Shatin - The Town of Olympic

The Equesrtian Events of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic will be held in Hong Kong. The mave venue of the competition is located at Shatin, one of a town in Hong Kong. Moreover, the two major hotels in this district are act as Hong Kong Olympic Village.

The participating team members and media workers are living in these two hotels during the games. Moreover, the district is decorated with different kind of Olympic atomsphere.

New Town Plaza, one of the main shopping mall in Shatin, decorate with several Olympic exhibition and shows. Shatin Town Hall and Shatin Central Park, which is beside New Town Plaza, also converting to a Olympic Culture Area and City Art Square.

Information of Equesrtian Events of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic:
http://www.equestrian2008.org/eng/front.aspx

New Town Plaza -
URL: http://www.newtownplaza.com.hk/eng/index.html

New Town Plaza, Shatin Town Hall, Shatin Central Park -
Transport: Exit A, Shatin MTR

Sino Centre (信和中心) & Comic World HK

Lots of young people in Hong Kong like Japanese Anime. If you have heard about DragonBall, Saint Seiya, Sailormoon, you may know why Anime are so popular. The story itself is already good enough. Together with the beautiful illustrations, Japanese Anime becomes an important interest among Hong Kong people. Apart from the annual anime show introduced before, you can also go to Sino Centre in Mong Kok.

Apart from the annual anime show introduced before, you can also go to Sino Center in Mong to find out those anime related goods. A lot of manga (comic books), illustration books, anime magazines, figures, capsule toys, VCDs and DVDs can be found there. If you think you are also interested in Japanese Anime, you can enjoy a lot in Sino Centre.

Furthermore, if you want to know more about Hong Kong's own comic culture, you can join this large function, Comic World HK 26, which will be held two times per year. The coming show will be on 24th August 2008.

Sino Centre -
Address: 582-592 Nathan Road, Mong Kok
Transport: MTR Mong Kok Station, Exit E2.

Comic World HK 26 -
Date: 24th August 2008
Venue: Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre
Application Deadline: 31th May 2008
Website: http://www.cwhk.org/php/CwDetail.php?cw_id=26 (Chinese link)
Transport: http://www.hitec.com.hk/en/hitec_transport.htm

Torch Relay in Hong Kong on 2th May 2008

Today, I have join the cheering team to the torch relay organized by my company. We wait at the road side with a group of secondary students. This is a rainly day, fortunately, not so heavy. We wait for an hour and finally saw the torchbearer running towards us.

This is the first time we saw the torch (with flame). It is wonderful and unforgetable. :)

Torch Relay in Hong Kong

The Beijing Olympic Torch Relay will be held on 2 May 2008 (Friday). Hong Kong is the first leg of China city to relay the torch. This is the second time that Hong Kong organize such activities. The last time was in 1964 (Tokyo Olympic).

There will be 120 torchbearers taking part this event. The relay activities will start from 9am to 6pm on that day. The torch will pass through several areas in the city. Besides running, the torch will also relay via dragonboat, boat, horse and wheelchair. You can enjoy this special event if you are in Hong Kong on 2 May 2008. The Golden Bauhinia Square next to Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Photo) will be the destination of the torch in Hong Kong leg.

More information will be found at http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/TorchRelay/en/index.php

The torch will transfer to Macau (Macao) on 3 May 2008.

China Space Expo – Space Odyssey

Discovering our space is one of the great curious topics in China. The history of studying our space has been applied in many different areas, such as fortune telling and farming. Nevertheless, the history of Chinese people traveling in space was not long until 2003, the first Chinese astronaut successfully stayed in space for 21 hours. It is the first step of China space exploration.

In Hong Kong, there is recently an expo related to China space exploration. I have visited this “China Space Expo – Space Odyssey” to understand the more about the history of space exploration in China. In this expo, you can see the ancient rocket used in Ming dynasty till the recent ShenZhou re-entry capsule. Space suit, astronaut sleeping bag, space water dispenser and space toilet were also displayed. In the area of space odyssey, you can also found the astronaut training equipment. There are also different test to see how fit you are, such as color blindness test, blood pressure measurement and hearing test. Test result showed that I have mild hearing deficit, since I cannot hear the sound of 500Hz. This show also provides chance for youth to understand more about space discovery, through simulation and control centers. I enjoyed understanding more about China space discovery. Finally, I bought a set of four 4D-puzzle there as souvenir. You can see the model astronaut.

[Special thanks to Tina Lee for devoting this blog]

Official Website: http://www.chinaspaceexpo.com/

Admission Fee: $80 (Weekdays) / $100 (Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays)

Venue: Pop TV Arena, Austin Road West, West Kowloon

Transport: Exit A MTR Kowloon Station, KMB Route 8、11、203E、215X、270A

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

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.

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/

The Hong Kong Jockey Club / The Hong Kong Racing Museum

The Hong Kong Jockey Club organize horse racing event twice a week, except summer vacation.

Horse Racing is popular in Europe and United States, so we are not introducing how to bet here, just let you know how to go to the racecourses.

Happy Valley Racecourse
Transport: MTR Exit A, Causeway Bay Station

Sha Tin Racecourse
Transport: KCR Racecourse Station

The is a "Racing Museum" located at Happy Valley Racecourse, you can visit it during non racing days. The museum are introducing the history of teh development of horse racing in Hong Kong, also telling the major event of Hong Kong racing.

Opening Hours: 11am- 5pm Tuesday - Sunday (For those racing days in Happy Valley: 10am-12:30pm, Close on Mondays and some public holidays)

Admission: FREE

The pictures are taken in Happy Valley Racecourse

The Hong Kong Jockey Club: http://www.hongkongjockeyclub.com/

Please be reminded that anyone under 18 years old is not allowed to bet or enter the racecourse on racing days.

No Plastic Bag

Park'n Shop, one of the chain supermarkets in Hong Kong, announced not to provide plastic bag to customer. It is aimed to encourage customer not to use too much plastic bags. To save more resource of the earth, people are being educated not to waste too much, as well as those stuff that are not bio-degradable. Customers are encourage to donate $0.2 for each plastic bag, if necessary.

Besides Park'n Shop, most of the major chain store are joining a campaign called "No Plastic Day" on every Monday. Moreover, McDonalds having "No Straw Day" twice a month.

So, be reminded, bring your own bag when shopping at supermarket. To save our earth, everyone need to take part. :)

Fireworks

I went to Cyberport, a small business and residential area which is aimed for IT firms to host the businesses, located at the southern district of Hong Kong Island.

A small scale of firework was shown there on Friday evening, I visited during the evening and enjoyed the event there.

This event was one of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The 1st of October will be the National Day of China, there will be another firework show along the Victoria Harbour in the evening. If you are coming to Hong Kong soon, welcome to join the firework show.