They call Hong Kong the ‘City of Life’ because it has always been so vibrant and full of energy. It’s a city that’s both exotic and cosmopolitan making it a perfect destination for first time travelers to Asia. Being a former British colony, there’s enough English signs and people able to speak the language there to make it a user friendly place. At the same time, it’s foreign enough that tourists will definitely feel that they are not on a typical beach vacation. Even after the U.K. gave Hong Kong back to China, this Chinese government designated ‘Special Administrative Region’ has not lost its dynamics. The communist government realizes the importance of Hong Kong as an economic giant and is so far adhering to a two system coexistence for China. ‘Hong Kong’ means ’sweet harbor’ in the Chinese Cantonese dialect which is fitting as there’s so much in the city to stimulate all of the senses.

There are actually two main areas of Hong Kong. One being the Hong Kong island itself and the other being the Kowloon peninsula which is on the mainland across the harbor. The new international airport is yet on another island and transit to the city can be via train, bus or auto. The bridge that connects to Kowloon is the world’s longest road and rail bridge.

Once in the city, one will realize that Hong Kong is a very busy place with people everywhere. It has one of the densest populations as most of the 6.5 million inhabitants live in high-rise buildings due to the lack of land available. In fact, one reason why there seems to be people on the streets during all hours including the evenings is because people there want to take a break from their tiny apartments and get outside for some space. Hotel accommodations are in every budget range on both the Kowloon and Hong Kong island sides. Getting across the harbor is fairly easy. One can take the harbor ferry which actually has different class levels (the higher levels are slightly more expensive but the views are better). There’s also an underground tunnel that taxi cabs can take and like many other major cities around the world, Hong Kong also has an underground subway transit system. This subway also goes underground beneath the harbor connecting the island to Kowloon. There are double decker buses in Kong Kong as well as double decker rail street cars over on the island. One way to see the various commercial districts on the island is to stay on the streetcar for an entire loop which will take riders right across the downtown areas including some of the street markets.

Hong Kong is a contrast of old and new. There are old temples and monasteries scattered throughout. But there is also that gigantic modern skyline of tall skyscrapers that will make most North American cities appear small. There’s even the world’s longest outdoor escalator here. A must do in Hong Kong is to go to the top of the mountain of Victoria Peak on the island either by bus, auto or a special tram they have there to see spectacular views of the entire region. There are also tours of the boat village where a local will take tourists around the bay in one of their boats. One thing that is very interesting to see in Hong Kong is the early morning exercise sessions in some of the local parks. Every morning, there are crowds of locals, many of them seniors, who meet up at the parks to exercise and do tai chi.

With over 9,000 restaurants, dining in Hong Kong is also an exciting experience. There are all types of international cuisine but of course, the Chinese fare is what most visitors come here for. From elegant dining to busy dim sum houses to street stalls, there’s so much variety of food that it’s impossible to sample everything. There are even the large floating restaurants which serve the freshest seafood catches.

Of course, there’s the shopping experience in Hong Kong. Being a duty free port, there are many bargains in Hong Kong especially for textiles and electronics. Hong Kong is famous for its custom tailors who can make up a new suit within a day or two. As for electronics, for some reason Hong Kong always receives the latest models first even before North America does. Browsing through the many outdoor markets for souvenirs is another favorite activity. Be aware that bargaining is common in the markets so it is recommended to get an idea of typical prices from the retail stores first before going for deals at the markets. Kowloon has a few specialty markets worth visiting including the jade market, bird market and flower market. One must be extra careful at the jade market because if the prices are too good to be true, the pieces are probably not real jade. The night market which operates only during evenings is also fun where there are all sorts of merchandise available from clothing to toys to gadgets. There may also be entertainment such as Chinese opera on the streets during the night.

