Seeing Beautiful Macau – Siyanda has to leave

Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th


On Tuesday morning we were picked up early by Rotarians of RC Club of Hou Kuong headed by their President Peter, Club Secretary Barrie and PP Dora. What a great day it turned out to be. We first went to have coffee in a little coffee-shop called Lord Stowe’s Garden Café. We were joined by Rotarians Lena and Kwang. Kwang is a great singer and according to Brendan, had the country hit “Joelene” blaring flat out in his car. He loves sad songs as we were to discover at the evening meeting.

There was a bit of hilarity about the difference in size of Jonathan and PP Lena's hands!

Viking and Chinese hands

But first we went to see the amazing statue of the Taoist Goddess A-Ma which stands on top of the highest hill on Coloane Island. It is a huge structure standing just above the main temple. Carved out of white jade, it weighs 1000 tons and stands 19.9 meters tall. It took 120 sculptors 8 months to carve it. The Goddess A-Ma is the patron saint of seamen, fisherman and merchants. She was a young girl from a poor family who wanted to leave her home because of poverty. She tried to get a lift on many different ships and was turned down. She eventually found a ship where the Captain was prepared to let her come on the voyage on condition that she worked like the other people on the boat, fishing and cleaning fish etc. She agreed and they set off on the voyage. During the voyage a terrible typhoon developed and all the boats in the sea in the area were lost in the terrible storm –all except the boat on which A-Ma was a passenger. When they arrived on the island now known as Macau, she walked up the hill towards the summit and was never seen again. People in the area said that they had seen a bright white light at the area where she was walking and decided that she had been taken up to a higher level of existence. Since then she has been regarded as a Goddess who particularly blesses the Seafarers in the area. When the Portuguese sailors arrived on the island in the 15th Century and asked the name they were told it was the island of A-Ma Ca and the way they pronounced it led them to name it Macau. We heard this from a tour guide and it fits with what we have read elsewhere. Fascinating.

Right next to the A-Ma Temple on Coloane Island is a monument to the Portugal – China Treaty whereby Macau was handed back to China in 1999. The arrangement is much like Hong Kong’s “One Country – Two Systems” where Macau will be self-governed under Macau’s Basic Law for 50 years from 1999, with theoretically only the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Defence controlled by the People’s Republic of China.

After A-Ma Temple we were driven to a beach on Coloane Island known as Cheoc Van Beach. It is maintained by the municipality and the restaurant concession is owned by a Rotarian PP Luis Lui. He is a flambuoyant entrepreneur and Siyanda was highly impressed with his business acumen and chatted to him about the fact that he has over 30 different companies. Siyanda has “only” five, but as a vocational inspiration, he really enjoyed meeting PP Luis. Siyanda has a dream to take his companies international and what better place than Hong Kong and Macau to receive mentoring in this regard. The lunch was great – It was an Italian Restaurant known as “Ristorante la Gondola”. The quality of the food was outstanding, the tastes were delicious. The beach is pretty and also has a ski-boat launch site.

Team - Jonathan with restaurant owner and entrepreneur Luis Lui next to him and Rotarians from the "naughty" club

After lunch we were taken to the site of the remaining façade of St. Paul’s Church. The church was destroyed by fire in 1835 after having been built in 1602-40. It was originally the Church of Mater Dei, a Jesuit construction.

The façade of the church has been strengthened and remains symbolically as an altar to the city. The view from the ruins is impressive and shows the contrast between old and new Macau, with huge and imposing casino hotels such as the Grand Lisbon and the Wynn in the close distance.

The evening meeting with the RC of Hou Kuong was a blast. The meeting was conducted in Cantonese but the fellowship was universal. One of the dishes was a suckling piglet brought to the table on a plate. It was tasty! Poor piglet. We are not used to seeing all the facial characteristics of our meals, but it is honest.

Piggie, piggie

One of the Rotarians, PP Dora, told us Hou Kuong was a very “naughty” club. It is hosted in a Chinese Restaurant owned by PP Luis Lui situated in the Macau Holiday Inn.

RC Hou Koung secretary Barrie (left) and President Peter (right)

“Naughty” meant that a lot of wine is drunk during the evening and turns into a Karaoke-singing session that in this case lasted until 12 midnight. These guys take their fellowship seriously and the GSE team were happy participants with Santosh revealing some great vocal skills and Siyanda doing a great Peabo Bryson imitation.

