Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (萬佛寺)

Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is located in Shatin. It is a Buddhist temple containing.. literally 10,000+ statues of Buddhas! It's just a short walk away from the Shatin MTR.

Guess what though? You also have to climb 400+ stairs in order to reach the temple...

Entrance

The start of the stairs...

More stairs...

More stairs...

More stairs...

More stairs...

More stairs...

ALMOST at the entrance of the temple

Even closer...

Tada! We've reached the entrance of the temple

So that will mark the end of your stair climbing. Upon arrival, you will see a directory.

The directory

View from the temple

I actually went a little before it closed, so I don't think I explored the whole temple. I was mostly only in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall area.

This is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall... There are a LOT of little Buddha statues in here... Also, no pictures allowed inside.

It closes around 4:30PM or 5PM... We spent less than half an hour inside before we had to leave. :( But, we did see a lot of little monkeys (I don't know the species...) roaming around while we walked all the way back down. :)

Going back to the entrance

Oh, there were some mosquitoes flying around... so make sure you have some sort of mosquito repellent. I didn't... so I got a lot of freaking mosquito bites. -___-

Even though I had to climb a lot of stairs, I really enjoyed being in the temple. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Maybe it's the high altitude... kind of makes you feel like you're no longer in the city. It's nice being away from the hustle and bustle of HK sometimes.

FYI, there are no nuns or monks residing in the temple, so you won't be seeing them around.

Jenn

Shatin Racecourse

This is another touristy place you must visit in HK!

There are two racecourses in HK: one in Happy Valley (HK Island) and one in Shatin (New Territories). If I remember correctly, when there is a race, it takes place at one place or the other--never both at the same time. You will want to check the schedule before heading to the racecourse.

The MTR does not always stop by the Shatin Racecourse, so you will want to make sure you board the train that does.

People betting on horses and watching the race from inside

There's a section for English speakers/listeners...

And there's a section for Mandarin speakers/listeners

I'm assuming a lot of people watch the race inside rather than outside because they can't see really well or they need to listen to the commentary in another language...

The actual racecourse

People watching the race

More people watching the race

Scoreboard(?)

I think there's a race every half hour... My friend and I were waiting for the next race...

The race begins!

Action on a large screen

Real time action

More real time action

The actual race is really short... I don't even know if it lasts two minutes, lol.

For those of you that don't know, these horse races are set up by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

There's plenty of these HK Jockey Club places. People are always posted outside trying to figure out which horse to bet on... Basically, if you're betting and can't be at the actual racecourse, then you'd be at your nearest HK Jockey Club.

FYI: Gambling is illegal in HK. I think the only form of gambling that is legal would be betting on horses.

However, it is legal to gamble in Macau (it's like Asia's Las Vegas), which takes about an hour to go to by ferry. Some crazy gamble-holics will take the ferry to Macau right after work and take the ferry back right before work. Unfortunately, there are such people in every country--some with easier access to gambling than others... Anyway, the moral of the story is... gamble responsibly!

Jenn

Exploring Shatin

Yesterday, CUHK set up a luncheon for all the exchange students that will be living in United College (my permanent hostel). It was just a small room full of people. I expected more students to be there. o_o But, anyway, I met a fellow UCR student (Rick) there. I was going to go Jusco (it's like the Dollar Tree of HK... everything costs $12 HKD!) in the Shatin Galleria to buy more things, so I invited him. I actually invited another girl that I had just met, but she was busy when I was about to leave. We took a bus there (found the directions on Google Maps). I knew that the galleria was really close by, but I wasn't sure which direction to walk. Rick was Googling it, and I tried to ask a lady. She attempted to give me directions, but she was actually totally off. LOl. But I realized that she didn't really know what she was talking about half way into the conversation. After a bit of walking, we eventually got there.

After we bought our things, we decided to go to IKEA too (actually, it was my idea because I really wanted to go and I was totally not happy that I couldn't find it the day before, LOL). Anyway, we got off at Shatin and entered the Shatin New Town Plaza (my third time -_-). Though we were lost for a while, this time I actually decided to ask for directions.. so we eventually found it! The first time I went looking for IKEA, I thought it would be super close by so I wouldn't have to venture too far away from the plaza. But... I realized that it was not as close as I expected it to be, so I decided to just go back home. I didn't want to get lost on the streets by myself. LOL. But, we found it, and I bought my pillow, blanket, etc. there. Then, we went to dinner at some porridge place in the Citylink Plaza, which is right next to the Shatin New Town Plaza. Food is so cheap here! We both got a bowl of porridge (decent sized), a plate of chow fun, and a drink for $38 each (equivalent to about $5 USD). LOL I was so thrilled.

Anyway, that was part of my first week here in HK! I'll blog more about how I feel about it later. I just wanted to post my activities before I forget (my short-term memory is terrible...).

I've been getting sleepy around 9PM and waking up around 7AM for the past few days. lOL. It's pretty early compared to my sleeping schedule back home (3AM - 12PM).  I tried to stay up until 12AM yesterday so that maybe I would sleep in a bit more, but that didn't happen. I woke up at 7AM again. T_T

Jenn

Exploring Shatin Again / Moon Cakes

I took my Chinese placement test and got placed in level 4 Cantonese and level 3 Mandarin. I just realized that my Cantonese class has a limit of 9 people, and there are currently only 3 enrolled. LOL. I'm kind of intimidated by that. This is going to be quite interesting.

I went back to the Shatin New Town Plaza by myself because I wanted to do a little bit of exploring on my own. I also needed to buy a few more things, and I wanted to go to IKEA. It took me an hour to find the supermarket (City'super). Then, I used Google Maps on my smartphone to look for IKEA. From what I could tell, it was outside of the plaza but not super far away... so I thought I could do this on my own. I walked in circles for an hour or two before I gave up and went back to CUHK, lol!

Oh! I tried something called a snowy moon cake (冰皮月餅). It looks something like this...

And a regular moon cake looks something like this...

It's pretty cool. I heard about it in the US. I think I might have tried it once before, but I don't remember. It's almost Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), so there are moon cakes everywhere! The snowy moon cake is just like a mochi with a slightly tougher skin and more filling. lOL. I thought it would be amazing because I always heard good things about it. I mean.. it was good but not super delicious or anything.