Aberdeen
In the whirlwind of the first couple weeks of exchange, I went to check out Aberdeen with a new group of friends. Aberdeen is a fishing village on the south side of the island. We wandered around and viewed the city from a small water taxi. From what we saw it was a beautiful part of the city, unfortunately we had no idea what we were doing yet so we didn’t properly explore the area.
Quarry Bay
Quarry Bay was infamous among exchange students for being home to Montane Mansion (or the Monster Mansion). The building is shaped like a 3, with two U shaped sections, each with a courtyard. The building is massive, brightly colored, and very dense. It is a residential building, so I was cautious not to disrupt residents or linger but I still feel a tad guilty about contributing to the hoards of tourists that poke around the building.
HKU
When it comes to beautiful campuses, I’m biased and loyal to UBC. BUT, I have to say that HKU gives UBC a run for its money. The campus is literally sitting on the side of a mountain and overlooks the western part of Victoria Harbor. Students have to take escalators and elevators up to the campus. There are beautiful open air walkways connecting the different parts of the campus. It’s pretty dreamy.
Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a holiday that falls on the eighth full moon of the Lunar calendar, or around October in the Western calendar. A massive lantern display was put up in Victoria Park and there are Fire Dragon dances around the city. We went to watch in Tai Hang, where the streets were absolutely packed with people trying to get a glimpse of the dragon. The dragon itself was made of thousands of sticks of burning incense. We could smell it before we could see it!! We then headed over to Victoria Park to see the lights and lanterns and check out the performances.
I was on a mission to find a mooncake, so we searched all over the neighborhood with no luck. Some of my local classmates said they had to order mooncakes weeks in advance!! Fortunately, one of my lovely friends that lived on my floor had a couple that she let me try. All the locals would joke about how many calories mooncakes have, some said more than a Big Mac. I’m not sure how accurate that is but the mooncakes were very rich and very tasty.
