My Future Home

It's Beijing!

Well, it will never be "home", but it is where I will be living from the end of August 2009 until January 2011, for my Masters program at Tsinghua!

Lisa and Chelsie just got back from visiting Beijing for five days, and they had an incredible time.  After hearing about it, I am even more happy with my decision to move there...if that's even possible.  I mean, it is going to be the adventure of a lifetime!

In Beijing, they also met up with the Ivey students on exchange at Tsinghua, and they are having just as wonderful a time as we are having in Hong Kong...always good to hear.

From looking at Lisa's photos, the one thing that really stood out to me is how "green" the city is - it seems as though there are lots of parks and flowers and greenery!  The downside: they confirmed it...the pollution is absolutely terrible.

I wish the world would do more to reduce their carbon footprint.

Yangtze River Cruise Post Is...

...Done!

You can read it here.

This Blog Won't Be Ending Anytime Soon...

I am sure you find that confusing. But Heather, you're thinking, won't you be coming home in August? And wouldn't it be silly to keep writing about your adventures in Asia from your living room in Caledon, Ontario?

Yes. That would be silly.

But here is the juice: I am moving to Beijing, P.R. China!

For most of you, I am pretty sure you think this is coming out of nowhere. That makes sense...I have really only told my parents and a few friends. But now, I am finally ready to tell the world!

I have been accepted to the Masters in International Development Program at Tsinghua University (see below) in Beijing. Classes start in September, and I will be graduating in January of 2011.

There are two main reasons for the move:

1) Globalization has been a hot topic for a long time now - and China is right at the centre of it all. No one is denying the fact that China's economy has become one of the most important in the world. As a business student, I have known all this for a while. What I didn't know what how I could integrate all of this into my future. Actually, I didn't think it was really possible.

2) Then, I went to Shanghai (It was a great trip...you can read all about it here). There, we met tons of young, 20-somethings living in the city, speaking Mandarin and having an incredible time. And that's when I realized...that I could do that, too. I could move to Asia!

So, I have pretty much been working out the details since I got back from that trip. I knew I wanted to go to school in Beijing, because it is the best place to learn Mandarin (the Beijing dialect, Putonghua, is China's official language). I also knew that I wanted to go to Tsinghua University, if possible, because it is one of the best universities in China (if not THE best). In fact, at the Ivey Networking evening, one of the Ivey Alumni that we met said that Tsinghua won't just be the "Harvard of China" in a few years - it will be right up there on the same level. Cool.

Tsinghua offers a few English programs, but the Masters in International Development Program appealed to me the most. It is fairly new - only two groups of students have been through the curriculum thus far. It is also quite small. This year's class has 32 students, from 21 different countries - such incredible diversity! I am sure I will learn a LOT.

If you want to read more about the program, click here.

The only downside with this whole thing is that my time in Canada in August is being cut really short. I thought that I would need to plan to arrive in Beijing at the beginning of September, but I just found out that I actually need to arrive in the middle of August, in time for their Orientation activities.

I am so sad because I wanted to have more time to hang out with my family!

Oh, well. It's a sacrifice. The world isn't going to stop needing development just because I miss my mom.

I will update as I find out more...

Umm...

...I just saw a very small gecko-type reptile scurrying down the hall in my dorm. It went into one of the three-person dorm rooms...

Yikes!

The Yangtze River Cruise

On Wednesday, March 25th I left Hong Kong for yet another wonderful trip to a new place - this time, it was a cruise down the Yangtze River, in China!

This trip required some serious planning, since there were a few one-way flights involved. We used a travel agent, and he found us the flights we needed for only $60 CAD each...the only problem was that we had to fly out of Shenzhen, China - a Special Economic Zone on the Chinese side of the China/Hong Kong border.

Well...leave it to us to turn a problem into...a spa party! We left Hong Kong on Wednesday night, even though our flight to Chongqing wasn't until Thursday morning, and spent the night enjoying the amenities of Queen Spa! It was just as great as last time. I slept in the futuristic sleep-pods again, and was really refreshed for our Yangtze River adventure!

We caught our flight to Chongqing on Thursday morning, and it was perfectly fine. We arrived in Chongqing around 2 pm, and had a few hours to spare before we had to board the cruise ship. We looked around the city for a bit (it is BIG) and grabbed dinner at a restaurant by the port. We had "Hot Pot" - basically, the restaurant brings you some ingredients (raw meat like beef and raw veggies like mushrooms) and a big pot of spiced water. They put the pot of water on an element that is part of the table, and wait for the water to boil. When it does, you add the ingredients...and when they float to the top, they are cooked!

