Homg Kong Family Pictures

My blog advisers, Rob & Peggy, tell me I can write whatever I want and it can be as long or as short as I want so here goes; especially after the last blog, we need to lighten up a little.

This is my Hong Kong Family, who have taken me in and love me as their own and of course the feeling in mutual.

So this blog is to publish some pictures of my Hong Kong Family. After all they are my most ardent readers and I certainly should recognize them.

Cambodia Trip - Part III - Tuol Sleng Prison

The highlight of Phnom Penh for me, but not for Jenny, was visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. During the period between 1975 through 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, reigned over Cambodia in a bloody “killing field”, to borrow from the movie! It is said that during this period the Khmer Rouge killed over two million people.

The words “Tuol Sleng” means: a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear or supply guilt. Incidentally, there were many more such prisons throughout Cambodia.

The Tuol Sleng Museum was formerly a high school that was converted into a prison where one can see graphic details of what the Khmer Rouge did to anyone who disagreed with them; this included many, women and children. As with the Holocaust we should never forget.

This school, with three buildings, became know as Security Office 21 (S-21). The prison is reputed to have imprisoned at least 14, 000 people and most all of them never came out. Cambodia’s Genocide Tribunal is scheduled to hold its full trial on March 30, 2009, of Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch.

If you want would like to know more read this article published in the New York Times March 7, 2009.

Cambodia Trip - Part II

The Royal Palace and street scenes in Phnom
Penh

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Cambodia Trip – Part II

December 3rd - Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is a large city with population of about two million, according to the locals; however, some web sites say it is just over one million. This city looks like it hasn’t had any major infrastructure in years: roads are narrow and poorly maintained and drainage is non-existents. No wonder there is high malaria and dengue fever in this country.

But one thing stands out above all else: the difference in the “haves and have nots”. There certainly isn’t any re-distribution of income here, what income there is!

While here we visited the The Royal Palace, which if any of you have seen the Palace in Bangkok, it looks similar, just not as big and as opulent. It is hard to fathom maintaining this outlandish lifestyle while so many people are in poverty! But the King seems to be loved by his subjects! We also visited many other sites such as: Independence Monument, Vietnam Monument, Wat Phnom and Tuolsleng Genocide Museum, which, although gruelsome, very educational; more on this later.

We stayed one night in the Inter-Continental Hotel in Phnom Penh; just a fantastic place to stay. The food was the best during the trip. Unfortunately that would be the last of the nice hotels on this trip!

While in Phnom Penh one sees some fairly nice cars, mostly SUV it seems, but rarely do you see a new car. I asked about it and our guide indicated that was because it is so expensive to import new cars! But not used cars? Anyway I think, just my opinion, that many of these cars came from Singapore, Hong Kong and other major cities where automobile thefts are so high.

Cambodia Trip - December 3-9, 2009

Top: Street scene in Phnom Penh.

Second: Crowds "loving" the Temples"

Third: Angkor Thom

Bottom: Angkor Wat

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December 3rd - The temperature in Cambodia, this time of the year: high of around 29C and low of about 26C. Does that seem like winter to you? But it certainly felt much hotter to me than 29C or about 85F.

I was concerned with Malaria, so I got my doctor here in New York to prescribe some medication for me to take before I left for Cambodia and during the time I was there. No one else in our tour group was taking Malaria pills, so it might have been overkill; but I felt safe and, as they say, I didn’t want to feel sorry for not taking it.

Our trip was a five-day trip to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and has a population just a shade over one million, while Siem Reap is a little town, about 200 miles north of Phnom Penh, with a population of under 100,000 people. It is the gateway to the Khmer Temples and hosts, somewhere north, of two million tourists a year. It was, incidentally the area where Khmer Rouge was the strongest, but more on that in a later post.

Cambodia gave new meaning to the term Fourth World Country or Least Developed Country. I don’t think we have seen poverty like that since we were in some of the smaller villages in China some twenty years ago: seriously lacking in infrastructure. A very poor nation by any measure but here is one mesure: per capital GDP (PPP) about US$1800, compared to the US of US$45,000, and Shenzhen, China about US$10,000.

Our primary reason for going to Cambodia was to visit the Khmer Temples built by the Khmer Rulers between 800 – 1250AD. There are hundreds of temples ruins that are now protected by ASPARA, an organization established by Royal Decree in 1993, shortly after the area became a world Heritage Site. Prior to the establishment of ASPARA, these sites were constantly damage through thefts of art and sold worldwide in many cases with the assistance of Cambodian Government Officers. Next time you are in a major museum look for some of this art!

