JDo217

I'm living in Hong Kong as a student right now so I'm absolutely going to this next month!

Here is a massive update from Taiwan: Stayed in Taipei for the weekend but had to cut short my trip since my professor scheduled a last minute test for this Tuesday. So I went back alone while my friends stayed another day. I ordinarily wouldn't care but this professor is easily the worst teacher I've had in all my years of schooling, and this is coming from someone who never complains about teachers. Please leave feedback and post comments. This is actually the first place I'm posting these photos. They'll be posted on my blog soon too so I'd love if you could check that out! I'm uploading via the TPR server this time and I swear to god this better work because I just spent more than 30 minutes doing all this.. My two cents on Taiwan: I enjoyed it MUCH more than anywhere in China so far, and I was only here for 2 days! By western standards, the city is pretty densely populated even though the population is only like 3 million. But you actually have personal space compared to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, etc. The people very incredibly friendly - all of them, the random people on the streets, the small shop owners, everyone. Also much more orderly compared to the mainland... Anyway, we did lots of touristy stuff on day 1 - chiang kai-shek memorial hall, taipei 101, etc. Highlight of the day: dropping my entire camera setup and really expensive lens onto the sidewalk in the rain because Nikon's camera straps are s***. My camera is in perfect condition, but the lens filter got impacted on the fall and it basically stuck on my lens. I wouldn't care except that moisture got trapped in there and it got really foggy. This was my best lens (and most practical one too) so for most of the night I couldn't get usable pictures of Taipei 101. Anyway, lens was fine next day but I'm getting the camera and lens serviced by Nikon soon to be sure day 2 we went to Wulai village during the day. It's a really beautiful and scenic village in the mountains along a river. We went to a hot spring as well, and all I'll say is...it was a nude experience. That night we went to Shilin Night Market, which was really cool at chaotic. The food was AMAZING. Not bragging, but I think I'm definitely improving my picture-taking skills. I'm cutting down on how many pictures I take and a bigger percentage of them turn out to be keepers now Japanese colonial building Liberty Square Liberty Square as seen from the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall Soldiers putting on a show in the memorial hall It rained... ...all day long. Ran into the middle of the street for this...didn't realize it was two-ways and got honked down pretty badly. Nice little coffee shop we ducked into to ride out the rain (fyi it never stopped). Crappy picture from the top of Taipei 101. Reflections and dirty windows ruin everything If you're wondering how to get this "special effect," just drop your 5-pound camera and most expensive lens on the sidewalk in heavy rain. Make sure the lens filter gets jammed on the lens. Also make sure you get tons of moisture trapped between the filter and front element. A street corner in Ximen, which is a pretty crowded shopping area Taipei MRT. Not as nice or efficient as Hong Kong's, but it works and is way better than the crappy MTA we have in NYC so I can't complain. The people are also really orderly and actually queue up (compare to the mainland..) Wulai village streets by day. It was mostly dead despite being a Sunday The church on the hill is actually part of an Ulay village further along the road. We walked through it but there wasn't too much to see. Follow the road to... A village in the mountains. It was really quite beautiful... This is HDR, but the water was actually more or less that color. It was "tropical," but it was an odd opaque aqua color. Very scenic again shenanigans Streets of Wulai at night really come alive with color. You can't see from this picture but it got much more crowded later on as well. Some noodle dish I don't know the name of A candid of my friend. She didn't really know that I was taking a picture, she just happened to be smiling to herself haha On the way to the Shilin night market Here it is: the Shilin night market in all it's glory. The food was FANTASTIC. Since I had to leave the next day, my friends agreed to go to a beef noodle shop that night. SUpposedly very good in Taiwan. I liked it...

