I am so grateful that my supervisor suggested to reach out to a coworker that lady she knows well from our Hong Kong office. She had made plans for me to join her and a few
other Brown Shoe ladies for Dim Sum. Oh
boy, what a treat. Dim Sum is style of
Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food that
is traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. This is a common communal style of
eating. Every culture has some sort of dining customs that are different from others.
Here is no different, the most obvious is the use of chopsticks and the spinning lazy susan. But when we were getting seated, Teresa, the Hong Kong co-worker, was given a small bowl of water to rinse off the tea cups
that we were about to drink tea from. I asked her
why they do that and she explained that it
is mostly customary. But sometimes the restaurant setup
the night before so just to be sure the cups are clean they clean the cups themselves. Drinking tea is very important in their culture and it was amazing- this one was a jasmine blend-
yummy.
After Dim Sum, we walked over to the Jade market. It was divided in two parts. One of which was the more expensive side
where wholesalers and jewelers can be seen.
The other side offered more of costume jewelry. It was all very colorful and pretty.
Then we were off to the bird market! I had never been to a bird market and was a
little scared. I hoped it was not a bird
meat market- I am sure there is such a thing in China. Fortunately this was
more of a bird park. It was so different
and cool. Birds have long been pets to
the Chinese. They bring their birds to
the park just as we would bring our dogs to the park. They bring the bird in the cage and hang it
up under a tree or such. Then the sit
and read the paper and enjoy the bird.
Other park goers walk by and admire the birds and when we stopped to
check out a bird, the owner would get the bird to sing by whistling calls to
it. The market part of the park was for
buying birds or bird food, including live crickets and other bugs. Totally fascinating. Later we ate a light meal and Teresa pointed
out the hooks in the restaurant so that people could bring their birds inside
while they ate. She then explained that
it became illegal to bring the birds in 5 years ago with the outbreak of bird
flu. 
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| Skeeto traps |
Nearby was the flower market. You could smell the sweetness of the flowers
blocks away. There was every kind of
plant and flower possible. And the holiday wreaths, they were real and smelt just
like Christmas. There was lots of
arrangements to check out and plenty of plants I had never seen. The one pictured below is called a mosquito
trap. They get trapped in the flower
part because its filled with water. We also passed a few bridal parties getting their photos. And a bakery, where they displayed peach shaped cakes- the peach is a symbol for long life and a peach looking cake is a normal birthday cake!
