4 days 3 nights trip to Hong Kong & Macau, China.

I’m back! Have just returned early this morning from quite a dramatic trip to Hong Kong for the past 4 days 3 nights. Why was it dramatic? The trip to Hong Kong was originally planned because of a concert we would be attending that me and my sisters managed to bought the tickets (and it’s my favourite singer). I have been waiting for the concert for almost a year. However, the concert is now postponed to a later date as the singer has not recovered from long-Covid effects. Flight tickets and hotel payments already been made and hence we still went ahead for the trip (purely for travel this time) while I continue to just wait patiently for the concert. It is what it is.

Then, when we arrived at Hong Kong on last Monday, we were welcomed with category 8 typhoon! Haha. Our flight was delayed by over 2 hours because of that too. There’s nothing much we can do and explore on the first day due to the strong winds and rain and many businesses/shops were closed that day. Well, at least we got to experience how typhoon feels like for the first time. Fortunately, weather gradually improves on the following days until it was extremely hot and sunny on our final day in Hong Kong yesterday.

Without further ado, here below are the highlights of our trip;

Day 1 – 17th July 2023 (Monday)

Arrived at Hong Kong in the afternoon and immediately made our way to hotel for checking in. Had a little chat with the taxi driver who took us and talked about food, the area where we will be staying and the current typhoon situation in Hong Kong while passing through famous landmarks like Tsing Ma Bridge and International Commerce Centre tower (tallest building in Hong Kong).

The typhoon was downgraded to level 3 by late afternoon and we went out for a late lunch nearby our hotel. During our lunch, we met a TVB actor (not famous one as he only played minor roles). We then walked around old Kowloon area and along Nathan Road covering Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Jordan neighbourhoods. We visited the Sneakers Street and Temple Street too. Temple Street particularly looked very deserted with very little vendors setting up their stalls along this famous street. Because of the lack of open shops and very wet surroundings that day, we got back to our hotel early evening (also to catch some rest after a long day in the plane and airport).

Day 2 – 18th July 2023 (Tuesday)

Started the day with a lovely breakfast at Australia Dairy Co, a very famous ‘cha chan teng’ (Hong Kong style cafe) which is just a few minutes walk from our hotel. We then took MTR (subway) to cross over to Hong Kong Island.

Once we were at Central, we took the Peak Tram to go to the top of Victoria Peak, a popular spot to check out the breathtaking view of Hong Kong city skyline. The tram’s track goes up to about 400 metres and it was quite a steep incline. Our tram tickets cover the admission to Sky Terrace 428, Hong Kong’s highest viewing platform that offers 360 degree panoramic view across the city. It was really cloudy during our visit and hence we couldn’t snap some cool shots. However, the view was still very spectacular particularly for me who loves and admires city skylines! There is also a Madame Tussauds Museum in the Peak Tower but we skipped that one.

We made our way back down the hill via the tram again. Walked around the city for a short while and saw some iconic buildings such as the HSBC Headquarters and Bank of China Tower. We then went on board another type of tram (double-decker city tram) to go to Sheung Wan to do a little exploring. After that, we proceed to visit Causeway Bay, a major shopping district in the city before heading back to our hotel in Kowloon for lunch (had dim sum) a brief afternoon rest.

We went out again in the late afternoon to visit the Avenue of Stars, a busy waterfront promenade along Victoria Harbour which honours celebrities of the Hong Kong entertainment industry. There are plaques containing handprints or autographs of various famous Hong Kong stars such as Stephen Chow, Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Andy Lau, etc along the avenue. Statues of late Bruce Lee, Anita Mui, McDull (fictional cartoon character) and Hong Kong Film Awards’ trophy are also displayed. With the amazing city skyline view along the waterfront too, there’s just so much to see over there.

We then had a quick stopover at the nearby K11 Musea, a very ornately-designed shopping centre. The thing that intrigued me the most from the mall is the buttons for its lifts which is in the form of a book display at the side (that’s so interesting!). We then went back out to the promenade to catch the daily 8pm city light show (felt the light show a bit underwhelming though).

