To begin your China experience, take a look at my ramblings and then visit the clickables below. By the way, Hong Kong has 235 islands, many are very remote and all of them welcome to tourists. Also, 40% of Hong Kong is set-aside for Parks, Historical sites, and Recreation. Best part... no sales tax.

To plan your vacation to Hong Kong or China, I strongly suggest exploring and contacting the Hong Kong Tourist Association by just using the clickables below. They have made a tremendous effort at both Quality and Quantity for tourism services as well as many inexpensive day trips. This is rare in Asia as almost all individual traveling for vacations is done with tour groups. Some one in the HK system has gone out on a limb (politically) to create the HKTA for the western style of travelers and has done a great job of it. My favorite is the Taoist Temple Bonzai with lunch and the hidden taoist style flute player at the Yuen-Yuen temple. (updated 6-24-2001)

To really see the Chinese, you must close your eyes.

You will hear tremendous growth pains as China enters the world from waking out of her 1,000-year sleep. You will feel the multitude of peoples all around you busily doing their part. But most of all you will feel the human silence in the street, a silence that can only be found in workshops where everyone is a master of their trade, as the Chinese people live the lives of ancient Chinese Tradition coming from ancestors of far over 3,000 BC whereas archelogical evidence points to millions of years extending from the time of homo erectus. A silent civilization, content untill recently to live within nature's simplicity, that long ago held the keys to our modern industrialized world, but never used them.

It is a Civilization based not on religion, but a very complex philosophy ironically based on simplicity, that they claim comes from a time before their ancestors.

I invite you to see into this world a little, but be cautious as you will be looking into the Chinese soul and once understanding has begun, you may be drawn into their world as I have. It is a world as different from the west as day and night, as power and passivity, as man and woman, as different as life and death joining. Where the ancient and most wise philosophers in a society are given the honored name of "Child" because they see the nature of our universe and can communicate it with the simplicity and honesty of a child.

It is a place where, after 500 years of study, westerners are just beginning to understand. A place where Marco Polo brought the keys of the printing press, school systems, and a knowledge that all that was to be known was not contained within the bible home to begin the Rennasiance in Italy. To read Marco's travels click the map

It is where England found the keys to the ships keel, compass, and gunpowder to begin her conquest of the seas and more recently it is where western business phillosophy has evolved warlike tactics from Sun Tzu's The Art of War and the binary math for computers was discovered in a book dating over 4,000 years old (May,1970 issue of Scientific American on the I Ching). It is a place where immortality is taught not by religeous means but by learning to be aware of ones very own soul. To see a little into the Tao, click the baa-gua below

To visit Beijing, click the castle below

This URL includes many Pictures from a tour as well as very much travel info for visiting all of China.

The reason I give Hong Kong as the Gateway is that it is the natural beginning point for a journey into Asia. Many of its residents understand some English and almost all of Hong Kong's professionals are totally fluent in English. It has a very up to date as in 'state of the art' new airport terminal with very convenient transportation leading from it that can take you directly to most places in Hong Kong and into much of China very quickly and in comfort.

It is very easy to get around here with an extremely extensive public transportation system that is uniquely inexpensive, simple to learn, and user friendly. Almost all of the signs are multi-language; all of the telephone operators are multi-language. Visa's can be easily obtained here for other parts of Asia, which has resulted in travel becoming one of the main group sports enjoyed by all in the area. For the HK area, I do recommend The Hong Kong Directory as it is the ultimate map and can be found in all bookstores in HK and probably at the airport for $10 US dollars.

Concerned about safety? The main recreation here, after the 100-meter dash to catch the subway train or bus, is sleeping on the way to the destination. Obviously normal caution needs to be used, and there are picpockets, but in 4 years I've not been picked or witnessed an attempt to steal. 'Still concerned? Look here=-@ U. S. Counselor General Travel Warnings"

Food Poisoning

It is sad because the foods of Asia are what has popularized Asia and it has been their financial stepping stone into other countries as well as it is what is on many of the foreigners mind to do the most upon arriving. But, because of a lack of control, the food is becoming the worst enemy to tourism.

