Maggie

  Hello again:)) Hope you've all have had a brilliant day so far (or night). I seems like I keep neglecting my blog, but whenever I don't post, it's genuinely because I had been busy. So thanks for understanding!! This is the view from my window, taken at around 6pm. Yes, the sun is setting and theres a beautiful glow. I think this is the first photo where the sky is clear? Oh well. 

  So I have been talking loads about the music, the food and the transport recently, and well to be honest, it can be quite boring reading about it, so today I am going to tell you about something called Maggie (馬仔, translated to little horse, but thats just the nickname). Maggie is actually sort of like a comic book like book. There are several books in the series, and they're funny, but they're all written in Cantonese (It's written in Chinese, but like the way you talk, with all the slangs and stuff). I used to adore them. 

  This is the main character of the books, Maggie, drawn super adorably. All of the book titles start with 我的低能___, which means My Stupid(or lame, in a not very polite way) and focuses on her life. I've only read the first 5 books, but they're basically about her life, her friends and her family, and the next few books on her marriage, pregnancy and her daughter's baby years. It's quite funny, and all of the characters are so cute. 

  This is the first book, translated to My Lame Life (I think its life) and there are so many more (and still coming), including My Lame Marriage, My Lame Babysitting, My Lame Holidays.. The name sounds really mean in English, but believe me, in Cantonese, it's fine. The pages inside look something like this: 

  Of course, there aren't only just books, if I were to write a whole blog post on Maggie. There are also merchandise, including calendars, online games and apps, and I'm going to introduce you to some of the games that revolves around Maggie, which you can play online. So this is an example of some merch Maggie has: Greetings, which are hung on the walls or on doors during Chinese New Year. They are traditionally red, to ward off the evil spirit, but over time they turned into something like this. Each has it's own greetings or 'good' sayings.

  There is a website with almost all of Maggie's online games (most sites only have a few), and I found it. Again! I thought I've lost it. Though of course there are other games there. But most of the Top 10 games there are Maggie games. The first, and one of my favorites is called 經營美容院, translated to Facial House. So basically you give each customer a facial, but it is super fun and you have to help several people do their facials at once. You basically cleanse their faces, then steam, get rid of the blackheads and put a mask on, then make the bed. It sounds boring, but it's fun.

Click here to play :)  (opens in a new window)

  The other one is called 香港茶坊, which means Hong Kong Tea House. In this game, you make drinks, including juices and teas for your customers.  You have to make the juices in a juicer, and then mix and put in a plastic bottle and cap, so its like a factory. You also have to brew the teas, but if you leave it for too long it will burn. Unfortunately, this link only has the Chinese instructions, but you can still give it a try. 

Click here to play:) (opens in new window)

  The third game is called 香港茶餐廳, which means Hong Kong Cha Chaan Teng. Cha Chaan Teng is a traditional Hong Kong cafe. This game is super hard, and you have to make the food super quickly, or the customers will cancel their order and you'll just be left aimlessly with a bowl of egg noodles. I used to only get the coffee and tea orders done because they're the quickest, and I still can't manage to make stuff other than the drinks. But still, try it out. It's fun and the instructions are in English. This game I only found on a huge HK online game site, so I guess its special. 

Click here to play:) (opens in new window)

   Of course, there are tons more of these Maggie games (like Kill Time in Your Office, Mag's Nursery, Maggie's Bakery...), and you should find more in the websites I gave you. There are also other fun games in those sites, so you're interested, give them a try. I used to love them a lot, and I still enjoy them now.

  We all carry our smart phones everywhere now, so well, of course there would be an app for Maggie. It's called daipaidong. So just search that in your iPhone or Android and you should see our friend Maggie. A daipaidong (大排擋) is a type of restaurant in Hong Kong that used to be common, but is rarer now. It is basically an open restaurant, where seafood and simple dishes are cooked and beer is served. The dishes are usually cooked in a wok. They are open until pretty late, so they're for friends and get togethers. 

  In this game, you are the chef of the restaurant and you have to cook the correct food for the correct table. You accumulate points, which you could use to buy more dishes and better tools. If you are too slow, the table would cancel their order, but relax, I think the ones in HK Cafe cancel their orders quicker. I really like this game and I've already unlocked fried rice/noodles, two woks, a golden spatula and a few more locations. (You get more scores/time if the location is more expensive). I think this game is really fun, and you should really try it. There are in-app purchases, like buying more points, but of course you can earn those yourselves. 

  You can play daipaidong online here, to get a feel of how it would be like. Personally, I think you can cook the food faster with the phone app.