Of all the of temples in the Angkor area, Angkor Wat is by far the most famous and is the only one that is still in use today as a temple and has been used over the years. This temple is so much a part of Cambodia that it is on the National Flag.

All of these temples are amazing and hopefully they will be protected for future generations. But I’m deeply afraid that we are “loving them to death”; that is, there are just too many tourists and many are not following the rules to prevent further deterioration.

These temples are not just works of art, but also an engineering marvel that is hard to believe; some of the temples were constructed more than one thousand years ago. While Angkor Wat, is basically still intact, and while many of the other temples have deteriorated or destroyed due to civil war and thefts, it is still amazing the temples are still here for us to enjoy. For example, Machu Picchu, built around 1450, is basically ruins with little of no walls; although it is a beautiful site to see.

Letters from Hong Kong - Part XVIII

View from our hotel.

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December 19,2008

Today we are doing some last minute visiting with family and then tonight we are hosting the Winter Solstice Feast here at the hotel for the extended family and friends. Should be a merry fest; I think we have twenty-two planned to be with us.

A word on Winter Solstice: the Chinese holiday. I know all of you know what Winter Solstice is, but probably have never thought of it as a very big Chinese holiday; in fact one of the biggest.

It is the closest thing to our Thanksgiving Day as it gets, and in fact many westerners call it “Chinese Thanksgiving” since it is a celebration of all the blessings in life. In the old days this was the time when the farmers basically finished their harvest and celebrated a good year. We are not going to have turkey, but it will be a celebration for all the good things all of us share in life.

Infrastructure: there has been a lot said recently about spending a lot of money on infrastructure to reduce unemployment and jump-start our economy in the States. There is no doubt about it, we need to spend a lot of money in the States on bridges, airports, roads, railroads and you name it! Of course you and I know that much I it will be wasted on “pork projects”.

Hong Kong infrastructure is amazing. The money that has been spent over the past thirty years on many of the area mention above is too large to comprehend. The sub-way and rail system is as good as any in the world.

The US is way behind the world in these areas. I mean have you been to some of the modern airports built around the world in the past ten years. Enough said!

December 20th - Although we have another day here in Hong Kong before we leave, this will be the last “Letter” for this trip. I would like in this last to disscuss what Hong Kong has contributed to what has amounted to a significant change in China in the past thirty years; since China opened its doors, so to speak, to the world in April 1978.

First, what has been accomplished in China over these past thirty years is just short of a miracle. As I have said before to some of you, history will show that more people have been lifted out of poverty during this period of time than at any time in the history of the world.

China has come from near bankruptcy, at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, to becoming the fourth largest economy in the world. Some writers have indicated that upwards to 200 million people have been lifted out of poverty and it could well be more. In the early ‘80’s when I made my first trip to China with my son, Rob, bicycles were everywhere. Today, automobiles and motorbikes are everywhere.

Does China still have a long way to go in terms of human rights? Will China ever be as free as America once was? Yes, of course and they will get there, but the Chinese way. A quote from a speech made at Harvard University by Huang Mengfu: “A democratic path with Chinese characteristics has already been chartered.”

What does that mean? I think it means what they have already accomplished in the last thirty years: continue opening up China, but under the controlled leadership of the Communist Party. Any other way would be a disaster, certain in the near-term. And one day, probably not in my lifetime, China will be as free as America.

I didn’t answer my premise that I stated regarding Hong Kong’s contribution to China’s rise in power; I’ll have to make that over a beer or sweet-tea when I return.

So goodbye from Hong Kong! I leave you, again, with the view from our hotel room for the past two months!

Letters from Hong Kong - Part XVII

The Nan Lian Buddhist Gardens; Diamond Hill, Kowloon.

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December 15, 2008

Auto sales in China have slipped recently to just over 520,000 units a month from a high of about 700,000 units earlier this year. Yeah, I know this is small compared to US auto sales which have dropped precipitously this year to about 700,000 units; however, if you had visited China in the early ‘80’s you would be amazed. The only cars on the road then were those driven by government officers.

Bird flu has raised its ugly head again! The other day the local government detected three chickens with bird flu so there is a ban on live chickens imported into Hong Kong for three weeks. The officers claim no contaminated chickens have been sold; they also killed over 90,000 chickens located on a farm in Yuen Long in the New Territories. Let hope they are correct!

The countdown continues! We are trying to get all of the last minutes things we want to accomplish before leaving Hong Kong for LA. Today Jenny wants to go over to Walt Disney Theme Park to check it out and also go to Discovery Bay: both are on Lantau Island.

December 16th - The quest continues: yesterday we went to Discovery Bay on Lantau Island for lunch outside on the patio of one of the restaurants to enjoy the scenery of the Bay and mountains in the background. Jenny loves mussels, so she really put down a few. I’m not going to tell you how many!

