Hainan Island @ China (1) – General Tips
1/13/19 Sunny
Hainan island is a tropical island in China. It has tropical rain forest, interesting mountains and islands, oceans (with corals), national parks, Chinese minority cultures … Importantly, from here, you can take 4-day cruise trip to this very interesting Paracel Islands. Unlike other tropical islands, people in Hainan have invented many “ridiculous activities” (details later), which I was totally enjoying. Although I was there only 10 days, I can totally kill a few weeks there. It is funny that I not only have an advantage of speaking Chinese, but also have an advantage of having an Asian face, as at some places, white people are not allowed to enter :).
The best way to tour Hainan to my taste is self-driving. You can fly to HaiKou, the capital of the Hainan province located on the northern tip of the island, rent a car, and then drive down to SanYa, another important tourist destination (btw, flying to HaiKou is much cheaper than flying to SanYa). That way, you get a chance to visit many interesting little towns and villages on the island.
Hainan is a driving friendly province. There is no toll on highways, unlike other provinces in China. The road conditions are good. However, the rental companies only rent cars to people who has a Chinese driver license. If you have a license in other countries, you can take it to some “driving administrator office” in China to apply a Chinese license. You will need a copy of translated drive license (can be done in some official translation service in China), you will need to take a physical exam, and then pass a theory test. The Chinese license you get is “temporary”, effective for 6 years. Renting a car in China nowadays is convenient, using an app called “yi hai zu che”, costing about 15 dollars a day for any basic economy car. If you do not have a license, there is also this interesting service called “bao che”, which will send you a driver along with a car. It is expensive though, I have paid “1200rmb” for a 3 hour door-to-door service riding in an old van. You just use a Chinese search engine called baidu (google does not work in China) to find the phone numbers for such service. The greatness of China is that many people are hungry for money and work hard for that, so you can pretty much find any service in China by paying people, 24/7 availability. In addition, China has a couple of apps to call taxi. Didi is the famous one, but not doing very well nowadays. I use “cao cao chu xing” to order taxi to go to/back from the airports. In addition to taxi, these companies also offer services such as driving your cars home, e.g., when you are drunk.
Another important tip of traveling/living in China nowadays is to first get a Chinese cell phone number, as everything ties back to your phone number. All the useful apps you install in China need your phone number to verify you. I used tourist guides a couple of times when in Hainan. They call you up for what to bring and where to meet, and they use the last four digits of your phone number to identify you instead of your names. Importantly, you will need a phone number to open a bank account (note that if you do not have a job in China, the Chinese bank rejects you immediately to open any credit card in China but you can open a bank account). Using a bank account, you can deposit some Chinese yuan in Alipay and/or wechat (similar to Paypal). Everybody around me in China uses wechat and Alipay. Supermarket has express lanes if you use Alipay and wechat. Subway has a direct scanner at the entries to accept Alipay (yes, no tickets needed). When you walk into a restaurant, you cannot find a menu but just the barcode on the corner of the table. You scan the barcode in your wechat or Alipay. Then you can see menus/coupons, order your meals and checkout. Even the beggar on the street asks you to send them money by scanning their barcode. My mom talks to me like this nowadays “send me some money on wechat, so I can buy some stuff your father does’t not know” 😀
a giant market just for night life 
Russian is everywhere on the tourist site
Sweden (7) — Gothenburg Assorted
1/6/2019 (happy new year! long time no see, feel like writing 23 posts right now, lol — okay, let me pay some debt to finish the old stuff first)
Gothenburg is not as big as Stockholm, but you surely can kill 3-4 days easily!
First, this city has many interesting buildings. On this “paddan tour”, a guided boat tour on the canal, you can see many of these buildings.
(this is the famous “fish church”, although it looks like a church, it is a small-scale sea food market)
(I almost heard the “dang dang” sound of this old fashioned bus)
(people said this building looks like a “lip stick”)
(the opera house, it looks like a boat from far away)
(the theater near the canal)
The tour costs 190 SEK and it is not busy. We pretty much got the tickets for the next boat when we arrived.
Gothenburg also has many good museums. They are not big, they are not crowded, but there are very interesting things to see.
