from any of them what exactly might be in it for them or their company, nor did I see any evidence that they were getting any credit for bringing us there. As in all stores and restaurants in China there are an overabundance of sales and wait persons, probably five for every one in the U.S. Then there are the markets, where as a Westerner you feel as if you hold the fate of the nation in your hands when you decide whether or not to make a small purchase, as the vendors call out to you to see what they have to sell and bargain ferociously for every dollar they can get from you. Victoria and I found the "copy-shops" , or knock-off market, where we made off with fake Lacoste shirts for the Schultz boys, Hermes ties for Mac and Howard, and two fake Tod's purses. We considered ourselves to be expert bargain shoppers!

Tomorrow we leave mainland China for Hong Kong- the last leg of the trip.

The Royal Treatment

Traveling on someone else’s expense account is a very nice way to get around. I have to thank Victoria for inviting me and of course Harvard for providing the American Express card that got us the free second plane ticket and the beautiful room at this five star hotel in Shanghai. Upon arrival we were swept out of the car and up to the room by a glamorous Chinese hostess- no stop at the desk- and immediately hot tea arrived along with an offer to do our laundry. There are two lovely lap pools, a very fancy spa and a roof top bar that all beckon to me, but we will save those for another day. I forgot to mention that Victoria did eventually get her suitcase in Tokyo, which was delivered battered and with a bent frame. It looked as if it had been left out on the tarmac in the rain for 24 hours. When we checked in at Japan Air on our way to China she was given about $150 in Yen, which they called "The Apology Money", compensation for not having any clothes for two days. We didn't realize the suitcase was actually damaged until we arrived in Shanghai and had to drag our luggage ourselves for the first time. Who will pay for the damage is yet to be determined...

First impressions of China are the inevitable comparisons to Japan, which was so reserved and quaint. Their culture of manners and tradition seems to permeate every part of life. There was a scene in Tokyo outside our hotel that came back to me as I had my first taste of how traffic is handled in Shanghai. In Tokyo there was a gentleman directing traffic with two large batons, and he made huge sweeping motions with them as he pointed the cars in the various directions from the intersection. Then as the last car went by him he tucked the batons under his arms, made a deep, elegant bow to the drivers and walked to the side of the road. Every part of the exercise was smooth and precise. Now imagine if Storrow Drive was eight lanes wide going in two directions, with no painted lines, and there were cars, buses, trucks, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians all going at full speed without regard to signaling or right of way. Everyone is weaving in and out of traffic, dodging each other, honking, and on top of all this the road is surrounded by heavy construction so there are no sidewalks. No one signals that they are changing lanes- instead they sort of push their way into a lane and then narrowly speed up at the last moment. This is city driving in Shanghai. Yesterday while in the tour guide’s mini van I thought I was going to be killed at least seven times as we narrowly missed buses and cars approaching from all directions. It truly is the most harrowing traffic I have ever experienced. I had to cross a road in front of the hotel- truly terrifying.

We are situated on the east bank of the Huangpu River, which cuts through Shanghai and eventually links to the great Yangtze River. All day and night there are boats going by the hotel, many of them filled with tourists, and others cargo boats bound for the sea. This side of the river has only been developed in the past 30 years, and it is amazing how many high-rises have sprung up in such a short time. The photo here was taken from the opposite bank, in the old city, where 19th century buildings that were built by the British and the French line the river. Fortunately they are protected; otherwise I’m sure they would have been torn down to make room for office skyscrapers and hotels. In 2010 they are hosting the World Expo in Shanghai, and this partially accounts for all the construction, including new subway lines that will go out to the Fair grounds.

My young and modern tour guide, Young, seemed unsure of how she should feel about all this development. She seemed to accept it as inevitable, but I could tell that she values the old; the history of and the respect for the centuries of Chinese life that she studied in college. She frequently referred to her own childhood growing up in Shanghai, and to her parents, with whom she still lives at age 25. She was truly gracious and accommodating of all my questions, which I'm sure she found strange. She told us that she majored in tourism in the university, and that her goal is to travel around the world. I gave her my phone number and told her to call me if she ever makes it to Boston. I would bet that she will.

Our tour group included two blokes from Australia, owners of a printing and media company who were doing business in China,and me. Our guide, Young, took us out of the city to the "Water Village", Zhu Jia Jiao, a 400 year old maze of canals, narrow streets and bridges where we took a boat ride and walked around in what felt like the first clear day since we got to Shanghai. I realized that it was the absence of smog that made it different. This city smog burns your eyes and gets into your hair and clothes like smoke, and I have been wearing sunglasses even though the sun is pretty much obscured by the smog, thinking that they might help protect my eyes. I see very few of the Chinese wearing sunglasses.