The Po Lin monastery on Lantau Island near the airport has the world’s largest outdoor Buddha. Visitors climb the steps up to the statue and there are some nice views of the scenery up top. Lantau Island can be reached by ferry via local tour companies who will also take tourists to local fishing villages. Hydrofoil crafts can take casino enthusiasts to Macau which has also been returned back to the Chinese government. There are also tours into the New Territories beyond Kowloon to see more secluded temples and countryside farms as well as other shopping opportunities located in nearby Chinese mainland towns.

It’s incredible how much there is to see and do in Hong Kong even within its relatively compact geographical area. There are so much more exotic sights and cuisine there that one simply cannot experience at the usual North American Chinatowns. At the same time, Hong Kong is so easy to get around with its efficient modes of transportation and wide range of services available in English. Tourists will never feel too lost even in a high activity place like Hong Kong.

Clint Leung is owner of Free Spirit Gallery http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca , an online gallery specializing in Inuit Eskimo and Northwest Native American art including carvings, sculpture and prints. Free Spirit Gallery has numerous information resource articles with photos of authentic Inuit and Native Indian art as well as free eCards.

Most of your visit to India’s most-famous attraction is natural and inspiring. If it is your first visit, however, it is easy to make the following mistakes

Mistake 1: Make your visit too short.
Buses have been known to allow as little as half an hour to “see” the Taj Mahal, which is hardly time to walk the length of the reflecting pool. If this is your bus’s timetable, consider finding another. Allow a minimum of two hours to fully savor the “poem in marble.”

Mistake 2: Arrive with no prior knowledge of the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum and not a palace; it was created by a Mughal king in honor of his wife who died giving birth to their fourteenth child, and it is covered in real marble. There is much more to the story that will enhance your enjoyment of what you will see and feel. Do yourself a favor and enjoy some reading and research beforehand; the more you know, the richer your experience. Guidebooks, such as India, Eyewitness Travel Guide, are helpful.

Mistake 3: Remain with your guide or group during your entire visit.
After hearing what they have to tell you, leave them and wander to a secluded spot so you can gaze at this wonder of marital love on your own. Carve out time for solitude. Sit on a bench and contemplate the grace, balance, and beauty of Shah Jahan’s creation.

Mistake 4: Limit your visit to the Taj Mahal to only one time of the day.

Throughout daylight, the marble dome reflects sunshine with hues of pink, orange and white. Clouds and rain add additional interest. In Agra, the sky provides a backdrop for the double dome of the Taj Mahal. See as many of these variations as you can. Count yourself blessed if you are able to see the Taj Mahal in the moonlight.

Mistake 5: Become frustrated with the guides and photographers.
It is a popular business to impart information and produce a lasting memory for you at the Taj Mahal. Guides will ask if you want them to tell you about their country’s most famous attraction. Photographers will want to snap shots of you during your visit. Most of them are citizens of the country you are visiting. If you have made plans that exclude your need for their services, refuse with firm courtesy. Your desire for personal viewing time needs to be balanced with their need to work.

Mistake 6: Don’t take anyor enough–pictures.
The Taj Mahal is the single most photographed place in India. You can add to this distinction with your own images. Unless you are certain you will return shortly, visually record your favorite sights while within the walls of the Taj complex. Are you drawn to the walkway? The row of shoes outside the entrance? The black and white pattern of the platform? The inlaid prayer rugs in the mosque? Whatever they are, record details as touchstones for remembered pleasure

From the moment you enter through the gate and stroll along the dazzling, rectangular reflecting pool, the lovely mausoleum will draw you to its marble steps. Slipping off your shoes, you will pass into a softly lit interior, and circle two richly inlaid caskets beneath a great domed ceiling. The carvings on the walls, the spectacular dome, and the harmony of all the details are there for you to admire.
The truth of the matter is you could actually make all the mistakes above and still be touched by the Taj Mahal. It is a sight undiminished by expectations.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the signature box is included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Sandra Wilson, author and speaker, describes the Who, What, Why, When and Where of the Taj Mahal for global and armchair travelers. TAJ, her historical fiction, can be seen by visiting http://www.taj-womanandwonder.com for more information.