(Stegosaurus?! with the plates on its back and spiky tails!)
There is this special museum Gothenburg people are very proud of called Universeum. It is almost like a botanical garden+aquarium in a vertical space (5-6 stories tall?). It has many interesting plants, birds, fishes, Our conference reception was hosted here. It feels like chatting with people about technical problems during a hike 🙂
Gotherburg has a very charming view near the water:
(people are relax on the steps near the canal, very Europe typical scene in my opinion)
(sunset is my favorite time)
(it pasts 10pm, but the sky is still blue)
(a handsome boat)
Another must-go place in Gotherburg is called Haga. It was first established in mid-17th century. Currently, it is an old town with many gift shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, most of the shops are not open weekends and evenings. A famous restaurant is called Sjöbaren, highly recommended! many locals are here even weekdays. It serves the famous Gothernburg dishes such as Langoustines, and egg steamed with cheese and seafood.
(Outdoor seating and trees in a coffee shop on my way to Haga)
Skansen Kronan is an old fortress located in Haga. You can overlook Gotherburg from this high point. It is nothing magnificent but this picture has an interesting story. At the time I visited this place, I was very sick and very tired after a week of 12+ hours-a-day conference, and yet my papers were just rejected. I was totally overwhelmed by so many smart people in the conference. I think I should take a picture to remember this time. Then I headed to a grocery store. You would probably guess I go to buy some alcohol and get drunk. No no, I was going there to get some sweets. I walked into a grocery store, randomly picked up a drink that I believe is sweet. After I quickly dumped the half bottle in my throat, I just felt it is abnormally sweet. I don’t know Swedish, and when I bought it I saw a pear painted on the can. So I assumed it is some pear juice. I hold the half bottle and asked a person, what the hell is this thing. People said it is a concentrate of pear juice, you supposed to use it in cooking or adding water, LOL.
Wish everybody a sweet 2019!
No Title
I had been on a boat, where
the crews are international
the meals were enchanting
the morning calls were funny and sweet
The board games were loud because I was shouting 🙂
They were too short though
As some people wanted to do something different
Okay, fine, I waited in line to get my lunch
but wow, my game mates magically showed up
Remember that dance? I almost kicked off the shoes
Also that magician
He picked me on stage
Don’t recall what he looked like anymore
But I love magic since
Another day
I worked out in the gym and got some tips
Then went to find the crew members
The two were pretending to have sex in the room — i love crazy people
They drew my face using makeups
I felt like a woman that night
Moon and breeze were peaceful, wish time stops there
Nowadays I mostly ran around like a ninja
That dress only belonged to that night
The island has white beaches, almost like on another planet
Wish I had gone snorkeling under that wrecked boat
Are there many fishes?
Coming from the island, my whatsapp has 100 breakheart sign
haha, my phone did not have a signal
Many years, many things, many people had passed
Still remember you were running over on the beach under the sun
Sweden (6) — Archipelago @ Gothenburg
10/21/18, Sunday, Sunny (blog is like a church I visit every week, it keeps me alive :))
From Stockholm, if you take a train 3 hours southwest, you will arrive in another important city of Sweden, called Gothenburg. Gothenburg is the headquarter of Volvo, it is a much smaller city compared to Stockholm. The trains between the two cities are fairly frequent, and you can pretty much buy the tickets when you arrive at the train station and then leave in a few hours. In summer though, there are some construction works going on, the train can stop in the middle and take unpredictable amount of time. The train ride goes through mostly farming areas of Sweden and is very scenic.
My most unforgettable experience @ Gothenburg is visiting Archipelago. Archipelago is a group of islands located near the coasts of both Stockholm and Gothenburg. You can take a bus down to the ferry terminal and then hop on any boats to go to the islands. It costs only a few dollars. Most of the islands on Archipelago do not have motor vehicles. You can walk and bike, and I also see some golf carts.
