coconut tree and rice noodle

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The City Hong Kong

I came to Hong Kong on 21st August, and I have experienced the city for a week now. Like any other cosmopolitan cities, Hong Kong is many things, and people use many different adjectives to describe the city. First of all, food here is good. Four years ago, it took me quite a while to get used to the salty and spicy food in the north when I just arrived in Beijing. But this time I like the food here right away.Rice roll is one of my favorite food and here it is sold everywhere in the street which is very cool.I was shocked when I found that they did not put sugar into soy bean milk in Beijing, here finally, soy bean milk is sweet. Sweetness is the main flavor in the city, so I guess for those who prefer spicy and salty flavors, Hong Kong may not be as enjoyable as for those who have a sweet tooth. Menus in restaurant are all bilingual which is expected in a city where east meets west. It can be fun looking at the menus for me to see how food's names are translated. Secondly, most of the local people understand three languages, Cantonese, English and Mandarin. For me, it is a very good place to learn Cantonese, because people usually speak Cantonese with me even after I spoke Mandarin to them. Luckily for me I watched two Cantonese TV dramas before I came, so I do understand a few essential words.To sum up, this is not a perfect place to study Mandarin(which people usually refer to when they talk about Chinese). Thirdly, this city has grand shopping malls. I only went to Harbor City and SOGO so far. They are both hubs for those blink blink big brands, but SOGO is more crowded. I often heard that clothes and make-ups in Hong Kong were cheaper than elsewhere, but the truth is, THEY ARE NOT CHEAPER. According to a friend,those branded clothes are more expensive than the UK. And I saw a bottle of nail polish which are sold at RMB50 at mainland are sold at HK dollars 60 (around RMB48)here, just slightly cheaper. Finally,the air quality is definitely better than Beijing. If I hold my cellphone in my hand when I walk in Beijing's streets, the screen of the cellphone will feel sandy within 10 minutes.Thant doesn't happen here.

I can't always match up English and its Chinese translation in this multicultural city.

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After Rammasun

On Monday, I went back to check the family houses in Wenchang. Luckily, there were only several tiles broken on one. One coconut tree fell down , if 20 centimeters closer, all the tiles of the living room would have be gone. Another house was much older, hence more damage. However, other villagers' houses were damaged much more seriously. I knew there were a lot of people's houses suffering great damage.Some houses lost the whole roofs, and some houses have been completely destroyed.

Another sad thing that Rammasun did was that it destroyed all the tress. Not being dramatic, there were no leafs left on most of the trees there. The stunning scenes were like from a Hollywood movie. We saw many beautiful birds that day because they had nowhere to hide anymore. 

We went to my grandmother's family house to visit grandmother's brothers. Their houses were of course damaged, but not very severely. One of grandmother's brother said:"No leafs left, It is like we just ended a big war." I figured that was exactly what it was like when Japanese marched into villages burning down all the trees and houses back in the 1940s.

Tomorrow will be a week since the typhoon, the community where I live finally set right electricity system. It had been 5-hour electricity per day for a week. I heard it would at least take one month to set right electricity system in the countrysides.Some even think recovery will take years. 

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Aunt J Broke Her Hand

Rammasun caused great damage, luckily it passed yesterday. 

Rammasun was the biggest typhoon in 40 years, and it was the most eventful one for me personally. I was confused about why people would get hurt during typhoon because I thought everyone should know they were supposed to stay indoors. "What's wrong with those people who got hurt during typhoons. " I never understood until this time.

There was only some rain in Friday morning, so aunt J went to work like usual. It became crazy at around 3 pm. At around 4 pm, aunt J hailed a cab, but the driver refused to take aunt J saying there was flood on the way to aunt J's home. At the end, aunt J decided to walk home. 

The crazy wind put her down when she was almost home. She broke her hand waist. She called her husband and her big sister Y, the husband called my mother. Aunt J's family, aunt Y's family and my family all live in the same community, and aunt J fell down just in front of the building at the community's gate. My mother and aunt Y came to her rescue, the wind was frantic, my mother was put down one time, luckily she was not hurt. But aunt Y was very little, she had no chance fighting the wind, she got severe scratches, she even did not make it to the gate. 

My mother got into the building, she did not see aunt J from the building so she did not dare to venture out again. Aunt Y crawled back to a grocery store for help. Several men who knew aunt J got her back home at last. And they sent for an orthopedist living in the same community, the orthopedist came fixing aunt J's hand.

They were real heroes!

We had no electricity nor water the Friday night and most of the time on Saturday.

The following day aunt J went to the hospital to take an X-ray and adjust her hand a little more.  

I hope aunt J and aunt Y will feel better soon, and I hope everything will be back on track soon. 

People were getting water from a fire hydrant.

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Typhoon Rammasun Is Coming

Typhoon Rammasun is expected to make its landfall at 4 pm, less than 2 hours away. The possible landfall spot is Wenchang in the northeast of Hainan island. Wenchang is my hometown, my family have our family houses there, Although no one of family members live in the houses now, we hope the houses will survive the dangerous Rammasun, the biggest typhoon in 40 years according to forecast. 

Mother talked with her sisters and brother on the phone this morning. Back in the village she grew up, there is one old house of her side's family where no one lives either. My uncle was quite worried about the fate of the house, saying:" It is certainly going to collapse since it is old and it has been in a worrying condition for so long." I know my mother and her siblings have been talking about re-building the house, if the typhoon does destroy the house this time, they will need to come up with a plan on re-building soon, because despite of the fact that no one lives there now, my uncle has to go back to the house to spend traditional festivals. 

I grew up in the city, I never have to experience the damage typhoons bring to the fields. I know I was insensitive about the possible damages. When I was in middle school and high school, typhoons meant several days off school, enjoying some relaxing days at home.But honestly, I have never heard anyone talking about typhoons in a serious way. Mother called a villager this morning too, and the villager was cooking and resting at home as if nothing was happening. She lives in a tile house, so there is great possibility that Rammasun rips apart the roof during its landfall. Mother reminded her of the time Rammasun might land.and suggested she went to the mayor of the village for stay, because the mayor's house was newly-built and roof was made out of cement instead of tiles. 

Typhoons are annual natural events, I do not feel anyone takes it as the end of the world. There will be damages for sure, but people always make things better.  I think one of the reasons villagers do not afraid of typhoons is that soil in Hainan is fertile, and therefore things grow fast here.

There is joke we always tell during typhoons.

Typhoon comes, the wind is too strong that it makes coconuts swaying up in the trees. A child standing at the door, staring at one coconut up in one tree, yells:" Wind, please be stronger, stronger, stronger." “Let alone the coconut, our house would fall down if the wind got stronger." the father sighs.