Sightseeing for a while

The last 2 times I've been in Hong Kong I haven't done that much sightseeing but today the weather was perfect and sunny so out for a stroll! We went up to the Giant Buddha which is one of the worlds biggest sitting Buddha. Some years ago they build cable carts for getting up to it and now some of the cars have glass floors. The Buddha was build in 1993 and you can pay different amount of money to get your name up in the statue. Lots of local people do that because it's suppose to bring business good luck. The most expensive for getting you name and picture in a small frame was 6.800.000 Hong Kong dollars.

Top of the hill Buddha

Glass floor

The no money guys

Sun setting from the cart

People collecting clams

The Bay

Were also walking around Teng Chang

The souvenir store had a special offer today in form of a cat...

Hong Kong Hong Kong!

Back here again to open up an account in the bank. Last time they didn't want to open because I didn't have "proper" proof of an address in China. Now I did and the whole process was really easy and the HSBC staff are really nice!

Fish-market where you can find anything that moves in the sea...

There is a level 1 Typhoon warning at the moment in Hong Kong. Yesterday it was sunshine and then suddenly 10 minutes later the rain was pouring down so hard that nobody wanted to go out even though they had umbrellas.

Lan Kwai Feng is always as packed on the weekends...

Someone who owns this house has a really cool on the roof hang-around place with some sofas and a table.

Nan ning - Shenzhen

Missed my flight for the first time of my life...The meeting we had took longer than we expected. Came 6 minutes too late to the check-in and there goes the plane!! Had to wait about 7 hours at the airport for my next flight to Shenzhen...Luckily I had internet and good music on the way...

The elevator had a funny text, DIEBOLD or diebald, I dunno...

The airport is really small and the only restaurant you can find is this...Noodles and strange chinese food available

As you can see from the pictures it was a busy time the 7 hours we had to spend at the airport. 2 phones constantly ringing and stuff to take care off...haha

What a day!

Came back from the Qingdao trip and had a few days in Shanghai after Qingdao. Then suddenly I get a phonecall about an urgent business matter and have to travel to Nan Ning in souther part of China next to the Vietnam border. Flight from Shanghai to Nan Ning is about 2,5 hours so it's pretty much as south as you can get.

Funny airport sign...

The trip in Nanning was good and bad at the same time. From the ariport you can only get black cabs but the price was not really bad. 30 minutes drive into the city was 120 RMB after some bargaining.

Our black driver

Detal A & B, how cute is that...

Stayed in the same 5 star hotel again, a lot of forrest in Nanning

Meeting in an office where EVERYTHING was golden....

We were suppose to have an evening meeting but it was postponed to the next morning. So instead of staying in the hotel evening I decided to go check the Nanning nightlife. There is one bar street like in most of the Chinese cities full of nightlife. The difference with these bars in smaller cities is that once you get into one place people sit by the tables and drink themselves wasted without dancing of doing anything.

Barstreet number 7

A weekend in Qingdao

Came for some business and sightseeing to Qingdao for 2 days...Too bad the time was picked when there is HIGH season for tourism. There were people EVERYWHERE, traffic roamed and it was so misty no sun could be see on any of the beaches. The beaches were covered with green seaweed everywhere. So many traveling tours came here, if the people are not dissapointed with their trip I really wonder. If you are planning on going to Qingdao avoid June - August because you can't see anything else in the mist than Chinese tourists from other regions!

Ganbei with the world at Qingdao beer festival!!

Some seaweed, EVERYWHERE!

Views from hotel, worse time of the year but this is peak season, don't get it

Filmed a movie here, Germans build it when they were in charge of Qingdao 100 years ago. What Germans build 100 years ago is still usable, what Chinese build 20 years ago is already falling apart...Except the Great wall and Forbidden city :P

The city is famous for it's seafood and I tried all kinds of cool stuff. This was the first time I had seastars and red crabs with some mini clams. Really good! And along with that the brought Normal Qingdao beer, black beer, green beer + some other beers.

