Our last leg of the journey began today as we said goodbye to Shanghai and hello to Hong Kong.  On the way to our new city, we had a smooth two hour flight, and most of us got some much-needed napping on the plane :-)  We were also surprised and excited to get lunch on the plane, which we normally wouldn't get on American flights anymore.  And our lunch was huge - so big we couldn't eat all of it!  We were served ramen noodles with shrimp, a dinner roll with butter, peanuts, fresh fruit, fish with rice, and a pineapple cookie for dessert - really impressive for airplane food!  As the dairy group, we were sad to discover that the flight didn't offer any milk products - but then again milk isn't consumed in China and Asia as much as it is in America and Europe. 

During our first two weeks, our group was very lucky to have Chen, Chi Hao, Grace, and Meiling speaking Chinese, but now Mandarin isn't the official language in Hong Kong anymore!  Because it was colonized by England for one hundred years, the official language is English and Cantonese.  We really love being able to ask simple things again - like where to find a bookstore or how to use the subway :-)  Just like in England, all driving in Hong Kong is on the left side of the road instead of the right!  So that means the driver is also on the opposite side, and we're very glad we don't have to drive in this crazy traffic.  Although Hong Kong was liberated from England's rule in 1997, the country still operates under the rule of "one country, two systems."  

We visited the Hong Kong Container Port and were given a very interesting and educational presentation from Henry Lee. It is the world's largest export zone, exporting around 15 million teus a year. A teu is one container 20 feet in length. 20 million were exported in 2009, and if all of these were lined up they could go around the earth's equator 3 times! Mr. Lee also told us some of the new technologies in containers such as the ICIS radiographic imaging to scan the containers. One time they us they even found a fighter jet in a 40 foot container! The demand and exporting is only expected to increase in tandem with the growing Chinese economy, so this will be a very important exporting port for a long time.

Having Chinese food for every meal can get old after two weeks, so while we were walking through the streets of Hong Kong some of us found a nice American restaurant, while some went to an authentic Indian restaurant, Kohi-Noor Indian Restaurant.Our first meal in Hong Kong was fantastic and it being a Thursday night a lot of people were out.  The Indian Restaurant was a hole-in-the-wall which had an extensive menu. What surprised us was the lift which took us up to the restaurant. The signs led us to a dimly-lit alley and we were showed to a green door which turned out to be an 18th century style elevator. We weren't used to this type of elevator and had reservations about it bringing us to the eatery. It turned out to be a delightful meal with exquisite curry and mango lassie. We then began our search for the subway.  Since we just arrived we still didn't have a feel for the island.  After searching through the streets for awhile we stumbled upon a station and bought our very cheap tickets at 5.00 Hong Kong Dollar (USD $0.65).  It was nice to sit in a cold and clean subway while we headed to the famous light show.Every night on the Kowloon Public Pier there is a light show that consists of Hong Kong's famous skyline of buildings lighting up to the beat of music.  This was an amazing experience and it's hard to believe this light show happens every night.  There were so many buildings performing at a quick speed to many different songs.  This made us all wish Chicago could do this every night but Chicago doesn't have this giant of a skyline.

After the light show we decided to check out the local nightlife.  Since it was a Thursday there were a lot of locals and foreigners out for the night.  We went to a very popular area known as Lan Kwai Fang.  The people were flooding the streets and there was a lot of energy around this area.  While walking through the streets we stumbled upon an ice bar and decided to go in.  Right as we walked in there were fur coats hanging on the wall to put on before entering the coldest part of the bar.  This was a great experience, but we couldn't stay too long because it was very frigid.  This was a great and memorable day and night in Hong Kong.