I force myself to leave my computer and walk down for lunch. I have been writing all morning after my little jaunt down at the artificial-turfed playground for my run and exercise. It’s been a late start and breakfast, a simple meal consisting of wholewheat biscuits and a tetrapack of sweet strawberry flavoured milk, was delayed, too. To lunch or not to lunch is the question.

To lunch, I decide, is a better option… This evening I have to eat pizzas for dinner and though they’re a tasty enough repast, they’re not quite what my body thrives on. A university official has invested in a new pizza joint in downtown Huainan and I have been asked to ‘grace’ the opening ceremony along with the other two foreign teachers here. They’re Amercians, and, therefore, high-profile. I am Indian, therefore, tolerated. India’s rapid economic progress, of late, makes me less of a pariah than I might have been some years ago. A man is known by the country he ‘keeps’, to rephrase an old proverb, and a touch inappropriately at that. I, sometimes, lie and sometimes joke about where I come from. I don’t want to be identified with merely my origins. There’s more to me than where I was born and raised. In any case, I don’t see my lies as lies as I neither hope nor expect to gain from the lies in any way. It’s just a momentary thing.

I walk past my favourite eating place, Xiawu Fandian (Afternoon Restaurant). Of late, the fare served there has failed to tickle my palate or inspire my intestines. They have changed the oil they use in their cooking. It has an unpleasant flavour and leaves a strange aftertaste. I informed the laoban niang (boss’s wife) and pointed out my unfinished plate on a couple of occasions. She looked stoic and unmoved so I decided it was time for me to move, instead. Past the Afternoon Restaurant and then the Friendship Restaurant across the street, where I sometimes eat. They serve cabbage with pre-fried tofu (the Chinese pronunciation is doufu) in medium spicy, sweetish style that tickles my taste buds but leaves me bloated.

The sky is overcast but the temperature is comfortable at about ten above. I notice the open door of a neighbouring optician’s and decide to have a word with the boss as I ask for a little tinkering with my spectacles. I hand him my metal-rimmed, plastic-lens glasses and he notices the problem. We chat briefly as he tightens the screw on my spectacle arm. It’s done in seconds and he hands them back to me. I notice that the lens have the oily fogginess that fingers leave on glasses and ask for a spectacle cleaning cloth, demonstrating the act of cleaning to tell him what I want. He opens a drawer and hands me a shiny new cleaning cloth. I ask him how much. He motions, nothing. I feel a little little guilty accepting it for free but he refuses to accept payment. I thank him as I leave, wondering what makes the people in China so generous. I head slowly away from the dongmen (east gate) as the main gate of the university is commonly called.

I find myself at the door of Yi Da Pan (One Big Pan), the restaurant that kept me alive when all of Huainan and most of China had shut shop for the Spring Festival barely a month ago. All the little eateries near my school, including Xiawu Fandian and Friendship Restaurant had closed shop then, leaving those without culinary skills and the handicapped to survive on universal love and firecracker-affected not-so-fresh-air. Yi Da Pan was about the only restaurant then that opened its doors to welcome the hungry and homeless.

Laoban (boss) welcomes me with a warm smile. Laoban niang and xiao laoban (little boss), the wife and daughter are equally warm. ‘Ta baicai (cabbage)?’ the boss asks as he turns towards the kitchen. I nod as I return his smile.

The plate of stir-fried ta baicai, as it is spelt in Pinyin (Chinese written/spelt in the Roman script), arrives a short wait later. The Chinese language has thousands of characters and no one can tell for certain how many there really are. Pinyin is the script they use to work on computers or they would have needed a keyboard the size of a mini. Pinyin uses a phonetic system quite different from English or other Romance languages. The sounds used in the Chinese language are different from English and other European languages. Therefore, they needed to devise a system that included their phonemes. The ‘ta’ in ta baicai is pronounced with a soft ‘t’ and a long vowel sound while the ‘cai’ in baicai is an aspirated ‘chai’. The ‘ch’ sound is also different than the one used in English and has a little ’s’ ring to it. Enough of my linguistics!