Santosh and Rotarian Kuong (sad song lover)

Wednesday was the turn of the RC of Guia to host us and PP Mildred, a delightful lady who has been involved with Rotary since her Rotoract days collecting us for a visit to the Guia Lighthouse and Chapel. The Lighthouse is a world-heritage site on top of the Guia Fortress which was built between 1622 and 1638. The lighthouse was built in 1865 and is the first modern lighthouse on the Chinese coast. Both the lighthouse and the chapel are symbols of Macau’s maritime, military and missionary past.

Team with PP Mildred at the Guia Lighthouse and Chapel

Nivs with PP's Mildred and Anna
Lunch was at a delightful Portuguese Restaurant with PP Mildred and PP Anna Lam. Sadly, it was our last meal with Siyanda.

Siyanda’s mother suffered a heart attack over the weekend and we had to arrange for his speedy return to South Africa to be with her and the family. While we were very sad to let Siyanda go home, we fully understood the situation and would have done exactly the same in his position. DG Hennie and GSE Chair Annette in SA’s District 9270 were most understanding and so were District 3450 GSE Chair Stella. Siyanda caught the 3pm ferry back to Hong Kong where our dear friend PP Joseph Chan met him, arranged for collection of his luggage, changed his ticket and got him onto a plane. What a star PP Joseph is and continues to be. It will be such a privilege to host him when he comes to visit us in RSA.

Siyanda, when you read this blog, just know that we miss you very much. You were such a great person on our team. Loved and admired. Your contribution was great and the Rotarians of Hong Kong and Macau took you to their hearts. We are looking forward to you joining the team again when we return to SA. Thank you for giving of yourself and sharing with us. Everyone here sends love and best wishes for your Mom’s full recovery.

After saying good bye to Siyanda, we visited the inner-city A-Ma temple – the original ‘mother” temple of the Goddess A-Ma whose statue we visited on Coloane Island yesterday. It is situated on the spot where she disappeared into the bright light.

The Macau Grand Prix museum was great. It is a Formula 3 race in November every year, through the streets of Macau and the museum is full of actual cars and memorabilia. Racing greats like Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher have won the race in their pre-Formula 1 days and it was great to see the cars they drove and feel some of the history especially for a petrol-head like Jonathan.

Michael's Macau GP car

Ayrton's car

Right next door is the Macau Wine Museum with fascinating stories of wine-making, principally in Portugal but with details of wine from all over the world including South Africa. Great stuff, with a glass of Muscadel at the end.

Before dinner we had a great, informative visit to TDM, the public service radio station. This was great for all of us but especially Santosh – the radio man. We started with a meeting with Gilberto the station manager. He was joined by the news editor and a good-looking young DJ called Giorgio. They had a discussion comparing notes and then we were shown around the station and had the privilege of going into the studio where we met the “on-air guy’, a DJ who had worked in Mozambique. It is a Portuguese Radio Station in Macau. Quite small but it was interesting. Lotus FM is huge by comparison. Everyone was very friendly and as they said, ‘no room for ego’s here – we just get on with it”. Giorgio is allowed to select his own playlist which Santosh says is every DJ’s dream. A great vocational visit.

Santosh and ex-Mozambique DJ Fernando

Dinner was with a joint meeting of the Rotary Clubs of Guia and Macau Central. Held at the Riviera Hotel, it was a Chinese supper and we did our first presentation without Siyanda. It felt very strange and we split his part of the presentation between Santosh and Brendan. We miss you Siya, mate!

It was also the dinner where we met the shortest Rotary President in the world (has to be) – the pictures show that he is a smidgen shorter than Nivashni. Jonathan looks like an over-fed giant next to him. Still, you never know in the East – he is probably a Black belt 7th Dan Kung Fu sensei, so we treated him with great respect.

Spot President Jackie - great guy!

Joking, we really liked him, a great guy. President Anna of Macau Central had to leave early for an MC’ing gig so the stand in Macau Central President was IPP Joyce Choi who is also Nivashni’s for the first half of her Macau visit.

Once again, Macau is a beautiful place – so most contrast of old and new. Great people and I am impressed again at the youth of the Rotarians. I am sure it is because of the strength of Rotaract in the District. Especially in Macau. There are many, many Rotarians in their 30’s here.

As you have seen a really busy two days, but very interesting and satisfying. Until later.

Macau Day 3 - Monday 23rd Feb

Today we woke up in our host family accommodation. For Siyanda and Brendan, it was the first time they had been apart, having shared a room at Booth Lodge and a suite at the Venetian Hotel. The bond hasn’t been broken though – they both admitted missing each other.

