60 Photos of Hong Kong (And 3 Pleasant Surprises)

by Ami Sanyal

The last few months have been eventful—packed with ups and downs. The highlight reel includes an arduous (but successful) job hunt to find Cecily a new teaching position, and the abrupt expiration of our visas.

Renewing our visas meant we needed to make our first journey to Hong Kong. We decided to treat it like a quasi-vacation and spread the trip over six days at the end of August.

To be honest, we weren’t expecting a whole lot out of Hong Kong, but we were pleasantly surprised. Read on to learn more and see images of:

• Hong Kong streets
• Dragon’s Back Hiking Trail
• Views of Shek-O
• Tian Tan (The Big Buddha)
• The Po Lin Monastery
• Mong Kok
• Victoria Peak
• Lan Kwai Fong
• and our overall impression of Hong Kong

30 Photographs of Anji: Bamboo Groves from ‘Crouching Tiger’

by Ami Sanyal

A few weeks ago EF took it’s staff on an overnight trip to Anji. I rode along with Cecily and fell in love with the endless bamboo groves which served as the backdrop for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

We spent most of our time exploring the hilly forests—and fit in some rafting and a bit of partying as well. Here are 30 images from our trip, as well as our impression of Anji.

50 Photographs of Suzhou: The Venice of the China

by Ami Sanyal

One of the best features of living in Shanghai is that we can take quick trips to many nearby cities and countries. Here are 50 images from our first venture out of Shanghai.

This post includes:

• Traveling to Suzhou
• The Suzhou Calm Garden
• A tour of a Suzhou silk factory
• The Beisi Pagoda
• Life on the canals
• and our overall impression of Suzhou

Week One

I can’t believe tomorrow will mark one week since we left Vancouver.

We are starting to get more used to the crazy traffic in Shanghai: the families of three or four riding motorbikes, how buses drive crazy fast, and how people use their horns constantly- not as a sign of anger-more for safety as a way to let other people know they’re there.

Arrived in Shanghai!

Nihao!

We have finally begun our adventure to Shanghai and it still doesn’t feel completely real…Ami and I keep looking at each other and laughing out loud every now and again and saying ” I can’t believe we’re actually in China!”

It’s just so crazy it’s hard for us to get over.

Our flight went relatively smoothly-our first flight was delayed by two hours so we left Vancouver at 4:30am.  A new connecting flight had to be arranged as we were stopping over in Hong Kong and only had a two hour stop over.  Then, once we got to Hong Kong, we just barely made our connecting flight- a stewardess hurried us along into the bowels of the HK airport and got us there five minutes before take off.

Needless to say…our luggage didn’t quite make it.