We were supposed to be watching concert for the evening. Now it is replaced with a visit to Lan Kwai Fong and we had to take subway from Tsim Sha Tsui back to Central again. Lan Kwai Fong is a popular street in the city for drinking, clubbing and dining. However, we were left disappointed by the lack of activity around the area that night. It was already over 10pm and the place looked quite empty with only few bars opened and not many people around. It felt so different to what we usually see of that street in past TVB series (that was depicting the street as very long and lively).

Day 3 – 19th July 2023 (Wednesday)

It’s the day for our one-day trip to Macau. We took 1-hour ferry ride (by Turbojet) from Sheung Wan’s ferry terminal to Macau Outer Ferry Terminal at noon. Once we reached Macau, we went to visit the Senado Square, a historical paved town square in the city surrounded by European-styled buildings. We then passed through St Dominic’s Church and walked along the bustling street of Rua de Sao Paulo filled with souvenir shops. Due to our limited time in Macau, we didn’t have the luxury to explore most of the shops around the area. We just went in to one of the shops to buy some pastry souvenirs and tried some Portuguese tarts.

We then arrived to the most recognizable landmark in Macau, the Ruins of St Paul’s. Countless people filled the area and the grand steps in front of the iconic church’s front facade for pictures. The ruins of the religious complex which was originally built in 1640 is now restored into a museum.

We then climbed over some steps to visit the adjacent Monte Fort, a historical military centre of the city and is now also part of the Museum of Macau. There are many cannons that line the walls of the fortress and from there, we were able to view the city skyline of Macau made distinctive by the gold-coloured leaf-shaped Grand Lisboa Hotel Tower and the Macau Tower.

After that, we went to Cotai Strip, a strip of large and luxurious hotel-casinos in the Cotai section of Macau. We went inside the Studio City to check out its casino (I didn’t play anything in there though). The resort’s two hotel towers are connected by a unique figure-8 ferris wheel. We then walked past The Parisian and The Londoner (both are also hotel-casino complexes) before reaching The Venetian. Here we checked out its beautiful interior mall designed to resemble Venice and we had our dinner here as well.

We then headed back to the ferry terminal for the ferry ride back to Hong Kong in the evening.

Day 4 – 20th July 2023 (Thursday)

It’s our last day in Hong Kong. After checking-out of our hotel and a breakfast (had polo bun today), we went to Tung Chung to take the Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride to Ngong Ping Highland in Lantau Island. The 25-minutes ride offer beautiful views over hills, cityscapes (you can also view Shenzhen far at the back from the ride), Hong Kong International Airport and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (longest sea crossing in the world). This cable car ride is a must if you are planning to visit Lantau Island.

We then arrived at Ngong Ping Village and we proceed to visit the Po Lin Monastery. It is a large Buddhist monastery with its main temple housing three bronze statues of the Buddha – representing his past, present and future lives. I burnt some incense and did a brief praying there in hope of a smoother path for the rest of the year after all that I had gone through in 2023 so far.

Next, we climbed 268 steps (not too difficult) to reach the Tian Tan Buddha. It is a large bronze statue of Buddha completed in 1993 and has become a major tourist attraction in Hong Kong. The view from up here was also quite spectacular.

After that, we checked out the Wisdom Path, a monument consisting of 38 wooden columns on which verses from the centuries-old Heart Sutra have been carved. It is about 15 minutes walk from Po Lin Monastery. Took some photos and then we immediately head back to Ngong Ping Village for cable car ride back to Tung Chung.

We then had our early dinner at Citygate Outlets which is right beside the Tung Chung cable car terminal before making our way to the Hong Kong International Airport for flight back to KL in the evening. We had a flight to catch and hence we do not have time to explore the mall unfortunately. Our AirAsia flight back to KL departed on time surprisingly! I manage to catch a last view of Hong Kong (it’s so beautiful!) from my window’s seat in the plane. Arrived a little after 1am (the next day) at KLIA2.

That’s all for the highlights of my trip to Hong Kong (and Macau) from July 17 to 20, 2023. We will be back here soon for the concert next time and also to visit some places that we didn’t get to check out this time around such as the Ocean Park, M+ Museum, ICC Sky100 Observation Deck, Tai-O Fishing Village, Monster Building, etc. There goes the end of my trip to Hong Kong. This was my second time visiting Hong Kong (first time was way back in 2006) and my first time ever visiting Macau.

