Chinese New Year - Year of the Tiger

During this holiday I hope to visit the flower market at Victoria Park and watch the fireworks over Victoria Harbour too. I will also be taking a short trip to Taipei in Taiwan.

I want to see Taipei 101 Tower which is 449 metres tall. It was the tallest building in the world but now they have finished the Burj Khalifa in Dubai which is 828 metres tall! So, Taipei 101 Tower is not the tallest anymore but it is still very tall.

I also hope to do some shopping at Shilin Night Market and try some local food. Maybe I could go to Taipei Zoo and see a real tiger for the start of the Year of the Tiger!

Splendid China

Last weekend I went to Shenzhen for a visit. I took the MTR to Lo Wu and then rode on the Shenzhen Metro.

I went to Shenzhen to visit a theme park. It is called Splendid China and it has many of the famous sights from all over China. The famous sights and places are miniature versions of the real thing.
I saw things like the Great Wall of China and many carvings and beautiful buildings.

Splendid China also has a Folk Cultural Village where it has all the people who live in China and their special houses, buildings, food and way of life. It is very interesting.

I also had some Jasmine tea in a traditional Tea House and saw some horses, goats and ducks in the park.

Splendid China is a beautiful place and there is lots of things to see and learn about there. I enjoyed my visit very much.

Shek O

On Saturday it was a lovely day so I decided to visit Shek O village and beach.
I had not been there before but people have told me that it is a lovely place.
The village has many shops selling things for people to use at the beach such as beach umbrellas, beach mats and even boards for using in the waves. There are also many restaurants in the village and I had lunch at a restaurant which is right on the beach!

I went swimming and the water was very warm, there were some waves but they were not too big.
There were many people at the beach and some of them were preparing for the lantern festival later in the evening.

I enjoyed my visit to Shek O and I think that you should visit too with your family.

Two Holidays in One Week.

This week we are very lucky to have National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.

National Day this year is the 60th celebration for China and there have been many different events before 1st October. On Thursday there will be carnivals and fireworks at night.
I am looking forward to the fireworks the most, Hong Kong has amazing fireworks displays and I can see them from my apartment.

If you would like to see what is happening on National Day, check this website:
http://www.gov.hk/en/theme/nationalday60/programme/index.htm

I hope the weather is fine on Saturday for Mid-Autumn Festival otherwise we won't be able to see the full moon.

What are you going to do on these two holidays?

My Home City

Christchurch is my home city in New Zealand. This is where I went to University and lived until I moved to Hong Kong in 2006. Christchurch is also known as 'The Garden City' because it is famous for beautiful gardens and parks.
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of NZ and has a population of 350 000 people, which is not very many people compared to HK!
The photo on the left is a photo that I took at Christmas time when I went back to NZ. It is the Christchurch (or Chch for short) Botanic Gardens, which are very beautiful. The building you can see was once the Head Gardeners house but now it is a restaurant.
I like Chch very much, even though it can get very cold in the winter. It usually snows but only about once or twice a year. I like it because it is very green and spacious.
The next photo is a fountain which is also in the Botanic Gardens, I took the photo one night when going for a walk.

My last photo for this post if of the famous Christchurch Catherdral which is in the centre of the city. It is a popular place for tourists to visit, and you can climb the stairs all the way to the top, I have done it and it makes you very tired but you get a great view from the top.

New Zealand Maori

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and has written comments.
The photo in my last blog was taken in the North Island. I was born in the North Island and went to school there too. My family still lives there but I moved to the South Island to go to university and stayed there teaching until I came to Hong Kong.

In this blog, I thought I would tell you something about the native people of New Zealand, the Maori. Maori have been living in New Zealand for about 1000 years and sailed to New Zealand from the Pacific Islands. Europeans have only been living in New Zealand for less than 200 years.

Maori were once fierce warriors and often had wars with other tribes of Maori many years ago.
Although, this does not happen any more (New Zealand is quite a peaceful place), some of the Maori songs and war chants are still known by people today. The most famous is the 'Haka', which was a war dance and chant that was done by warriors before fighting. Now, though it is performed by New Zealand's famous rugby sports team, 'The All Blacks'. Most people from New Zealand know the words and actions to the 'Haka'. You can view the 'Haka' on You Tube by copying and pasting this link: http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=-_CaSu-fnGg&feature=related

Students at school learn to write and speak some Maori language, and there are many places in New Zealand with Maori names. Although, I forgotten many words since I have been in Hong Kong!

I hope you enjoy the video and I will try and find and post some more photos for you on this subject.

A button to my blog

Hello again.
Now, you can find my blog by going into the English part of the school intranet homepage and then clicking on my photo. It's not a very nice photo but I don't mind.
Thank you to Rita and Angee who have already read my blog and made a comment.

I thought that I would post some photos of New Zealand that I took when I went there at Christmas time. I hope you enjoy looking at them and you can ask me questions about the photos or anything about New Zealand.
This photo is of me and there is the beautiful sea and trees behind me. It was a hot day. The photo was taken at a Macadamia Nut Orchard. That is where they grow the trees and pick the nuts off the tree for people to eat. They also made delicious ice cream!

I will add some more photos later so you can have a look at them.