First off, the drunk and lively South Stand supporters and most of the stadium sing Hey Baby …

Here is a short video which sort of shows one of the pitch invaders (aka fully clothed Streaker) in a Tiger suit who started from the North Stand, climbed up and on to the goal posts in front of the South Stand, evaded a few security, played with the match ball at the half way line before finally being pummelled into the railings back at the North Stand. Impressive display.

And here’s a story of a same but different performance back in 1993.

A great final, a great weekend and Samoa lift the cup as a Firework display explodes over the Stadium

For those with addled brains, here’s a good link to Day 3 As it Happened

Roll on the continuation of the party in the bars tonight..

Yes, I think they were all drunk and definitely a few of them just a little bit queer.

I passed this Siu Mei (烧味) restaurant in Jordan, in a side street just off Shanghai street. These two pigs really looked enticing, and there were other cuts of meat hanging alongside with lovely looking crackling, plenty of meat and a lovely barbecued flavour-ful skin.

I can’t imagine those burned little pig’s ears would be the delicacy they reputedly are however!

The chef didn’t mind me taking some photos and even tried to ‘pose’ for some shots while at work.

The pork ribs were roughly sliced through the bone and served on a bed a rice with a minced ginger sauce.

Cheering on the horses at Happy Valley
By yabbox

A Night at the Races

If you’re in Hong Kong on a Wednesday evening you have to go to the races. I arrived in Hong Kong on a Tuesday and stayed for 9 days, which meant I could go the races twice! Racing in Hong Kong is very accessible, in terms of travel and getting involved; it’s a lot of fun, a lovely grass race track where the going is always good and a great mix of local’s, mainland Chinese (both of whom love gambling), with a lot of working foreigners and other tourists from all over. Everyone rubs shoulders which each other, except I presume those in the private boxes and members enclosures. I met Hong Kongers, Singaporeans, English, Irish, Dutch, Germans and Japanese – another lot who love gambling!

It is also a cheap evening out – depending how much you lose on the horses! Entrance to the General Admission stands is just HK$10, a draught beer is HK$30+, a Ballentine’s Coke HK$34, a bowl of roasted pork with crackling served on rice HK$34 and the minimum bet is HK$10.

There are two racetracks in Hong Kong, Happy Valley and Sha Tin. Unless you’re a keen racegoer, don’t bother with Sha Tin. Maybe if you want to experience the day out and can’t make a Wednesday evening event, go to Sha Tin on a Saturday/Sunday. Maybe.

Happy Valley is the oldest track, founded in 1845 by the British on an old swamp as opposed to the relatively new course at Sha Tin built in 1978. Despite Happy Valley racecourse being rebuilt in 1995, the stadium still keeps a great atmosphere on race night. There are sections of the stands with commentary and live video feed in English, lot’s of beer and food tents and two public floors of bars and betting as well as outdoor stands, access to the Parade Ring and viewing right up to the race course edge.

The public stands sit next to the Members Enclosure, so the finishing line is quite close, but you can’t get alongside, unless you have access to other stands. For example you can pay HK$180 at Gate C, which has more exclusive bars, and stands.

The first race is around 7pm and there are normally 8 races on the card, with varying distance and standards, but normally all have 12 entries.

How to Bet

Betting in Hong Kong is different from what you may be used to.  There are no independent bookmakers and all bets are controlled by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which operate like a TOTE and invest money back in to the future of racing.  They also operate an amazing website, where you have live odds, live races, rebate checks and lot’s of background info on each horse.  There are HKJC Betting shops all over Hong Kong, you can spot them easily when racing is on as there will be a crowd outside!

But how to place a bet at Happy Valley?  There are betting rooms and small stands dotted all over the course, but you won’t find the pitches and tic-tac show on course as in England.  There are Customer Service desks that can also help.

