April...Hong Kong again

We're Back...in Hong Kong

Signs of Easter were still in the air

We headed to the Lantau Island to an area called the Tai O Fishing Village.

History according to Wikipedia...

Stilt houses (pang uk) in Tai O

Nearby archaeological sites date back to the Stone Age, but permanent, and verifiable, human settlement here is only three centuries old. Stories that would be impossible to substantiate have Tai O as the base of many smuggling and piracy operations, the inlets of the river providing excellent protection from the weather and a hiding place.

We spent an afternoon wandering the streets of this quaint tourist town.  We took a boat ride in hopes to see the pink or white dolphin, but no luck.  The boat fee was worth the crazy boat ride though!  The houses on stilts were quite a site, electricity and all. 

Dried Fish

Chinese Pizza...more like a tortilla in the end

Shark and the Town Square wall beautifully painted to depict Tai O

Hong Kong, with the fog and pollution settling in, couldn't see the tops of the skyscrapers.

The next day we headed to a large amusement/aquarium park in Hong Kong called Ocean Park.  It started out to be a cloudy overcast day and the forecast was 40% rain, but this didn't dampen our spirits, we had been looking forward to this trip. It did not disappoint.  The rides and all of the animal exhibits were amazing.

 

The entrance, a colorful wall to strike a pose and a good photo op near the mascot :)

 

Nautilus

Colorful Reef Fish

Octopus

"Of course we would love to pose for another photo Mom!"

There were two seperate panda enclosures.  Both the pandas were just laying on their backs eating some bamboo.  They seemed quite happy and relaxed, much better than the panda, at the local zoo, we saw earlier who paced the same pattern over and over.

                                                         Riding the cable cars up the side of the mountain overlooking the South China Sea, on our way to the second part of the park.

The Midway

The venue for the dolphin and sea lion show, the rain clouds don't allow you to see the ocean in the background, it is a phenomenal view!

The Crowd

View from the tower (like the space needle)

The sea lions and walrus

Beautiful landscaping throughout the park

Fa Yuen Street in Hong Kong...shoe shopping 

 

This is my whole class on a field trip to the Science Museum of Guangzhou, with their parents also.

This is Leon posing with the Norwegian Panda Bear.

My coworkers, Rachel and Luca, enjoy them both!

My friend and coworker, Dearly.  She is from the Philippines.

My wonderful coworker, Twinkle :)

View of the lobby, waiting with all the other schools to get in...

Luca trying out a ride!

Ancient seismograph

Photo hanging in museum of Guangzhou, the Pearl River and Canton Tower.  Also the blue and orange venue is where Hattie and I saw Elton John.

Selena, the wonderful 3rd grade girl I tutor.  She had just performed a special dance at an annual school art show.

The freshman team that Hattie recently joined for a tournament.

She was excited to have the #35 and her name on her jersey, even if it was a bit crooked!

Mason and Gabe also played with the 14U team in a recent tournament.  They only had one uniform to share so they each played half the game :)  Not sure that would ever happen in the US.  Good thing they didn't have too many fouls called since they were sharing 5???

Kyle, one of Luke's coworkers shared this snack from his hometown with us.  It was made of sesame...it was interesting to say the least.  We appreciated the gesture.

Hattie finally found a shoe in China that will fit her big feet!

We also found Batman!

CCTV

Happy Easter

These are a few cute bunnies we spotted on a recent outing.  Thank goodness we live in China or I think we would've owned pet bunnies.  They were adorable. 

CCTV 

 We were recently invited to go with some students I tutor, Daniel and Lila, to a local tourist attraction called CCTV.  Although most of it was in Chinese, we were able to gather that this is the place where they film many famous Chinese Movies and TV shows.   I guess you could compare it to Universal Studios, but not really...

 

According to a website I found online this is where we went...CCTV Wuxi Movie/TV Base is the first large scaled base for movie and TV shooting and for tourism built in China. Constructed in 1987, it is the first theme park incorporating movie and TV culture and tourism throughout China. With its unique functionality and charms it has been attracting over one hundred movie/TV production units every year to shoot movies and dramas here. Thus, it was given the title of "Oriental Hollywood". Moreover, it has accepted over 2 million visitors every year who come here purposely to explore the secrets of movie production.
The CCTV Wuxi Movie/TV Base is consisted of three main sections which are the Town of Tang Dynasty, Town of Three Kingdoms and Town of Water Margin. Its grandiose scales, well adapted to movie/TV shooting as well as for tourists enjoying, the sites of settings where movie and TV are shooting and which offer inexhaustible sources of interest, plus the par excellence performances and especially charming landscape of Lake Taihu, together with the well equipped sites of settings and other facilities for filming have been attracting tens of thousands of tourists and numerous production units both home and abroad.
CCTV Wuxi Movie/TV Base occupies a total area of over 100 acres and water area of 3000 mu of Lake Taihu.

 (http://www.beijingimpression.cn/beijing-attractions/cctv-wuxi-movie-tv-base.shtml)

The kids with Lila and Daniel just inside the main entrance.

We watched three shows.  This one included people from the audience participating, although it was in Chinese, my Chinese students were able to interpret enough so we got the gist of the story. 

The one below was a pirate water show with lots of stunts.

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The last show depicted a battle on horseback.  Before the show for 20 kwai ($3.50) you could ride a horse with one of the trainers, so Gabe and Mason both took a run around the sloppy course (it had rained a lot the day before).  They went really fast!

 

This is the guy Hattie wanted to ride with, but she was too shy :)

 

Here they are in a processional march heading to battle

 

Performing a battle stunt

Playground... 

Located on the grounds was an awesome playground, that we played on for about an hour before lunch.  We all, yes even Luke and I took a swing across the moat.  Eventually both Gabe, Mason and Daniel were wet.  All of the obstacles were made of wood and rope.  It was a great time!

A balancing log that swung back and forth, you can also see how wet Daniel's pants are from the moat.

Giant Maze

The Rings

Some costumes to represent the culture.  One of the many beautiful buildings, many had historical relics and replicas inside.

The grounds of CCTV were huge.  This racetrack was one of the rides you could do.  They also had bumper cars, archery, a 5D movie and carnival games.  We did not do any of those, but they reminded us of a small town fair back in the states.

Cooking Lesson

 

I was asked to teach Daniel some cooking also...Hattie came with.  First we went to our local supermarket.  The hardest part about cooking here is they don't have ovens, just small toaster ovens.  They also don't have all of the ingredients that we are used to using, for instance baking powder.  They wanted to learn some western foods, so we settled on pancakes (they don't have syrup), grilled cheese with bacon and tomato and we gave shortbread cookies a shot (but that little oven burned our cookies). 

Here is Daniel getting the tomatoes weighed and bagged. 

Looking at the spatulas...this is a great way to practice your English

The checkout, Mr. Q is the man in the plaid.  He is watches over Daniel while he is at school.  I have heard these positions referred to as house fathers.  He takes video of me teaching also and shares it with Daniel's Mom. 

Hattie and Daniel mixing up the dough