Hong Kong

Micah and I are both relieved to be out of China. Traveling (and eating) for the last month has been extremely difficult. As soon as we stepped onto the city streets of Hong Kong we felt the difference. There are fines for hawking, smoking and jay walking, the air is cleaner, and the locals don't stare at westerners, just the main land Chinese tourists do, and it feels like civilization again!

While Micah has been writing and taking pictures up a storm these last few weeks, I've been working on some creativity of my own. Unfortunately, the Great Fire Wall wouldn't allow any video posts.

We don't go anywhere without our handy Flip Cam in tow. These two masterpieces are from Beijing and more are coming!

Enjoy!

Joanie

Today is Hong Kong's Chung Yeung festival, the day where ancestor reverence boils over and the country shuts down to show their respect.

Besides being a national holiday with government offices and banks closed, many Hong Kongers visit cemeteries to clean family member's graves and burn paper replicas of objects the dead might want in the afterlife (such as an iPad).

Stores that only sell these replicas - ranging from air conditioners to dentures that price from around $2.00 on up - line the street in the Sheung Wan neighborhood, one of the city's last with terraced turn-of-the-century buildings just starting to trend upward as hip galleries and glassy apartment buildings pop up.

Fingers crossed, these mom and pop shops survive the neighborhood's change. Where else will the dead (and their families) be able to grab a pack of Marlboro's or six pack of Heineken?

Click the following link for more photos: Hong Kong Fuey!