Korea - HK - China - KORKONG! - Page 6

Here is Nathan road out the front of my hotel. Note the surprising lack of rain.

I was looking for a cafe open at 7:30am on a Sunday. No luck. KFC was open for their weird Asian breakfast but I just could not bring myself to do it.

My route took me up a freeway past a swimming pool.

Soon I joined a hiking trail, still no rain, I skipped gleefully.

That is a construction site being built into the side of a hill.

Before very long at all I got enough height to start appreciating the excellent, but hazey view.

More view.

The main trail was very developed, even if it did start to rain I would have no problem today.

Beacon hill. This is probably the beacon they speak of. It looks abandoned, as you shall see I suspect it was for the old airport.

Near the centre of the picture you can see the old Kai Tak airport runway. I am standing almost on the famous checkerboard, where huge jets used to perform a sharp turn in front of the mountain and try not to hit any buildings as they descended between them.

Off in the distance, lion rock, my main goal for today.

Half way up the rock part of lion rock looking back at beacon hill. The Beacon has since vanished in the fog.

I stood in this exact spot in severe fog many years ago. Now I am here again.

There really are steep cliffs to fall off if that is your thing.

These Filipino girls are trying their best to die posing for photos.

I stayed a long way from the edge, meanwhile behind me they were leaping into the air on rocks near the edge.

Past lion rock there is another peak to go over, I dont know what its called, but the signs all point to Sha Tin Pass.

More Filipinos perched on the edge. I am starting to understand why they need the signs everywhere telling people not to go on the official hiking trail.

I chose to access beyond this point. It seemed no more likely to kill you than the previous points.

That there is my path down, along the ridge. Still no rain, no idea how this has occurred but I was very glad I went for a waterless hike.

I was very powerful today.

About halfway down, by this point the path became a solid marble stair case.

Last photo, a temple! This one features razor wire, swastikas, and a huge power pole thingy. Soon after this, it started raining hard, literally minutes after I got back to the road. Perfect timing.

There really is a lot of Jesus related stuff going on in Hong Kong. I feel as though a lot of it is fairly recent. Big money in Jesus it seems.

My journey took me past a newly constructed arts centre. I dont really understand what the point of it is, but it has this little wooden house.

These people happily posed for my photo in the rain.

If you climb up to the roof of the ferry terminal you can go out the back and get an amazing view of the harbour. It seems a very under populated location given the amazing view.

When I first came to Hong Kong those buildings were either not there or under construction. The very tall building on the left disappearing into the clouds has a roof top infinity pool that you have probably seen girls with huge fake boobs swimming in, its a favourite thing to stick on the Australian news website whenever they have a story about something rich Asians are up to. It was actually featured this week in a story about slavery in Hong Kong.

Like I said, great view from the top of the ferry terminal.

Here are some actual ferries, their terminal is made of solid gold.

Andy Lau was going past as I took this photo.

After Andy they were waiting for other people, lots of signs, flowers. Some of the signs are electronic, many say 'Please do not touch my 193'. Google has no info on this!

Random tourist pirate ship.

Eventually the pirate ship sailed off into the night.

In case you dont like pirate ships, heres the same shot without the ship.

For dinner I had Lanzhou beef noodle. It is the same all over the world, in Australia its what you get from Noodle Kingdom originally but now there are lots of places actually called Lanzhou Beef Noodle springing up all over the place. The noodles are pulled by hand just before cooking. The chefs filthy hands add to the flavour.

One last shot of a rainy Hong Kong glowing street.

Powdered milk formula is not just an issue in Australia, Hong Kong also does not like too much of it being exported. Unlike Australia, Hong Kong actually has to import it. Here in Australia we have way too much milk which is going to waste and we still dont want to sell it to Chinese people. It makes no sense to me.

Once you have gone through all the customs and assuming your fingers have fingerprints, you enter the departure hall. There are no shops! None. You are technically in mainland China at this point.

The train was just like any other in China. I saw photos of orange colored ones that looked higher than the normal ones, but mine was the standard CRH thing.