I submitted my blog to this travel website and they actually accepted it and posted it on their website! Hopefully that will get me some more hits their website here I'm on the very bottom, but hey, you have to start somewhere! anyway, not much going on in the way of pictures right now i've been diligently touching up pictures for my blog, but since the originals of those pictures were already posted here I won't bother again. however, there are a couple of new ones I'll post soon. I'm headed to Taiwan today so I should have some nice stuff

nice! but my question to you now is what day was it? I crossed into sze on saturday and back to hk on sunday and it was horrible. I didn't have much choice on the days though. also, lots of pickpockets hanging around the border area. my friend went this past weekend and got her cell phone pickpocketed. she had it in the front pocket of her sweatshirt but it wasn't zippered. next thing she knew someone took it. it was one of the $20 ones though so no big deal

I went in mid September and the ride was still not open. We asked when it would be open and they said they didn't know. If I have time I might head back before the end of the year, but the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border is a disaster so I try to avoid it as much a spossible

Bringing this up to say that I've finally started a blog on my travels. There are a million blogs out there where people blog about their day and include relevant pictures splattered throughout the post. I figured that instead of doing that - because let's face it, it's really boring anyway - I would try to post one meaningful photo that I've taken each day. I'll include a few paragraphs about the image as well and maybe a few relevant facts about Hong Kong. I'll also give layman's reviews on equipment that I own or have used I think this will really help me think more about what pictures I take too. http://asianinasia.wordpress.com/ (hope this is allowed since I have more than 50 posts!) I'm going to Taiwan in two days time. I'm hoping to get back to Macau to actually get decent pictures too, since it's not terribly expensive.

Sure. Sorry, I thought clicking the pics would go through to flickr but I guess not. Here it is

Thanks, it means a lot Anyway, here are two photos I've taken in the past week that I'm really proud of. I'm normally very critical of myself so this is a big deal for me I guess. Also: would anyone who's been to HK Disneyland say it's worth it to go for a night just to soak in the atmosphere and take some pictures? And ride space mountain of course, but if I go for serious pictures, I'll rpobably have a tripod with me and it'll be difficult to do stuff Lai King stacks in Kowloon, Hong Kong. This is actually a 2x3 pano Bank of China building with a bit of a different perspective?

Some testing to see if this works. Hopefully it will. Anyway, the first three are just some holdover pictures untill my next trip. My trips are finalized now! Here's the list: -Taiwan in two weeks -Guilin + Yangshuo (!!!!!! so f***ing excited for this you have no idea) in early December -Seoul/Korea, Tokyo/Japan, and Singapore at the end of December into early January I was hoping to go to Cambodia as well but looks as if I won't have time. some night time street candids Central Kowloon with mountains in the background Central as seen from the peak An actual clear night in the fall, which is very rare. Bank of China building

I've tried so many times to use the TPR server but my files are more than double the limit. Most of mine are around 5.5 MB as jpegs. I think some of the flickr photos are gone because I deleted some of the less satisfactory ones a few days ago from my account. I will check and try to re-upload though. Also, for the TPR trip if anyone is into hiking there are nice spots in Tsing Yi and Lok Fu with great views of the city, but they're a bit off trail. Also, you can hike up to the top of Victoria Peak if you want. It's pretty tiring but very satisfying when you reach the top. And the light show is indeed very disappointing. It's cool for the first few seconds but then you realize it's just the same hting over and over. I'm assuming you went to Victoria Harbour, which has a pretty nice view of Hong Kong Island but you have to go either before 7 or after 9, since it gets packed for the show.

