Teaching in Hong Kong, Day 3 (Expeditions and Yum Cha!)

We’ve built this course so that, while the students work reasonably hard, there are still days off and time to explore the new country – why on Earth would you take students to a different city that they then don’t get to see? Today’s expedition was MTR down to Tsim Sha Tsui and on to the Star Ferry to take the classic trip across the Hong Kong Harbour. It was a gorgeous day and we sat up the front to get good breeze and view – here they are!

Taking in the (warm) sea air.

Taking in the (warm) sea air.

There’s always something happening in Hong Kong and, on the walk across the land fill towards City Hall, we ran across a movie being shot. We watched it until we chased away for “getting in the way” which I think is movie-making speak for “eh, go away”. After some questionable navigation due to the many changes in the area (sorry, everyone) we made it to Maxim’s and got a seat straight away. Fortinately, one of the students speaks Hokkien and some Mandarin which, combined with some pointing, got us an amazing feast of yum cha. Here’s the view from my seat:

The Panoramic Yum Cha Experience at Maxim's!

The Panoramic Yum Cha Experience at Maxim’s!

It was great to relax and just hang out as we talked about all sorts of things and just enjoyed spending some time in a new place. The course starts again in earnest tomorrow at 9am, and the students have some work to do, but I left them to wander in Central – I think most of them were heading for the Peak as it was a most delightful day! Here’s a picture of what it looked like as we walked around:

Buildings are big in Hong Kong.

Buildings are big in Hong Kong.