Discovery Bay is the residential community that I told you about earlier; it was the first community developed in the mid ‘70’s on Lantau Island and for a long time few people moved there because Lantau was basically a farming and fishing community with few people living there.

Today with the airport completed and with the entire infrastructure I told you about earlier, many people are moving there; in fact today there are close 20,000 people living in Discovery Bay. As I told you it is a self-contained community with schools, shops and about anything you want. Also, for some reason there is a large contingency of expatriates living there. Maybe it is because of the high cost to rent or buy a place there. Example: a 2300 sq. ft place with beautiful views would rent for about HK$62,000/month. Yes, I said per month!

We went to Discovery Bay via Tong Chung on the sub-way/train and return to Central on the Ferry; the ferry trip takes only thirty minutes to Central.

December 18th - Yesterday, I took a little walk down memory lane after visiting the Nan Lian Buddhist Garden in Diamond Hill, which is close to the location of the old Kai Tak Airport, and incidentally where the GE factory was located when I worked here; more about this later, but first the Garden.

The Nan Lian Buddhist Garden is just a beautiful place in the heart of a very busy residential and manufacturing area. The gardens are in immaculate conditions; the gardens are maintained mostly by volunteers who are constantly trimming and cleaning the garden. Just beautiful!

After visiting the garden, I took a quick trip over to 23 Luk Hop Street, the address of the factory where GE built small electronic products for re-sale in the States. Of course the building has long since been replaced by a huge manufacturing trading company, which probably sources all of its products from China, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Cambodia; then re-exports to Europe and the States.

The Christmas lights in Hong Kong are unbelievable. I hope I will get the chance to walk around and take some night shots before we leave. I had hoped to get back to the harbor and take some more night pictures there, but the weather has just not been cooperating: too foggy, misty or maybe I should say too much pollution but Jenny might get upset with me!

Letters from Hong Kong Part XVI

Top & Middle World's largest travelator

Bottom: Walled Village in Fanling

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December 13, 2008

Yesterday we went to Fanling in the New Territories to see some old walled-villages on the Heritage Trail. These are old homes that date back as early as the late 17th century, but some of the ancestral halls were rebuilt in the mid 18th century. Large clans, in this case the Tangs, would build their homes within walls to protect themselves from outsiders. These homes, of course, have mostly been destroyed, or replaced with newer homes, and about the only thing left is the wall itself. It was a very interesting trip.

A word about Fanling: When I lived here, Fanling was just a small village but today it has grown into a large city of about 350,000. It still has a very rural-feeling and is not near as modern as some of the other districts in Hong Kong. Fanling is in northern part of the New Territories and about a couple of railroad stops before you get to Shenzhen, which is just over the Hong Kong border.

Question: Where is the longest escalator or travelator in the world? Yep, Hong Kong! It is about 2.6km long and was opened in the early ‘90’s. I’m told that it moves people from the Mid-level to Central in the morning and then reverses in the evening. The Mid-level is, as it says, about midway between Central and the Peak! It used to be the place where well-to-do lived and probably still is.

December 14th - Yesterday, in our quest to eat all around Hong Kong, we went to Causeway Bay for Vietnamese food. The restaurant was very small, but the food was good. The Spring Rolls, a little different than the Chinese Spring Rolls, were great. Also the BBQ Shrimp Paste on a Sugar Cane stick was terrific! Oh, sorry didn’t mean to tell you all that since it will probably make you hungry!

The weather is just too warm for us to be hearing Christmas music everywhere we go. But it is almost Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, our granddaughter is doing a diorama on China, for a school project, and was asking how the Chinese celebrate Christmas. Well, they party, party and party! Christmas is a big deal here, but it is mostly commercial holiday and has little to do with a religious holiday, at least not to most. I remember when we were here we hosted a Christmas dinner at one of the local hotels for Jenny’s family and it reminded me of a New Year’s Eve party: noise makers and hats were included!

Of course since most of the population is Buddhist, maybe upwards to 90%, one wouldn’t expect a large Christian celebration of Christmas. Besides look around the States: how commercial is our Christmas?

I am not sure what you are seeing, if anything, about the current communications between Taiwan and China, but things seems to be improving. Taiwan is asking for more trade and assistance during this financial crisis, since they seem to really be hurting with the lack of orders from the States and Europe. The Premier of Taiwan, Ma ying-jeou, which incidentally, China refers to him as the “Island Leader” not Premier, seems very interested in improving relationship with China and he thinks he has a mandate from the people. We will find out in March when Taiwan has a referendum to determine if they should petition UN for membership. Should be interesting!