A-Ma Temple, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Yesterday was yet another great day of cultural sight seeing in and around Macau by our gracious Rotary hosts. We began the day with a visit to Macau's A-Ma Temple, a very famous Macau temple and a Unesco World Heritage Site.

According to the legend, a 16 year old girl named A-Ma was looking for passage on the boats in port to Canton, and was declined passage by every boat except that of a poor fisherman. A sea squall blew up and destroyed every boat in the water except the boat of the poor fisherman carrying the girl. After arriving in Macau, the girl disappeared into the hills and reappeared as a goddess. On the site that the girl reappeared as a divinity, the fishermen build the A-Ma temple in her honor.

The Macau A-Ma temple is the largest of 2500 temples devoted to A-Ma the world over, and incorporates the natural elements into its design with multiple prayer halls, courtyards, and pavillions for worship.

Monday the 14th of March

Today has been a day of cultural events. We started the day at the facade of St Paul's Cathedral, and architectural landmark that has become the emblem of the city. It was constructed in the 16th century by early Jesuits and burned in 1834. It was associated with a school that was regionally important, and was said at the time the to be the most beautiful cathedral in the world after St Peter's in Rome.

We went on to the adjacent Fortress, also constructed by the Jesuits, interestingly, with fabulous views of the city of Macau, as it is at the top of a prominent hill. Here we had a class in Tai Chi presented by Mac Chio Leong, a master, who, in spite of the language barrier was very interesting and drew us all in to participation. It was a great learning experience, and all of us saw direct clinical applications of Tai Chi not only to our personal lives, but to our work. He even volunteered to send us a VCR to help guide us after we get home.
Lunch was another wonderful dim sum ("delightful morsels") meal in a local restauraunt. We have all conquered chop sticks, much to the detriment of our growing waist lines. The GSE coordinator here, DGN Kenneth Wong says that the measure of a good GSE experience is measured by the weight of the departing team, and it appears that we are measuring up!

In the afternoon we visited one of the many Temples of A Ma. China is a polytheistic culture, and A Ma is the Goddess of fishermen and merchants on the sea. It was our second experience with use if incense and the burning of intentions. This temple location is high on a hill and has a hugh statue of the Goddess looking out to sea. The temple yard has a fountain with Koi and turtles (symbols of good luck).

We went on to the village of Coloane, a very provincial Portuguese town that felt like it had been unchanged from the 19th century, town square, church, civic buildings, shops, and all. We sampled egg custard tarts that are made best at this location over all of Hong Kong and Macau. Delightlful. We ate in a small park overlooking a 1/4 mile wide waterway separating Macau from Mainland China. We we were told that there was a regular stream of swimmers crossing to Macau, but that this has ceased since the improvement of the employmment sitation in Mainland China.

After a short (civilized) rest we were the guests of the Rotary Club of Taipa, a new and small club with only 18 members. Inspite of the fact that the club's meetings are usually held in Cantonese, were well received and had a good interaction over healthcare issues in Hong Kong/Macau and the US.

Blood drives, Pandas, and Elvis

Today was a great day packed with a balance of vocational and cultural experiences in Macau. We began the day by participating in a local blood drive sponsored by Macau Rotary clubs. It was a great event packed with plenty of dancing and singing performances put on by local Rotarians and Rotarian supporters, and we are proud to say that our GSE team has learned what really happened to Elvis- he is alive and well in Macau and a proud supporter of the Rotary club!! (See pics for proof)

Our team was unable to donate blood today due to the strict schedule we have as GSE members and the need to keep our health and energy up, but we did have an interesting afternoon observing how large scale blood donations are set up here and also reading the educational materials set up for donors. We were surprised to learn that there is a shortage of Rh- blood here in Macau, because it is apparently not very prevalent in the Asian population. This presents an area of need because with 30 million tourists coming to Macau every year, there are a fair amount of Caucasians in the city every day and the blood supply to assist them should they need it is always running low.

After a lovely lunch with our Rotarian friends, we each went our separate ways with our host families. Erin and I went to the zoo with my host brother Envo to try to sneak a peak at Macau's most famous celebrity- the panda!! Unfortunately we were unable to sneak a peek because by the time we got there all the tickets had been sold out. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon walking the beach and trying Portugese coffee- mmm!! After dropping Erin off, Envo and I picked up the rest of my host family and we went out for a traditional Chinese hot pot dinner- so much fun and a great experience for me to try!!

We are all having a great time here in Macau. Tomorrow morning we are waking up bright and early to begin our vocational day with Tai Chi in the park. After all the excitement we've been having these few weeks, it will feel good to get some exercise in!

Arrival to Macau

Saturday we had free time to relax and pack for our trip to Macau.  We waved goodbye to Kenneth at the ferry terminal in Hong Kong.  We were greeted by our new host families and treated to a Cantonese dinner.  Fabulous food and great conversation.

Mar 11

Sorry for the delay in posts. We got to sleep in on Friday AM because we had a late night last night coming back from Guangzhou. We met for the lunch hour meeting of the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Northeast. Yet another great group of people, including a Red Sox fan! He let us know he was a member of "the nation" not the "evil empire".