Here I am at Guangzhou South station, between the trains.

The station is absolutely enormous and new. It is connected to the metro. I had no issue getting cash out and getting a Guangzhou metro card. It is about 30 minutes on the metro to the middle of the city, and it was packed.

Now for some photos of my strange hotel apartment, on English websites its called JiaJia mix, but theres no signs saying that at the hard to find reception area, where it is called Yi Min Hotel. As you can see I get a washing machine.

And a full kitchen.

Bed and a small couch, everything you could want! The internet is super fast too. Some reviewers complained their room was dirty, mine seems fine. Others complained they didnt get fresh towels and sheets daily, I dont care about that. It is very cheap, well located and huge. I had many check in issues but they were keen enough to help once I threatened to kill someone.

Here is my 'view'. My view is all fog. The rain seems particularly heavy right now. Now to work out where the hell I am.

Obviously China doesnt have the same fear of fan death as Korea, there are hundreds of stores full of fans.

This is the mall that my hotel is in. I am on the second to top floor. As you can see there is an IMAX theatre.

This is Beijing road, the main traditional shopping street. The thick trees provide good shelter from the rain. I got asked by every second dodgy looking guy if I wanted to buy a watch or a handbag.

Transformers are still the most important thing to every single Chinese person.

I dont know what these cakes are but they are everywhere. Maybe I will have one. They look like they are many days old.

The stores are a weird mix of fake antiques, fake armani, and then trendy things like these bags made out of recycled paper that cost $500.

I was one of not many people standing in the rain taking photos of rain.

When in Canton, eat Cantonese food. Roast pork on noodles. Not bad. Small serve. Bland.

Now for some colored lights, this is just a random street, most of the streets around here look like this.

Pedestrian street, a side road off the main pedestrian street. The rain makes the lights look good.

This is one of the hundreds of fruit stands I was talking about. They add fog to mask how rotten the fruit is.

There are at least 20 giant malls in the immediate vicinity. Too many to look at. The basements are where the cheap food is anyway.

Guangzhou roof light thing is not as good as Daejeon roof light thing.

A bit more of the main street now that its properly dark.

Over the road from my hotel is the peoples cultural revolution historic something park. It has cool lighting.

I attempted to photograph the rain, generally an exercise in futility. Todays futile exercise was slightly less futile than previous attempts due to the downpour.

I was mindful of not getting washed away in a flood. It does happen!

The first monument park I got to was the Martyrs park. Here is the hand of communism hoisting an ak47 skyward.

And here lay the bodies of the 4 martyrs of the great communist uprising.

Nearby, future martyrs are singing songs about the cool ways they will sacrifice themselves for their cause. Theres a guy with a drum kit who is way too loud and generally drumming in an inappropriate manner for old folks singing opera.

The park is large and quit nice. However nearby is the largest park in any Chinese city. I will go there on a nicer day.

A GLIMMER OF BLUE SKY! REJOICE!

Soon after a glimmer of blue it started to rain again. I stopped for a beverage. I would normally say stopped for a coffee, but today I had a ginger and brown sugar latte, delicious. I want another one now. Of course this photo does not show a cup with frothed milk, what it does show is a bank of rechargeable Anker batteries. They are in every single store in China. I think you subscribe to a service, and exchange a flat one for a charged one wherever you go. Basically everyone has their thin phone plugged into a super fat battery at all times.

After some more walking, more rain, just as I arrived at the main Boulevard. Not to worry, the entire under the parks and gardens area is a giant mall. Apparently Vladimir Putin came here for an ice cream.

Back up on the surface, and its another nice park, with good views of great buildings.

And here are the buildings. These are the two biggest I think. Hard to tell if its the very top of the one on the right, I waited for a break in the cloud.

The Baiyun tower is actually not as tall as the buildings. I could be wrong about that. It doesnt look as big to me or in other pictures anyway.