It was lovely to get out of the city for a few hours, however the experience was somewhat dampened by the horrendous traffic going in and out of Shanghai. Young told us that it was only in the past ten years that people have been buying so many cars( lots of them are Buicks!) and that generally women do not drive because it's considered to be too dangerous. She said her parents will not let her drive. And here's a shocking fact- nobody wears seat belts.

On Wednesday Victoria is staying in Shanghai to continue her work, and I am flying out on China Air for a whirlwind 36 hours in Beijing. It is time to see the Great Wall!

The Tsukiji Fish Market is held in a cavernous hangar- like building near the seaport starting before dawn on Saturday morning. Victoria and I got up before 5, slogged down the street to the subway in the pouring rain and made our way out there by 5:45. We stopped at MacDonald’s for real coffee and a little breakfast first, then found our way to the market. It is the largest in Japan, and one of the largest in the world; a huge, winding maze of stalls selling every imaginable, and unimaginable sort of seafood, about 450 kinds. There were writhing snake-like creatures, still alive, and octopus that stared up at us with buggy eyes. Every kind of shellfish and lots of weird looking creatures that I could never identify, all floating in plastic buckets. Surrounding all this is chaos- men in rubber boots wielding saws and machetes to cut the monstrous tunas, guys in motorized carts that careen around and could easily run you over if you’re not watching out, and none of them looking very friendly, as we, the tourists, are obviously in their way as they try to do business with the wholesalers walking around looking for the best prices. At various times the market closes down to visitors because they are so much in the way, and I understand that visiting the market is a popular after drinking hours activity for those who’ve been out all night (we noted the numerous young people slumped over on the subway at 5 am, obviously on their way home after a long night. The train reeked of booze and cigarettes)



We stopped in at a sushi place near the market on the way home and had some of the freshest fish I’ve ever tasted. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever have sushi at 6:30 am again. As so often in Tokyo everything seems to be on such a huge scale, but so controlled by the implicit sense of order and rule abiding that it all goes along smoothly.

This afternoon, our last in Tokyo, we took in a performance of the traditional Kabuki theater, the ancient entertainment for the masses that originated centuries ago. We had English language head sets so could follow the story, and at 11 am the 2000 seat theater was packed. Every so often a man standing behind us would yell out to the actors, and we couldn’t tell if he was a plant, or just an enthusiastic fan. The theme of the play was duty, honor, and the law of the shogun- the main character is accused of starting a fight with another guy, and because he was fighting inside the castle (as opposed to outside the walls) he was sentenced to death! Luckily he is allowed to kill himself (honorable suicide), which is much better than being executed. First he apologizes to the authorities for only wounding his opponent, and is mortified that he didn’t actually kill him. Everyone is very sorry for everyone else, with much remorse and bowing going on. The costumes are fabulous, as is the make-up, and as I had been to the Edo museum the day before and learned all about the era of the shoguns it was a great way to wrap up my history lesson.

What a wonderful city! Tomorrow off to China…

Businessman's Lunch

In the basement of the Tokyo Tower we found a tempura restaurant called Kikutei where you can sit at a counter in front of the kitchen and watch your meal being prepared. As each piece of tempura comes out of the deep fry it is drained for a few seconds, then the chef reaches over the counter and places it on a special piece of paper in front of you. You can also order the box lunch in which rice comes out of this huge cooker, is put into a beautiful wooden box and then covered with the pieces of tempura. Tempura is seafood and vegetables lightly coated in a batter of egg, water and flour, then quickly deep-fried; delectable, light and fresh. Here is what was served as part of the "businessman's lunch", also called a teishoku; Miso soup (with the tiniest clams floating around the broth), raw sliced mackeral, a piece of grilled cod, little slices of fresh salad veges, rice, and tempura style pieces of squid, smelt, eel, prawn, sweet potato, and one more vegetable that I couldn't identify. Dessert was black sesame ice cream. It sounds like a lot of food, and it's certainly way more than I would ever have at home, but the reality is that in Japan the portions are really small, so you end up not being all that full in the end. You get to try everything, but just little amounts. It's all incredibly healthy and low fat, and this is the way everyone seems to eat, which probably explains why they are all thin. I don't think I've seen one overweight person in the city, and I probably saw a thousand people on the subway today, not one of whom had any extra pounds.

