I've begun work on the new Hong Kong Edition of the Mask of China. The layout is basically the same for now; it may change depending on how much time, energy and effort I want to expend on a redesign.

Please edit your bookmark/favourites/site feeds to reflect the most current posts from Hong Kong at:

http://www.maskofchina.com/hk

I will keep the Dalian Edition online for those who are interested in my travels and life in Dalian and mainland China. I don't read my old posts often, out of fear of realizing just how bad my web design skills are and how poorly I write. I'll still assist those who have questions about Dalian and mainland China as I still have many friends and networks there.

If you are still looking for more stories on life and times in Dalian, check out my friend Ryan's website called the Humanaught. He's a freelance reporter who's been published in Canadian newspapers and magazines so it's a given he writes much better than I do.


Panda passport is a great blog and forum hosted by my ex-coworker and fellow Canadian Rick.

Thanks for your continued support. I look forward to meeting new friends in HK through my HK website; if my Dalian website was any indication, I'm probably going to meet and befriend quite a few more folks stumbling onto the HK edition. This is a big reason why I will continue blogging indefinitely.

Dalian International Airport now has a customs desk. Keep in mind that the airport is not a new international airport-it's been around for quite some time. It has connections to Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia like Korea and Japan.

I always wondered why the customs desk at the Dalian airport was unstaffed every time I went through the airport. I wonder what nasty things got through customs before this desk was established...drug/weapons/contraband smugglers beware!

As I was on my long 31 hour journey back to Canada, my flight was delayed and I was stuck in Vancouver international airport for 7 hours. Jet lagged, unable and afraid to sleep (as I was traveling alone, it's best not to sleep in the airport because I had to watch your luggage and make sure you don't miss any annoucements over the public addresss system).

One thing I decided to do on my trip home was to look around Canada and to see what ideas and other things Canadians and Canadian society could adopt to from China to make Canada a better place. Basically a one month exercise in comparing and contrasting China and Canada. It's only fair I do this because I always bitch and complain about things in China, right?:)

The first thing I noticed when I sat down was the amount of overweight and obese people walking around. It's definitely a problem in Canada. I hear it's a growing problem in China as well but at this stage, most Canadians are heavier than Chinese I would say. You definitely notice a trend towards fatter children in China because of the sedentary lifestyles (playing video games, watching TV, internet bars, driving places) that many children lead these days.

I've been walking a lot around downtown Toronto since I got back and I've resisted the urge to drive my car. It's easy for me since I live very close to the Yonge Street subway line that runs north to south from uptown Toronto where I live to downtown Toronto and the central business district, in effect cutting central Toronto in half.
If I want to go to the suburbs where most of the Chinese malls and restaurants (Cantonese food 粤菜馆, mainly）I'd need to drive there, otherwise it's a hassle.

Of course, this leads my analysis into public transit. If you live on the subway line or close to the bus station in Toronto, commuting is pretty easy if you want to get around. But if you live in the suburbs, driving to work, going shopping, traffic jams, parking hassles, car accidents are all part of your daily life which, IMHO, adds unnecessary stress. It's a common phenomenon in most western countries (perhaps not so much in some older European cities/countries): driving is king. The oil industry, automobile industry are in collusion with the government, urban planners to and land and housing developers to create more urban sprawl thus making the car a necessity. That's why Bush and friends are meddling in the Middle East, right? China is also becoming a major player in the oil and resources industry. Chinese companies backed by the central government have already bought a few natural resources companies in Canada and are making a bid for a major oil company in the US. Why the big need for oil in China? To fuel the economic growth that China is experiencing right now and to gas up the thousands of new cars and millions of existing cars (Beijing has 1.5 million passenger cars already on its streets) that hit the streets everyday. Don't laugh but you may be driving a Chinese car in the next 5-10 years. Korean car companies were laughable just a few years ago but they are doing pretty well these days.

