Ni Hao

I had the great opportunity to go to China for a week. Just like everyone else visiting the country, I came away being very impressed.

What you see here is a snapshot of Hong Kong, which is a bit "China light", basically. On a Saturday morning you would find all the Ex-Pats having their croissants in french-looking coffee shops. You could be anywhere in Europe or in the US.

But don't be mistaken. There is some great culture to be discovered in HK. I particularly liked the famous Man Mo temple, located on Hollywood Street (sic!). The temple was built in 1847 for the worship of the civil god Man Tai and the martial god Mo Tai. The temple features a huge number of bell-shaped coils of incense in order to attract the attention of the gods. The rumour goes that some hundred years ago, locals came to the temple to solve disputes that could not be solved by British law.

The process of finding an equitable solution involved the legal system of the Qing Dynasty, which stated that both plaintiff and defendant should make a promise in the temple and write it - along with a punishment - on a piece of yellow paper. They then killed a chicken, chopped off its head, let its blood drip onto the paper, and burned the paper. It was believed that because the promise was made before the gods, if the individual broke the promise they would suffer the indicated punishment. Many Chinese preferred this justice system to the British system.

I do presume that the young couple getting married also wanted to seek some attention, but it might have been that of the photographer only...

The night market in Hong Kong featured a stunning variety of small enterprises. I liked this shop in particular. Doesn't get much smaller than that, does it?

This is some spectacular view from Kowloon island over to Hong Kong island.

But given I was in China for the job I also went to see some hospitals. The picture is very touching, I think, telling a story about a man taking care of his wife while she is undergoing dialysis treatment. The face of the old man tells the whole story.

Shanghai was also part of the route, so here is the amazing view from my hotel room on the 94th floor.

And finally, I had a few hours before my flight back to London, so I went to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Everyone has seen everything there is to see, I believe, so I will put up a photo that I hope is also reflective of what you can see everywhere in China.