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games closes with China climbing up to 3rd spot in medal tally.

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games concluded yesterday with a short yet spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing National Stadium (popularly known as Bird Nest stadium). Beijing made history as the first ever city to have hosted both Summer and Winter Olympic Games (the city hosted 2008 Summer Olympic Games).

A total of 91 countries participated in the games. Over 2870 athletes were involved in 109 events throughout 7 sports (15 disciplines). The games commenced with a spectacular opening ceremony on 4th February 2022 and was officially opened by President Xi Jinping. After running for our two weeks, the games ended yesterday on 20th February 2022.

I did watched highlights of both the opening and closing ceremonies. They were indeed impressive despite being scaled back due to the on-going pandemic. The fireworks display were spectacular! Well…that is quite certain coming from the country who invented fireworks. If you missed the ceremonies, you can watch them easily over at YouTube (they were also broadcast live on YouTube previously so worldwide audiences can watch it live).

Norway which is a powerhouse in winter sports topped the medal tally with 16 golds, 8 silvers and 13 bronzes. Germany took the second spot with 12 golds, 10 silvers and 5 bronzes. Entering the games with home advantage, China had its highest ever ranking in the Winter Olympic Games’ history by finishing in third place with 9 golds, 4 silvers and 2 bronzes.

Although there is no winter in Malaysia, but my country did participate in Beijing 2022. This is in fact Malaysia’s second appearance at Winter Olympic Games after first participated at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea. We have two participants in alpine skiing but they do not manage to advance. The next edition of the Winter Olympic Games will be in 4 years from now (in 2026) at Milan and Cortina, Italy.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

‘Hi, Mom’, the box office-hit China film that surprised me.

You would be surprised that the current highest grossing film of the year is not ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’. The film so far grossed over US$ 360 million (that’s a good showing in the time of pandemic now when most cinemas are closed and many restrictions in place worldwide). The present highest grossing film of the year actually belongs to a comedy film from China and it is called ‘Hi, Mom’ ( 你好, 李焕英). The film opened during Lunar New Year festival early this year in China and had only recently been released in oversea markets (including Singapore and Malaysia).

It has grossed over US$ 820 million and is also currently the second highest grossing non-English film of all time (behind ‘Wolf Warrior 2’, another Chinese film released in 2017 that has grossed over US$ 870 million). I first get to know of this movie when its trailer is shown when I was watching another movie last month. I didn’t find it appealing. Even after knowing all the positive comments on this film and how much money this film has made, I am still a bit reluctant to watch it….until yesterday when there seems to be no other interesting films in cinemas now for me to watch.

Fortunately, I made the right decision to watch it yesterday. I’m usually not into films from China but ‘Hi, Mom’ did surprised me. The movie tells the story of a woman who travels back in time to befriend her own mother in an attempt to make her life better. The story is fast paced and engaging, further fueled up by impressively natural and consistent performance from the two lead actresses, Jia Ling and Zhang Xiaofei. There are many scenes that are dramatic and hilarious too that do get me entertained. As the film progresses into the last 30 minutes, things get very emotional due to a plot twist and a touching ending. The film is then revealed to be made as a tribute to the director’s own mother (who passed away) and to all the mothers in the world.

The film provoked all sort of emotions from funny to sad (it’s a roller coaster ride of meotions) and I really didn’t expect the film to deliver so well in this area, and with so much depth. The movie is filled with so much love and heart and instantly reminds us to continuously and unconditionally love our mothers whether they are near or far away. The editing and cinematography of the film are brilliant too. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Hi, Mom’ a total of 8.4. So far, it’s the best film I have watched this year.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

9 days 7 nights Chinese New Year 2018 trip to Zhangjiajie, China

I’m back to Malaysia after a lengthy holiday trip to Zhangjiajie, China with my parents during this year’s Chinese New Year festival. Today is already the 7th day of lunar new year and the CNY mood is no longer here. We went to the airport on 14th February for the trip and have returned this morning on 22nd February. So, that’s equivalent to 9 days and 7 nights. I have a wonderful time during the trip (visiting all the beautiful attractions in Zhangjiajie but disappointed by heavy mist that makes it impossible for us to view them clearly and take pictures, not falling ill at all in the whole trip and that’s quite a miracle, meeting awesome people in the tour group).