1. Monosodium Glutamate (M.S.G.)

This is the most common by far. I have seen it literally used to make gravy with, instead of flower, for the thickener. If you’re on a sodium free diet, brown bag it.

It builds in the body for a few days before it is noticed, but then the reaction is about the same as eating a cup of salt with each meal. The main symptom is an extreme thirst about 30 minutes after eating and if you’re sensitive to your blood pressure you’ll feel it skyrocket. I've seen many who react emotionally, as in to the extreme, with anger at what would otherwise be trivia and if alcohol is consumed you'll need to have a very large friend to tote you. Needless to say it can ruin a vacation with jail time or a lost friend. Most don't know what happened as it builds slowly in the body and one must be aware of the symptoms to controll it. It is in the children's food as well as the adults. McDonalds keeps a tight standard so is consistent all over the world but many others, with western names, don't have the same quality management. For more information, visit these web pages:

@ Truth in Labeling: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/adversereactions.html"

Here's a web page that gives many tips on how to avoid MSG both in USA and China whereas they say it's easier to avoid in China because it is "added" by the cook: @ Restaurant Syndrome: http://www.msgtruth.org/whywe.htm"

2. Precautions to be observed: especially in lower to mid class restaurants.

Be careful of complaining before you eat which includes sending something back to be re-cooked. If you are a man, be careful on dates with Asian women as some cooks are jealous, uneducatedand, lonely, and feel that women need their protection. Asian style Montezuma’s Revenge can last a week or more. I've found large fish bones in sandwiches. This doesn’t necessarily apply to just the Chinese restaurants, as I've found it to be more common with western name restaurants that are after the fast buck and both buy and hire from the back alley while putting on a western appearance. The best way is to use common sense. If you walk in and the music is too loud, or if the restaurant is empty, walk out.

Click here for @ @-@ Hong Kong's Weather Forecasts, and Updates "

Like Chinese Art, Literature, Philosophy, ETC.? This page has it all with some truly good web design AND many Chinese tales from it's history Click here @-@

Confucius must be one of the greatest men of all times and the least understood in the western part of our beautiful planet. Here's a multi language web page that has been dedicated to giving all a look into the life of the greatest influence in the forming of the Asian mind, morals, and society. To take a look into this very large part of Asia, just click on the calligraphy brush

Like pictures instead of words ? These sites from the Hong Kong Tourist Association are Mega-Good! JUST CLICK THIS @ AND BEGIN EXPLORING

Like a little history in pictures? TRY THIS @

Want more?TRY THIS @WAY

What else to do in Hong Kong? LOOK in HERE=-@

Interested in the businesses of Hong Kong & Asia??Click here @ for the Hong Kong Yellow pages in English !

For some of us travelers, a day is too much, for others we simply can't get enough. For me, every day I go walking or riding the train, it's a new world. Sometimes it's just around the corner that I begin to see the difference between here and the west and other times it's at the end of my day's journey when I begin to return home.

Crows here have white wings, dogs don't look when you whistle, historic sites and botanical gardens (too good to be called 'parks') that seem to pop up out of the middle of a crowded section of a city with waterfalls, Chinese style Bonsai, historical buildings or designs, stone carvings of calligraphy and many colored carp fish swimming in ponds and streams. On Oct 15, 1998, I heard a strange sound and followed it to find a group of elderly Chinese musicians practicing, on their antiquated instruments (banjos here have a snakeskin face), for the Oct. Moon' festival and had a 2 hour private concert.

The faint smell of burning incense is every few blocks greeting the morning sun. Although going to the temple is a very private affair for the Chinese, not a social one, the temples seem to always have a few people waiting to pray and fresh incense burning at the altar. Walking through the streets is done with body language, which tells the person approaching you which way you intend to go. Women that loose their husbands happily do manual labor in the tropical sun (ditch digging, tree trimming, hauling trash, etc.) to support their children. I follow a group of students (which always know the best places to eat) through a small shop which opens into a complete shopping mall with hundreds of shops full of people.

An old Chinese man begins a conversation with me in a waiting line using perfect English talking about if Shakespeare existed or if it was really Sir Francis Bacon's pen name. Parents with children in the park encourage their children to talk with me so their children can get some real practice in USA style, English accents.

