Tomb Sweeping Day is a Chinese holiday that lands in early October. This day is dedicated to paying respects to your deceased relatives by cleaning their grave, bringing them food, and burning paper replicas of valuable goods for them to take with them in the after life.
As John Deere has a practice of bridging single day holidays into multiple day holidays by moving the work days to a prior weekend, we had a nice stretch of days to find a travel destination. Our destination of choice was Hong Kong, with three other families.
Hong Kong a four hour flight from Tianjin and it is nothing like the China we know. In fact I doubt I'll ever let someone that has only visited Hong Kong tell me that they've been to China. It's quite literally a separate country.
Apparently Hong Kong was taken by the British during the Opium war and remained in control of the island until sometime in the mid 1980s. Which means, among other things, that everyone speaks English. Can I get a Halleluah!
In fact, folks from what they refer to as the "mainland" (the rest of China) actually have to apply for a visa to travel there as there is the perception that the "mainlanders" are uncivilized, don't follow rules, and create an atmosphere of chaos that is rather unwelcome in their more syphosticated society.
My point is...Hong Kong is amazing. It's voted among the world's top 10 skylines and I can see why. Looking out our hotel window you can see amazing buildings, a beautiful body of water, and mountains in the background. Of course pictures never do it justice but it's a sight to behold.
With a stop at Disney, a day at the beach, and Western restaurants galore Hong Kong was a dream and the perfect vacation.
THE GROUP
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The crew of expat friends that went with us. |
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| And just the kids. Eight under the age of four (two babies not pictured).... |
THE SKYLINE
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| The view of the Hong Kong skyline from our hotel window. |
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| Our side of the island was even more impressive but unfortunately I didn't get a picture. |
HONG KONG DISNEY
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.A real life princess castle. So it may just be a bit smaller than the ones in the U.S. but it was enough for Maeve to think she'd found heaven.
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She was so excited to stand in line and even ran up to Snow White and Belle once it was her turn but being face to face with the real thing proved too much to handle.
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No candy, popcorn, Dippin' Dots or other familiar snacks at the snack stands. Just drumsticks, corn on the cob, sausage on a stick, and the Chinese version of a hot dog (outer skin still intact).
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| Waving to the characters in the parade. |
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| Enjoying our new Woody doll. |
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| This Disney is geared toward small kids. Even at two years old there were only two or three rides in the entire park that Maeve was too small to ride. Buzz Lightyear even had his own ride. |
AT THE BEACH
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| Sand, sun, and fun times! The perfect day. |