My advice to the people who are interested to visit Zhangjiajie in the future; avoid visiting the place in winter (like what we did). The mountains are all covered with thick mist and you hardly see anything. Frequent rain also hinder an anticipating wonderful experience visiting these attractions. Also avoid travelling during the busy Chinese New Year period (like what we did) as the crowd is super huge and unbearable at these tourist destinations. We wasted a lot of time just by queuing (or more accurately; squeezing) and in long bus journeys. Nevertheless, we still managed to see some beautiful places and had great time over there. The attractions are all marvelous and interesting. This trip is mostly viewing the natural landmarks, and I have to admit that I’m a bit bored after seeing similar stuff (rocks, mountains, rivers and cliffs again and again) in the later days of the trip.

This is my 4th time visiting China (had been to Hong Kong & Shenzhen in 2006, Beijing & Tianjin in 2009, and Yunnan in 2014). The public toilets are still poorly maintained (very smelly and dirty) while the mainland Chinese are mostly still having some discipline issues (cutting queue, behaving inappropriately, spitting everywhere, etc). These are what you will still experience when visiting China despite the huge growth the country has been seeing in recent decades. And one more thing; when you are going to China in a tour group, it is compulsory to visit some shopping stops (we covered tea, silk, foot massage and body health, and latex mattress).

Here are some of the pictures I have taken during the trip. Besides visiting Zhangjiajie, we also visited Changsha and Fenghuang (all in Hunan province):

Changsha Poetry Wall

Phoenix Ancient Town – highlight: stilted wooden buildings along a river, some famous buildings around here include Xiong Xiling (first Prime Minister of China) and Shen Congwen (famous Chinese writer) Former Residences.

Tianmen Mountain National Park – highlight: world’s longest cableway to reach the mountains, has glass walkway hanging over by the cliff, Tianmen Cave with 999 steps (closed during winter due to slippery steps).

Yuanjiajie Scenic Area – highlight: ‘Avatar’-like mountains, ‘First Bridge in the World’ (natural formation) – cannot see it at all due to misty weather, Bailong elevator – world’s highest outdoor elevator.

Zhangjiajie National Park – highlight: Ten-Mile Natural Gallery (seeing rock formations again).

Baofeng Lake

Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon – highlight: Glass bridge (once the world’s longest glass-floor bridge).

Xibu Street

Charm Xiang Xi Cultural Show

Hunan Embroidery Hall

Tujia Sand Painting Gallery

Jiandu Museum, Changsha – highlight: collection of historical bamboo slips and wooden tablets dating back more than a thousand years ago.

Huangxing Street, Changsha – highlight: main shopping and entertainment district in Changsha, the 452 metres tall Changsha IFS Tower (tallest in the city, construction almost completed and had topped out, same height with KL’s Petronas Twin Towers) is near here.

That’s it for the highlight of my trip. Time for a rest at home after this exhausting yet wonderful trip (totally had a different experience here – visiting the attractions in Zhangjiajie on busy season is like being in a state of a running refugee).

(Copyrights reserved to all images in this post)

Top 10 tallest buildings to be built in 2018

2018 will be another great year in worldwide achievement on building skyscrapers. China is again leading the way in building supertall buildings. My capital city, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia will also be included into this list for the first time after so many years due to the projected completion of 492 metres tall The Exchange 106 Tower mid of this year. So, what are the top 10 tallest buildings to be built in 2018? Here’s the answer:

1. Goldin Finance 117 Tower, Tianjin, China (597 metres, 128 floors). The tower is now nearing the stage of topping out with the construction of the diamond-shaped crown to commence shortly. However, there are news that this project is put on hold due to budget constraint and may not be completed this year. If it is managed to be completed this year, it will be the world’s 5th tallest building. It is only 3 metres shy from 600 metres mark.

2. Tianjin CTF Finance Centre, Tianjin, China (530 metres, 97 floors). The tower has topped out and is set to be completed this year while fate is still unknown for the Goldin Finance 117 Tower mentioned above that is located in the same city; Tianjin. When completed, it will be among the world’s top 10 tallest buildings.