After lunch we spent time at the Hong Kong Sanatorium Hospital. It is a private hospital and we were able to see the private and semiprivate rooms. It looked like a luxury hotel to most of us, with a private room having a large screen TV, refrigerator, floor to ceiling windows with a view of Happy Valley Racetrack. Apparently there is quite a waiting list to get in here, so there seem to be many people willing to pay for their outstanding service.

We got to see their impressive gym that both the patients and employees can use. Also quite beautiful. I don't think I would mind hanging out on a treadmill as much if I had this view. I was able to see more of the physical therapy department while the others went to see the ICU.

We were then on our own for a free night. I can't speak for the others, but I had a great night with one of the former GSE team members from Hong Kong to Brazil. Her name is Pauline and she was an amazing companion again, just like in Shenzhen. We had dinner at a local restaurant and then went shopping along Temple Street, a night market. I am not good at this bargaining thing, but I was happy to have gotten a few souvenirs.

Guangzhou- Mainland China

Top to bottom: Factory scene; The finished product; Shen Nong statue at museum garden; Tracey finding balance with ying and yang.

Thursday was an early start for all of us because we were going to the mainland by car. This gave us a different perspective on our surroundings in many ways. Our first stop was to a factory owned by my host family, Wanda and Wilson Lam. Wanda's father began working in the electroplating factory as a young man. What I have previously considered the "American dream" of achieving great success through hard work and determination, her father worked his way up in the business from worker to owner. After Wanda and Wilson were married, both of them joined the family business. It has changed a great deal over the years from manufacturing parts for electronic devices, to costume jewelry, and now primarily making the metal components for compacts, make-up cases, perfume bottles, etc. Looking at the variety of products this company has produced, you may start to think of 5th Avenue in Manhattan- Dior, Chanel, and YSL to name just a few. They are now working on a product for Taylor Swift's upcoming fragrance. What was even more amazing was the process it took to make these deceptively simple objects. Over 700 people work for the factory in various departments. There is a lot of effort, time, and attention to detail that goes into making the final product.

We next visited a Chinese medicine pharmaceutical factory. Thanks to the skillful translation provided by Kenneth Wong, we were able to have a thought-provoking dialogue with the staff there. The manufacturing and capitalization of ancient Chinese traditions is an interesting concept to consider. The factory has also built an outdoor garden museum honoring the heritage of Chinese medicine from it's legendary founders to present day.

Our evening was spent supporting a fellowship of Rotarians in Guangzhou trying to continue their devotion to service in China. While not officially recognized by the Chinese government, this club is allowed to meet and even make fundraising contributions to the community. They are currently unable to form any new clubs. Members are comprised of former residents of Hong Kong who have brought their commitment to Rotary with them to this growing city. One of the highlights of the evening was hearing from a young college student who went the the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) program in Hong Kong with his English teacher. Enrico spoke of how he felt hesitant to interact with the other members, especially as he was the first representative from Guangzhou. Over the course of the program, he developed confidence, leadership skills, and friendships. His speech was eloquent, a great credit to his enthusiastic teacher, Tina. To learn more about RYLA, please see the link below.

http://www.rotary.org/en/studentsandyouth/youthprograms/rotaryyouthleadershipawards(ryla)/pages/ridefault.aspx

Wedneseay, March 9th

Today we got a walk around Central, the middle part of Hong Kong Island that overlooks the harbor. We then went on to the original courthouse, finished and occupied in the early 1900's. It is currently the home of the legislative branch of the government, the Legislative Council. Our amazing and ever-present guide and GSE co-ordinator Kenneth Wong was able to arrange a meeting with the Legal Advisor for the Legislative Council, Jimmy Ma. We had an hour to hear from this eloquent and highly placed offical about the powers vested in the Colonial Governor from the Queen, the history of the Unequal Treaties that originally defined the relationship with the China, and the creation of and the the nature of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative District, the document that governs the relationship between hong Kong and China since the reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese soverignty in 1997. This document also governs the reversion of Macau to Chinese soverignty, and hopefull will be the model for Taiwan, as well. The fundamental foundations of the relationship between Hong Kong and China are stipulated in this document, and provide for a 50 year period of gradual integration of Hong Kong fully into China, protection of the Hong Kong civil structure until that time, and gradual introduction of freer elections, with full individual sufferage by 2017 in the Executive branch of government, and by 2020 in the legislative branch of government. There are sufficient areas of theoretical cecession of power to the Republic of China and maintenance of day-to-day control in the civil institutions of Hong Kong to protect the people of Hong Kong, assure the ROC of the integration of the Colony into the Republic, and to allow the economic vibrancy of Hong Kong to extend into China, to entwine both in a mutually adventageous arrangement. And things seem to be going well. It is my own opinion that the amazing growth of China, with the accompanying creation of increasing wealth, both in China and Hong Kong, will move thing so rapidly that the de facto relationship of China and Hong Kong will occur more rapidly than the 50 years provided for in the Basic Law document.

On this day we also had presentations at two events, with the usual opportunity to make new friends and relationships, The Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile, and The Rotary Clubs of Hong Kong Central and of Bayview Sunshine--a joint meeting.