The family in Asia hasn't yet been destroyed by the legal and welfare systems of the west so there are many happy families almost everywhere you go. Children are still innocent. Without the social welfare or so-called safety net, the family is much more interdependent. Parents know their retirement is in the children so the children become an investment as well as their love. Education is seen as the best investment for a parent. Divorce is here but it is rare. The children see the love of their parents and feel the obligation to succeed for their parents as well as their own future families. When working the successful children will each give the parents between $700 to $1,000 US dollars/month. The future mates are picked with extreme care and much input from the parents. A happy, complete family is much more than peace of mind, it is retirement, safety and contentment in old age.

Each day brings a new sense of balance, which seems to be the soul of Asia.

When you first get here it seems like total chaos but as you grow accustomed, a very orderly society begins to emerge. The rules are simple, go with the flow, try not to be the leader and when in China do as the Chinese do. E.G.; To find the best prices in music, good quick lunches, stylish clothing, and shopping in general, follow the students. For the traditional ways, follow the elderly (watch them for street crossing!). When looking for the way out, follow the moving line of people.

The Chinese value the children and elderly above all else. When walking it is considered to be each person's duty to watch for them. Often the children run and play as their parents walk to go shopping etc. and sometimes, but not often, a child will get careless. Since there is no social safety net for the elderly, you will see very aged and often prime examples of osteoporosis working in the shops, streets, sidewalks etc. doing manual cleaning labor. All people are expected to give way to these laboring older people, usually women, who sometimes push large wooden carts of discarded cardboard to recycling centers.

Christmas in Hong Kong 1998

For Christmas Eve, we went first to Ya Ma Tei, which is a part of the Hong Kong area that is the most crowded place on our dear planet Earth. There was less vehicular traffic as the holiday approached (They celebrate many holidays, not their own, out of respect for the civilization which brought it to them) but the foot traffic was equal to Broadway and Fifth in New York City at 5 PM. Oddly the shopping malls were almost deserted with exception to the supermarkets which were loaded with very exotic fresh foods whereas the street shops were full of shoppers buying clothes that looked like next years USA styles 'with' girls very cute platform shoes that have hushpuppy style sponge rubber soles that are between 2 and 4 inches thick, rounded shapes that look straight out of a Disney Animation and of course bellbottom's are coming back. (Mr Disney, you really lost out by not building a Disneyland here, the people definitely think Mickey is a deity with the key to happiness).

I think prices were the reason for all the street shoppers. The malls are built out of marble and stone with what must be terrific rents and utility bills where the shops were sometimes only bamboo poles holding a tarp to shade the weather away from the goods and set up in an area that looks like the size of a parking place for an American car. I have seen Jade shops set up on a bed sheet.

We had a very colorful afternoon snack of a variety of pieces of melons, coconut milk, sweet tofu and strawberries followed by a small dish of warm spicy tofu fried to the consistency of steak and some hot lemon tea in a shop full of students costing us 10 HK dollars which is about $1.25 in USA money. Even my Hong Kong friends were surprised at these prices for the quality of food but we agreed that 'the deals are where you find them'.

Shortly afterwards my friends and I rode the electric train back to Sha Tin so they could be with their families. Not wanting to call it an early evening, I decided to wander through the infamous streets of 'Kowloon City' where it was said during British occupation (Brits left in '97)'once entered, you can never leave'.... I found long lines of people outside of restaurants, school children holding candles while singing Christmas Carols at stoplights, mothers with young childrenvselling homemade candies at the entrance to popular shops, and of course, many taxiesvfighting for customers and causing traffic confusion. (taxi drivers are the same everywhere!) Well, so much for the British opinion of Kowloon City. My question to China is 'when everyone else has to fight for years and years for independence from the Brits, how did you do it with only a few paper bullets?'

Christmas day was peaceful with some supergood 'after X-mas' sales.

Hong Kong for nature lovers has about 70 percent of its 400 square miles used either as farm or park land. About 40 percent of the total area is made up of 22 very large Country Parks, where you can literally hike in a few hours from a seashore to the foot of a mountain, and 235 (reached by public ferry transportation) islands where you can go back into time with the sleepy fishing villages through the many trails, which lead to as diverse finds as bronze age carvings, to isolated temples, to hand painted porcelain, to bicycling on sunny, almost deserted, beaches, or just fresh fish, crabs, or shrimp bought off the boats to be cooked in the restaurants.