3. China Zun Tower, Beijing, China (528 metres, 108 floors). The tower has topped out. When completed, it will be among the world’s top 10 tallest buildings.

4. The Exchange 106 Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (492 metres, 106 floors). The tower is now nearing the stage of topping out with the construction of the glass crown to commence shortly. This will be the first building in the country to have over 100 floors and will be the country’s tallest when completed.

5. Lakhta Center, St Petersburg, Russia (462 metres, 86 floors). The tower has topped out and will be the tallest building in Russia when completed. First time seeing Russia join in the race to construct building of this height.

6. Changsha IFS Tower 1, Changsha, China (452 metres, 94 floors). The tower is nearly completed with all exterior cladding already installed.

7. Suzhou IFS, Suzhou, China (450 metres, 98 floors). The tower has topped out and its exterior cladding is almost completed.

8. Wuhan Center Tower, Wuhan, China (438 floors, 88 floors). This one also has topped out. Another higher skyscraper, Wuhan Greenland Center is also rising quickly in the same city and when completed in 2019, the 125-storey tower will have a height of 636 metres.

9. China Resources Headquarters, Shenzhen, China (393 metres, 67 floors). Topped out. Shenzhen has been seeing record-breaking number of skyscrapers completed in recent years.

10. Shum Yip Upperhills Tower 1, Shenzhen, China (388 metres, 80 floors). Topped out. Another one in Shenzhen.

Out of the 10 building above, 8 are in China, 1 is in Malaysia and 1 is in Russia. We seldom see any supertall skyscraper completion in Russia and 2018 will be the year for that to happen. China dominated the race to build skyscrapers again from its cities like Tianjin and Shenzhen. United States, which is once known as the country of the origin of skyscrapers did not make it to the list. The first 8 in this list will have final height of over 400 metres respectively while the first 3 even exceeded 500 metres mark.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Will be heading to Zhangjiajie on February next year during the CNY holiday. Can’t wait for it!

My parents went to the MATTA Fair today. I couldn’t join them these two years as I am currently in Australia for my study. It’s a fair (held twice a year) where most travel and tour companies set up their booths in Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) to promote their travel services and packages (usually comes with certain discounts too). That’s the time when my dad will usually choose which places to go for travel during the next Chinese New Year holiday every year and make reservation.

I will tag along normally for these annual Chinese New Year trips. My dad’s budget is very tight in these recent years as his business is not doing that well and that he spent huge sum of money on my current postgraduate education here in Australia. Hence, I couldn’t really voice out my dissatisfaction over the places he preferred to go. I understood that. But I’m very pleased that he still look out for my opinions. What a great dad he is! So, today he kept on updating me on the places he researched today during the fair through Whatsapp. There are not much choices since our budget is very low and every tour packages’ price shoot up a lot.

My dad’s first wish is Spain and Portugal. That is too far from reach as it costs more than 10k for a person. My wish is Egypt or Dubai but those places also costs around 6k for a person. We then narrowed it down to South East Asia and China region. We have covered some major parts of the South East Asia in the past and we don’t feel like visiting the remaining ones that we have not visited before such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Philippines (I think no tour for Laos and Brunei). So, … China. I have been to China several times too but China is huge. There are still many places worth exploring in China. The last time I went to China was in 2014 when we went to Yunnan. So, that would be a 4-years gap already when we visit the country again next year in 2018.

I would like to visit Shanghai but my dad visited it before. We like Xian (love to see the famous terracotta warriors) but there is no tour group going to Xian during the Chinese New Year holiday next year. Too bad. My dad saw this place called Shandong and Qingdao but after I did some quick research on that place, I’m not interested. We felt like going back to our motherland, Hainan Island but there’s not much to see over there and my dad complained that the package only gave us 4 days (too short). And then, we went to our final and confirmed selection; Zhangjiajie. Finally…after a long discussion this afternoon.