It was a busy day with a pretty full schedule from the pick-up in a mini-van at 9.30am to getting home at around 10pm. We had a bit of a break before dinner, but apart from that we were on the go the whole day. Our hosts for the day were President David Ho, of the Rotary Club of Taipa, Macau. He is a Rotarian who owns a manufacturing business in Macau with a factory employing around 1,000 people. He was accompanied by PP Rocky, the Lamborghini Fashion line importer for Macau, Club Services Director Veronica who is a Chartered Accountant and Rotarian Mandy, who is a Relationship Manager at a local bank. They are lovely people, great hosts and we really appreciated them giving up their day to take us around. They also hired a very smart Hyundai Mini-Van to transport us in. These Macau Rotarians are a great example of Service above Self.

First call was a vocational visit to a bank in Macau (main island) where we had a chance to chat to Benson, a Rotarian who is the Treasurer of one of the local banks. He is responsible for the daily cash flow of the Macau branch and reports to the Deputy Manager of the bank. We enquired about opening bank accounts in Macau as a matter of interest. He advised that it was no problem but that we would only receive around .1% interest on deposits which put us off transferring our vast assets immediately. Siyanda, the former taxman, also advised us that any income earned in Hong Kong and Macau would be taxed immediately we brought it back to South Africa. That put us off even more. It was interesting however to discover that the banking system runs on very similar lines to the banking system in SA and that FICA (as we know it) is a worldwide phenomenon in the fight to control money-laundering. Siyanda assured us that the mere input of our ID numbers into SARS sophisticated systems would give them the lowdown on our cash position, wherever it might have been deposited throughout the world. It seems Big Brother is never very far away.

Next call before lunch was to the offices of a Rotarian, PP Ken Mac. Ken is a Director of AIA, one of the top 4 insurance companies in Asia and is Top of the Million Dollar Round Table. He is a great chap and runs an office of around 100 agents together with a call centre. He was saying to us that Wealth Management has taken a bit of a back step since the Financial Tsunami hit the world in August 2008. This means that his agents are again concentrating on servicing client’s needs for Retirement Annuities rather than focussing on the more exotic offerings the company offers.

A bit of Old Macau

We then went for a walk around the narrow streets of old Macau. It was an enthralling experience and reminded those of us who went to LM in the old Mozambique, of the quaint little shops. Very much a Portuguese colony, all the streets names are in Portuguese although the Chinese have their own interpretations and pronunciations of these names which sound very little like the Portuguese originals.

One shop that turned our stomachs was the one selling shark fins for soup. It is full of shark fins and other bits and pieces of shark anatomy like the air bladder which keeps a shark buoyant. Apparently, all these bits are a serious delicacy and command prices of between HK$800 to 1200 per kilogram. Knowing that sharks are caught and have their fins cut off before being thrown back into the sea to bleed to death was very offputting. Quite apart from the smell in the shop. The people that use these so-called ‘delicacies’ are apparently pretty primitive.

Shark fins and swords

The rest of the market in narrow little streets is fascinating. We visited a little Chinese temple that was full of the smell of incence. Big coils of incense were suspended from the rafters and apparently people of this faith come to the priest and ask him to light these large thick coils that burn in the temple for days and weeks in honour of some request that has been made.

Incense coils

We also visited an old Roman Catholic Cathedral Church that dates back to the 16th century. It has been beautifully restored and people walk in and out and sit in the stalls and pray. It has a lovely tranquil atmosphere.

Lunchtime was a great lunch in a genuine Portuguese restaurant where the owner Manuel picked our dishes for us. Apart from Brendan who was dying for a steak – and got it – plates of food from chicken and clams to suckling pig to Portuguese sausage and delicious fishcakes were brought. You just help yourself off each large plate that is brought. It was delicious. We asked for peri-peri and manual disappeared and came back with a well-used bottle of Nando’s peri-peri. It was agreat meal and we had a good chat with Manuel who is world-famous – lots of people come from all over the world to eat at his spot. We could see why.

Our afternoon consisted of a trip to the University of Science and Technology of Macau. We were guided around by a young lady named Ashleigh who graduated from a Beijing University 18 months ago but has moved to Macau with her family. The whole campus is very modern and embraces almost all the university disciplines one can think of. The facilities are great and include a University Teaching Hospital as well as a big sports arena. The sports arena was used as one of the venues for the All-Asia Games recently. As the University is heavily subsidised by the Government, the Sports arena is open for use to the public. The University Hospital is very modern and also includes a faculty of traditional Chinese medicine. As we mentioned earlier in these blogs, if traditional Chinese medical practioners want to be registered and recognised by the Government Health services, they have to complete a Basic Medical Science course which is offered by the University, just as in Hong Kong.