It was pretty tasty, but way too much work for my liking...haha.

After eating, we took a look at the river, and we could see our cruise ship! It was smaller than cruise ships that sail through the Caribbean, but it looked cute! We were relieved, because even though the cruise called itself "Four Star"...sometimes, with China, you can never be sure.

An eight-piece band greeted us as we boarded the ship, and when we entered the ship's lobby...we were pleasantly surprised! The ship was beautiful! Very much like how you would expect a Four Star cruise ship to look! We presented our passports so that we could check in, and we were in for another surprise - they told us not to tell anyone, but we had been upgraded from Standard Rooms to SUITES for free!

PS. Here is the ship's dining room...it's so nice!

Well, now we were completely excited! We headed up a few flights of stairs, and to the back of the ship..and there were our rooms! The upgrade made a huge difference. We had the whole back of the ship to ourselves. The rooms were very big, with two single beds in each one, and windows on two sides! We also had balconies on the back and sides of the boat. We were loving it.
That night, we had dinner and were given our itineraries for the next day.

The itinerary is great...it starts with early morning tea at 6:30 am, followed by Tai Chi at 7 am, plus so much more. Of course, I want to do EVERYTHING, so I totally go to bed at, like, 10 pm. And sleep like a baby.

The next morning I woke up at 6 am and headed to early morning tea (well, I have coffee, actually...and a muffin) and then Lisa and I did Tai Chi. Bahahaha...we SUCKED. It was pretty hilarious. Even though they offered Tai Chi every morning on the cruise...I decided not to go back. It's not that I didn't like it...it's just that...well, I didn't really like it.

I'm used to Cardio Kickbox, you know?

Our outing this day was to Fengdu Ghost City...within the city, there is a temple devoted to the afterlife. It is freaky. Check it:

Scary, right?

The rest of the day is spent floating along the Yangtze, and we also participated in a few on-ship activities. For example, we went to a lecture about Chinese Medicine, and Lisa got acupuncture:

That evening, there was some awesome on-ship entertainment...A fashion show of traditional Chinese costumes! Each one was so unique and so beautiful! Here is an example:



The next morning, our excursion was to visit the Three Gorges. We left the cruise ship and boarded a smaller boat, and then left that boat to board tiny boats called "sanpams". The sanpams took us down a small area of theYangtze River, and the scenery was beautiful!

That evening, there was more entertainment...a Variety Show. The cruise ship staff (dining room staff, bar staff, housekeeping staff) put on a bunch of different acts - mostly dancing, but there was also some singing, saxophone playing, a band, etc. A group of cruise ship guests - five sisters who are now all living in different parts of China - performed a Peking Opera. It was...nice?

That evening, we arrived at the Three Gorges Dam Project. This has been a very controversial project in China, and it's impact is and will continue to be felt by the entire world, I think. Basically, a giant (GIANT) dam has been built across the Yangtzee River (in Sandouping), and the water level upstream has been raised to a maximum of 175 metres. Although the dam project has many benefits, including flood control, enhancing navigation and providing clean energy, it is controversial because it has caused millions of Chinese citizens to be displaced. This is because, as the water level upstream increased, many riverside cities have been completely flooded.

No matter what your personal view on the dam is, it is definitely a site to see. At night, we went through the locks (there are five separate ones - the whole process takes four hours), which delivered us from the upstream portion of the Yangtze to the downstream portion. In the morning, the cruise ship docked, and a bus took us to the Dam Site. We were able to see how truly vast the dam is - it is MASSIVE. And pretty ugly. But really powerful.

After checking out the dam site, we continued our voyage downstream towards Yichang. After taking a few more breathtaking photos, we packed our things and left the ship. A taxi took us through Yichang (it's NOT like Shanghai) to a bus station - we needed to get to Wuhan for our flight back to Shenzhen the next day.

Have you heard of the recency effect? It's some psychological effect that BASICALLY says that we will be more likely to remember the things which happened to us most recently, rather than a while ago. Well, I am glad I know what that is...or this post's title would have read "This Was The Worst Trip Ever".

The bus from Yichang to Wuhan was the absolute sketchiest three, nope...four, nope...SIX hours of my life. First, we got ripped off by the person selling tickets. We didn't know it at first...90 RMB seemed like a good price for what was supposed to be a three-hour bus ride. Then, once we were on the bus, we found out someone else paid 45. Great.

