Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Category: Travel

  • San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco, CA

    I spent a chilly New Year’s Eve at the San Francisco Zoo We were greeted by polar bears and snowmen at the entrance.

    I saw a lot of free range peacock leisurely roaming around the park. This one was strutting around the reindeer pen. The reindeer must still be exhausted from their Christmas Eve deliveries because they just sat on the ground. I saw absolutely no reindeer games.

    Didn’t see any lions at the Lion House. I did see two tigers circling around in their pens. The Lion House is a great place to warm up. Nice and toasty inside.

    The cold weather did not bother the penguins. They were frolicking around in their pond.

    This tapir was one of the more active animals. The tapir pen is next to the rhino pen. In cartoons, rhinos are often portrayed as bullies or foot soldiers, but the one we saw seemed quite docile as it busily munched away at a lunch of lettuce and celery. The missing horn also made the rhino look less intimidating.

    Four dollars buys two spins around the track of the Little Puffer steam train.

    The San Francisco Zoo features a lot of bronze animals just waiting for children to climb on top.

    I spotted a pink color bear. I think the polar bears got dyed for the holidays.

    At the South American Tropical Forest exhibit, I spotted a pair of macaws engaging in some tomfoolery.

    Kangaroos! Last of the fun animal exhibits.

  • Great Dickens Christmas Fair, San Francisco, CA

    Last Sunday, I attended the Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party at the Cow Palace in Daly City. Having never been to the Cow Palace or a Dickens Fair, I was not sure what exactly to expect.

    The Dickens Fair was a magical experience. At the entrance, we were transported to Fezziwig’s Warehouse for a holiday party complete with talented musicians and dancers. Actually, it was hard to tell who was a performer and who was a guest because many guests had dressed up for the occasion. Not sure where everyone is stashing their Georgian costumes.

    While the Dickens Fair is at the Cow Palace, it was really located at a series of low-slung buildings next to the cavernous arena. Nevertheless, the Dickens Fair includes more than enough space to replicate an English town. Next to Fezziwig’s Warehouse is the Victoria & Albert Bijou Music Hall, which featured a fusion fairy tale performance: Aladdin & Cinderella Meet the Monkey King. As if those three are not enough, the big bad wolf also features prominently in the cast of characters.

    Actually, the fair contains numerous stages featuring ongoing performances throughout the day. I found this band while waiting for a juggling performance to begin.

    The highlight of the excursion was the Wild Safari merry go round. I had never seen a hand-powered merry go round before. That’s truly keeping in the spirit of the times.

  • Children’s Discovery Museum, San Jose, CA

    I recently visited the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. I had expected a dedicated, attached parking structure to easily shuttle the kids in and out. However, after a quick trip around the block, I ended up at a fixed fee $5.00 parking lot on Auzerais Avenue tucked under Guadalupe Parkway/87. From the parking lot, the path to the museum is just a short, manageable walk.

    If you are interested in arriving by public transit, the VTA Light Rail has a Children’s Discovery Museum station on the Alum Rock / Santa Teresa Line.

    Bob the Builder really gets around. I saw him at Legoland and the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana during the past year or so.

    The Bob the Builder activity room featured an impressive collection of Bob the Builder characters and construction vehicles. I loved the plumbing challenge where your junior plumber could attempt to reassemble the pipes under a play sink. Of course, the endless Bob the Builder video playing back on the television proved to be the true kid magnet.

    The bubble room was also a popular destination. The museum featured a number of bubble tables with rings and other frames for creating bubbles of all sizes. A lot of fun for kids and adults alike.

    Upstairs, the museum had a few craft rooms for some hands-on projects. During our visit, we were interrupted by a piercing alarm and a compulsory building evacuation. That decommissioned fire truck at the museum entrance proved no match for the flood of fire trucks that quickly surrounding the premises.

    If you are going, bring your own food. I think I may have had the world’s worst teriyaki chicken bowl at the Kids’ Cafe. The sauce did not taste like teriyaki and the raw, baby carrots seemed out of place. I love my veggies, but I have never been to a Japanese restaurant where teriyaki chicken came with raw carrots.

  • Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center

    The Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center offers an enchanting garden for young children to explore. Located in Palo Alto, the 2.5 acre garden showcases a delightful collection of brilliant flowers, soaring trees and a tantalizing fruit and vegetable garden. The grounds feature water fountains to discover and rows up rows of color-packed flowers in the spring and summer. Best of all, access to the garden is free.

