July 21,22 - 06

Tiger's head rock - Hutou shi 虎头石. I called Alex (my paragliding buddy) last Friday night asking what was going on. He told me him and a bunch of the Chinese pilots were leaving to 'Houmen', a small village east of Shenzhen in the province of Guangdong. We left late that night and arrived to the small village at around 1am where we found a cheap hotel and slept for 2.5 hours. At 5am we were already having fried noodles for breakfast.

Less than an hour later, we had parked the cars by some abandoned houses (shown in the pictures below) and started making our way up a tree and bush infested, almost invisible narrow trail. Six hours and a serious dehydrated condition later, we finally made it to the top of the mountain. It was around noon and the sun was striking from a 90 degree angle over our heads. There was no place to hide, only a small rock with an edge which produced enough shade for half a body. Clouds had not yet taken shape, they were in the process of doing so. I felt thirsty. I felt thirsty like I haven't felt thirsty in a long long time. At times like those, one really appreciates water and realizes its value. There we were, sitting on a 1,100m high peak, praying for water. I would have paid 100US for a small bottle of water.

My back was hurting from carrying a 20kg paraglider for 6 hours, it was hot, I was thirsty and my skin was completely sun burnt. Still, we all managed to pull our strength back together and got ready for take-off. A friend, Zangmin, had a few unsuccessful attempts. Then I came up and luckily was able to take off on my first try right after Alex had taken off a few hundred meters away.

The flight, which lasted about 3 hours, was magnificent. The scenery, a long stream of wrinkled tropical mountains which extended directly into the ocean, was enough to break my concentration from the piloting. Conditions were smooth, thermals all over the place and zero wind which made it quite stable. The cloud base sat at around 2,000m.

After many ups and downs and watching some of these crazy Chinese guys fly a few meters above powerlines, we landed on a remote cornfield right by a tiny (I mean tiny) little village. The locals offered us some water from the well, shade, and a place to rest for a while we gathered all the pilots together. All in all, a great day for my paragliding CV. Check out the pictures, I know most of you don't even read my blog!

There you can see the mountain we climbed	Alex and I starting the hike
that's me smiling before knowing what we were up against	This guy carried two 25kg gliders the entire 6 hours held by a stick of bamboo. The guy doesn't weigh more than 55kg himself
		that's the world champion right there!
	not so happy at this point
a part of the group of guys that made it	taking off wasn't easy	tall grass and bushes got the lines tangled
right brake...	almost..	aah!
that was about the time I realized the 6 hours of hiking had been worth it

*all photos by Ana M.

July 9 - 06

Hong Kong. Last Thursday was my first time to Hong Kong, my first time outside of China for that matter (except for the occasional transfers in Korea or Japan when going to the US). Hong Kong, once a British colony recently handed over to China, is situated less than 50km south of where I live in Shenzhen. A 40 minute ferry ride transports you to a shockingly different world.

The approach to the dock was already an experience of its own. The city looks like a Manhattan only 10 times as squished. Fourteen million people live in a considerably reduced area. Buildings rise up 50 stories high on average I would say. After visiting a trade show with my new US friend Gary, we just walked around for a few hours before it was time for me to take a ferry back to mainland China.

Then this past Sunday I went back to Hong Kong attempting to get a better feel for the city, spending the entirety of my stay there playing the role of a tourist. And tourist I was. Walking out of the ferry station, I immediately noticed something richly bizarre: women, who did not seem Chinese, invaded every single street in the city. I spotted an Irish couple walking out of the metro and quickly approached them and asked: "do you guys know what is going on here? are they on strike or is it just a BIG group of tourists that just disembarked?" The man informed me that there are 600,000 Philippine maids in Hong Kong and Sunday was their day off. Consequence: they pack up lunch and dinner in little plastic containers, bring a blanket (a few pages of an old newspaper are valid as well), and sit on the sidewalk or street during the entire day. Quite an amazing sight. At some point I felt like I was walking through an aviary. See some pictures below.

Hong Kong is an exceptional city, modern and full of life. I think what makes it so shocking is the sharp contrast with its Chinese neighbor only a few kilometers away. It still feels like a different country.