Attraction of Hong Kong Culture

Art is always reflect the culture and people behind a country. There is a always a group of fans of comic or manga in Hong Kong. Each locally created comic character and story reflect the society of a period of time. On Sep 28 (Fri) 2-3pm is the grand opening of Hong Kong Comic Avenue. It opens for the public for FREE. Don't miss it if you are on your Hong Kong vacation. For more details, check out their site here.

Hong Kong Food Expo

Are you an adventurer when it comes to food?

I sure is one of those people. Maybe, it is running in my blood.

If you happen to be in Hong Kong for vacation or whatever reason between Aug 16-20, don't miss these events in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Here is the schedule:

Aug 16-18 Hong Kong International Tea Fair

Aug 16-18 International Conference and Exhibition of the Modernization of Chinese Medicine and Health Products

Aug 16-20 HKTDC Food Expo 2012

All of these events are open to the public.

What I love about the Food Expo is that you can do your Hong Kong food shopping of any kind of food of different nationalities. Food from the supermarkets to specialty and seasonal shops.

If you can't make it to any one of these events, check out our shopping guide here.

For more details of the events, check out the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre web site

Have fun shopping!!!

Celebrating 15th Anniversary of The Handover

Do you happen to be on Hong Kong vacation on Jul 1 this year?

If so, you don't want to miss the firework that you will never forget for the rest of your life.

This year is very special. It is celebrating the 15th anniversary of The Handover which was taken place in 1997.

Not only there are a lot of events for celebration, but also special arrangement of this year's firework.

It will start at 8pm on Jul 1 (Sun) which will last for 23 minutes. There will be a firework design of "HK 15" showing up. And it will show 24 times. The "15" will show as Chinese.

If you are around, don't miss the BIG scale firework. It will be phenomenal as usual.

Graduation Party

I believe many of you received graduation party invitation(s) like we did last month. Over here in the States, people celebrate high school graduation. Think it back, none of us had any celebration like this.

Actually, in the Asian culture, study well and get good academic results are children responsibilities. Parents don't celebrate it. Going further back, in the Chinese history, there was only one occasion that people celebrated.

If someone passed the exam which allowed that person to get a position in the government, his family and friend celebrated. It is because that person's life was pretty much set. For people from the wealthier families, they definitely celebrated. That was a great opportunity to build more relationships with famous and richer people. Nowadays, a university graduate can't even have a job guarantee.

So, do you think that Chinese expect too much from their children? Or our kids expect a lot from us?

Chinese Herbal Tea

Walking in the busy streets of Hong Kong, you may see some stores putting out several bowls of soup covered with lids. Or you may see an 8-feet tall steam metal pot.

These stores specialize in the traditional Chinese herbal tea, called “Leung Cha” (directly translated as “Cool Tea”). It is very popular in the southern China due to the hot and humid climate. The ingredients are mostly herbs and sometimes with tortoise shells. They may sound scary to you. To prepare it, it usually takes from 4 hours up to 3 days of simmering. Although it takes a while, the tea is awesome to neutralize the “poison” inside your body.

I read the Hong Kong Chinese newspaper online on a daily basis to keep track of what is going on in my hometown.

There was a recent article about the Hong Kong government is going to list this traditional Chinese herbal tea as non-material cultural heritage. In 2006, the Chinese government had already completed the process.
I always heard the Chinese said that beer has the same function as the Chinese herbal tea. I had never tested if both work the same. But if you drink beer once in a while, pay attention whether your pimples and/or constipation getting better or not after that.

Garage Sale

I was never big on buying or using 2nd hand stuffs. I think there are 2 reasons:

1) My parents had never bought anything 2nd hand, including cars.
2) There is never a garage sale in Hong Kong.

What did I just say? Yes....there is no or never a garage sales in Hong Kong. So, what do people do with the stuffs that they don't want?

Here are the 3 common ways to get rid of your "junks":
1) If you happen to know some friends or relatives not to mind 2nd hand stuffs, you can give to them.

2) Donate to the charitable organizations.
Some of them have scheduled collections throughout the years in each district. You can drop your "junks" at their collecting centers any time. A small portion of them will be on sale for collecting more fund for the organization. Most of them will be sent to the third world countries.

3) Last thing you would want to do is to throw them away.

Unfortunately, this mindset is heavily rooted in the Asian countries. Some people do make a lot of money in the garage sale, but not in Hong Kong or other Asian countries.

Hong Kong's Fund-Raising in the Street

This is the lable I got, during this past trip back to Hong Kong, after approached by a student and the money donation.

During the weekends in Hong Kong, you may be approached by a or a few students in school uniform with a small stack of labels and a bag for collecting money. They are doing the fund-raising.

This kind of activity started since when my parents were in high schools. The charitable organizations would submit their request of fund-raising to the government. Once it is approved, these organizations would request the volunteers from the high schools. Each volunteer would receive a small stack of labels which is about a couple hundreds of them and a bag for collecting money.

Each student or volunteer will approach each passer-by and ask him/her if he/she would be interested in buying a label. You can donate whatever you want to get a sticker. Once the money is put into that bag, there is no way for that volunteer to take it out. So, it is very secured. This weekends fund-raising activity always ends by noon.

Sometimes, you may see the elderly as volunteers.

If you travel in Hong Kong one day and approached by a person as described above, please extend your helping hands.