I'm assuming you went to the sky terrace? It's nice but the view is kind of limited by the mountains on both sides, and even moreso by the massive amounts of people in your way. If you're ever back there (or anyone who is considering going to Victoria Peak), definitely head to Lugard Road. The entrance to the road is just past the tram building next to the building with Christmas lights. Lugard Road is much much much less crowded and offers a much nicer and full view IMHO. On weekdays it's very quiet, with the occasional jogger. Weekends there are plenty of people with tripods but no where near as bad as the peak. Also, I think the road in the opposite direction might offer an interesting view as well, but I didn't explore enough

thanks not to whore myself out or anything, but i'd really love it if this topic got some more posts Update! This weekend the weather in Hong Kong was actually relatively nice, and by that I mean it was crappy by most standards. The sky was blue though and the full moon actually came out! I went up to Victoria Peak for the occasion and got some decent shots. I'm HORRIBLE at finding good spots though so I usually end up not getting the perspectives I want. Today's weather was okay so I tried to go up to the peak again but found out the weather today was actually pretty bad. And I despise the swarms of tourists that come out on weekends. Remind me never to go up to the peak on a Saturday...ever again. I roamed the city afterward and got some shots. Anyone good at HDR? I tried for the first time tonight but they all came out horrid. Even things that should not be that difficult, like static night cityscapes, come out poorly for me. Anyway, the pics. My apologies for no theme parks in a while Two versions of this pic with just a simple edit between them. Which do you prefer? Here are a bunch more cityscapes from slightly different perspectives: The opposite side of Victoria Harbour...much less action This place sells "authentic New York french fries," which is funny because as a New Yorker I can tell you that the only foods we really take seriously are pizza and bagels. but I guess since New York is so well-known it's a good advertising scheme I've taken this shot already, but decided to redo. Better? This is the Bank of China building btw: another redo: I need to come back to this spot so I can get the full view. I was rushing a bit and the nice security guard was shoo'ing me away since I guess taking pictures from a parking garage isn't allowed. I'm so disappointed that I couldn't find a spot to get the skyscrapers completely in though. It's not a matter of my lens not being wide enough, it's that the roof of the parking garage extends too far forward so that tilting to camera upward results in me getting a nice shot of roof. Enjoy and please leave feedback - I appreciate it!

So I went to Shanghai for 5 days last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to Happy Valley as none of my friends were really interested after the Shenzhen experience. But Shanghai was very nice. The end of it turned out to be a nightmare though: 1. On the second to last day, my friend ended up with severe food poisoning. She was vomiting for 3 days straight and almost fainted on the flight back. She had to be hospitalized for the good part of a week. I think I had a mild case of food poisoning too as I was nauseous and had an upset stomach, but didn't get it as bad as her. 2. I bought a counterfeit knock-off sports bag in Hangzhou (city near Shanghai) as I needed the extra storage space for the trip home. It turns out I was really allergic to some weird industrial by-product chemical they treat their counterfeits with because I broke out in a full-body rash on Saturday and needed an injection of antihistamine. Leave it to China -_- anyway, after figuring out that the bag was the problem, I threw it out and washed all of my clothing/bed sheets and all was good We took the bullet train to Hangzhou and it was very nice and scenic. The streets were like a real-life version of Frogger though. We met this nice local woman on the bus ride who took us up to her friend's private tea house. Thought it was some scam at first but since we had tea for free... ALSO, I will be going to South Korea at the end of semester and am most definitely going to Everland! Going to Singapore and Tokyo too Here are just a few pictures: sugar cane drink stand on the street: A night out on The Bund: Jing'an temple: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6107/6217668677_d1d0a25365_b.jpg Some nighttime street life: A stranger in a strange land...not exactly sure why I took this picture: A bit of background on these next two shots: Shanghai shuts down their lights at around 11 PM. So I raced down the boardwalk in the cold to get a nice shot and two pictures in, the lights freaking turn off. These two shots are with the lights off. I did super long exposure and I think the result was better than with the lights on actually: Just some fooling around on a nature trail in Hangzhou: the nature trail was pretty popular for local tourists, and even weddings.

er, not sure how small your camera is but that sounds like a pretty bad idea. Between the restraints pushing on your upper pockets and your lower pockets bouncing back and forth on the ride... Anyways, I just bring a small backpack/shoulder strap bag and either put it in a locker or leave it in a cubbie hole if I feel safe with that (depends on the park). Also, pack lightly. Try to only bring one lens since it will not only be annoying to change lenses constantly but it will also help you learn to cut down on lenses

One last thing: sorry to be a bugger, but do you know if they have reliable "storage areas" to put bags and stuff besides the station cubby-holes?