The inside of the bus was dirty, stinky and pretty much broken-down. My seat was in a permanently reclined position, and there was pretty much no cushion - I was pretty much sitting on a spring. The bus broke down art least three times on our way to Wuhan...we had to pull over, and the driver had to get out and do something to the engine. At least we got two bathroom breaks - yep, the bus pulled over to a gas station, and we were able to get off and pee in holes. Awesome.

When we finally arrived in Wuhan, the sketchiness continued. We needed a place to crash for the night, and found one. Well, I wish we had looked at the rooms first, or at LEAST noticed that the hotel had an hourly rate. The rooms were horrifying...I won't even go into details, because I don't want you to know that places like this even exist.

We busted it out of there pretty early in the morning, and explored the city a bit. Again, not at all like Shanghai. We ate some street food ("Ghetto Food" as Shannon likes to call it) and then grabbed a cab and headed to the airport.

The flight back to Shenzhen was uneventful (as all good flights are), and so was the subway ride back to campus - other than the fact that we SOMEHOW lost Chelsie. I still don't know how it happened...

All in all, it was a great trip. Very relaxing but also really educational...I loved that about it. Even though I didn't include every detail from the cruise, there was a TON of programming offered, from Introductory Mandarin lessons, to lectures about Chinese calligraphy, to discussions about the Dam Project and it benefits and costs. And the food and entertainment was great!

I definitely recommend a Yangtze River cruise to anyone heading to China - it is perfect for groups, friends, couples and families. The travel agent we used was www.ChinaHighlights.com, and the cruise operator is "Victoria Cruises".

Anyways...that is pretty much it for the Cruise! Check back soon for a post about my trip to Thailand!

So, I'm a Little Behind...

Gosh, time really flies. I am SO far behind on my blog posts!

I still need to write about my Cruise down the Yangtze River, and my Spring Break in Thailand!

Lucky for me, it is Sunday afternoon, and I have nothing to do except continue to sit here in Starbucks (armed with a very, very big coffee), writing to my heart's content.

So...hopefully, there will soon be some new material here for you to read...soon!

Safe and Sound!

Hi Everyone!

I am just letting you know that I am safe and sound...after surviving two crazy events.

Event 1) Riots in Thailand

I don't know if you heard, but there was some political activity in Bangkok while I was in Thailand for Spring Break. We hadn't planned on spending much time in the city, anyways (we were all about the beach, way down South!), other than exploring it for a few hours before our flight home from Bangkok to Hong Kong on April 15th. Well, the riots changed those plans. We opted for a 13 hour layover in the airport instead. Lisa got a manicure and pedicure (for $10 CAD!). I slept.

Event 2) My 22nd Birthday

Yes, I survived. Actually, we had a great time. I went downtown with a bunch of friends, and one of them even bought me a tiara so that everyone would know it was my birthday! We hit up a few different bars, and before I knew it...it was 5 am. At this point, HKUST students have 2 choices. We can either pay HK$120 to get back to campus (about $20 CAD) or we can wait until 6 am, when the subway opens and go home practically for free. Taking the subway home at 6 am also seems cooler, for some reason. So we did that. By the time I went to bed, it was 8 in the morning.

Oh, to be 22 and in Hong Kong...

PS. Dad, I am so excited that you are on Twitter! How cool are you right now!

One More Important Thing...

In case you forgot, a VERY special day is coming up soon!

It's my birthday on April 17th! I will be 22!

Gosh. 22. That is horrifying...

It's Almost Time For...Spring Break!

This time tomorrow, I will be heading for the Spring Break of a lifetime - 8 days in Southern Thailand!

(Oh, and I know I still need to write about the Yangtze River Cruise. Umm...next week?)

The plan for Thailand is something like this:

Tuesday - Leave Hong Kong for Bang Kok. We're going with Emirates Airlines, and our flight leaves at 10:25 pm (just a few hours after my Marketing Strategy exam...)

Wednesday - We arrive in Bang Kok at 12:05 am. We heard Bang Kok is a bit of a sketchy place, so we are just going avoid it all together. So, at 6 am, we are catching flight 2 of 5, to Koh Samui...an island.

We are spending Wednesday night on Koh Samui (all 15 of us are sharing just a couple of rooms in a hostel, I think...haha) and taking a Ferry over to Koh Phagnan on Thursday morning - just in time for the Full Moon Party, which will probably be the craziest party I will ever go to in my whole life.

The morning after the party, we have to get back to our hostel on Koh Samui, and then catch our noon flight to Krabi (on the Western side of Southern Thailand). From there, we are going to relax and enjoy the scenery...it is supposed to be absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

Well, I guess ou can judge for yourself. Here is a picture of Koh Phi Phi (an island we will be staying on):

On April 14th, we are departing Phuket for Bangkok, and then heading home. 5 flights in 8 days. How ridiculous.