• Buy the day’s paper with the racing section before arrival.
• Upon entry pick up a racecard (A4 sheet for free) or official racecard for HK$10.
• Have a look at the Parade Ring to view the horses and jockeys as they mount.
• Look at the TV screens, consult your race card and check the form.
• Go to one of the betting halls and find the tray of betting slips, which vary depending on which bet you wish to make.  The blue ones are for Win / Place (each way) / Quinella bets.  I will explain this below.
• Complete the betting slip.
• Queue up at the window and place your bet – check the betting slip you receive before leaving the desk.
• Watch the race.
• Collect your winnings!

How to fill in the Betting Slip

I will start with the general betting slip which is blue.

This betting slip can be used for five different types of bet: Win * Place * Quinella * Quinella Place * All Up *

Win – Your chosen horse must be first past the post.
Place – Lower odds, your horse can come in the top four* (depending how many horses start).
Quinella – You chose two horses in the same race, they must finish first and second, in either order.
Quinella Place – You chose two horses, one must finish first, the other must be placed, i.e second, third of fourth.
All Up – Not sure!

The betting slip may look like a complex mathematical paper, but it really is quite easy.  Place a diagonal mark in the upcoming RACE NO (number). Then underneath the ‘SINGLE RACE’ chose the ‘POOL’ in which to enter your bet: either Win, Place, Quinella or Quinella Place.  Ignore the pink shaded boxes and instead in the bottom left under ‘SELECTIONS’, mark your chosen horse number. Then on the far right side, mark ‘UNIT’ and then mark how much you wish to bet.  The minimum bet on a Win / Place is HK$10.

Win / Place Example

So, for a simple WIN or PLACE bet, there should be 4 sections filled out.  Race Number, Pool, Selection and the amount you bet.  There will be a minimum of five marks on the slip, as you also have to chose UNIT$ or TICKET$.  Furthermore, if you bet HK$60, you will mark the $50 and the $10 box.

Quinella / Quinella Place Example

With a Quinella bet you are choosing two horses in the same race.  The TV screens will have the Live Quinella odds on display in a chart.  Find your horses number along the x-axis and the y-axis and run along to see the current odds.  You will complete the form as above, but chose two numbers in the SELECTION section.  You are not making a preference over which of your chosen selections will win, or be placed.  As above, you chose a UNIT$ price and this is a total price for the combination bet.  You are making one bet. Both horses must

Use a separate betting slip for each bet, unless you are making a combination bet. Hand the ticket over the counter together with your wager and you will receive a printed betting slip in return.

As I mentionned before, there are Customer Service Desks and lots of staff who will be only too happy to help you complete the betting slip, it is after all your money that you’ll be spending!

Clutch that winning betting slip and join everyone else at the rails or in the stands are cheer your runner home!  Should you be lucky, you can claim your winnings as soon as the Official Dividends have been announced.  You can also check online later to double check if you had the winning ticket rebate due.

http://bet.hkjc.com/default.aspx?lang=en&langRedirect=true

Getting There

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Valley_Racecourse

More

http://trivialmatters.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-turn-of-fortune-in-hong-kong.html

My office colleague has borrowed a Canon EOS 400D Digital Camera for her first trip to Hong Kong and so we wonder down to Victoria harbour so she can take her first souvenir shots of Hong Kong.

I’ve been meaning to upgrade to a Canon Powershot G9 or G10 for some time. Now I’ve seen there is a G11 on the market and still I’m managing with my little Ixus 80.

But Zhaonan wasn’t comfortable with the size of the 400D, or with all the options, so we ended up doing a swap. It was good for me to see how I would get on with a bigger camera. The ghost ship (left) was one of my first shots. Not perfectly focused, but it was at night without a flash or a tripod and I like the ghost-like appearance of the red-sailed junk and the reflections of the Christmas lights in the water.

Bamboo Scaffolding
Originally uploaded by yabbox

The next shot was of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the impressive Bamboo scaffolding clinging to its’ side.  It’s a photo which takes a second to work out because of sharp diagonal line combined with the lighting shining through the trees on to the building and the dark sky.

Funnily enough, apart from looking like a tourist with this clumpy thing around my neck, it gave me more freedom to take photos I wouldn’t normally have bothered with. Not necessarily to experiment more, but to feel more professional, rather than a happy snapper. I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

Now I know I need to upgrade my camera..