Update time! I actually haven't been to any more theme parks since, but I have some decent shots from a night out in the city. I caved and got the ultra wide angle lens. It's the Tokina 11-16mm/2.8 and it's absolutely gorgeous. I got it for less than I would've back in the states, but I think the warranty is a little more limited. Anyway, I had originally planned to head out to the city with a friend because she was interested in getting a new camera and I also needed a spare battery (after my battery died in Shenzhen I didn't want to take the chance that it could happen again). I got SO distracted taking pictures and we actually never made it to the store before closing...what store closes at 8pm on a Friday night anyway!? Also, I'm going to Shanghai next weekend for 5 days! Hopefully I can convince everyone to go Happy Valley for a few hours but after the experience at Shenzhen I'm not sure who's willing I believe this is the Bank of China building: My school's campus at night: We went to Sharp Island yesterday. I rather liked this shot:

Thanks. Oh and do you guys know if there are any interesting things to do near Happy Valley? It's convenient for us to get to by metro but kind of a ways away from our hotel, so it might be nice to do some other stuff in the area too. It's hard to google for things in specific parts of shanghai if you don't know what you're looking for :/

I'll be in Shanghai for 5 days and 4 nights. We might spend a day at Happy Valley if I can convince my friends to go. We're close to the Xiaonanmen metro stop so we can just take that all the way to Happy Valley. It's convenient to get to but we had a not-so-good experience at the Shenzhen Happy Valley so most of the group isn't eager for a second helping. Anyways: 1. Are operations similar to the Shenzhen Happy Valley? 2. Do they have lockers to put your stuff in? If not, would leaving a backpack in the cubbie holes on the station platform be safe? I only ask because I will have my DSLR with me 3. Could this park be done in a little over half a day? We did SZ Happy Valley in 6 hours without feeling rushed, even waiting 1+ hr for the SLC and mine train. 4. If I had the liberty of choosing which day to go out of Saturday - Tuesday, which would be best? I'm guessing not Sunday since that's the one day all Chinese have off for the most part

Here are some videos of the show. Not the greatest quality but I was intent on watching at the same time. They are open to the public so hopefully you guys can view them: Shenzhen Show (part 1) Shenzhen Show (part 2) Also, I caved and bought the Tokina AT-X 11-16mm UWA lens over the Sigma 10-20. I did a horrible job at haggling but since I got it for cheaper than I would have in the U.S., I'm regretful but not disappointed. Hopefully this lens will see some use in my travels to Shanghai at the end of the month. I also plan on heading out to the city just to take some sample/practice shots

