Shirley and Ernest, heads of the Gallant clan, continue to enjoy their 6 week visit to China.
By mid-May, one detail that continues to surprise them is how very many pregnant women they see walking around the city, toting one or two other toddlers alongside. The single-child policy does not seem so alive and well in Huizhou – multiple-kid families are quite common. “We are too far from Beijing,” one student tells me. “Maybe people that are close to Beijing listen?” (Some of the exceptions are laid out here.)
The majority of May is very hot and very humid, so our days out mostly revolve around early mornings and late afternoons, with sightseeing kept local and low key. Pierre’s birthday is May 15th, which turns out to be a reasonably warm day, so we visit a few places in the city and then head over to Huizhou’s West Lake scenic area.
The place is relatively quiet today. We check out the tower…
…then climb the tower…
…with a few breaks along the way to enjoy the scenery, as well as the cool breeze that passes through the tower.
We check out bamboo grafitti:
…and the sunset before heading off to dinner.
For dinner, we splurge on sushi, at the Birthday Boy’s request …
…then head home for a beautiful fruit cake, complete with icing orchids. (The card says: To Pierre, 生日快乐 [sheng1 ri4 kuai4 le4] Happy Birthday!). Pierre is serenaded with an English, French and Chinese version of Happy Birthday. For most of these versions, there are only one or two singers who know the words well, and the rest of us mumble and hum along.
On Day 204, it’s time to head to Hong Kong for Shirley and Ernest’s flight home on day 206. We decide to go a few days early to take a short tour of the city.
In Hong Kong, the city is on swine flu alert (as are many other tourist destinations, I'm sure). The hotel clerk takes each of our temperatures with a non-contact thermometer gun that he points at our foreheads – our temperatures are noted down on the registration form along with our full names and passport numbers.
For the majority of May, our umbrellas have only been used as sun cover…
…but in Hong Kong the rainy season decides to get down to work for a few days. We take a guided tour of the city to see as much as possible (or at least a few things) during the time we’re there. Rain in Hong Kong leads to heavy fog, so most viewpoints our tour takes us to on Day 205 look a bit like this (you can see the buildings faintly in the lower left hand side):
Closer to the ground, things are a bit more interesting. We take a sampan much like this one…
…for a ride around a boat community in Aberdeen Harbour.
The tour drops us off at various locations in the city, including a local market, where we find a few final gifts and check out a water-side temple.
The guided tour is a hit except for a fairly pointless trip to a jewelry factory and showroom – at that point on the trip the guide makes it clear that they only include the factory as part of the trip because tourists are often interested in jewelry but run the risk of being ripped off if they don’t go to a reputable shop. He ends his speech with: “If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Now, welcome to my uncle’s factory.”
We laugh – we can only assume he’s joking. Overall, our guide is excellent and is quite the comedian. He warns us about pickpockets (“Be careful. Because Hong Kong is better than the Italians – much more skilled at taking your wallet”) and signs off the day with: “Thank you for taking your tour with us today. If you are happy, this is Hong Kong and my name is Steve. If you are unhappy, this is San Francisco and my name is Bill.”
We spend a quiet night in the hotel and then on Day 206, we part ways, with Ernest and Shirley enjoying an uneventful flight home, while Amelie and I bus-metro-bus-bus our way home to Huizhou.
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