Have you heard of Zhangjiajie? It’s not as famous as Beijing or Shanghai but it is indeed a place known for its beautiful nature (especially its mountains and the recently popular glass bridges that made its news all over the world). It still costs over 3k for a person and the tour will be taking 8 days and 7 nights. I am still excited for this trip although this place is not top preferences as stated earlier. This trip will be my first planned trip after my graduation end of this year. My friends do plan for a vacation end of this year after we completed our study but till now, there isn’t any concrete planning on that yet. Zhangjiajie, see you in February 2018! It’s time for me to enjoy some breathtaking views of nature that Zhangjiajie offers! I did a quick research and the place is indeed very beautiful! I hope the scenery when I am there will be as picturesque as what I saw on the internet just now…and I can’t wait to walk on that scary glass-floor bridge!…it will be some wonderful opportunities for some great photography during this trip!

Countdown: 5 more months to go! Now, I have to get back to my thesis week although it is Sunday today (there’s no such thing as free weekend for architecture students!).

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Shanghai Tower named CTBUH’s Best Tall Building Worldwide in 2016 and won Emporis Skyscraper Award 2015

Shanghai Tower is a 632 metres tall skyscraper located in Shanghai, China and is currently the second tallest building in the world. Completed in 2015, it is also the tallest building in China, a country that has been actively building supertalls in recent decades. Designed by Gensler Architects, Shanghai Tower has 128 floors and is one of the three supertall buildings in the prime area in Pudong. The other two are the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 metres high) and Jin Mao Tower (421 metres high).

Recently, the tower is named Best Tall Building Worldwide in 2016 by Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Besides that, the tower has also won the Emporis Skyscraper Award 2015. It’s a double joy for the tower. Shanghai Tower has accomplished such level of recognition due to many reasons. Some of them are its elegant spiraling cylindrical form, energy-efficient performance of the building, extraordinary double-skin facade, world’s fastest elevator, etc.

Shanghai Tower prevailed over other winners in smaller categories in CTBUH Best Tall Buildings selection to take the top prize after winning the Best Tall Building Asia and Australasia. Best Tall Building Americas goes to VIA 57 West, Best Tall Building Europe goes to The White Walls and Best Tall Building Middle East and Africa goes to The Cube. As for the Emporis Skyscraper Award, Shanghai Tower topped the list of their 10 finalist selection. The other 9 in order from top to bottom are Evolution Tower in Russia (no.2), II Dritto in Italy (no.3), Jiangxi Nanchang Greenland Central Plaza in China (no.4), ABODE 318 in Australia (no.5), Icon Bay in United States of America (no.6), D1 Tower in United Arab Emirates (no.7), 432 Park Avenue in United States of America (no.8), Citygate in Austria (no.9) and ICE II in Canada (no.10).

I would love to visit Shanghai Tower and goes up to its observation deck to enjoy the panoramic view of the city and to purchase a replica model of the skyscraper. If you know me well, one of my hobbies is to collect replica models of famous buildings and towers around the world. This hobby is actually very costly, but what can I do since it’s my interest. I have not visited Shanghai before and I am looking forward for a trip to that city in near future. I think I would be very impressed not only by the supertalls in that city, but also by the overall magnificent skyline of the city.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Durban to host 2022 Commonwealth Games while Hangzhou to host 2022 Asian Games.

Last month, the host city for the Commonwealth Games 2022 and also the Asian Games 2022 was announced respectively. These two games are widely considered as the two biggest multi-sporting events in the world, just behind the Summer Olympics. Commonwealth Games involves participation of athletes from over 50 nations which are former territories of the past British empire while Asian Games involves participation of athletes from 40 countries in the largest continent in the world, Asia. Both of the games are held once in every four years, following the similar interval with the Olympics.

Malaysia is part of both of the games since Malaysia was once British territory before we gained independence in 1957, and our country is in Asia continent. We have hosted the Commonwealth Games back in 1998, but surprisingly, we have not hosted Asian Games before. In comparison, even our neighbouring country, Thailand had hosted it five times! And we have none. Our country bid for the games several times in the past but lost. It must be that our presentation to the voters is not good enough every time. Now, lesser and lesser countries expressed interest to host these games mainly due to the concern of the high cost of hosting them.