Update time! I just got back from Shenzhen for the weekend and I'm pretty exhausted. Somehow though I seem to be wide awake once I get back to my room...I resized my files this time so hopefully the uploader will finally work Anyway, I made lots of travel plans. I'm going to Shanghai for 5 days at the end of September (ie Happy Valley Shanghai!), Seoul (Everland), and Tokyo at the end of the semester! Beyond excited to ride my first Mega-Lite, dive coaster, and T Express. Anyways, We got to Shenzhen around 10 since it took a really long time to get to the Luohu border from Hong Kong and immigration is always such a pain in the ass. Shenzhen is no Hong Kong unfortunately. While I loved the two days I spent in SZ, it was pretty grimy. I thought the metro was quite possibly worse than NYC's, which is saying a lot. While many Hong Kongese say that Shenzhen is dangerous (in terms of pickpockets), I didn't really find that to be the case. We went to many of the crowded, tourist shopping areas and we were fine. We even walked about 2 km back to our hotel at night and had no problem either. Haggling is always fun, but the shopping in SZ wasn't that good and the malls were kind of cramped. At least Hong Kong's are spacious to balance out the sheer number of people that visit them We checked into the hotel, had a bite to eat, then went to Happy Valley. The park was very nicely themed but the operation policies were not that good. Aside from a horrid one-train operaton on the SLC, I thought they did a pretty good job loading all of the rides in a timely manner. We didn't rent a locker/couldn't find lockers so we just left our stuff in the cubbies on the platforms. I was a little worried since I had my DSLR in there but since there was a one train operation on the major stuff, it was fine. Would you believe me if I said I actually enjoyed an SLC? It was still rough but at least re-rideable aside from the 1 hour wait. All of my friends enjoyed it too Bullet Coaster is STILL not open. We got excited when we saw the ride from afar and when we saw it on the park map labeled "new!" Seriously, when will this thing be up? All of the track is completed but they still have cranes in the construction site. From where the crane was, maybe they're putting trims onto the bottom of the top hat? This thing seriously better f***ing be open before I leave because I would totally go back just for a day to try it out. Because let's face it, it'll probably break in a few years anyway. Chinese visa is kind of a pain for Americans though because we have to apply beforehand (they stopped letting us get visas at the border when the U.S. started fingerprinting Chinese citizens on entry to the U.S. ). We asked some workers if they knew when it would open but they just said it's "up in the air" (in Mandarin of course). Afterwards, we headed to the splendid china folk village for dinner and to see the dragon/dance show. I thought the show would be lame but it was pretty incredible. The drumming and dancing was slightly out of sync, but the performance was so dynamic that any flaws could easily be forgiven. Er, I'm really lazy and even though my files are under 2 MB this time they're not sized correctly :/ just using IMG tags for now. I've been playing around a lot with the filters so there are a few shots that are similar but with different filter settings so let me know which ones you like best! They have benches everywhere on the SLC line, pretty cool It actually wasn't bad Bullet Coaster is very photogenic (taken three times with and without filters. WHich you do like best?): Rapid fire: We actually went on their splashboat ride and it was f***ing hilarious. We bought the ponchos since we didn't want to get a full body soaking. The ponchos for your feet were both helpful and absolutely hilarious. But the beginning of the ride was so long that we were dying of heat in the ponchos Take special note of the guy in the front row: Some close ups of Bullet Coaster: This helix after the top hat looks absolutely crazy: Very nice looking mine train: Playing with my gorillapod. It gets me such weird looks in China since I guess it's not really seen: These are from the folk village + show: Delicious dinner: I have some videos of the show...should I just upload to youtube and embed here or upload directly?

Thanks for the comments guys. The reason the uploader never works for me is because the files are horrendously large. They're already jpeg files and most of them are 5-6 MB. ^I shoot with a Nikon D3100. All of the pictures in the first post were shot with the kit lens (Nikon 18-55mm AF-S VR lens). I have recently (after most of these pictures were taken) bought the Nikon 35mm/1.8G prime lens and I absolutely love it. The picture of the lantern at night is from the first (and so far only) shoot I've done with it but for the low price it was so worth it. I've also been playing around with a polarizing filter and grad ND filter so maybe I can get some new perspectives I'm currently saving up for either Sigma 10-20mm or Tokina 11-16 and my goal is to have one by December since I am planning on going to Tokyo, Seoul + Everland (!!!!), Beijing, and Shanghai (pushed back the trips to Shanghai and Beijing back since schoolwork is picking up and I've already skipped a lot of classes to travel ) at the end of the semester. Anyway, IMPORTANT: do you guys know if Happy Valley Shenzhen has "facilities" to store backpacks and other belongings in? We can't check into the hotel till 2pm but we're traveling relatively lightly. Only one backpack per person but obviously it will be difficult to ride stuff with them and I will have my DSLR so I don't want to leave it on the platform

