Arriving in Hong Kong

My flight left Kansas City at 6:40 a.m. After a very turbulent decent, we arrived in Newark at 10:15 a.m. Five hours later my flight to Hong Kong began. After nearly 16 hours in the plane, I arrive in Hong Kong at 8:30 p.m. It was pretty exciting to be landing in Asia for the first time! With only about 4 hours of sleep on the plane, but I was definitely tired. By the time I got through customs and got a shuttle to the hotel, it was 11:00 p.m. when I got to my hotel room.

But then it was New Years Eve in one of the world's biggest cities, and things were hopping, so it wasn't time to sleep yet! A jumbotron (Times Square style) just a block from the hotel was displaying Chinese pop star performers. Thousands were gathered there to ring in the new year. Across the street from the hotel, the harbor was filled with boats, waiting to see the fireworks display that ignited from the sides and top of two skyscrapers. Pretty cool!

It was a very festive and celebratory ringing in of the new year. The crowds were huge and the excited, but also very orderly. The police presence was strong, but they were friendly and focused on keeping everyone safe. I should point out that while people were celebrating, there was not apparent drunkeness, as one would unfortunately tend to see in the U.S. Very refreshing.

Happy New Year!

Preparing for the Trip

I'm very excited about this trip, and thankful for the opportunity. Not only will I get to see and experience a different culture, but I get to do so through my professional lense. Visiting campuses, meeting with students and administrators, seeing the housing facilities on various campuses will all be very enlightening and useful to me.

The trip is sponsored by The Association of College and University Housing Officers - International (ACUHO-I). Participants are from all over the world. Having never traveled to Asia before, I decided I needed to do my best to learn about the Chinese culture and language before I go. We're fortunate to host a Confucius Institute site at the University of Kansas (KU), so I enrolled this fall in both a Chinese Culture class and a Chinese Language class (Mandarin).

My interest in this trip was spurred by the fact that the Chinese student population attending KU is growing rapidly. We currently have about 450 Chinese students at KU, up from just 250 students two years ago. Most of these students live in university housing.

Seeing the housing accommodations at the Chinese students' home campuses will help me understand what they're experiencing when they live in our facilities at KU. This will help in our efforts to facilitate their acclimation to the U.S., and simply provides perspective.

During the Study Tour, our itinerary is as follows:


Fri., Jan. 2 - Leave Hong Kong, arrive in Guangzhou
Sat., Jan. 3 - Zhongshan University
Sun., Jan. 4 - Travel to Guiyang
Mon., Jan. 5 - Guizhou College of Finance & Economics
Tues., Jan. 6 - Travel to Beijing; tour Great Wall and Silk Alley
Wed., Jan. 7 - Tsinghua University
Thurs., Jan. 8 - Travel to Shanghai
Fri., Jan. 9 - Fudan University
Sat., Jan. 10 - Return to Hong Kong

I will journal daily and post to this site daily or as frequently as I have internet access. I will post photos to help share my journey.