For two nights we have been trying to get into a restaurant in the same area as the tempura place, and each night there is a line out the door and down the hall. We don't even know what they are serving. It might be a really hot singles bar or the food is worth an hour wait, so either way we can't lose. We ended up last night in a dark, smoky Yakatori place where they served cabbage with 5 tiny bowls of different sauces to dip it in as an appetizer- what I would call spa food. That was followed by a couple of tiny skewers of meat and mushrooms. By the middle of the night I was starving.

I doubt that all Japanese restaurant patrons know the names of everything they are eating. Some of the offerings are just so strange... But the presentation seems just as important as the food, and the enthusiasm and enjoyment that is so clearly part of the experience. Half the fun is trying to guess what's on your plate. I think the Japanese are as serious about their food as they are about their electronics.

A clear day in Tokyo

Today was clear and cold, and I guess the lack of smog and clouds is a rare occurrence this time of year, so I went up to the top of the Tokyo Tower for the view. At 333 meters high it is the tallest self supporting steel tower in the world. Here's a picture with Mt Fuji in the distance- also a rare view from the city. Later in the day I had a teppenaki lunch where meats and vegetables are grilled on a lava rock (heated by propane) from Mt Fuji. Delicious!

I've also enclosed a shot of Victoria trying to communicate her shoe size to the lovely salesgirl on the Ginza. Vic's suitcase has still not arrived, and we are trying to figure out if the lack of information means we will never see it, or if it truly is coming tonight. Everyone is being incredibly polite about it, but one wishes that it was okay just to scream a few obscenities into the phone, as one might with American airlines personnel.

I braved the subway on the way home from the Senso-ji Buddist temple this afternoon. It was actually very easy to navigate, and lots of signs were clearly marked in English. There was even a lovely English voice over the loudspeaker announcing the stops. I am continually amazed at how orderly and polite everyone is, and how happily they seem to follow the proscribed path of cooperation in all ways of city life. On the sidewalks there are yellow lines right down the middle, and you walk to the left, simple as that, and everyone waits at the crosswalk for the lights to change even it there are no cars coming! The shop girls are plentiful- it seems as if everyone has a job- and it seems that their one desire is to make your experience in their city as pleasant as possible. At lunch with my tour group today we discussed all the ways that Americans could improve the world by adapting some of the manners and customs of the Japanese. Can you imagine Boston with no jaywalkers?

Remember Scarlet Johannson?

It's 3 am in Tokyo and I am wide awake, trying to be quiet so not to disturb my roommate, Victoria, although I suspect she is awake too. The city is surprisingly quiet, compared to NYC in the middle of the night- no sirens, no cars going by. I think of Scarlett wandering her hotel, sleepless, but I will not be hanging out in the bar with Bill Murray... This city is huge, bigger than any I have ever seen, and the bus trip in from the airport revealed mile after mile of sprawling buildings as far as you can see. I don't have words to describe the vastness of it.

We are situated in a central location, near Tokyo station and the Ginza, which is like Madison Ave, Times Square and the Natick Mall all crushed together in many city blocks. Our hotel is a serious businessman's hotel, no frills, tiny room and a bathroom that reminds me of one on a cruise ship. Very little English is spoken at the front desk. Yesterday was incredibly long, but the 13 hour flight was comfortable thanks to business class and the kind attention of the elegant flight attendants who took care of us. I ordered the Japanese dinner, and played the "what am I putting in my mouth" game. Two rows of tiny dishes with completely unrecognizable food, but I tried everything!

Unfortunately Vicky's suitcase didn't make it over, and she has business meetings today and only jeans and a tee shirt on her back. Not to worry! Luckily I packed my little black dress, and all we needed was a belt to cinch it in (given that her waist size is about 6 inches smaller than mine) and a pair of shoes to make her look ultra Tokyo chic! So an excuse to go shopping in the Ginza was presented and we were up to the task. Within minutes many of my stereotypes of Japanese women were confirmed. Sleek, thin, stylish and moving determinedly ahead in groups of 3 and 4, they were seriously shopping at 7 pm last night. High heeled boots and mini skirts were in abundance. No evidence here of a recession in Japan. We passed through an electronics mega store, with acres of cell phones in every conceivable color and crowds of people browsing and buying all sorts of gadgets. At 9 pm the stores were still packed, restaurants were just getting going, and we were victorious (no pun intended, Vicky) with a pair of patent leather flats and a belt to match!

In three hours I am being picked up for a full day of sightseeing, including a boat ride, a tea ceremony and a visit to the Imperial Palace. I would really like to get some sleep...