Christmas in HK

So, I'm FINALLY getting around to writing about Hong Kong. I wanted to earlier; I promise! But with this class, I've had virtually no time ot do so. Blogging is very much a luxury activity. But now, here's part 1 (maybe more parts, but as I have less than 30 minutes before I go do something (NOT associated with MiddCore, thank goodness!). So I'll start off with the Happiest Place on Earth's Hong Kong park...

For Christmas Day, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland! It was the one place that I wanted to go (and insisted on going to) in HK. So we took the metro out to the Disney metro line, which was adorable!

These were the hand holds in the metro -Mickey Mouse shaped! Isn't that cute/clever?!

This is a picture of the metro car itself with it's cute Mickey Mouse-shaped windows.

Me infront of the Welcome sign.

Disneyland's opening quote in English and Chinese! (Amazing how much shorter it looks in Chinese. Anyone know how it literally translates(back to English)? It'd be interesting to know...)

1- I really like this picture just because 2- They had these cute taxi cabs that go up & down mainstreet (that you can actually get in & ride, of course)

It was so weird. My 2 favorite princes (traditionally, as I think I now have added Tiana to the list) are Belle and Aurora. And which two princess should be at the same picture spot at the same time? Belle and Aurora! (there was also another spot with Cinderella and Snow White). So here's me with them.

There was this adorable Winnie the Pooh ride (later I'll upload a movie of the ride as I filmed at least most of it, so yo can ride it with me! (while sitting stationary at your computer, though...)). In case you didn't know, my favorite Winnie the Pooh character is Eeyore!

It's a Small World after-all...

...no seriously, it's small.

On the ride, there were alot of Disney characters in it in their appropriate regions. I may not have been to Disneyland CA in a while, but I don't think the characters themselves actually appear in our CA ride, just maybe figures/dolls/whatever they're called that bring those charaacters to mind. Here's Woody and...oh, what's her name...hold on. Gotta IMDB it....Jessie! Wow, it must have been a while since I've seen that movie. But anyways, they're one of the representations of US (as in us and the U.S.). We have this (yeah, Southwest! Represent!) and the Statue of Liberty. Oh, and Lilo & Stitch for Hawaii, but I kind of think they were in the South Pacific vs. the Americas...not sure though.

Here's a little bit of the Christmas decoration in the ride.

Outside the ride, there was an ice cream shop. I ordered the pancake with ice cream assuming that it'd be more like a crepe...but no. Pancake like a pancake. Definitely interesting. And on the subject of food...

This is a chicken curry (a white curry) w rice. We all got a "silverware" package that included chop sticks & a Chinese-style soup spoon.

This was a beef noodle thing with vegetables.

One of the unique & really cool parts of the park were the shows. One was called The Golden Mickeys (at which I took the above picture). It was supposed to be like an awards show, but they never really set clear winners (for good reason). It was mostly human reproductions of musical scenes fro various Disney movies like Mulan, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo & Stitch, Beauty & the Beast, etc.

On to the series of HK Disneyland at night...

On to the AWESOME post cards (so cool I took pictures of them):

Notes:

*The park is nowhere near as busy as ours, fortunately. I don't think I saw any line over maybe 45 minutes. Most that we went on were 20 minutes stand-by, but we had fast pass.

*The Fast Pass system there worked really well. When you buy your tickets, you can buy the Fast Pass booklet which gets you 1 fast pass ticket into certain shows and for certain rides. As it turns out, not many people buy it (I guess) because we were able to walk on pretty much all of those rides & get great seats at shows. If ever you go, BUY THIS BOOKLET! You won't regret it.

*The other really unique show was a 3-D show called Mickey's PhilharMagic. It was like the Honey I Shrunk the Audience show at Disneyland, but better, in my opinion. it used water and scents and everything to go with the show (Raspberry scent during Be Our Guest...). It was about Donald as he chases after Mickey's Magic hats & travels through several Disney movies. A definite must if you go.

*As for Christmas in general, from what I gather, Christmas is big in Hong Kong because it is a public holiday (and a big one thanks to the British). I didn't think they'd celebrate Christmas at all as, while even our culture has confused its meaning with Santa, it really is based on Christianity. So, as I have always had the general impression that there were very few Christians in China or HK, I didn't expect Christmas to be as popular as it apparently is.

I tried to upload the movies, but it was taking ridiculously long, so maybe I'll try later (it's completely possible that a lot of people are using the Internet right now & making the connection slow...)