Refund and/or Exchange Merchandize

I just came back from the trip of visiting my hometown, Hong Kong. When I lived there, I didn't pay attention to some of the places and people around me. I thought that it was just a normal life. Living here in the States for a few years, I realized that how big the difference of the culture and people from where I came from. So, I want to share with you some of my experience from this trip. Hope you enjoy it.

In the western countries, we take refund or exchange any purchased merchandize for granted. But it's not in China and Hong Kong.

In essence, anything purchased cannot be refunded, returned or exchanged. Once you checked out at the cashier, you, being the customer, have 100% responsibility. If you find out that the cloth you bought was torn right after stepping out of the store, you are not allowed to take it back. It's too late.

Once in a while, a mom-and-pop store may offer for the exchange of sizes. But this is very, very rare. It also depends on at what time you bring in for the exchange. If the store just opened for the day without any sales yet, the owner will tell you either to buy something more or come back later during the day. Otherwise, it will bring her/him a bad luck.

Also, the merchandize you are going to exchange must worth the same or more than what you purchased before because they will not give you back the refund of the amount difference.

So, we live in the place that allow us to do the exchange, return and/or refund should be grateful.

Chinese Bridal/Baby Showers?

My friend's, Valerie, son is going to marry an Asian girl soon. Her future daughter-in-law, Maggie, is partly Japanese and partly Chinese. And Valerie wants to host an Asian-themed bridal shower to give Maggie a surprise.

So, Val called me and asked for the opinions and advice. One thing she mentioned to me that, being an American, she had never been to any Asian shower so she really doesn't know where to start.

My mission is not only give the advice to Val, but also give her some cultural and historical background to understand the Asian cultures.

First of all, I told her that there is NO shower in most Asian countries, especially in China. All the expenses are paid by the newly wed or parents-to-be. Unlike here in America, everybody gets together and buy everything for the newly wed and/or the baby. But that is not the way in China. Some friends or relatives may buy some gifts. But no one is obligated to buy something or give money in the showers like here.

I even told Val that when I first heard my husband, my boyfriend back at the time, tell me about the baby shower, my first response was thinking people getting together to see the first shower the baby has. It sounds funny...hehehe....But for an American, you may know from this example about the Asian reaction.

Another advice I told Valerie that she has to make sure that where her future daughter-in-law exactly came from. 'Cos we sometimes mix up China, Japan or other Asian countries easily. But their cultures are very different even though a lot of them originated from China. You don't want to mix in something and do it wrong to cause any bad feeling. If she can't find out or be sure, she may want to skip the Asian theme part to avoid the mistakes.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun talking with Val and help out my friend to understand more about her future daughter-in-law. :-)

Mums

During this time of the year, you always see a lot of mums in front of people’s houses. There are so many different colors. And they bring out the lives of the fall.

Mums are a kind of chrysanthemum. Chinese call mums the baby chrysanthemum. There were a lot of poems appreciating chrysanthemum since 200B.C. Chinese describe it as a strong gentleman among flowers because it can stand in the cold weather so long and still bring out the colors. The original Chinese chrysanthemum was yellow. It was then developed to different colors and varieties in the 1100s.

Chrysanthemums have been used in Chinese medications for 3,000 years. The most common usage is in tea which helps the body to release the extra heat. Another function of it is for longevity.

Interesting, huh?

Casino & Gambling

After the Beijing Olympic, are you still curious about the culture and customs of China? Maybe not. In this long weekend, some of my co-workers are going to the casino to gamble. It inspired me to share this with you.

Casino and gambling sound like only in the western world. But it has been in China for centuries. Differences are the games, casino setting and/or locations.

Games are "Mahjong", "Due Chong" (the numbers you will get by shaking 2 dices in a cup), "Fish, Shrimp and Crab" and "Pai Guo". They are all Chinese originated games.

Setting and locations have played a very important part throughout the history, especially to the casino owners. Most of them believe in "Fung Shui" which will affect them of how many people coming into their casinos and losing money.

Of course, gamblers have their own strategies to be anti-casino's "Fung Shui".

One of the best examples is the first casino in Macau. The setup of the main entrance makes it like a big mouth which will attract people's money. But gamblers believe that going into the casino from the back door and leave at the main entrance will take care of it.

I am not big in gambline. But I think that that would be something interesting to share with you. Have a wonderful long weekend.

Antiques

When we were in the family cook-out today, we talked about the "antique" shops in the United States. This made me want to share with you something more about this topic in China.

In America, when you step into an antique shop, 9 out of 10 sell the merchandises that people don't want. In other words, they are junk. Once in a while, you find a piece that has a great story behind it and very invaluable. 1 out of 10 stores do sell the antiques very valuable and nice. I did step into these shops before. But their price is very "nice", too.

If you go to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, antique shops are for the rich people. Every piece in the shops has its story. Most of them came from the emperors, royal families or families that were very famous and/or had a lot of influence in the Chinese history. Each piece costs $10,000 easy. Of course, you have to be very knowledgeable about the Chinese history. Otherwise, you can pay a fortune for nothing.

Extra Holidays in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, there are 2 extra public holidays in May. One is Labor Day(May 1) & Buddha’s Day(May 12).

These 2 holidays were actually added about 2 years after the Handover of Hong Kong back to China.

If you were working in Hong Kong 5 days a week, you have about 18 extra paid public holidays. Isn’t that great?

Happy Mother’s Day for all the mothers.