Our last full day in Hong Kong

Saturday was a bittersweet day for me, because I fell in love with Hong Kong, and I only had one last day to soak it all in.
On Saturday morning, we returned to the fair one last time.  On the last day of fairs, many of the exhibtors are looking to offload their product samples so that they have less to lug back home.  And others, are willing to give samples to serious buyers on the last day of the fair.  Before we went into the convention center, we set out our plan of attack.  We had about 4 halls to visit, and at least 20 exhibitors to find, and pick up the samples that we had earlier requested. 
While Joern and his parents planned their route, I snapped some more pictures of the way to the convention center from the hotel. 

Inside the convention center

In total, we needed about 3 hours to get to everyone we needed to get to.  We had an especially enjoyable conversation with the head of a company from which Joern's family purchases poker items.  He was extrordinarily knowlegable about many, many markets.  He also explained to us a lot about the US market, which seems to run a bit differently than German. 

Afterwards, we split up with Joern's parents, and decided to meet later for dinner.  Joern and I decided to take the Star Ferry back over to Tsim Sha Tsui, because they had a great souvenir shop, and there was a lot more there to check out. 

I was also happy because the weather was a bit clearer, so I was finally able to get some better pictures:

Gloucester Road

The old exhibtion center

Again, I was happy and thankful for the clearning, in order to take some clearer pictures from the ferry.



Once we landed, we headed first to into the Ocean Terminal Shopping Center.  It is a mall located extremely close to the ferry terminal.  Oh my gosh, the mall took my breath away!  Joern really wanted to go into the Toys R'Us inside the mall, so this was our first destination. The Toys R'Us was almost cooler than their flagship Times Square location.  It was so well planned out and there were so many interesting little sections!

From Toys R'Us, we headed up to the balcony overlooking the harbor.  There was a fab restaurant there, that would have been perfect for enjoying a cocktail, but we were a little pressed for time.

Sadly, we didn't have enough time to explore the entire mall.  Of course, I'm sure Joern would not have said there was anything sad about not being dragged all over the mall :)  From the mall, we headed back up towards all those crazy huge designer stores, and found a beautiful building, and decided to check out the area.

It turns out that the area is now named, 1881 Heritage.  The very obviously British influenced building that serves as the backdrop was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine police from the 1800s until the handover of Hong Kong to China.  It is a beautiful area now with luxury stores, a hotel and restaurants. 

We then realized it was time to head back to the ferry, as we planned to meet Joern's parents for dinner.  I had to run to my favorite little souvenir shop first to do some last minute gift shopping. 

Once we made it to the ferry terminal, we realized that we were just in time to have missed the last ferry, and while we were waiting, we got to witness the Symphony of Lights, the nightly light show along the waterfront.  The show actually takes place on both sides of the harbor, but since we were on the Kowloon side, we could only watch the Hong Kong Island side, but it was impressive!

I would love to go up to the Peak  next time and watch the light show from there!

It was another busy day, and we weren't really very hungry for dinner.  After dinner, we took a little walk, but we were both exhausted.  We were only sad because it was almost time to leave the city that quickly grew in my heart.

A day in the life of our family, Hong Kong style

Since I brought my little pink point-and-shoot with me on Friday during our trip to Hong Kong, I was able to take lots of pictures during the day.  Good thing, because it was a busy day!
After breakfast and getting ready, we made our daily 5 minute walk to the convention center.  The convention center is in a really cool location, because it is right along the water.  It helps when you're tired after walking and walking and talking and talking to stop by the Dragon Lounge and to look out on the harbor.

We stayed at the fair for about 5 hours, until 4:00.  It was yet another busy day of walking up and down all the aisles of businesses, trying to attract buyers.  We met with a few regular suppliers of the business, as well as met with a few new people who had interesting products.  There were TONS of purse hangers, incredibly so.  Lots and lots of reuseable shopping bags as well.  For us, the waveboards were interesting, as well as some old-fashioned yet wonderful quality sporty-type items (think paddleball and travel soccer equipment.)  We picked up some new samples of Fun-Bands, as well as some "impulse items," like high bouncing balls.  It was a busy afternoon. 
At 4:00, it was time to leave the fair and hop on one of these:

We had an appointment with a new supplier at 4:30.  Many suppliers have showrooms in China.  When you get lucky, the suppliers have showrooms in Hong Kong.  The great thing about a showroom is it is a location where suppliers have all of their products to show, as well as some offices. 

It was my first time to Tsim Sha Tsui, on Kowloon (on the mainland.)  Sadly, it was a very foggy day, so the views from the ferry were, well, a little dull.



From the moment we left the Star Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, I realized that this area had a much different vibe than Wan Chai. 