(you can take your bikes to the ferry as well)
(strange ever looking bikes that can carry goodies)
Archipelago @ Gothenburg is open to the tourists just recently. It is very raw and original in terms of a tourist site. People are just living their lives there. You saw they are hanging out their clothes in their backyards, mowing the lawns, riding the bikes around with their groceries. You think it is a very closed place? No, in fact, I was admiring this robot lawn mower through the fence of some house, I even never have seen such a thing in US. The islands have gorgeous coasts, rocks, waves, winds, colorful flowers and houses. But it is so hard to find any souvenir shops, restaurants or even maps to tell you where you should go. It is almost like none of the rules out in the world applied here. I felt I just took a boat ride from Gothenburg this morning and came here to visit a friend rather than I am a tourist.
(colorful houses)
(Sweden flag)
(rocks!)
(a wooden gym)
I heard the islands like this in northern Europe have the longest life expectancy. Imagine that you have all of your good friends and family live together on such islands, meet often, have conversations, laugh, play, you are going to live long, ha?!
(where it leads you? you never know. But it does not matter, you just keep walking and waiting for surprises!)
Sweden (5) — A Few More Notes about Stockholm
Kungsträdgården (king’s garden): it used to be the royal vegetable garden. It is not very big, but many city events are hosted here. When I was here, there was a food festival with tasting tables, wine, music and lots of people (pretty much the same as food festivals in US). There are open lawns for you to hangout. You can sit on the grass under the trees to have your picnic while seeing boats passing over the water on one side and smelling the festivities on the other side. The garden is located near the Royal Swedish Opera, and is also walking distance from Glam Stan and Drottninggatan (the top shopping street @ Stockholm).
Skansen: It is the world’s oldest open-air museum, located on the same island as the Vasa museum. There were small miniature farms, houses, villages representing different historical periods of Nordic countries. Local people are very proud of this place and like to recommend you to go there, but I don’t find it is super exciting — I must be too snobbish 🙂 When comes to history, I prefer to see fossils than fake buildings 😀 However, there is one thing that will worth your trip; that is, you can see the authentic mooses walking around, very Nordic spirit! There are also some crazy peacocks running around. They were flying over the trees and roofs and attracted a lot of people’s attention.
(cutie)
Restaurants: in addition to the ones in Glam Stan that I have introduced before, one of my favorite restaurants in Stockholm is Sushi Sho. It is not that centrally located and is very very small, but it is a michelin restaurant and not terribly expensive. When I go, the place is full, a total of 10ish people. All of us sit around a bar (very Japanese) and eat together course after course paired with sake. Another place that is famous is called Kajsas fisk, it is located at -1 level in a shopping mall near the city center. It is more of the street eat style. The fish soup here is famous. There are also the farmer’s market and many shops in the area, perfectly for you to take a stroll after you fill your belly.
Shopping for souvenirs: If you have a handsome boyfriend or beautiful girlfriend, there are many beautiful and high quality Nodic sweaters (much better looking than this one). There is also this Tintin if you have a kiddo or kiddo-ish friends to please. The secret gem is this dish cloths. You pay 10+ dollars to order them on amazon in US. But you can get a few under a dollar in Stockholm. I have tested for a few months so far, it works very well in your kitchen.
Transportation: Stockholm is quite big, but if you live near Glam Stan old town, many of the tourist locations are walking distances. Stockholm Airport is far from the city center, people here use Ubers, much cheaper than taxi! By the way, I heard their subway central station is incredible, I did not have a chance to visit there this time though.
Summer is a perfect season to visit Stockholm. You can just wear a T-shirt and bring a jacket. But I am also looking forward to come here again in winter for northern lights.
(running in the rain with laughters and loud steps)
(magnificent)
Sweden (4) — the Royal Palace @ Stockholm
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today I am showing you around somebody’s house. This house is located in the old town of Stockholm, near a large body of waters (if you live here, you can go out boating or jetski anytime ha). There is an army of security guards like this to walk around to threaten the thieves.
In addition, the front door is well armed, so we are safe.
The backdoor isn’t bad either
This is the backyard. It has fountains and good views.
This house has 600+ rooms. The main entrance to the rooms looks like this, dome ceiling and renaissance sculptures.
Then you get inside. The wide stairs in the room are the symbol of majesty. Especially, you are able to see the mable sculpture like this when you walk down, reminding you of your lovers?! 😀 This probably is my favorite thing in this house.
