During October, I continued adding more places in Hong Kong to the list of explorations. First, I visited Sham Shui Po, known for its surprisingly cheap goods and food. Immediately after I exited the subway station, there was an extremely long line of tents under which vendors set up their tables and shouted to attract customers to their booths. The typical goods sold over there were electronic gadgets. Walking further away from the vendor booths were the crowded, less-sanitized Asian-styled markets, and sellers displayed the meat and vegetables out front for people to see. The goods from these markets tend to be inexpensive, thus attracting many lower and middle-class people to purchase. Eventually, my destination was the Dragon Center in Sham Shui Po, which, before Hong Kong's return to mainland China, used to be a military barrack for the British people. I ordered a bowl of unspicy Lanzhou ramen for about HKD$30, and the vendor handed me a beeper that would beep and blink a red light continuously to notify the customer the food was ready to serve. After receiving the ramen, I sat in the food court and started eating. I glanced at people from other tables and noticed that people in Hong Kong tend to eat very fast and leave as if they did not want to waste an extra minute on a dining table. They are already used to the intense lifestyle where every minute matters. Subsequently, after I engulfed the whole Lanzhou ramen and noodles and beef, I was still not feeling full (the amount of Lanzhou ramen served to me was the opposite of sufficient). I immediately ordered a Cantonese-styled clay pot rice with Lap Cheong (Chinese sausage) for around HKD$40. The flavor and texture of the rice and Chinese sausage were standard, but the rice was somewhat sticky to the bottom of the pot, causing slight inconvenience for me to scratch and eat all the sticky rice from the clay pot. Overall, I rate the experience an 8/10.
In addition to Sham Shui Po, I went to Wong Tai Sin Temple. The temple is famous for accurately honoring people's wishes or answering people's prayers. In front of the temple, I sincerely prayed for the best for me and my family. I came a bit late, so I could only stay there temporarily as the temple closed early - around 4:30 PM.
Days after my trip to Sham Shui Po and Wong Tai Sin Temple, I interestingly lost my student ID card for a few hours. Before I lost it, I used my student ID card to pass through security gates and order school lunches. Before I sat down and ate, I checked my pockets to ensure I still had everything. However, after having lunch at the canteen, I rechecked my pockets and realized my student ID card was gone. I started panicking for a bit because I also had a written assessment that was about to happen in twenty minutes. Thus, I retraced my steps to my seat at the canteen and asked people near my seat and the canteen workers if they had noticed my student ID card. None of them had even the slightest clue on the whereabouts of my student ID card, but the head of the canteen told me to check with the securities office at the Yeung Kin Man building regularly and see if anyone had found and returned the ID card. Fortunately, in the end, after finishing the written exam, I received an email from the securities office on the same day, saying that they had found my student ID card, and I immediately went ahead and picked it up.
Despite this episode, my time overall has been meaningful. Every Thursday evening, I attend the table tennis event at the table tennis court on the ground floor of the AC2 (Li Dak Sum) building. Exercising is always something I enjoy doing, and joining this event strengthens my health and allows me to meet many friends worldwide. Roughly five to six of us attend this weekly event, and we take turns challenging each other at the two tables we booked while sharing entertaining stories. The session lasts an hour from 6 PM to 7 PM, followed by dining out with local CityU students at a restaurant outside of CityU. Through events like this, I started going outside my comfort zone to meet new people and expand my social network.