Click here to play:) (opens in new window)

  I really hope you found this post interesting, because I really like Maggie too. It's funny and the characters are just adorable. Bye bye!! 

Mags and her daughter:) 

The MTR

  Hello guys!! :) Welcome back (or just welcome) to All Things Hong Kong:) So today has been a nice day, but I was extremely sleepy (though I've gotten almost 8 hours of sleep last night) Anyways, this is the view from my window today. Quite foggy and dark. But then the sun is going down and HK is always like this. We hate pollution too :( 

  So anyways today I'll be showing you one of the main transport systems in Hong Kong, the MTR. It is like a subway, so an underground train, and there are loads of different lines. I couldn't remember all the stations. There are more than 100 stations, I think (and thats quite a lot for a city so tiny on the world map). There's even a song with the lyrics being all the MTR stations, but that was before new stations were adding. Yes, I bet they're thinking of a new line now. Oh well. At least its convenient. 

  The MTR stands for Mass Transit Railway. The MTR runs underground, and in some stations, you can do a line exchange. There are two types of rails: Light rail (West rail, east rail,  and the 'main rail'. The light rail used to be separate from the MTR, with another train called the KCR. But then KCR joined MTR during 2007, so now there is only one train system. Below shows the MTR map with the different stations and lines. Funny how most of the lines are in Kowloon (one of the three main territories of Hong Kong. Others are Hong Kong Island and New Territories) Because the system is actually quite complicated, I would suggest you go research it if you want to know more. I know I am supposed to introduce Hong Kong stuff to you, but hey I won't cram an essay in here. It's so boring. 

  

  So yeah its pretty neat and according to Wikipedia it's one of the most efficient subways in the world. Slam-dunked!! I don't even know. The most 'busy' (the most people during rush hour and normal hours) stations (because it is where line exchange happens) are at Prince Edward, Lai King, Central, Admiralty and Kowloon Tong. At least that's what I have seen: loads of people waiting to get on the next line. So I'd assume that the reasons for that are because of the line exchange. Hey, it might not be real but at least its from the point of view from a 'Hong Konger'!! And this is a picture of the platform of Admiralty. I think it looks like that everyday, most of the time. 

  On a normal day (by normal I mean weekdays minus rush hour, which are usually around 7 in the morning, because of students to 9, because of working people, and 4-7 in the evening because people are going home) the MTR isn't very packed. Sure, all the seats might have been filled up, but there will still be quite a comfy standing place. However, during rush hour or the weekends, the MTR is so filled, you cannot move unless you're seated. The train will be filled with people and sometimes you will be stuck in an awkward position between two people. (Or maybe thats because I'm short) Ooh speaking of that this is the interior of a MTR train (with hardly any people) 

  According to one of my math teachers, the MTR had wanted each person to only occupy 1 (or 2, or 3. Don't remember the details) meters squared of standing space on the train, but because of the invention of the smart phone, the MTR holds less people because of the space needed for the phones. Technology, bruh! And this is a photo of the MTR during rush hour. It's crazy. If you're claustrophobic, you should really just take other means of transport home after school/work. 

  There is also a line just to get to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. But first you have to go to Sunny Bay, then change to the Disneyland train, which is extremely different from the normal trains. Maybe Sunny Bay should be added to the busiest stations list. This is the Disneyland train. Quite fancy (you already know I'm in the fast lane from LA to Tokyo..... no? ok. ): ) 

   The stations I get off and on the most at is Kowloon Tong and Mong Kok. (Most of the English names are just the Cantonese pronunciation of the station) Some of the names doesn't make sense in English if you translate them literally. And here's why: 

  The way you pay for the fare is by a card called the Octopus card. It's a smart card, in which you can recharge using cash in the MTR stations (before you pass through the gates or at the customer service counters) or in 7-elevens or other convenience stores that does that for you. (There are Octopus cards for children 3-11, personalized mainly for students attending school/uni, the standard ones for adults and one for elders 65+) If you forgot your card or you don't have one, you can buy a single journey ticket. So you put your change into a machine and select your destination and type of ticket, then you press the magnetic card on the reader of the gate, and go through. When you arrive, you simply slip your card into the slot and you go do your thang. There are also tourist passes, so you get unlimited traveling for a day and so. 

(standard/adult Octopus card)

  Before you pass through the gates to board the MTR, there are always some shops that sell various things outside, as well as machines to recharge your card or to buy a single-journey ticket. Unfortunately there aren't toilets. Except in some Light/East/West rail stations. So you better go before you board. Also no eating on the trains. But then they put damn food stores in the paid areas so it's like they want you to eat on the train. Oh well. Logic right. 