More on the islands and nature...click here =- @-@

The Hong Kong area is quite different from the rest of Asia in a few very unusual ways, it is somewhat westernized and in the past has been very successful while still being a part of China. Part of this comes from the size of Hong Kong in relation to the size of China. Hong Kong's 10 Million can change much faster than China's 1.6 billion so it has been able to acquire the benefits of our new world much faster. And it is China's eye into the western world, which it watches very closely for ill effects. It will become obvious that the difference is both guarded and contained from the rest of China and Asia almost as soon as you arrive in Hong Kong. Police are everywhere checking ID's and passports mainly of Asians. With a largely different monitory environment as well as some very necessary laws, which are brought on by the 1.6 billion population size, there is quite a large group of Chinese wanting to come to Hong Kong to work which has created a competition among job seekers that businesses in America would truly envy. If the gates were opened completely, there would be a human flood. China invests much of its' income in education where it has been divided into 3 sections of Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Export. Obviously each section has a different set of jobs and incomes that correspond to that in other parts of the world. Keep this in mind as you travel.

The One Child Law

Historically population expansion has been the major cause of war, poverty, hunger, and disease. In my opinion, China's One Child Law which controls it's population can only be seen as the greatest sacrifice a nation and a people can make for world peace. Although this sacrifice is great in the ways of world peace, it has had tremendous consequences for the people of China.

The one child law in China has created a wave of Chinese women 'needing' to make a home for their daughters who are on the bottom of a families value list in that they cannot produce for the family as a man can and whatever they do make goes to the husband's family. When you go into China's mainland, you will see them, wanting to come to Hong Kong but cannot because in general they have no trades to market other than housekeeping and teaching 'traditional Mandarin style Chinese', working in China's mainland doing whatever they can to care for their daughters. In a nature based society that depends on the support of the children for the parents in old age, it is critical to the point of becoming a part of the survival code to have the child, which can produce enough for the retirement of the parents; male children. With the one child law in China, once the woman has a female child, if the family is poor, she either must loose the child or the husband and no other marriage minded man would have her.

Much of the Classical music of China is beautiful, about the plight of women and very sad.

Recently, China has declared Mandarin to be it's Official National Language. It will become the language of Government and business in China replacing the 9 toned and tremendously difficult to learn Cantonese (for us foreigners) which is spoken by 40% of mainly southern China and all of Hong Kong. This will also have the much needed effect of re-uniting the Hong Kong people with their Chinese heritage of which much has been lost during the Brit' occupation. It will be interesting to see if this has an influence on the immigration laws of Hong Kong allowing the Chinese women which can speak Mandarin and thus teach it to the affluent children of their employers as well as the employers to find a home for their daughters.

In the Philippines, the closing of US military bases has left the population hungry for money and desperate. The Philippine women are sent by their families to HK to work as house servants or whatever they can find to send money home for their Philippine families.

It is a strange comparison that in China women have little economic value so the mothers of daughters seek to come to HK to give their daughters a life, whereas in the Philippines, women (Philippines are the largest immigrant group in Hong Kong at over 50,000 of which is 99% women) have the most value in that they 'can' come to Hong Kong to make money for their Philippine family.... You will see these Philippine women often working in very under-employed positions but needless to say their self sacrifices for their families deserve the highest respect.

The Lion Rock is a massive natural formation of rock, that truly resembles a resting male lion, sitting atop a mountain here. It is said that everything, which has happened in Hong Kong, has been watched over by the Lion Rock.

First and foremost in the Lion's vision is- Kowloon City (Gao Leung Sae) which translates literally to; "the Nine Dragon City". It got its name from a young Emperor of China, who during the 12th century AD was traveling, through the area. The young Emperor commented to his advisor that he saw 8 dragons watching over this beautiful port. 'There are 9 dragons here, my Emperor'. The advisor said. ' You, are the dragon of China.' Shortly afterwards the advisor took the young Emperor into the warm water and drowned him to preserve China's ruling monarchy from being captured by the advancing Hun armies.