I am really excited about the whole thing, except that the weather is supposed to be terrible! All I want is ONE trip without rain. Is that too much to ask???

See you in about a week!

Heather

Just Another Reason Why I Chose Ivey

And I am so glad I did.

The Richard Ivey School of Business is the school I belonged to during my third and fourth years at Western. It was a great experience, even though it was a lot of work. At Ivey, they use the case study method. That means that all day, every day, we use real world business cases to learn about business. Every night, we would have to prepare three cases for the next day, and they take a few hours each. Then, when you arrived in class (at 8 am EVERYDAY, might I add), it was ON. Since 30-50% of your final grade depends on your in-class participation (or "contribution", as Ivey calls it)...everyone is always fighting to get a word in. It is definitely not for everyone...but I loved every minute of it.

Another reason I chose Ivey, though, is for its Alumni Network.

Remember a few weeks ago, when I went to see Ivey's Hong Kong campus? Well, the Dean sent me (and all of Ivey's exchange students) an invitation a few weeks later, to come to her apartment for "Cocktails" (how grown up am I???) with Ivey Alumni located in the Hong Kong area. Of course, all of us were super excited!

So, on Wednesday, Lisa, Chelsie, Georginanna and I grab the subway and head to Admiralty, a very cool area in downtown Hong Kong.

By the way, I don't think you have met Georginanna yet. She goes to Ivey as well (obviously), but she is originally from Hong Kong. She speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin fluently, plus some Korean. And in true Asian style, she can eat anything she likes and still looks like a twig. She is a great source of information about the best places to eat in Hong Kong, and she is super fun to go out with.

Anyways, we get off the subway and find the address, and what do we find? The Dean (her name is Kathleen) and her husband actually live in a serviced apartment in the Conrad Hotel.

What is a serviced hotel, you ask? Well, I wanted to know as well, so I looked it up.

Basically, it is like living in a hotel, but are usually 30-35% less expensive than doing so. The places are fully furnished. Cleaning service is provided for no extra charge daily, and the units are usually much more spacious. They also include kitchen and dining facilities. All kitchen accessories and even linens are provided. Sounds pretty great to me!

Anyways, their apartment is fabulous. They have a view of the skyline of Tsim Sha Tsui across the water, and two bedrooms (one of them has two single beds). There was delicious appetizers - shrimp, kabobs, little cracker-things. Also, there were two men in butler uniforms serving us the entire night (mostly refilling our wine glasses!). The atmosphere was amazing.

It was great talking to the Dean, her husband (a retired school teacer) and other Ivey Alumni. It was really interesting hearing everyone's stories. A lot of the people there were investment bankers. One man worked for a year in banking in Toronto, a year in New York, and then was supposed to spend only a year doing the same in Hong Kong - but he ending up loving it so much that he stayed! He now has two children, and just bought a house here. Crazy!

Here is a photo of all of Ivey's Hong Kong exchange students that we took near the end of the evening, in the hotel lobby:

I really appreciate Kathleen and her husband hosting this event for us, and I appreciate all of he Alumni who came. It really meant so much to me that Ivey Alumni were willing to take time out of their lives to come and spend a night with a bunch of 21 year-olds. When I am older, I will definitely do the same.

And that is the beauty of the Ivey Alumni Network.

The Food in Hong Kong

I recently received an email from a friend back home, asking me what the food in Hong Kong is like. I should have posted something about this earlier, because I had no idea what to expect, and I am sure many of you are wondering what I eat over here!

Well, first let me tell you about the food on campus. There are 7 restaurants on campus. One of them is McDonald's. I hardly ever eat there (although, it is really cheap...about $3 CAD including taxes for a Big Mac Meal or something like that). Ray Kroc would be happy to hear that it looks and tastes exactly the same as it does at home.

There are three cafeteria-style restaurants, that serve a bunch of different types of foods, and the offerings change daily. You can get Western food, Chinese food, Thai food, Japanese food...and so much more. The menu is posted on a wall, and there are no pictures...so it was a bit of an adventure in the beginning. Sometimes, I would order something and receive something completely different and unexpected. There is one item that they serve there that I am happy I never ordered by mistake: Chicken Feet.

A typical meal at these restaurants is Tomato Minced Beef with Egg and Rice. It is basically a big bowl of rice with minced beef in tomato sauce, with a fried egg on top. WHY is that egg there? I don't know. It is weird. But pretty good.