Chinese friends are often surprised when I tell them Canadians usually bike for recreation and exercise not as a means of transportation. There aren't many bike lanes in Toronto and generally it's not safe to bike on the roads anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a hardcore environmentalist but I've seen the nasty effects of widespread environmental degradation and its effects on humans and wildlife in China so I think we should pay attention to that.

Moving onto environmental protection, I always admired how Chinese were so good at saving electricity, water and paper products in their daily lives. Now don't get me wrong, they probably don't do it for any altruistic reasons like saving the environment but instead are more interested in saving money because water and electricity bills can get pretty expensive (by Chinese standards, anyway) but coming home I see we waste a lot of electricity water and paper. Especially in Canada as we are a nation rich in natural resources. If w ewant to continue to be a nation rich in natural resources, we should take care of them appropriately.

It's nice to celebrate the big day back home after a few years abroad. The more time I spend abroad, the more I appreciate its people and culture. Just because I've pretty much declared non-residency in Canada that doesn't mean I've turned my back on my country either. I'm ashamed to say I've traveled more of China than I have of Canada but I'll probably take a big long backpacking trip across Canada in the next few years.

In a few minutes I'll be going to a barbecue at my friend Doug's house also known as the 'protein palace' and we'll also be listening to tunes and playing texas hold'em poker. It seems to be all the rage over here and around the world I'm told. I played a little bit of online poker around Xmas time last year. It was pretty addictive, not only fun but also a strenuous mental challenge which was definitely lacking when I lived in China; after awhile, my most difficult daily mental challenges were choosing what to eat for lunch and dinner and trying to figure out the reasons why Neusoft institute management were making the stupid decisions they were making.

Photos of the party forthcoming...

Yesterday was my second day in Toronto and I got quite a bit accomplished. I woke up refreshed after sleeping a good 7 hours from 2AM to 9AM. The previous 72 hours I had slept a combined 8 hours!
I went downtown to meet up with some of my old Bell Canada co-workers and get a couple of errands done-namely to get my driver's license and public health insurance card renewed.

What a shock to the system when it came to the lack of red tape. I went into both the ministry of health and ministry of transportation offices in the mid-afternoon and there were few lines and the people at the desk were-gasp-helpful and courteous. They even 'looked' busy and were doing their jobs.

Anyone who has dealt with a Chinese bank or any other Chinese bureaucracy at any level-including overseas Chinese embassies and counsulates-will probably have experienced the cold, unhelpful, and uncourteous treatment. I'm shocked when I don't receive this kind of treatment in China actually! In general, restaurant workers and those who work in department stores and malls are very courteous though, not sure why they are trained to be helpful/courteous but not the bureaucratic types..anyone have any ideas why this is?

It was nice to walk downtown in the business district in shorts and t-shirt while everyone else was wearing skirts, shirts and suits. Just a short 2.5 years ago that would have been me! I could never return to that life again, after I've experienced and learned what I know now. God bless those who put up with it..the money was good though but it still wouldn't pull me back into that life.

Riding the subway was a lesson in multiculturalism. I rode the subway every business day from when I was 14-24. In that time, I usually read the newspaper, listened to music or slept. My first ride on the subway since I got back yesterday was an exercise in 'people watching'. I think it was great to see people of so many different ethnic groups and cultures. In Toronto, we have people from everywhere it seems: Greeks, Italians, British, Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Russians, etc. It was a great sight for me and I'm glad that Canada has an open door policy when it comes to immigration. All intentions from the Canadian government seem to point towards easier immigration in the future, not more difficulties for immigrants. I'd vote for that.

If time permits, in the next few weeks I'll try to visit the various ethnic areas around Toronto: Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Italy, Portugal village, Russian, Jewish, Iranian, Indian and Islamic areas to name a few.
How multicultural is Toronto? There is a street in the the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, on Bayview Ave north of Steeles Ave, where a Chinese Buddhist temple, a mosque and Jewish synagogue coexist side by side in harmony. Amazing.