Near the tower is this weird stadium. I dont know what it is for. I could not quite fit it all into one shot, but the metal structures on the left seem to be nothing more than a machine that erects a giant screen. I am guessing this is only for live performances, and not for any sport?

This is the Guangdong museum. If it were still raining at this point I probably would have gone in. It looks like a small house but if you look closely you can see people to get an indication of the scale.

This bank is very impressive, they have rock solid financials.

Time to head to a mall. The first one is the oldest and the biggest (unless the internet is out of date with its info). I took a photo of the fake Eiffel tower in honor of the today it burnt down and soon to be rebuilt as fake Notre Dame. I visited Notre Dame and felt unsafe the whole time I was there! Not due to risk of fire, due to risk of being shot or stabbed. Paris is a scary place.

The external part of this mall looks old, and its an old style of just being a huge building with no windows or natural light.

Inside it is very massive, this is the central atrium, there are 5 in total, mostly covered in blue tarps. The whole thing is a giant square. Within its confines are an aquarium with polar bears and penguins, a dinosaur fossil thing, fake statues from history and like all big Chinese malls...

...an ice skating rink.

I thought this was the only mall in the area so I took another shot from the top. I was very very wrong about it being the only mall.

Just next door is this very new much nicer mall. Too nice for the likes of me.

Over the road is an enormous square of light colored concrete and a sporting stadium. Future student uprising location. I probably should have crossed the road for a better picture.

Back to the mall, after approaching I realised it was mainly underground, with the flying saucer cage thing on the roof. I stayed away from the apple store in case I became indoctrinated with some kind of ideology.

Ladies parking! The spaces are 1.5x as wide, and all the pillars have big pink foam pads on them. Really!

This mall is so fancy it has a Porsche dealership inside the mall.

Annnnd next door to this mall was another mall. It probably went on and on with more malls but by now I had done 30,000 steps and this mall had a subway station under it, so it was time to return to my hotel and see if the washing machine in my room had successfully destroyed my clothes. Update, it has not, but it has no dryer function, now I am strategically hanging my clothes around the room.

I liked this building. I guess there are lots like this but this one stood out because it literally stands out, there are not 10 others leaning up against it. Also, look at the clear blue sky!

Shangxiajiu pedestrian street. I have arrived at tonights destination.

Touristic. Featuring 200 shops selling old womens underwear. Thats underwear for old women, not old underwear for women. Each store has an old woman out the front clapping loudly to get my attention as I go past. I bought some full control 110% polyester supreme briefs.

I have been eyeing off the fruit for a while, tonight was fruit experience number 1 and it was great. So much fruit! I tried to select mainly fruit you dont regularly get in Australia. It is too much, I didnt quite eat it all. You select bigger bits then they cut it up for you into bits you can stuff into your gaping mouth.

Sunset. Me and everyone else were photographing the sun. -2ev compensation on my handy exposure dial. Probably photo of the day.

Just one of many many streets running off the main shopping street which are also shopping streets. This one lead me to a big new mall.

Inside this mall were mainly fancy restaurants. This one sells delicious dolphin meat! So succulent.

I headed into some back streets and happened upon a Japanese castle? Brand new I think, just like the ones in Japan!

The surrounding area has a number of storm water drains with bridges designed to survive a flood.

The castle was quite near the area that has all the art galleries and little cafes. A lot of these were shut already, but it still looked like a really nice area.

This is where I hung out with some local children and annoyed this kitten with my orange pre focus light thing that basically does nothing at all when I half press the shutter release to focus on my camera.

Crap photo, not sure why I didnt cull it!

I had looped back around to the main street, time for a few dark shots.

I headed further along the main street in the other direction, it got even busier, lots more lights.

A huge number of people for a Tuesday night. I was still full of fruit and dolphin meat, so decided to continue on without dinner...

Except when I got back to my hotel area, I found a fairwood, just like in Hong Kong. A nice cheap small meal with lots of vegetables including okra, something else you cant seem to get in Australia. Apparently it wont rain much tomorrow, the skies are clear now, heres hoping I can go do something that involves nature.