Learn Chinese at MIT Open Courseware.

Have you ever think what is the most popular spoken language in the world?

According to the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey (1999) the top spoken language by population is Chinese (Mandarin).

In Hong Kong, you may hear that (if you know Mandarin) there are a lot of people talking in Mandarin on the streets, restaurants and shopping malls. The reason is that there are a lot of tourists coming from China. The Chinese tourists talk in their native language, Mandarin.

So, it is beneficial to you if you can speak a little bit of Mandarin or at least understand what they say.

I found a website from MIT providing free online Chinese learning course at
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Languages-and-Literatures/21F-101Spring-2006/CourseHome/index.htm


Enjoy it.

10,000th Hits Celebrate

The hit rate of this blog reach 10,000 today. Thank you all of your support.

We'll keep on posting new articles about Hong Kong. Hope you will enjoy visiting Hong Kong.

The Year of Rat (Chinese New Year)

The Chinese New Year day in 2008 is on 7th February. You can enjoy interest fairs, shows, scenic and shopping place around the city, if you are planning to visit Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year period.

During the last 5 days of the year (2nd - 6th February this year), there are several flower markets operating in the cities. The famous one is in Victoria Park (Tin Hau or Causeway Bay MTR). You can find several kind of seasonal flowers there in the wet market section. However, some funny and low price produce are on sold at the dry section there.

The flower market normally operate from the afteroon to 11pm, for the first 4 days. And will operation till 6am in the new year eve, so please can enjoy the countdown in the market at midnight. The price of the products in the market are reducing after midnight of the new year day, so you can enjoy having cheap things there.

At the new year day, there will be a parade showing around Tsimshatsui, to celebrate the most happy date for the Chinese society. On the second day of the new year, there will be fireworks show at the harbour. There two events are the major programme during the new year.

For shopping, most of the shopping mall are still operating during new year holidays, however, some traditional chinese style shops may be closed for 1 to 3 days. However, if you go to those major shopping mall, you can still enjoy there.

More information about Chinese New Year event in 2008:

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/showtime/mega/cnyc/cny2008.jhtml

Around the World Musical - !Cityplaza

!Cityplaza, is a mall event during last Christmas. A performance group are having musical show at the shopping mall. This attract people to stay there. People can enjoy the show there while the otehr family member can shop around. This is a good way to spend a warm and happy winter holiday in Hong Kong.

This shopping mall organize different kind of performance, so you may see some when you visit Hong Kong someday.





Transport: Exit D2 or E1, Tai Koo MTR Station

Game, Comics and Cosplay

Online games, portable electronic games device, comics, animations are quite popular among the young generations in Hong Kong. Therefore, exhibitions, fairs and shows about such products are also popular in Hong Kong. Several events are held in the city among the year. For example Comic Festival and Game Show in the summer, and Animation and Comic Festival during Christmas.

These shows attract young people to join, other than the games and comics, they also like to collect the accessories of the games and comics. Moreover, during such events, cosplay show and competition are one of the major programme to attract people. Cosplayer are acting as a role play in the story of a comic, or game. They may dress up like the image of the comic and let people to take photos. For competitions, the cosplayer are trying their best to win the prize.

That's quite interesting and worth the see the young culture in Hong Kong.

Steamed Rice

"Steamed Rice" is one of the famous food provided in Chinese restaurant, you can order it during "Yum Cha", especially in morning session.

It is simple, just rice, steamed with some meat, for example, chicken legs, pork chops or beef meat. However, it is one of the very traditional chinese style breakfast in the old chinese society. Since most of the Chinese are farmers in the past, they need engery for their daily work, rice is a good source of energy, so they ate rice in the morning.

Have a good feel of steam rice, you can find it in most Chinese Restaurant, those place of "Yum Cha"

Shing Mun Reservoir

Shing Mun Reservoir is one of the country park that is famous for its monkeys. There are a lot of monkeys out there.

Last Sunday, my family went to BBQ at Shing Mun Reservoir. We enjoyed a great time there.

Left: The reservoir is calm.

Right: A closer look at the reservoir.

Left: The map of Shing Mun

Right: BBQ, chicken wing, corns...

The naughty monkeys played around and take our sandwiches and corns. See the video below:

Actually, the country parks of Hong Kong are very beautiful and worthy for visit.

Transport:
Green Mini Bus 82 from Tsuen Wan MTR
Green Mini Bus 94A from Tsuen Wan West MTR
Taxi to nearest MTR Station: Tsuen Wan

More information at
http://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/country/cou_vis/cou_vis_cou/cou_vis_cou_sm/cou_vis_cou_sm.html

However, according to Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, feeding any wild animals in banned area is illegal, the maximum fine will be HK$10,000.

HK Marathon 2008, 17 Feb 2008

HK Marathon will be her 11th anniversary on 17 Feb 2008. It is a big Day for all runners.

HK Marathon is recognised as the biggest sport event in Hong Kong. Over 40000 runners participated in the 2007 contest.

I ran HK Marathon for 3 years and will join Half-Marathon (22km) this year. It is a really big physical and mental challenge to me.

Hong Kong citizens are becoming more aware of their health. We do exercise regularly.

Jogging and running are the most popular among the varieties of sports.

You can find quite a lot of people, either youngster or elderly running and jogging in the government owned running tracks.


More information about HK Marathon 2008 at HK Marathon.

The one in orange is me. hahaHA...

Ocean Park Hong Kong

I have been to Ocean Park last week. It is very crowded, just like walking in Mong Kok. Since, this is a period of special event about Christmas in Ocean Park. Besides those original events such as Jelly Fish, Shark, Ocean Theatre, Giant Panda, Cable Car, the theme park also organized some other events like ice-skating show, Christmas Tree Lighting show, swinging miracle and Santa's cattage etc. However, such special events are provided until 1st Jan. :)

By the way, the theme park is providing more and more new stuff, you can see there are constructions work besides the park, there will be new facilities and hotels coming in the future.

The theme park also cooperates with Ngong Ping 360, purchasing ticket of Ocean Park with the used ticket of Ngong Ping 360 will receive a 10% discount, and vice versa.

Transport: CityBus Route 629 from Exit B, Admiralty MTR

Information:
Ocean Park - http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/
Ngong Ping 360 - http://www.np360.com.hk/

Japanese Food

I love Japanese Food! There are some gorgeous restaurants, some for set lunch/dinner, and some just for sushi.

Normally, we can find a Japanese Food Restaurant in any district, almost in every shopping arcade. In most area that tourist will go, you can find a series of Japanese Food Restaurant, from high class to "down-to-earth" type. Enjoy it. Most of the Japanese food in Hong Kong are in good quality and reasonable price. :)