^How do I do that? Or is it just uploading via the TPR uploader at the bottom of the post? Since taking all of those pictures, I've gotten a nice 35mm lens + a decent polarizing filter and graduated NDF so hopefully I can get some nice shots

Since I have quite a few posts in this thread I decided to put links to all of the photo posts to make things easier: 1. Hong Kong (beginnings), Macau, and Ocean Park 2. Shenzhen and Happy Valley 3. Hong Kong mini-update 4. Shanghai 5. Hong Kong big update 6. Taipei, Taiwan 7. Yangshuo, China 8. Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong 9. Lotte World, Seoul 10. Seoul, South Korea 11. Tokyo, Japan 12. Kyoto, Japan & a last day in Tokyo 13. Universal Studios Singapore 14. Singapore, Singapore We all threw our cameras into a locker since we were going on a lot of rides so I apologize in advance that I did not get many shots of the park itself. Hence mini TR. BUT I'm going to Happy Valley Shenzhen this weekend and possible Happy Valley Shanghai at the end of this month and I WILL get more photos there. Anyways, Ocean Park was very fun. They didn't have much in the way of rides but what they did have was decent. Plus there was so much to do that we were never bored. Dragon was pretty painful and all of my friends (non-enthusiasts) hated it. The Mine Train was fun, and being so close to the edge of the mountain/cliffside was a definite plus. The drop tower was very good too. The water rides were funny because you didn't actually get wet at all from any of the splashing that the boats made, just the massive amounts of water guns and sprinklers As for the new B&M, it looks like it will be the best ride at the park when it finally opens. The ride looks finished but it wasn't open or testing. Granted, my view was obscured but the lift hill was topped and completed and it looked like all of the track was put on. TPR's photo uploader never works for my photos so captions will be ABOVE the pictures Stayed with my cousin for a few days before heading off to campus (studying abroad in Hong Kong) Chinese junk boat in Victoria Harbour: Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui: Hong Kong Island at night: Fishing village we visited during orientation: Hong Kong Island from the top of Victoria Peak (we HIKED up to the top instead of taking the tram btw...) Senado Square in Macau: Portuguese egg tart (delicious...): The Venetian: Dragon boat racing! The next three pics were taken at a place called Cheung Chau Island, a moderately sized fishing island south of Hong Kong Just playing around with long exposure Mid Autumn festival festivities in Hong Kong! ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ And finally, for the Ocean Park pictures: If you look carefully you can see a roller coaster in this picture, I swear! Ocean Park at night:

Haha, I haven't found HK/China to be dangerous. I've never been to Shenzhen but I've been to some of the "sketchier places" in HK and it was pretty amusing. My friend took me to Sham Shui Po and you could buy some ridiculous things there - military equipment, military-grade surveillance systems, signal jammers... My friend was booking the hotels and mentioned City Inn. But I'll check out Home Inn and Shangri-la too. City Inn was nice since it came out to ~40 USD/room which was pretty good for us since we still have big places to travel to. Also, on the subject of Asia, I have a slightly off-topic/disgusting/hilarious story from Macau. I had some weird milk tea dessert drink and I guess my body reacted pretty badly to it because I got incredibly nauseous/upset stomach from it. We were at the Ruins of St. Paul so there was only one public bathroom. The stalls were squatty potties without toilet paper (this is definitely not the norm in HK). I had these applewood-scented handkerchiefs with me... anyway, the floor of the stall was sopping wet with what I hope was water. I spent two miserable hours there and at the end, I guess I lost my footing. I landed asscheek first into the squatty potty

Thanks And does anyone know if the Bullet Coaster is open yet? I know rcdb says it's under construction but I'm assuming that the news for many of the Asian parks is outdated. edit: also, I was planning to bring my dslr and take some shots of the park. Do they have lockers or should I pack lightly? When TPR visited, did you guys stay in a hotel or were you just passing through? Any recommendations for hotels in the area? Some of our group speaks putonghua so language won't be an issue