Hong Kong China Border

I wouldn’t normally regale my trip across Hong Kong and through the Shenzhen border, but when preparing for this small trip, I didn’t find any info on the route to Shenzhen Xi Train Station.

I stop by the travel agent in Hong Kong to finalise the next segment of my journey, where I’m handed my train ticket from Shenzhen to Huangshan. Here Kelvin warns me that the train leaves from the West Station in Shenzhen, which is much further from the border than the main station – basically it is in the middle of nowhere.

Route

My route out of Hong Kong should work along these lines …
Take the MTR from Sheung Wan (上环) – Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) – Tsim Sha Tsui East – West Rail Link to Hong Hom – East Rail Link to Lo Wu and the Shenzen border – Shenzhen West Train Station (深圳西) – Huangshan (黄山).

I am told I need to allow one hour to travel across Hong Kong, thirty minutes to pass immigration thirty minutes to reach the train station, I add 30 minutes delay and hope to arrive at the train station 30 minutes before departure. My train is at 12:05, I plan to set off at 9am.

So, that’s my plan. Roll on Tuesday morning. Apart from leaving the flat near Hollywood a bit late, all goes according to plan, but not without a little added stress to make things interesting.

Just arrived in TST East
Originally uploaded by Andreas.

Getting to TST is easy, a journey I’ve done many times before.  I know there’s an interchange at Tsim Sha Tsui and I need to walk between stations but I can’t see the signs. I queue up at the Service Desk, but the one staff member is busy with a queue on the other side. I’m already running late and feeling the strain of my backpack.  She tells me the way and how to follow the signs to East Tsim Sha Tsui. Sorted, but it’s a long walk, along the huge underpass with moving walkways which seem to go on forever. There are very few people in the underpass and I see a nice angle for a photo, if only I had more time to mess around … I eventually arrive at TST East and I had to wait a bit for the West Rail link train to travel just one stop to Hong Hom. But then a pleasant surprise as the East Rail Link train is waiting for me on the opposite platform. That’s all good, saved me a possible 10 minute wait in my schedule. It’s not a busy train so room to spread out and relax. The train departs and is soon overland. The stops go by, Kowloon Tong, Sha Tin (racing anyone?), University, Tai Po Market (shopping anyone?), Tai Wo and passed more green open space, supplemented by tall buildings, busy roads, little mini buses and finally Lo Wu. The train took the 45 minutes as I expected but time is still running short.

In hindsight, I think it would have been easier and quicker to avoid Tsim Sha Tsui altogether and instead stay on the metro to Kowloon Tong and change there to the East Rail Link. I’ll probably find out that the platforms are next to each other there!

At the Border

Which kind do you belong to?
Originally uploaded by Winnie Quan

I am at Lo Wu at the Hong Kong / Chinese border. I have 1hr, 10 mins to get through immigration, customs and across to the West Station. I have been worried about running out of time all morning, I really don’t know why I didn’t leave home a little bit earlier, but that’s just not my style is it! What’s worse, if I miss this train there’s no alternative train option to get to Huangshan. I’ll basically be stuck in Shenzhen for a whole day, or mess around flying via other cities and taking train / bus connections to ensure I meet Chris in time for the trek up the mountain. Anyway, let’s not think about that.

Immigration is quicker than I expected, with three channels, for ‘HK Citizens’, ‘Mainland Visitors’ and one other I can’t read on the pale background from this distance. I am a visitor to the mainland, so perhaps that’s me. Nah, I see, the third option is ‘Other Visitors’ so I cut across the lines diagonally and glad I’m in the minority for my chosen route – there are just a couple of Australian women in front of me and some Russians in the queue to the side. I’ve already picked up the health declaration form and immigration form and remembered to have a pen on my person so fill these out as I wait. But there’s a problem. It seems I by-passed the health check, which is only required for foreign passport holders. That holds true, after all I remember reading that Swine Flu was carried to China by the American’s. I hurdle over the barriers to the health check, by this time a little sweaty under the rush and heavy bags but receive the all clear on my body temperature check and have my form stamped. Immigration on the second attempt was easy and the official even stamps by passport on a used page, rather than starting afresh on a big empty page as so often happens!