Meals in these restaurants usually cost about HK$20, or $3.22 CAD. This includes tax.

There is also the Western Cafe. This restaurant serves totally Western meals - sandwiches, pizza, baked potatoes, paninis...it is pretty good, and definitely your best bet if you want to order something that you will recognize. Sandwiches here cost HK$12, or $1.93, including tax.

Finally, there are two "nicer" restaurants on campus. The first is Western-style, called The Bistro. It serves meals that you will find at a typical restaurant in Canada - toasted BLT sandwiches, potato skins, pasta, etc. It is more expensive, though...maybe $8-$12 CAD per meal. It is connected to the Uni-Bar, our on-campus bar. I have only been there once, though, for the first exchange student event of the year.

The last "nice" restaurant is the Dim Sum restaurant. I only go there on weekdays after 2:30, because it is half-price. Dim Sum is a Hong Kong specialty, and it is basically a bunch of steamed snacks (dumplings, buns, etc.) that are served in bamboo containers. Four dumplings costs HK$9, or $1.45 CAD, and two or three orders would easily be enough to fill you up.

Off campus, there are a LOT more options. No matter what kind of food you are looking for in Hong Kong, you can find it. And for the most part, it is pretty inexpensive.

Sure, there are scary-looking places that have raw chunks of mean and skinned ducks prominently displayed in the window...but there are also regular restaurants, just like you would find in any city back home. One of the most popular places to eat is SoHo. SoHo is accessed via the Mid-Level Escalators, which take you up a hill in the middle of the Central district of Hong Kong. As you climb, you can look on both sides for a restaurant that looks good. I have had some great meals there.

I also enjoyed heading to the harbour a few weeks ago, where there are tons of restaurants serving the freshest seafood I have ever had. So fresh, in fact, that you can choose your fist RIGHT THEN AND THERE, and the restaurant will cook it up for you. It was great.

Another cool food experience I had was to a "Korean Barbecue" restaurant. This is a buffet, but other than salads and sushi and things like that, the only thing served is raw meat. You fill your plate with raw meat, and bring it back to your table, where you have your own personal grill. You grill your food, and eat it! The place we went was all-you-can-eat for about $20 CAD.

Here's a photo of my Korean Barbecue experience:

Finally, there is my favourite Hong Kong restaurant - Sushi One. I only go after 10 pm, when sushi is half-price. In fact, Chelsie and I have made friends with the staff at Sushi One in TST. They get very excited every time we come in! The minimum order is $10 CAD, but this gets you lots of food. The best part? Beer is half-price, too.

The moral of the story is that there are tons of food options in Hong Kong. I have definitely had some surprises, though, both good and bad. But in general...the food here is delicious!

I am SO Excited for June 3rd!

What is so special about June 3rd, you ask?

It's because it is the day that my parents will be arriving in Hong Kong to visit me for a week! And I could not be more excited about it!

So far, the plan is for me to meet them at the airport on June 3rd, and we will go to their hotel together. June 4th is "moving day" - I have to be out of my dorm room by noon. So, I will be able to take my parents to see the HKUST campus in the morning (it is SO beautiful! - I know I have mentioned this a million times) and then they can help me to move out of my dorm room, and "into" their hotel room.

I am going to plan the BEST 7 DAYS ever. We are going to see all of Hong Kong's best sites, and even go to Macau for a day together. I just can't wait.

We both have to leave Hong Kong on June 10th, except that they will be bound for Toronto, and I will be bound for London! I will have three days in London before joining my tour group and spending 47 amazing days exploring Europe. It is going to be great, I think.

I love you, Mom and Dad! And I can't wait to see you!

Twitter: It's the Latest

Want to know what I am up to in Hong Kong between blog posts?

Well, let me introduce you to my Twitter profile. You can find it at www.twitter.com/heatherpayne.

Twitter is a new-ish Web 2.0 application that is really starting to gain popularity. A friend introduced it to me a few weeks ago, and I think it is pretty cool! Be an early adopter with me and create a profile at www.twitter.com. When you do, choose to "follow" me and you will see my updates on your own profile page!

Basically, by looking at my Twitter page, you can see my (regular) answers to the question: "What are you doing right now?" For example, a few hours ago, I posted a "tweet" that said that I am in a Starbucks in Admiralty, drinking tea and doing homework. Or something like that.

Yes, Dad...I know that writing on my blog isn't homework! I am getting to it!

Taiwan Post - Finally Done!

Well, that took a while.

But I am finally done my Taiwan post! You can read (the rest of) it here.