    So yeah this is it, the Hong Kong MTR. I know it can be very crazy during rush hours, but once you get used to it, its not that bad. At least there's air conditioning and shops in the stations. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed:)) 

  

Favorite HK street food

  Hello guys!! So I'm back from my trip to Shenzhen, and to be honest, it isn't all that fun. I'm back all snugly at my apartment now, and feeling sleepy. I am so sorry for not updating for four days now. Anyways,  this is the view from my window today. Today is a bit chillier, but maybe thats because autumn is arriving (yay!)

  The sky's much clearer than the last photo, and theres a bit of sunlight, but still some smog:( Oh well. At least its not too hot; autumn is on the way!! 

  Since we all love food and food is one of the most posted things on Instagram (and selfies and mirrors), I'm going to share with you some of my favorite snacks that you'll find in Hong Kong:) Of course, you might find them in food stores, but food always tastes better in their place of origin, right? To y'all Brits, fish and chips taste the best in the UK, eh? (Sorry I can't help it) 

  The first one is called 蛋撻, which translates to egg tart. It is basically a tart filled with sweet custard and baked. There are two kinds of tarts, a pastry puff one and a butter, more cookie like one. Personally, I like the pastry kind the most, because I just really like the texture and the taste more. Also, I think its the traditional one. I really really like it, and I definitely want one right now. I might even make some at home and post it here someday. In fact I might attempt to make all of the snacks I posted.

   Don't think that this egg tart will fill you up, it's just a snack. It fits in the palm of your hand. I've had a foreign teacher once who thought that an egg tart is like a whole meal, and he asked my friend to bring him one the next day. She forgot to bring one, and it turns out that he thought that an egg tart will be a full meal and skipped lunch. Don't. It's just a snack. 

  The next is 砵仔糕. According to Wikipedia, it 'literally' translates to little pudding cake. It's pronounced like 'boot tsai go'. At least that's how I say it. It's probably put chai ko, but it would sound quite weird in Cantonese. So put chai ko is basically like a soft, sweet pudding like that holds it shape. Here it's usually put in a bowl then a stick is pushed into it and the whole thing pulls out after steamed. I really liked it as a child, but I hate the ones with the azuki (red beans) in.  

  There are a few variations of this put chai ko: brown sugar, brown sugar with azuki, white sugar and white sugar with azuki. I don't like the ones with azuki. My mom bought the above put chai ko for me last night, and thats how I thought of a topic. This is really good, though of course some shops make it better than others.

  Well, let's go onto the next snack now should we? The next is something called 雞蛋仔, which translates to little eggs (literally), but it is actually a waffle like snack. Pronounce it as: gai dan jai. You can find it at most street food stalls on the streets. It is made between two metal 'skillets' with holes in them, and when the pancake like batter is cooked, it comes out as something like bubble wrap, but made with a batter. Apparently the best kind of  gai dan chai is the ones that are crispy but the 'bubbles' are chewy. 

  The traditional flavor is egg, but of course, you can't really taste the egg. It's kind of sweet I guess? Because we live in such a sophisticated age (wat.) of course there will be flavor variations in even the most classic snacks. Other than egg, there are also chocolate, strawberry, sesame and many more flavored types of gai dan chai, but at each place where they sell gai dan chai, rest assured they will always sell the traditional one. The flavor variations are less common but they exist. 

  So thats about it, some of my favorite HK street food. Hope this has made you hungry, and I'll see you tomorrow!:) Hopefully making up for the few days I was away. Bye bye!!

  

  

HK Basic Cantonese Phrases + Announcement

  Well! Apologies for not posting anything yesterday.. I was quite busy. And since today was also a super busy day (more than yesterday) I didn't have the time to take a photo of the view from my window during the afternoon. I'm super tired today so I'm just going to talk about four Cantonese phrases and how to pronounce them.. woop woop!!

  First one is hello. Now loads of people would say that it is 你好 (pronounced like nei ho; nei is sort of like a 'v' pronunciation, like the tone drops and goes back up; and ho is like nei.. you can google it up if you want to) and that is correct, but rarely would you find someone greeting someone like that on the streets. It's done formally, but less casually. For hello in Cantonese (at least in Hong Kong), its just hello. Or what we pronounce as hallo. If you say hey or hi, people would still understand. If you're saying hello on the phone, we say 喂, pronounced like wai (again like a 'v', tone drops and raises, more than nei).