Dynamic Shanghai

The income gap is getting bigger and bigger in China each year. People who work as shop assistants, waitresses, bike fixers etc only make 150-300 euro a month. Prices keep going up 20% annually on everything, specially food. Fruits gone up almost 40%. Salaries are NOT going anywhere because there is always someone else who will do the job if you don't!

Communism? A man pulling a wooden cart and an Audi A6 passing it...

I got a card for a store that is actually meant for restaurants here. It's called METRO and has all kinds of imported food with a tax benefit because it is for companies. How about a 10kg Edam Cheese? :)

Yesterday evening we went out driving with Kari and decided to go over the Pudong side. There is a ferry that take people over from Puxi to Pudong but it closes at 23 and we were going back to Puxi around midnight. We had to take the bridge under the river that crosses the city and when we came up from the bridge the police were there...It's not allowed to drive in the bridge with scooters. My scooter was a little faster so I came up first, the police told me that it's illegal to drive there but then let me go without any problem. But Kari got a 5 Euro fine for it. Random...

While driving outside and stopping by at the bund a truck had parked behind my scooter so I could hardly get out. But suddenly a driver from nowhere comes out and moves the truck just so I can get the scooter out. Some people here are just SO friendly.

In Pudong we went back and forth to the Finance World Center to check out the evening view, everything looks pretty small from the 93rd floor...

Found a really high end karaoke place. Fancy looking karaoke places usually work as brothels in China and I have a strong feeling that this is one of them...

Some local people like spitting (specially in smaller and less international cities than Beijing and Shanghai) so they have put up a lot of these signs...We should actually have them in Finland too for all those damn teenagers.

Back home? in Shanghai

Another pleasant flight with Finnair back, takes 1,5 hours less when flying to China instea of from. Strange. Must be a lot of heavy winds or then the route is shorter...It's so damn humid and hot here! Altough i think it's cooler than Beijing last summer when the outside temperature was a constant 40-43 degrees for 2 weeks. Now only around 30 but the humidity makes it sticky and sweaty...

From the airplane, and no, this photo is NOT photoshopped at all! Simply beautiful sunrise above Siberia

We hadn't had Chinese food for a long time with Kari so we decided to have some "Blurberry" Pancakes. They were awesome and so was the text on the menu...

Found some kind of locked dumpster in the street with this sign, god only knows what it's used for...Refuse Container? Refuse what...

Tirmo Blues

A few years ago they started organizing Tirmo Blues which is a festival (lot of hillbillies from the countryside) but also for people who are on vacation from the city. The music they played was pretty crap but then again there was not entrance fee...They make all the money on the drinks they sell and damn did they sell a lot of that. Weather was perfect and it was a good place to meet friends and foes. But I think I'll skip it next summer...

The road to Tirmo was packed about 1 km from the ferry, haven't seen this for 27 years!

Some nightlife in HELLsinki

I haven't been out to clubs and bars in Finland for around 3 years now so about time to go! We started off at Teerenpeli which is one of the only bars that make their own beer and ONLY bar that makes Single Malt Whiskey in Finland. Taste was pretty good and the place is nice. Prices not that bad either except for the whiskey 12€ for a small glass.

Railway station @ night

Some fine Single Malt from Teerenpelis own Brewery

There was a fire alarm in the same building as O'Malleys and they emptied the whole bar, we had to wait for a looong time and finally it got so late we just went home. Well at least the emergency fire exits work...Since O'Malleys is an Irish bar I found this sign...You have to agree James, right?

We went for some late night Scan Burgers! It's some sort of Finnish hamburger chain I never went to before. Was pretty good. I ordered a Scan Burget but asked the shop keeper to add extra cheese in it and then she asked me "Oh so you want a Cheeseburger?" "If you say so..." They only had one of the Scanburger with cheese Cheeseburgers reday so she gave me a beeper for the other burger. This thing looked like a scanner they have in the cashiers when going to a supermarket. And it REALLY started beeping!

The beeper! That blue thing

Walking home from the bus stop looks cool in the mornging/night. Streets of Ala-Soukka :)