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 This year I decided to stay in Shenzhen for the Spring Festival. Since this is a migrant city, it was practically deserted for this, the most important national holiday of the year; where everyone tries their best to get home to their families. Although quieter than in a place like Beijing, there were still some places you could see people preparing. |
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 I thought you might like to see what Santa looks like here at a popular restaurant/bar area, heavily frequented by foreigners, called Sea World. It's in an area called Shekou in Shenzhen near Hong Kong. And yes, that is a very big beer in his hand. |
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 Here is a short video of the 10,000 Buddha Monastery at Sha Tin in Hong Kong. This temple and tourist destination is a must-see while in Hong Kong and this video only begins to show you all there is to see. I have many more that I will post as time goes on, for example, of the statues and alters found at the site and of the hundreds of man-sized golden Buddha statues that line the 400 steps up to the temple and around the bamboo groves. |
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 Here is a panorama picture made from various pictures taken at a more secluded private beach of Sanya Bay in front of the Treasure Island Hotel. Sanya is a small beach town on the southern part of Hainan Island. It is often referred to as the Hawaii of China. |
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 During my travels throughout China, I must have taken hundreds of pictures of food; different kinds of meat dishes, fish and vegetables, but never any fruit. Well, the other day that all changed when I had what I can only refer to as a "When Harry Met Sally" diner experience after eating a ping pong ball-sized grape. I knew instantly that this would be my first picture of fruit and that I had to share it with you. Some of you may be wondering about the how they grow their fruit here in China. Is it organic? Do they use pesticides, chemicals, etc? Well, I have to tell you, this fruit is so amazingly good, the second you eat a piece you won't care where it came from, you'll just want more! |
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 Well, I finally did it. People have been asking me for quite a while now if I have eaten dog while in China, so now I can finally say that I have. It wasn't quite on purpose, but yes, it finally happened. What I mean by "not on purpose," is that I really had no intention of eating dog or even letting the whole situation go this far. It all started as what I thought was a pissing contest between me and another man. He kept asking if I was adventurous and if I wanted to try it. I really didn't think he was serious... |
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Unfortunately, I have not been to Macau yet (or Macao as it is commonly written), but a friend of mine sent me this great 360 degree view from the top of Macau Tower that I thought I would share. |
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 Yesterday I decided that it was about time I head to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center to watch this famous sunset I have been hearing so much about. Apparently, the view from the 7th floor is an amazing site not to be missed. To my surprise when I arrived, there was a pretty big commotion with tons of photographers and people in costumes everywhere so I had to take a few minutes to stop and see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, this weekend is the Hong Kong Game Fair and video game junkies from all over Asia gathered to check out the latest and greatest in gaming and pay respects to their favorite video game characters. I took some photos and videos that I thought I would share with you. Unfortunately, I wasn't very prepared for this and my camera ran out of batteries so many of these are taken with my phone. The video is also on my Nokia N93, which I haven't figured out how to edit yet, so as soon as I do, I'll post those for you to see. This was actually pretty funny. Up until now, except for Homer Simpson, I've never heard a grown man drool before. Enjoy! |
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 On July 22nd, 2007 I was lucky enough to head out to Kai Sung, one of Hong Kong's outerlying islands to do some dives with Pro Dive Training Center HK. The crew was great, professional, courteous and helpful, the boat was really well-managed, and with an air compressor onboard, I was even offered the chance to get in as many dives as I could in a litle over four hours. Unfortunately, I can't say as many nice things about the underwater experience but I wouldn't change a thing about the day, especially considering I met some great people on the dive. Nothing went wrong during the dives, but the low visibility and lack of anything interesting to see (except this really over-sized and neon blue crab) just made you appreciate the above water environment so much more. Although I don't have any underwater content to show you, here are a few pictures I took throughout the day. I've got some video too that I'll try to post at some point. |
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 This ia short video taken from Lugard Road at Victoria Peak of the nightly light show at Hong Kong harbour. I have some great pictures I'll be posting to GaryInChina.com soon. |
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As you will probably hear me mention a few times throughout the Hong Kong pages, one of the best places to visit while on Hong Kong Island is Victoria Peak. The peak tram, the tower, the gardens and all the surrounding areas (which I will try to post pictures and videos of shortly) are a great place to spend the day and evening. Here are a few pictures of the nightly fireworks and light show as seen from Lugard Road on Victoria Peak. I also posted a video of it here in case you'd like to check it out. By the way, go early, no later than 4:30 pm and plan enough time for your way down as there will be a long wait for every mode of transportation down after dark. |
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 Today I had a great time celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China from Great Britain. Although I have a ton of video including a spectacular parade, and a pro-democracy rally, I thought I would share this one with you first. It's a short video of the most amazing fireworks show I've ever seen which was taken from the Aqualuna boat in Victoria Harbor. As you can see both the fireworks and lasers were choreographed amongst many building surrounding the harbor and played to music. I can't quite keep the camera still considering I'm on a boat but it's still a great video to watch. |
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 Well folks, my initial 3-day visit to Hong Kong has turned into a five-plus weeklong stay so I decided to rent an apartment to save some money. Why did I decide to stay so long? Well, I returned to China this time around to finally start some business ventures I have been researching for quite some time now. While here in Hong Kong I quickly realized that this is the place to set up the company. Next stop from here, work on setting up an office of my new Hong Kong company in mainland China... |
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 What better way to celebrate the return to rule by a communist government then with a Pro-Democracy Rally? Here's a quick video of the 2007 Pro-Democracy Rally in Hong Kong during the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Handover of Hong Kong to China. Unfortunately it was so humid that day that my good video camera wouldn't work so I had to shoot this with my panasonic photo camera's video function. The audio is a bit tough to make out but it's still worth a gander. |
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 I was extemely lucky to have been visiting Baomo Park on the day that I did because they happened to be performing a rehearsal show of the Annual Spring Festival Show. The Guangdong TV station and various other reporters were also there to report on the event. It was definitely an interesting experience and quite the teaser for the up-and-coming New Years show. |
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 Here's Part Two of Baomo Park's Sneak Peak of their 2007 Chinese New Year Show. |
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"The City Parks of Shenzhen"