We spent about an hour with the suppliers.  They had really cool items, like water guns and different shooting things.  The only thing that shook me a little was that the company was really large, and the two guys who founded the company were really young. 

After our meeting, Joern wanted to go back to an electronics store where he had purchased an Android touchpad during his last trip to Hong Kong.  The charging plug had broken on the trip back, so he wasn't able to use it for months, so he was hoping to buy a new plug.

Of course, what I enjoyed about doing this, versus heading back to the Star Ferry Terminal immediately, was the ability to walk around and check- out Tsim Sha Tsui.

I love Chinese in-your-face, loud advertising!

This mosque was quite beautiful.

                                                          And then, the shopping!

We headed back to the Star Ferry Terminal.  On the way, we noticed a large crowd gathering, and realized what was happening: 

Everyone had turned to TVs to watch the Royal Wedding!

Once we got to the terminal, we were lucky to find another TV.

I have to admit, it was pretty cool to stand in a crowd of people in China watching live on televison an event that people were watching all around the world! 

Once we were on the boat, I spent the short journey hoping that the weather would miraculously clear and that I would have a beautiful view of the Hong Kong Island skyline.  Sadly, it wasn't meant to be:

We headed back to the hotel for a little nap and to freshen up. On to dinner, at the White Stag.  We stayed in after dinner on Friday night.  It was a long day, and the jet lag finally caught up with us.  Plus, there was plenty to watch on TV, I had a lot of Royal Wedding catching up to do! 







Night out in Hong Kong

Hong Kong really comes to life at night.  During our week in HK, Joern and I would frequently go back to the hotel after dinner, which turned out to be pretty early, took a nap, and would go for a long stroll at night.  On our second night in HK, we took a really long walk from the middle of Hong Kong island over to the end.  It was a great night, and so much fun!

And before we went home, we stopped by the White Stag for last call.

Hong Kong Part I

Okay, today is the day I take my stand, and return to this blog.  It kills me that I've neglected this blog so very badly.  The house is only a minimal excuse, because the house is only the house.  I do have a life outside of the house, even if some days, it doesn't feel that way. 
So without further adieu, I welcome you readers back to my blog!  Of course, I will start with something really easy and totally non-boring, but what a great way to start:  Hong Kong!

As I said in my previous post, the flight over was fantastic!  The most exciting part for me was that this was only the second time in my nine years living here that I managed to fly east of Munich.  And that one time I flew east of Munich it was to Istanbul, I never even set foot on the Asian continent.  We were so lucky on the flight over to have fantastic weather, that allowed me to see the landscape almost the entire trip (well, at least into Russia, then we hit night.) 

Poland, between Lodz and Warsaw

Near Minsk, Belarus

Somewhere in Russia.  The map on the plan was sparse with details.

I felt like a little kid, it was so very exciting!  And then, I felt so bummed when the flight attendants came by and had us put down our window shades.  Grr!

We landed in Hong Kong at 6:40 am.  I was so happy that the sun had risen, so I could snap a few shots of our approach.  The Hong Kong airport is built on reclaimed land, which has resulted in the airport being more of an island unto itself. 

Once we got through immigration and customs, we made our way over to the train.  The train is a high-speed train that has three stops; Tsing Yi, a former fishing village; Kowloon, the southern part of Hong Kong connected to the mainland; and Hong Kong island. 

Although the train ride was very quick, it did give me a good opportunity to take in some of the areas around Hong Kong.  I was immediately impressed that this was a huge city with a lush, green, mountainous backdrop.

We also rode by the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals, which quickly reminded me that not only were we coming to a cool city, but that this city is responsible for the transport of many of the products we use daily.  Hong Kong is completely a global player.

Once at the train station, on Hong Kong island, we then took a shuttle bus to the hotel. 
Again the shuttle bus provided more time for sightseeing.  And very slow sightseeing at that, the traffic was insane!



After a good rest, we headed to the convention center, for our main purpose of the trip, to go to the Hong Kong Gifts and Premium Fair.  Of course, I already had to take a million pictures on the five minute walk to the convention center.

The most amazing thing to me in Hong Kong was the sheer amount of things to see. It was like a feast for the senses.

The fair itself was interesting.  We were only there for about two hours on Wednesday.  The exhibition center is the building in the bottom left corner in the above collage.   I noticed the big trends there were handbag hangers, paddle ball sets, and of course, waveboards.  Again, this was a gift fair, hence waveboards and handbag hangers.

We were lucky, while we were visiting the fair, the sun started to set.  So, as we left, we got our first glimpse of Hong Kong at dusk.  This is when Hong Kong gets its second wind.

After a yummy burger dinner at the White Stag, a British pub, Joern and I went for a little walk around Wan Chai, the quintessential Hong Kong district where we were staying.  Despite being exhausted, I couldn't help but want to get out and see Hong Kong!