Thus began the history of a city which would change the course of all Asia.

KOWLOON CITY

Kowloon City is the thumb of the hand of Hong Kong. It was for many years the center of controversy in a very stable society. It simply never allowed British rule within it's walls, which gave it the name 'The Walled City' and eventually the British classified it as not worth the effort of colonization stating much to-do about the character of it's inhabitants as well as the nature of their businesses.

The people did form their own governing body, which did not accept British occupation. The inhabitants built their homes in a fortress-like structure, which was 6 or more stories tall with a honeycombed interior that was easily defended. Inside, there are alley's that would give a person very strange dreams which can only be entered through the back doors of small shops where can be heard the wail of alley cats in heat almost every night. The majority of Kowloon City still stands.

The Chinese government demolished the entrance (it was no longer needed) and built a park (described below) around the carved-in-stone city name, which was broken and left lying on the ground. The entrance of ancient Kowloon City is now a botanical garden with waterfalls, ponds, streams, many Chinese style bonsai, historical buildings, stone carved calligraphy, and more intertwined with a large playground for the children adjoining a shopping mall. There is a temple at one corner overlooking the park that was built in memorial to a soldier who gave his life guarding an emperor that had sought temporary refuge within the city's walls. Many people still burn incense in his memory.

From what I can see on the surface, the people of the city are very well civilized with many good shops, restaurants, and healthy families.

The British built their airport in a way that the planes flew over the rooftops of Kowloon City causing an extreme amount of noise. After the 1997 peaceful Handover, the Chinese gov't opened a new state of the art international airport on an island adjoining Hong Kong and closed down what was known as 'The World's most Dangerous Approach Landing where the pilots had to literally fly between the buildings.

In 1997, there was no problem in Kowloon City with accepting the motherland of China. In truth is more like 'they never left'.

Click Here @-@ for links to Kowloon City History

* This is a recent discovery so I will be upgrading this part as I learn more but to say the least, I believe it could be the subject for a terrific Miniseries on TV.

Kowloon City was the center for import of the forced Opium trade and thus the beginning of trading with China. It has been the source of much of China's wealth as well as its foothold into the foreign mind. It looks very old and poor on the surface, but underneath the surface there begins to emerge an image of tremendous wealth. All that is needed to see this is a stroll down it's shopping areas to see young people driving new Mercedes and Jags who open the shops.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Opium war between England and China, it was fought to force the Chinese to import Opium from England, as there were many things which England wanted from China, but there was nothing that England had which the Chinese valued more than it's own. So, Opium and thus addiction was forced upon the Chinese with terrible consequences to the people. Kowloon City was at the beginning of this trade and although it has had a terrible beginning, the future is looking brighter for trade 'if' the ways of Asia begin to be recognized and given the respect they deserve instead of thought of as 'trivial nuisances to sought after gains'.

The power within the Chinese classics and tradition is tremendous. Just in the area of calligraphy alone it lays the foundation of discipline, the conservative way, focus and meditation just to name a few - and calligraphy begins, with every schoolchild, at age 6. Every day, for the last 2 years, I am numbed by a new realization of the natural laws of the Tao. One odd part is that even though I began studying the Tao (as a hobby) over 25 years ago, I needed to come to China to begin this mind trip as I was too conditioned by the western way - to see that universal truth could be so simple as to be contained within the opposing forces of a sine wave.

A few words from Asian Phillosophy (Meniscus)

1. Heaven, when it is about to place great responsibility on us, first tests our resolution, wears out our sinews and bones with toil, exposes our body to starvation, subjects us to extreme poverty, frustrates our efforts so as to stimulate the mind, and toughens our nature to make good our deficiencies.

2. Only when intentions become visible on our faces and audible in our voices can others understand them.

3. We, for the most part, can only mend our ways after mistakes have been made and shame has been realized. Thus to be without shame is to be only a child without experience, discipline, learning or self-criticism.

4. As a rule, a state without law abiding families and trustworthy Gentlemen on the one hand, and, on the other without the threat of external aggression, will perish.

5. Only then do we realize, from the above statements, that anxiety and distress lead to the -intelligent evolution of life- and that ease and comfort end in an ignorant non-progressive death.

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