After some stairs, you arrived at this guest or guest waiting room. It creates very good afternoon tea atmosphere? There is a piano waiting in the corner to help you kill your time when you are waiting.
I guess this one is the ball room, for large parties; probably the pajama party and hip hop music cannot work here though.
These chandeliers and the ceilings, reminding me of Michelangelo
Only people like this fit the theme. The person-size oil painting is a typical decoration for the rooms.
The house has any types of rooms you can imagine, bath rooms, reading rooms, children’s room, formal dining … and last but not least, is this meditation room, the room you practice your religion, a.k.a. the church.
This house of course is very expensive and not affordable, but I hope you get some idea to design your house at least. By the way, this house is called “the Royal Palace”, where the King’s Sweden lives 🙂 It is not that different from everybody’s house from some point of view ha.
Palace is a very popular tourist destination in Europe. I feel pretty bored sometime when I visited those places but it seems to cannot escape from them as they are typically very famous. This time, when I walked around this house, I had a few moments to imagine what I would be thinking and doing if I lived here. This made my tour much more interesting (in general, anything actively engaging your brain tends to be interesting to you).
When I was visiting, it was 6/6, the National Day for Sweden, the admission is free, but the line is long. It takes about half a day to visit this place. One of the good things about traveling is to make you feel the news is real and close. A few months ago, there was this news that some thieves stealed a jewelry on the crown of the Sweden’s king, and fled via a jet boat. I felt the news is pretty interesting: “how possible? I was just visiting their Jewelry collection; the security is very thorough” “oh, they possibly fled from this dock, the water is well connected, but no camera can be installed and thus it is hard to track where they go?” Similarly, half a year ago, I heard the big island @ Hawaii had some active volcano activities, I was just visited there lately, so I immediately texted my airbnb host to see what’s going on with him and his beautiful place …
“Hong Kong Style?” Milk Tea
Early Fall, Cloudy (finally, recovered some sanity after this long lasting ever sickness :))
This morning, I was drinking this milk tea I made, it is soooooooooo tasty that I think “ha! how romantic it is, if one day your great great great grandchild opens a closet, finds this recipe lying at a corner of the closet, tries to replicate it, and then savors the same tastiness his/her ancestor had enjoyed …”
So here I am:
(1) you start with adding some sugar in a pan, the sugar turns to brown after a minute or two under the heat
(2) you add milk, remember to keep the temperature low, and keep stiring
(3) you add a small spoon of black/red tea (black/red tea are fermented green tea, they can be stored for a long long time, a famous one is 大红袍 da(4) hong(2) pao(2) from Fujian Province, which I used)
(4) during cooking, find some tools (have fun with it :)) to crush the tea leaves to get more tea flavor out
(5) after the milk turns to brownish, you use a filter to filter the tea leaves
(6) if you want, you can also add some tapioca pearls
This type of tea sells 5-6 dollars in the shop down the corner, but home-made one is cheaper, maybe more healthier (less sugar). It is so tasty that I forgot taking any pictures before drinking it all. My baby keeps saying “more” “more”, lol. It is so easy to make too. Worth a try?!
F. Chopin, Prelude in e, Op.28 No.4
I am a ridiculously cheerful person but like sad things when comes to music and literature. This Chopin’s prelude is heartfelt: there is hesitation, there is questioning, there is this can’t help, this is this can’t wait, this is this can’t hide … E minor is a killer key in classical music. Many beautiful works are written in E minor.
I have played this piece many many times. For the times I played well, I was exploring what Chopin tries to say but forgot what I am supposed to do given in the music sheet. I felt these great composers are the love letter writers, and I am passing their love letters along. I will let Benjamin Zander, one of the conductors of Boston Symphony, tell you more about this piece. After listening to his talk, I am so longing to see his concert.
