Hong Kong: Protests (go democracy!) boat rides and iPhones

From Guangzhou, I took a 1 hour fast rail to Shenzhen, where I crossed through customs into Hong Kong. 

Helllllllo Hong Kong! Hong Kong is like England but hot and humid with palm trees and occasionally more sunshine. It was pretty humid and overcast the day I was there (not to be mistaken for pollution). 

The first thing I did was check out Victoria Harbor--GORGEOUS. 

Next line of order--a new Macbook charger.           I headed to IFC--one of the biggest apple stores and upscale malls right in Central on HK Island. Apple was PACKED. (Mainlanders starting vacation a day early?)                                          In China there are Apple stores in big cities, but all Apple products cost 20% more so many people head to HK--also the iPhone 6 has not been released in the mainland. 

I was astonished to see people selling iPhone 6s right in the mall outside of the Apple store--you can see a manager of the mall was standing by to keep order--but still I think in America it's illegal to solicit things in a mall. 

 

Right outside the mall there were people everywhere selling iPhone 6's--they are real but were selling for a little cheaper. I wonder where they came from?



After purchasing my charger (totally didn't realize it would have a Hong Kong outlet--grrr), I took the ferry back across Victoria Harbor to check into my hotel and meet up with my friends. If you are ever in HK this is a 10 minute trip and is a must see.

Check it out: Hong Kong is adding a ferris wheel to its harbor. I may have to come back when its finished...

On the ferry this chinese guy took about 150 selfies. (Check out the half lifted shirt--all men in China do this to deal with the heat) by the end of the trip he had made a new friend

On the way to my hotel I saw many people who were part of the occupy central (democracy) movement and protesting the new leader for HK who was selected by Beijing

The newspapers they were handing out were pretty shocking

Shortly after the protests started, mainland China started blocking Instagram. While the protests are the front page news of the rest of the world, there is very little coverage in mainland China. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here and if the mainland uses its army force 

(if so things can/will quickly escalate--according to HK law they should not use the PLA  (People's Liberation Army) unless the country is in danger) 

I was amazed that mainlanders were just walking past with no interest at all--they really don't have any interest in politics and are just in HK to shop. 

After that I met up with friends and we got ready for our harbor boat cruise 

The science of making cheap beverages...

So many selfies!

HK watch tower

The lights show on Victoria Harbor...a little underwhelming

As the night went on, a few protesters gathered, but most are stationed at a different location (in Causeway Bay) 

The boat/harbor tour

The next day we went to a traditional Hong Kong restaurant, went to see the protests and then saw a Daoist temple. (I thought it was a Buddhist temple---I need to study the differences in the Asian religions) 

Many articles have commented on the protests and their affect on the economy--I think that's what "preserve our rice bowls" refers to. 

Most Cantonese restaurants have an open kitchen

The protests--they were relatively calm during the day, but pick up at night when people are off work and it is cooler out.

--their symbol is an umbrella so many people were painting umbrellas

It was SO HOT out so many people were providing water and there were first aid tents everywhere. 

Spreading the word! 

It was pretty neat to see signs everywhere because they were all in different languages. There was a lot of media coverage and thousands of people taking photos. While the protestors are being very strategic, the way that China handles this needs to be very strategic as well because the whole world is watching (as opposed to the event 25 years ago...)

Here are pics from the temple....

Anddddd back to Shenzhen!