叶夜速写

Port Victoria Sunrise from Mt. Davis

I should post this earlier when I got internet connections at Mt. Davis YHA and Hong Kong International Airport, however the battery of my laptop run out and I do not have an adapter for Hong Kong-style outlet, so this post got hold. During this cross-the-globe journey I'll keep you tuned by writing a few lines on the blog when I get able to access the internet (and should be able to do so frequently).

I left Guangzhou on Oct. 1 for Hong Kong, shouldn't comment more on the atmosphere of the National Day, you'll got a lot to read on the news media if you like. It's my second visit to Hong Kong, and everything seems as great as my first visit in 2007, but I still don't get myself able to stay here for more days. I met Mr. Johnson Lau (an amateur astronomer in Hong Kong) and he suggested me to take a look at the firework on that night. The firework was great, too, and I was surprise to see so many Hong Kong residents on the show -- they are still happy for the Day, right?

National Fireworks at Tsim Sha Tsui

I stay at Mt. Davis YHA that night, it's a western-style house at the top of Mt. Davis and has a prefect view of Victoria. The room was not luxury but everything was really nice, especially the view. Viewing sunrise there should be great. Its only disadvantage is being considerably far from the airport -- good for a brief car-tour of the city, but not good for the budget (HKD 290 for taxi!).

The check-in precedure went quite smooth, the friendly staff didn't ask twice about my poster bottle. The take-off time was delayed for a couple of minutes due to the ATC control linking with the National Day parade. "Our plane is large and require more space, so we have to wait for another 10 minutes..." the captain humorously remarked. Despite so, it feels great to see the blooming landscape when flying over mainland China and compare the view with Hong Kong. We directly passed Beijing around 13:30(CST) and I got a view of the T3 Terminal and the Forbidden City.

Beijing T3 Terminal from the air

With the in-flight power outlet to keep my laptop operating, the journey was not boring at all. Besides from eating nice meals, playing laptop or sleeping, I was excited about the Arctic sunset and sunrise, and aurora (although not in active period) was also beautiful. Our flight reaches a northern limit of 79.3N -- only 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole! Let's see how much further I can get on the return trip.

Our plane landed in schedule and I got a nice view of NYC and the Atlantic Ocean in background while approaching. This Continental service is the best air service I have ever had, mainly, because the electronic supply and nice dishes.

Arctic icecap

Then I was going to the connected flight to San Juan. The security check at Newark Airport is the very, very strict, even more strict than that of Olympic-China. My bag was checked twice for a confirmation of my pencil-box. On the other hand, I still have to pay extra attention to the speeding English from the Americans. Unfortunately I'm affected by jet-lag now (12-hour difference from China to America!), so paying more attention for me is more difficult than ever. Hope I can get myself well-warming-up before the DPS meeting.

The New York airspace was extremely busy, our flight delayed for an hour due to ATC control. But when the plane cruising over the Atlantic Ocean, the scenery was great, with the full moon illuminating the convective cloud. By the way, we also flied thru the famous Bermuda region -- nothing happened. When descending I saw big thunderstorm clouds about 250 kilometers away, the powerful lightning was very impressing.

I'll keep this updated -- stay tuned.