The boss emerges from the kitchen a few moments later. He is the chef of his restaurant while his wife doubles as the cashier and waitress. The little boss, the daughter, has her own double role. She plays usher and waitress. The three of them run the restaurant without outside help. I suspect they hire help in peak season or when there is a sudden rush of diners. There are eight table-cloth’ed, glass-topped tables that seat four each on the ground floor and a couple of those hideaway, round-tabled, private dining rooms that all ‘respectable’ restaurants in China have, on the first floor. They would certainly need extra help when all those tables are occupied. A television is mounted atop a raised shelf and I turn my eyes in its direction. There’s a family drama being played there and I don’t understand too much. ‘My Chinese is too poor,’ I mimic some students’ ‘my English is too poor’ in my mind as I watch the drama unfold. A middle-aged woman scolds her husband who leaves her, apparently for good, while her pretty daughter alternates between scolding hers and giving the most beatific of smiles.

Today, I am the sole customer. Others have come and gone or will come and go. The boss comes over with a bottle of baijiu (white wine) and offers me a glass. I ask him to make it small, ‘yi tiantian’ (a little). The baijiu makes me drowsy and takes me away from my writing, as does the beer. My afternoon naps last longer than intended and I add an extra, unwanted layer to my ‘pijiu duzi’ (beer belly). The boss smiles as he pours me a drink. I thank him and begin to sip leisurely while the ta baicai waits. The boss has disappeared into the kitchen and arrives a little later, dish in hand, following his wife carrying another. They place their lunch on a table across from mine.

Chen Tai Cao, the boss, goes over to a stack of brightly coloured plastic beer crates and picks out a bottle of unrefrigerated beer. He opens one and looks at me. Picking up a plastic glass, he heads in my direction as I protest. He insists and pours me a glassful. Like so many of his countrymen, a ‘no’ to Chen means a ‘yes’. It’s polite to say no when one means yes and a no can rarely dissuade a determined host. He, then, sits down to lunch with his small family, pours himself a full glass of baijiu while the remaining beer in the bottle is aligned with the dishes.

Chen and his family are soon absorbed in their meal and pay no more attention to me. His sips of the fiery baijiu are large and soon his glass half-empty. They’re half-way into their meal and a pair of diners arrive. Chen leaves his seat without a moment’s hesitation, takes the order and disappears into the kitchen once again. The little boss also leaves the table to set the table for the new arrivals. Laoban niang continues with her meal. Her turn to leave will come later.

I watch the goings-on and eat quickly, having finished my baijiu and most of the beer.

Soon, I am done with my lunch and walk over the counter to pay for my lunch. Chen has come out and pushes my hand with the proffered money resolutely away.

‘Wo bu hui lai’ (I can’t come) I say in my inadequate Chinese, threatening him with never visiting his restaurant again. Chen pushes my hand away again. I pretend exasperation, repeating ‘wo bu…’ This time Chen looks uncertain and says something to his wife who takes the money and gives me the change. All she takes is san kuai qian (three yaun) for my lunch and that after much no-noing.

I walk out, feeling a sense of elation that one feels when one sees man display his finer qualities. I think about the optician and Chen and his family and marvel at how some people can be generous though they’re themselves relatively poor. I wonder what it is in China that endows some people with large hearts. I wonder why some people are so accepting and endearing. I wonder why the rich often want more while the poor are happy with the little they have. I wonder why more men cannot be like Chen and the optician. I wonder who is happier – the rich or the poor. I wonder why the rich scowl behind their dark sunshades while the poor smile in the sun.

I smile as I think of the name Chen has chosen for his restaurant. ‘Yi Da Pan’ can so safely be changed to ‘Yi Da Xin’ (One Big Heart – or three – or more, perhaps!)

Rajesh Kanoi (Jack) is a published writer, now living and working in China. Many of his short-stories, poems and articles have been published, including a book of short-stories, ‘From China With Love’ (Lipstick Publishing).

http://www.writingup.com/blog/oneinabillion

http://o3.indiatimes.com/kjack