  • Tao House – Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site

    Located in Danville, the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site features the Tao House, the former home of Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O’Neill. The Tao House is located at the end of a private street, which is inaccessible to the general public. To visit the Tao House, you must first call in for reservations. You will then be directed to an off-site parking lot to catch a shuttle bus to the house.

    The Tao House features a fusion of Chinese and Spanish styles. The main gate displays the four Chinese characters 大道别墅 out-of-order, which roughly translates to the big path to the villa.

    Once inside the main gate, you will notice a crooked pathway that leads to the house. The zigzag design was adopted to deter evil spirits who could only travel in straight paths. In the same motif, the front of the house also features false entrances to mislead the spirits.

    The inside of the house also carries a lot of meaning with blue ceilings and brown flooring symbolizing the heavens and earth. Another interesting detail is the three colored mirrors. The green mirror is located by the front door, the blue mirror appears in the living room and the black mirror stands in bedroom of Eugene O’Neill.

    While the Tao House does include some Chinese influences, it is definitely not a Chinese house and those seeking more insight into Chinese architecture or artwork would be better served visiting a local museum. Instead, the Tao House is a wonderful place to learn more about this Nobel Prize winning playwright and to enjoy a spectacular view of the surrounding San Ramon valley.

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  • Legoland – Carlsbad, California

    Last month, I visited Legoland in Carlsbad, California for the first time. Having never visited this amusement park before, I wanted to see how it measured up to the incomparable Disneyland. I had already heard about the models of international destinations rendered in Lego. I was quite impressed with the Lego version of the San Francisco cityscape, though I don’t know that the kids were similarly amazed.

    Besides the Lego models, Legoland also offers an assortment of fun boat and airplane rides. I enjoyed a good laugh at the Splash Battle in Pirate Shores. As I rode the ship, I thought the ride was about soaking the patrons in the other ships with my water cannon. However, I was greatly mistaken.

    Here’s how the ride really goes. My water cannon had a limited targeting range. Along the edge of the track, people on land have access to water cannons that can really soak those aboard the ships. And, I could not target my water cannon to fire back. Just completely defenseless. If anyone is manning the land-based water cannons, riders aboard the ships will get soaked.

    The other attraction worth noting is the Fun Town Fire Academy, where your group races a manually-powered fire truck across a track, “put out” a fire using a manual pump, and then race the fire truck back to the starting block. These interactive, competitive attractions really stood out and made Legoland fun for the adults too.

  • Mount Diablo State Park

    Mount Diablo State Park (CA State Parks, Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, Reserve America) is located in Contra Costa County near the communities of Alamo, Danville and San Ramon. A visitor center is located at the summit of Mount Diablo where you can absorb a 360° view of the surrounding region. I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit with the naked eye. However, I did use an inexpensive set of binoculars to confirm the sighting. During my visit, the center was closed on account of employee illness. However, the observation deck was still open to public access during this time.

    The sunset, as viewed from the Juniper campground.

    The Juniper campground features a trail that ascends up the mountain. On a hot summer day, I had no interest in heading up that trail.

    The Juniper campground is quite large. The campsites varied in size and shade. Some sites were more exposed and had better views. However, even the interior sites with more trees were no match for the howling wind that swept through our campsite starting around 4 a.m. Hard to sleep while the tent is rattling around.

    The Juniper campground does have running water near each campsite. In addition, the bathrooms are located at the far end of the campground with toilets and hot showers.

    Once the sun sets, the sky really lights up with all the stars aglow. Right before the trip, I purchased Star Walk for iPad to see whether the iPad could make astronomy any easier. Incredible! Of course, with the iPad Wi-Fi model, Star Walk could not determine the precise location. However, I was able to enter Walnut Creek, CA, which was not far away. Star Walk works pretty much as I had expected. When I lift the iPad up to the sky, I can see the various stars and constellations in front of me. However, not all objects displayed on Star Walk were visible to the naked eye, so there’s some interpretation involved. Star Walk was not a mirror image of the sky. As I panned across the sky, Star Walk would track my movement and display the relevant celestial objects in my view. Simply amazing. A lot more fun than reading a compass and manually looking up star charts.

  • Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, San Jose, CA

    I recently paid a return visit to Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose, California. Unlike the chaos immediately after opening week, the park’s operations were more settled this time around. The crowds were smaller, the lines were shorter, and the rides turned around a lot faster. All the hiccups that were evident during the previous visit were gone. I actually enjoyed this visit a lot.

    One noticeable difference from last time is that Happy Hollow had fenced off some of the metal sculptures that appeared in the entrance and throughout the park. A sign posted on the fences warned of hot temperatures. Kids just love climbing on top of the cute animal sculptures, and I guess someone must have gotten burned from those sculptures baking under the hot sun.

    I was also able to get on the Danny the Dragon ride this time. The line was much shorter, so we did not have to wait too long to get a seat. The weather was much cooler so that waiting in line was not so unbearable.

    When lunch time rolled around, I found it difficult to find an empty picnic area. Last time, Happy Hollow had a lot of empty picnic tables available for general use. However, this time, most of the picnic areas were booked, so we ended up at an area by the food court. We didn’t see anything in the outlying areas open to the general public.

  • Traveling on Cathay Pacific

    I have been flying on United Airlines almost exclusively just to consolidate my frequent flyer miles. However, when the opportunity to travel on Cathay Pacific arose, I was mistakenly reluctant. Instead of being blinded by frequent flyer miles, I should have taken a close look at what other airlines were providing to see if I was getting the best value.

    What really impressed me when I took Cathay Pacific from San Francisco to Hong Kong was the in-seat entertainment. Mounted in the seat in front of me, I could select any program I wanted at any time I wanted. A real convenience that not all airlines have available on international flights. I also really appreciated the chargers at every seat, even in the economy section.

  • China 2010

    I first visited China almost 30 years ago. Back then, China was defined more by its past than its future. Everything that amazed me during that initial trip had an age that could be measured in centuries if not millennia. During that visit, the economic gap between the United States and China could not have been more self-evident. At each stop light, the drivers would turn off the engines of their cars, whose design came from another era, presumably to conserve gas. The Friendship Store was not really that friendly, and sparsely stocked to boot. And, foreigners visiting the standard tourist attractions had to pay the higher outsider price not in 人民券 (RMB) but in 外汇卷.

    Alas, those were the days. Now, repeat visitors, including me, witness in amazement not how old China is, but how new China has become. What defines China today is not the Forbidden City or the Great Wall, but the ever present construction cranes that stands sentinel in every major metropolitan area. While the United States is mired in a recession that has stifled its construction industry, China is busily building away. Mind you, construction in China does not occur a building at a time. Instead, it goes block by block. Absolutely breath taking. What really is amazing is the pace of urban sprawl. As each city expands and absorbs the surrounding areas, the line between the city proper and the 鄉下 slowly blends away, such that it can become indistinguishable. Furthermore, homes in the countryside are no longer distinct from their urban counterparts. Once you have electricity, water, gas and telephone service, the living conditions between city and rural folk become more similar than different. I also noticed a lot of solar hot water installations perched above homes in the countryside throughout China. Plus, electricity and telephone service = internet access! The last place I expected to find a computer and internet access was in the 鄉下, but there it was even if you cannot access Facebook inside China.

    I also had the opportunity to ride on the Shanghai and Beijing subways, both of which offer an experience similar to the Hong Kong subway. Riding a Chinese train also was a pleasant endeavor: modern, air-conditioned, clean and comfortable. An absolute delight.

    So, what are the short-comings? Traffic, pollution and smoking. Yeah, we don’t have an answer to the traffic problem in the United States, so the Chinese cannot look to us for solutions. But, China’s traffic problem is two-fold. Not only are the roads congested, but the way people drive leaves much to be desired. That unyielding chaos and the constant honking of horns frightens both passengers and pedestrians alike. As for the smog, absolutely disgusting. I could not take a proper photo in China because of the persistent haze. Mind you, this is not the LA type of haze that is only noticeably when viewing objects afar. Chinese haze obscures buildings a block away. If you keep thinking about all the particulate matter you are inhaling while in China, it will give you quite a fright, so don’t think about it. Finally, despite all the no smoking signs and no smoking posters displayed in preparation for Expo 2010, smoking was every where: in restaurants, in hotels, in enclosed elevators (with no smoking signs), in hotel rooms, etc.

    Of course, China offers a unique way to promote “No Smoking”: a placard from the Beijing Patriotic Health Campaign Committee. Bravo China. Next time I return, I really want to see no smoking in public places.