Customs is irrelevant and I am soon back in China, but with less than an hour before my train leaves. If I had more time on my hands I could have taken the Metro Line 1(地铁1号线) from one end at ‘Luo Hu’ (罗湖), to the other at ‘Shi Jie Zhi Chuang’ (世界之窗) and then still had a taxi ride. Of course, if I had practically any other train ticket, I would be leaving from Shenzhen Heping Station, just a short distance away. As it is I need to look for the taxi rank. A few touts approach me and I successfully fend them off, but can’t find the taxi rank. I approach a police-type-looking-man and ask him for a taxi. He obligingly passes me back me directly into the hands of the taxi tout. With the clock ticking it seems I have no choice and so tell him I have a 12 o’clock train to catch. He checks his watch and takes off at a fast pace across the terminus. Oh shit. I follow behind with my backpack bouncing on my back and leap down flights of stairs after the driver to the car park, where he introduces me to the drivers’ office and piles me into a Buick Station Wagon. No use to barter now, he knows I’m in his pocket so I accept the tout’s price of ¥200. He goes on to explain the high price on the toll roads we’ll take. Whatever. I hand over the cash, he’s not interested in my last HK$ though, but luckily I have some RMB as well.

Fun Taxi Journey

taxi
Originally uploaded by conbon33

It’s now 11.10 and he says it will take around half an hour to reach the station. I know from experience that can easily end up being forty minutes or more and then I’ll be cutting it really fine. He is a good driver, speeding along the dual carriageway and deftly zipping in and out of the assortment of vehicles that take to the roads in any Chinese city – bicyclists, electric cyclists, three wheeled bikes, small tractors, minivans, cars, buses, bigger buses, trucks, container ships, blind people, army battalions. Few of whom who understand the concepts of right of way, or red traffic lights. A near miss as a motorbike contraption with a trailer on the back shoots across a junction with his load of fluorescent tubes piled high and swaying from side to side.

I’m not getting to see much of Shenzhen, except other traffic. But I notice the skies are bluish – relatively clear, the air warm and smelling of petrol fumes.

I need to think of Plan B. I wonder where the first stop is after the train departs Shenzhen Xi.  Maybe it’s worth phoning the Beijing office and have them look into it.  I’m thinking the taxi could drive to ‘insert name of tiny station’ so I can catch up with the train.  I later find out that train stops at Bantian (坂田) and then Dongguan East (东莞东).   I could have taken a train from Shenzhen border (or even Hong Hom?) to Dongguan East and boarded the train there – a whole 1hr15mins later as well.  Now that’s definitely something to remember.  Not that I’m ever likely to take the train from Shenzhen Xi to Huangshan or Nanjing Xi ever again.

The driver is soon driving down the fulou and makes a sharp u-turn. It seems he has tried to make a short cut and ended up in a new car sales centre. As much as I’d like to buy a new Peugeot, I’d rather take the train this time thank you very much. But this industrial lot is, apparently, as far as I’m going to go. The low shed like building behind the bus depot is the West Station. Relief. It’s 11:50 as I bid farewell to my driver and walk towards the station entrance. Very few passengers around and I’m humoured by the sign informing all that ‘gates close 5 minutes before departure’. Plenty of time then.

I deposit my bags in the Soft Sleeper waiting room and buy some drinks for the journey.  I even have time to go in search of an ATM. Unfortunately it doesn’t accept foreign cards.  I head back to the waiting room and soon the gates are open and I board my train.

So, one segment of my journey is complete, the next is to survive 19 hours on a train with only HK$ in my wallet!

In Hindsight

Although untested, I think the following route would have worked much better …

MTR from Sheung Wan (上环) – Kowloong Tong – East Rail Link to Lo Wu and the Shenzen border – Local train from Shenzhen Heping  – Dongguan East (东莞东) – K26 to Huangshan (黄山).