Despite that concern, I’m sure that my country, Malaysia is still capable of hosting Asian Games and we should. Of course, hosting Olympics is far from our reach but can’t we go a bit further (by hosting Asian Games) rather than just focusing on smaller games like the next South East Asian Games which is scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017? We should dream bigger! Set our sight on Asiad’s hosting job. It’s possible. I think we shall bid for 2026 Asian Games as the host for the 2022 Asian Games had already been decided recently.We missed the opportunity to host the 2022 edition since we are not bidding when there is not much competition around.

For the selection of the host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games last month, Durban, South Africa is the only city with confirmed bid as the other city, Edmonton, Canada withdrew their bid early this year. Hence, at the Commonwealth Games Federation’s General Assembly, there isn’t a need to vote as there is only a city bidding and hence it is selected officially to host the games seven years from now. It will be the first Commonwealth Games to be held in African continent. The games are set to open on the 18 July 2022, coinciding with the birthday of the late South African President and global icon, Nelson Mandela.

Same case goes to the selection of the host city for the 2022 Asian Games which was also held last month. There is no other city bidding for the games besides than Hangzhou, China. It is the only city that declared the candidacy in August 2015, a month before the selection. Hence, without any other city battling for the hosting job, Hangzhou is chosen to host the games automatically without the need of voting. If Malaysia bid for this one, we may win because voters may not want to see the games back to China so soon. Now, the voters have no choice. This will be the third time China hosting Asian Games after Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010. Well, I actually expected China to host this again so soon after Guangzhou 2010 because the country has a lot of money and will never have any financial or manpower concern. Furthermore, the country is more than capable of delivering fantastic games with over-the-top opening and closing ceremonies.

Congratulation to both Durban and Hangzhou for being selected to host Commonwealth and Asian Games respectively in 2022. It is an easy path for them without facing any competition by other cities. Well, I think the sports committees involved should really tackle the issue of high cost of hosting the games. Make the games economical and sustainable, and ensure them to present more benefits to the hosting city after the games rather than leaving behind debts and ‘white elephant’ sporting venues.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

World’s highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened in China recently with the level of hype I never expected.

I guessed most of you should have known this by now; China had recently opened the world’s highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge. It is also China’s first bridge of its kind. Videos of people ‘bravely’ crossing and introducing that particular bridge are widely circulated through social networking sites and reported in most news articles recently till the point that almost everyone is talking about it now. Experiences of the first pack of the bridge’s visitors; some closed their eyes while crossing due to the fear of height. Some felt dizzy straight away. Some were afraid but successfully crossed through the entire bridge to prove his/her guts.

If you still don’t know anything of this bridge, you must be living in the jungle. For me, it is nothing more than a glass bridge. It is interesting but I’m surprised of the level of hype it obtained now till the point that I have to share it in my blog here. I will only check out the bridge if I’m happened to be passing by or visiting the national park where it is located. If not, I would not purposely go there just to see the bridge. Anyway, here you go for a bit of information regarding this bridge; When translated directly to English, the bridge is called Brave Men’s Bridge. It is a glass walkway of 300 metres long and is suspended 180 meters above a sheer drop in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park, China’s central Hunan Province.

Each of the glass panes is 24 millimeters thick and is believed to be 25 times stronger than normal glass. One worker who built the bridge assured that the bridge will stand firm even if tourists are jumping on it. “The steel frame used to support and encase the glass bridge is also very strong and densely built, so even if a glass is broken, travelers won’t fall through.”, he added. The bridge was originally a wooden bridge before the park experimented by replacing a small section with glass in 2014. It decided to increase the thrill by revamping the whole overpass earlier this year, making it China’s first all-glass suspension bridge.

Hunan is due to open another glass bridge later this year in the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon area, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Shiniuzhai. When completed, the Zhangjiajie structure will be the world’s highest and longest glass bridge — 430 meters long and 300 meters high. Well, it appears that China is not only stretching their limits in building supertall skyscrapers (their recent trend) but also in constructing terrifying and challenging bridges like this one. This glass-bottomed bridge that allows people to ‘enjoy’ views directly below their feet is already drawing huge crowds due to its viral promotion on the internet as well as coinciding with the Golden Week of China, a week-long of holiday for China’s National Day celebration currently. This is the time when millions of China nationals will go for a vacation both inside or outside of country.