Sweden (3) – City Hall @ Stockholm
Sweden is not a big country. Yet it made itself famous via IKEA, Volvo, (maybe soccer) and then —- the Nobel prize. There are many Nobel prize winners. Besides recently Bob Dylan refused to accept his award, there is also Marie Curie. She was born in Poland yet French respected her so much even gave her a “Marie Curie day”. She is the first female Nobel prize winner and got both physics and chemistry awards (very heavy weighted ones too in my opinion). Back then, there are no rankings, no impact factors, no paper counting, yet after hundreds of years later, people today are still benefits from X-Rays, Chemotherapy … City hall is the place to host the Nobel banquets. When you visit here, you feel the air smells real intelligence 😀
(on the way to city hall)
(the classical view of city hall from distance — sometimes, the terrible pictures from my camera amuse me. At least it can make the photographers feel important, haha)
There are a few memorable rooms in the city hall. The first of such is called the Blue Hall. The architect wanted this room looks like a plaza, so this room has a fountain 🙂 This room also has extremely high ceilings, and close to the roof, it uses clear glasses instead of bricks to introduce more natural light. This room has the largest organ in Scandinavia with about 10 k pipes. The wall of this room is not painted blue, but it is called the Blue Hall because the architect wanted everybody in the room to see the blue sky from the room.
(the Blue Hall)
The next big room is called the Golden Hall. All the walls of this room are made from mosaics of golden leafs, very shining. This room is 44 meters long but no furniture, it is so empty that is a great place for some philosophical thinking.
(lit up the paths everybody goes: the birth and the death)
Another interesting room is actually a hallway, it is called “The Prince’s Gallery”. This room has a row of black pillars. Why black? I immediately go behind the pillar to see. THAT’S RIGHT. The architect purposely painted the pillars black to direct the audience’s attention behind the pillars. The wall behind is painted with colorful scenery of old days of Stockholm.
(the secrets behind the black pillar)
The city hall only can be entered with a guided tour. The tour is 1-2 hours. There are English, Chinese, Swedish .. guided tours. I debated for a long time, whether I should go to Chinese and English. Then I selected a cuter guide to go with (human has dark sides :D)
There are also a garden and a tower outside the main building. The garden is right beside the water, very comfortable place to hangout and have a lunch. You can go to the top of the tower for the view of Stockholm. The tower has interesting steps and passes to the top. Then you see the German church, the Riddarholmen Church, Storkyrkan (church) and the ugly 🙂 conference center …
(the Asian-ish wall?)
(every window is a picture frame)
Crazy Friday
Lightening is over, lightning bugs are out
Heading towards science center to celebrate some science
The ticket clerk is smiling, the doorman is smiling harder
The DJ is spinning lights on top of our heads to light up the cocktails
A group of fiends are swinging soap bubbles around the bubbles
Another group of friends are making rockets over hard rock music
Around the corner, we hop in a korean restaurant for some korean tacos
Some search karaoke songs on a song app
Some talk about going to climb at the Climb Iowa
The fireworks are rising outside window like fire cracks
A guy in a red shirt suddenly walks over and points at my shirt with excitement
It is Serotonin, I am in biochemistry! I know chemistry!
Down the street, it was AJ’s, serving some street food and also Karaoke
People are in front of microphones, some are shouting, some are rapping
Others are standing back singing in the background
After passing around some bourbon in the crowds, I am picked up by another crowds
Arring in this erodic gay bar, full of erodic eyes
A muscle man on the stage is taking of his top and jumping his muscles near a pole
YO YO, blood pumps up with alcohol
A birthday girl throws up bunch of dollars and exchange a bunch of kisses
A purple hair man waves his dollars and his butt across the crowds and yes! pinches the dancer’s butt
Drunk people are getting more drunk
A few blocks away, there are another few bars
The man who pointed at my shirt is here, the performer of the previous bar is here too
People are waiting for another show in the showroom
The stage finally opens, a man in his high heels and fake boob come out on the stage
The audiences are heated up, some are whistling, some are laughing
It is 1 o’clock and I walked out, it is breezy outside
In the parking lot, a couple is making out and a group is cheering
I am walking across a bridge, a young man is drinking and an old man is taking pictures
Over the river, the red mars is shining, the red moon is waning crescent
How are you? at such a beautiful night!
Have a deep breath, walk towards my peaceful life with my unpeaceful mind