中華／中华
W3C’s TPAC was held in China for the first time . It was in Shenzhen, a city that sits right up against the Chinese Mainland’s internal border with the Hong Kong SAR. This was my first visit.
香港
I went a couple days early to spend the weekend seeing the sights of Hong Kong. I took UA869 from SFO to HKG, a very long flight (something like 15 hours), and I was jet-lagged to all hell that first day. I managed to work out how to take the MTR Airport Express into town, at least.
Hong Kong, I am in you.
So there I was, standing on a platform at Central, waiting for a train to my hotel (the Park Lane in Causeway Bay). The train I’d been waiting for pulled up, the door I was standing in front of opened, and Sam was standing right there on the train, directly opposite me. What are the odds‽‽‽ She was at the tail end of her visit; we only overlapped the one day. It turned out her hotel was near mine, so she took me there while we caught up.
The next morning, I wandered over to Victoria Park, right across the street from my hotel, where Hong Kong Pride was taking place. I wasn’t out yet, back then, but I was halfway around the world and entirely among strangers, so I lingered.
I visited Hong Kong Pride Parade 2013 and said “Happen to be in town for Pride.”
I took the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak, where I enjoyed a coffee and the SCMP while taking in the view.
After coming back down I wandered the city. I accidentally crashed a wedding at St. John’s Cathedral later that day. At some point that day I read a plaque about Gander, a very good boy. Later that night I fell in with a fun crowd of regulars at The Phoenix, a pub most of the way up the Central–Mid-Levels escalator. It was one of those nights where you go from not knowing each other to sharing some pretty deep truths about yourselves.
I spent the next day exploring Kowloon with rniwa. We visited the Avenue of Stars and had multiple rounds of dessert. Ryosuke even helped me find a yarn store so I could get Erin some souvenir yarn.
深圳
Ryosuke and I crossed the internal border at 羅湖／罗湖 Sunday afternoon. We had to get in separate lines, but didn’t have much trouble reconnecting on the other side.
Figuring out how to use social media from the Chinese Mainland was a bit of a pain, but I managed.
Apple sent a pretty small contingent to TPAC that year. IIRC there were just four of us: David, Dean, Ryosuke, and myself. I remember literally running the halls of the conference, trying to be in multiple places at once.
They put us up at the Grand Hyatt, which was truly lovely, but it was clear across town from the 五洲宾馆, the TPAC venue. We took terrifying taxi rides to and from the conference each day. On Friday, the last day of the conference, Ryosuke and I left at midday and walked across the city back to our hotel, enjoying the sights along the way.
It was a strange week for food. Lunch at the conference was monotonous and unvarying. Several of us tried 蚕蛹 (roasted silkworm chrysalises) one night; I thoguht they were nothing to write home about, but Lea loved them. The Peking Duck at 丹桂轩 was delicious. We ended up at a German biergarten Thursday night; there may have been a couple too many beers consumed that evening.