Talking about tourists from China. I’m not being discriminating but I believe most of you think the same. They have very bad moral and most of them don’t behave well. I have been a traveler quite frequently and I always bumped into usually large group of tourists from mainland China either in their country or even in other countries. Well, most of them are now wealthy and can go travelling anywhere they like. But their values of conduct are extremely low. Their discipline are awful. Whenever I encountered them, I find them really irritating, annoying, noisy, and showing disrespect to the tourist places. Well, there have been many articles showing their bad attitudes (not queuing, peeing on the public, harassing human-shaped sculptures or statues, vandalizing buildings or monuments, spitting wherever they like, etc) shared out and I couldn’t agree more. They don’t feel embarrassed by their own actions and that is what got me surprised. Something must be very wrong to their moral education in the past when they were young. Totally terrible…I’m not targeting all the Chinese nationals…but most of them!

I guess after this holiday week, the glass bridge would be extremely dirty straight away with multiple stains (of spits everywhere maybe…) or maybe even declared unsafe soon since there must be ‘thousands’ of them rushing to cross the bridge and it simply couldn’t hold the huge weight anymore. Who knows…

(Images and some information in this post are from this source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/27/travel/china-glass-bridge-shiniuzhai/)

Just finished ‘Master of Destiny’, a Hong Kong joint China TV drama.

風雲天地 (Master of Destiny) is a Hong Kong joint China television drama created by famous Hong Kong director Wong Jing. At China of which it is aired earlier, the series has a total of 40 episodes as per information from its wikipedia page. However, we in Malaysia (also for Hong Kong) get to watch the version of the series that has only 32 episodes (8 episodes shorter) and the series had just ended with its finale yesterday.

When this series was at the early planning stage, I’m very excited by news reporting that award-winning actress Deanie Ip will be heading huge list of famous cast in this series helmed by director Wong Jing. Kenneth Ma will also be in the cast. However, both Deanie and Kenneth dropped out and Liza Wang and Edwin Siu were brought in to replace them. Lesser impressive cast, but I would still watch it because it’s refreshing to see a drama by Wong Jing whom is famous for producing brainless yet funny movies back in the 90s.

The series chronicles the rise and the eventual hardships of the affluent Cho family from Hong Kong, which eventually, they fight the corruption that reeks inside their family while being entangled in various troubled relationships. The series starred Liza Wang, Angie Chiu, Hawick Lau, Kenny Wong, Edwin Siu, Kimmy Tong, Natalie Meng, Monica Mok, etc. I thought Angie Chiu, a great veteran actress would have a heavy role here, but in the end, she is more of a minor supporting role only. I thought I would see more of her after her last TVB drama ‘Point of No Return’ 12 years ago that I have watched. Anyway, she is still amazingly beautiful at her current age of 60.

I decided to watch this series because of its kind of storyline. Revolving on a wealthy family with a huge business background would means a lot of quarrels, scheming and dramas. This series had all that but they are not up to my preferred way or style. There are too many story developments that are not making any sense; the villain (Song Chi Wah) can have so many money on ‘buying’ all the people around on helping to achieve her evil plans like she had nothing else to do besides that, the good girls being too naive (or I should say dumb) for the boys they blindly love, etc. And the thing that I don’t like is the dubbing. Well, I have to get over with it since it is a joint production and it involves cast from mainland China.

Liza Wang, is as usual, good on her lead role as the tough mother to the family. This year, we saw her in ‘Limelight Years’ and in this one and she was awesome in both of the series. A hardworking veteran actress with solid acting. Hawick Lau is getting more popular now but I think his acting is still not excellent. Just average. Even Kenny Wong and Edwin Siu (as his brothers in the series) were better than him in terms of performances. Also average level of performances by the girls (mostly China’s actresses in this series). I would like to praise Selena Li who portrays the younger version of Liza Wang’s character in the series. She is absolutely fantastic especially in her emotionally-heavy and crying scenes. She should be more acknowledged by TVB by now.

The title of the series suggests something epic, intense and dramatic but the series couldn’t really pull it off especially with the non-engaging storyline and draggy developments as it progresses. I felt bored and uninterested in most of the episodes. I’m left slightly disappointed and now I’m glad the series is over. The happy ending still could not save much of the troubled content of the drama. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Master of Destiny’ a total of 6.8.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)