  Now its the turn for goodbye. No, I'm not saying bye to you. It's the Cantonese way. Again, many people would say it is 再見 (pronounced joi geen; joi is plain, so just a joi is fine; geen isn't like the g in giraffe, but the g in geek the first word that popped to my mind; it is actually translated to 'see you again', but its used for goodbye. It's just the same meaning, almost), but in Hong Kong, almost every single person just says bye bye. Because why not? It's easier.

  For thank you, there are two ways. The first is 多謝 (do jeh. Do isn't like the English do, but a kind of high-pitched do, but the o isn't like the one in 'to', its like the one in 'lot', and jeh... the j isn't really that noticeable, but its the best way to put it. It's something like 'ts', but not exactly. Or a 'z'. So try to place your teeth together and just make a sound using your tongue.. it's really hard to explain, so maybe YouTube videos will be useful. 'eh' isn't like 'ay', but 'eh', a short e.) This form of thanks is used when someone gives you a gift or a present. The second is 唔該 (mh goi. The h is silent in mh, and its a bit deeper in pitch. goi is like how you pronounce do, higher and flat, so the pitch stays the same.) mh goi is used for when something does a service for you, like pick up a pen you dropped. I was always confused when I was little.

  The last phrase is sorry. Again, you can just use sorry. People will understand. But this post is about Cantonese! It's 對唔住(dui mh ju; the u in dui isn't like the one in 'use', but the one in 'but', so the i is like a y; mh is mentioned above, the h silent and slightly deeper in pitch; ju is pronounced the way its written, but this time the u is like the one in 'use', and it is also somewhat like a 'v' pitch, going deeper down the up again.

  Yes, Cantonese is quite a hard language to learn. But if you've grown up within that environment, it comes by naturally. But if not, it can be really tough. So don't worry if you can't say those phrases correctly. Practice, practice, practice!! I might even record my own voice saying those phrases one day. Oh, and in Hong Kong, we use the traditional way in writing Chinese. There are two forms in the most common way of writing chinese: simplified or traditional. Simplified is used in mainland and most of China, while traditional is used in Hong Kong, Macau and other Chinese cities. Simplified is easier to write, with less strokes, but it's all about habit. I feel awkward writing simplified Chinese because its so different, but everyone's different.

  Now, time for the announcement! I'll be going to a city in China (I forgot exactly where, oops) with my family for the weekend, so I won't be able to post then.. I'm not exactly keen on going, but we have to because its a family trip. Oh well. So, thanks for coming by and stopping to read this blog. I really hope you actually enjoyed my posts and I'll see you soon.

Bye bye! (joi geen!)

HK Music♥

  Hello all and welcome back to All Things Hong Kong! :) Lets learn more about Hong Kong!!!!!

  This is the view from my balcony today during the afternoon. Yes, pretty smoggy and cloudy. There were a few showers throughout the day but it was sunny. It's not everyday you see smoggy Hong Kong on a tourist site, but hey, stuff like this happens quite a lot in Hong Kong. Pollution:( It's blurry (sorry).. I used my webcam but it isn't the best. It isn't as dark in real life as it is in the photo. You can still see some light blue but clouds are taking over! (Yay or nay)

    Everyone loves music. Well, most of them anyways. And yes, Hong Kong does have singers that are quite famous locally. Not internationally, I don't think so. And I'm going to share with you some of my favorite HK artists and songs. I don't really listen to Canto pop. I usually listen to American/UK pop or country songs. (I love Ellie Goulding, Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne, fyi) But I do like these artists: 

Fiona Sit (薛凱琪) 

  She's a Chinese singer and actress. One of my friends is crazy about her. She watched just about every single of her movies and listened to every single one of her songs. She also has almost her every album. Talk about hardcore fans. This is her. She's quite pretty. I do like some her songs, and I'll post a video to them beloww. 

  This is one of Fiona's songs which I quite like. It's called 天國的微笑, or Heaven's Smile in English. (天國 means heaven, 的 is something like 'of' or 'from', 微笑 is smile. So its actually translated to Smile from Heaven kind of. It's hard to explain, but theres always Google!! hehe) It's really good and you should really check it out: 

  Quite good, eh?:) I do like it. Another one of her songs I like is called 886. (both of those songs's music videos are quite old, but don't let it affect your time listening) 886 means bye bye la in Cantonese, like a internet slang. (something like ttyl or brb) 'la' is a Cantonese modal particle, used pretty often. Here's 886 (Bye bye la): 

  If you like her songs, then check out her other songs and maybe even her movies:) My friend would love you hehe;)

Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文）

  Another female singer I quite like. Sammi is also an actress. She's a Christian singer, and some of her songs are about religion. This song is called 上帝早已預備, translating to The Lord Has Already Prepared (上帝 means lord, 早 means early (so beforehand in this case)， 已 means already, 預備 means prepare. So if you just use those meanings, the song title will be translated to Lord Beforehand Already Prepare, or The Lord has Already Prepared Beforehand.. you get what I mean) :

  My mom really likes her, and she is going to have a concert here soon. She asked me if I wanted to go, but I said no because I don't exactly listen to her songs everyday, so I'm not really a fan. But if you liked that song, check out the rest! There will probably be English translations to the lyrics online. 

Jacky Cheung (張學友) 

  Both my parents really like Jacky, especially my dad. He is one of the most famous Hong Kong singers, I think? He had sung a few English and Mandarin songs, but mainly Cantonese songs. Again, he's also an actor. Gosh Hong Kong singers are so talented!! (kidding) This song is called The First of May, and its sung in English (I used to love it when I was little): 

  This one is called 妳的名字 我的姓氏, or Your (female) First Name, My Surname (believe it, it sounds much better in Cantonese) It's acoustic but I think it's also pretty good. 

Janice M. Vidal (衛蘭）

  Janice is another singer born in Hong Kong, but she is actually a mix of Filipino and Chinese-Korean. She sings English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese but she knows Tagalog, French and Korean as well (I just found that out and I was like wow) This song is called 殘酷遊戲, translated to Cruel Game. It's a love song and I adore it. 

  I also like some Canto songs, but I don't really know the artist or listen to them. One of those songs are called 追, or Chase, in English. I really, really like it, and it's just amazing. It's sung by 張國榮, Leslie Cheung. He passed away in 2003, so this song is more than 10 years old. 

  So yeah, this is it. A compilation of my favorite Hong Kong songs and singers. Hope you've enjoyed these songs I've picked out for you to listen to:) So byee and have a lovely day^^ 

  

Hong Kong

  Hello and welcome to this new blog all about Hong Kong! :) I'm the author of this blog, honeyBerry. I also own a 'life' blog but not important! This is allthingsHongKong. In case you don't know, Hong Kong is an island south east of China. I live there, as well over 7 million peeps. I love it there, and thats why I made this blog: to share with you the wonderful things of Hong Kong.
 
   This blog will focus on all things Hong Kong (hence the name): food, culture, festivals, buildings... I hope you'll have a wonderful time on my blog and hopefully I could bring you to my city for the few minutes you're reading this. I just started this blog, so there won't be a lot of photos just yet. But be patient and there will be eventually! I'll go to the different landmarks of Hong Kong, take photos and just tell you what I love or dislike about it. I'll try the food and all the lovely stuff.

  Hong Kong is an amazing place. It's so full of people, so loads of people could be on a single street. But don't let that think lowly of Hong Kong (and the pollution). It's still a fantastic place. It has some of the most famous street food, malls and street vendors. I absolutely love this city. I might just post daily and post photos of Hong Kong every day from my apartment window. So you could see what its like here. The weather could be really confusing at times, but hey, that's HK!

  There was just a passing typhoon here (like a hurricane), and it was Typhoon 8 (Theres T1, T3, T8 and I think T9 and T10. There was once T12, but that was a long time ago) so yay no school! The system goes like this: T1 and T3, you're good to go. And T8 and above... no school/work. But then two hours after T8, the adults go to work. Of course, the people working in places like supermarkets and malls wouldn't get a day off. Just office and labor workers I think. Tomorrow would be a proper school day. The wind is just so loud here. And it was raining the past few days. The sky's clear now, though.

  Here in Hong Kong, we speak Cantonese, a version of Chinese, quite different from mandarin, but with its similarities. But, most people will also know English. If you're thinking of traveling here and you wonder how helpful people are... Well.. there are a lot of different types of people. Some are really nice. But some will just ignore you or snap at you, then walk away grumbling. But hey, there are nice and grumpy people everywhere! I admit, some people here don't like foreigners, but little do they know that we need them to keep the economy stable and stuff. Because tourists spend quite a lot here.

  Well, I won't go into too much detail about my city here. I'll leave it here and see you tomorrow! :) Ooh, in case you're wondering, Hong Kong time is UTC+8, and I'll probably usually post from 8pm-10pm HK time. It's almost half-past 10 now, so goodnight! :)