It was a very interesting afternoon and we all went back to our hosts homes to rest for a short while and get ready for supper. Our supper was hosted once again by President David together with a new set of young Rotarians. We are really surprised at the number of young (in their late 20’s and early 30’s) Rotarians in Macau. It is a pleasure to see and really bodes well for the future of Rotary here. One of the Rotarians was a young lady, Alice, who was a GSE team member a few years back. She visited Tennessee in the United States. She told us that the experience had changed her life. Great to know.

Spot the mistake in the bowl of chicken

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is a sight-seeing day and we are doing a presentation to a Rotary Club in the evening. We will also be having a team meeting to do a bit of evaluation of how we are going and how our expectations of this GSE trip are being met. It will be a good exercise as we get solidly into the 2nd half of our trip. It has been difficult not having our programme for Macau in advance so that we can evaluate the appropriateness of the visits for vocational purposes but we are working on it.

We have the rest of the week here in Macau and then on Sunday it’s back to HK for our final week before we leave for home next Saturday. This trip to Macau has been a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of HK. The pace of life is much more laid back here – only 500,000 inhabitants as opposed to HK’s 7 million.

District Conference Sat & Sun 21/22 Feb

The Venetian Hotel in Macau where we are staying is the biggest Hotel/Casino Resort in the world. If you google it, you will get an idea of the size and diversity of the place. It is almost obscenely grand with piped chamber music playing in the lifts and passages. The money that must have been spent to build this place is probably more than the annual turnover over small countries like Swaziland. Billions and billions of US dollars.

It is bigger than the whole Gateway complex in Umhlanga, has more shops than Gateway – over 350 - everything from Louis Vuitton to Chanel, Rolex to Benetton, Yves St. Laurent to Armani. I guess it is a shopper’s paradise. Unfortunately I’m not a shopper although the team are knocked out. But this is also a place for the seriously rich. With beers at around R70 and a glass of still mineral water at over R40 – you need to be well-heeled to operate here without nervously wondering what your bank balance is looking like.

Gondolas at the Venetian

Enough of that although we could probably go on for days about it. The people here are very friendly.

We got to the convention rooms in time for registration on Saturday morning. The Rotary International President’s Personal Representative, John Germ was at the opening and we were treated to a grand entrance. A brass band accompanied the dignitaries into the ballroom with about 500 Rotarians and family of Rotary present. I took a video but it won't upload to this blog - we'll show it to you later. It was great and the Conference got off to a great start. I’m not going to bore you with too much detail, you know what conferences are like, but the keynote address was delivered by The Hon. Edmund Ho who is the Chief Executive (Governor General in the old days) of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. He seems a very well-liked man and delivered a really great speech. It is interesting to note the good relationship between Government and Rotary in Hong Kong and Macau. In fact, one of the presentations was 5 Paul Harris awards to 5 different Government departments that had helped Rotary in one of it’s projects with an exercise program for the elderly and disabled. I am getting a copy of the CD because I am sure we can use it in SA. I’ve never heard of Paul Harris awards to institutions but the Rotarians here say it has great significance for the Government departments concerned and the Departments are very aware of the import of a Paul Harris award, and are therefore deeply honoured and encouraged to continue co-operating with Rotary.

Nivs with a lady who helps with a Leprosy project in China

Incidentally, (THIS WILL ONLY BE INTERESTING TO ROTARIANS) one of the sessions was an award session for Paul Harris donors, Major donors (US$10,000 or more), and Paul Harris society awards. Quite a few clubs here are 100% Paul Harris Fellows on the basis of donations of US$1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. In South Africa we award Paul Harris Fellowships (PHF’s) to Rotarians and others on the basis of their service to Rotary and/or the community. In this District, Rotarians are only awarded PHF’s if they make the US$1,000 contribution, and other members of the community are awarded PHF’s for service. AS RIPPR John Germ says, it is these donations, together with the Every Rotarian Every Year programme that keep the Rotary Foundation able to give it’s grants and carry out it’s work on Polio eradication around the world. Something to think about. One club in Hong Kong is 100% major donor – in other words every single Rotarian in that club has donated US$10,000 or more to the Rotary Foundation! Amazing.

Club Project Displays

Back to news – the Banquet was great on Saturday evening. Food was great – mainly Chinese cuisine and there was a great Portuguese band that played great music so a great time was had by all.

Nivs with a RC of Wanchai Rotarian PP David Sharpe

The boys with a Kiwi Rotarian


Sunday’s Convention programme was full – morning to evening. We did our presentation to the Conference in the session between tea and lunch and it was a great success. We decided to spice things up a bit and ended our presentation by singing the National Anthem to the backing of the Soweto String Quartet. The conference delegates loved it – they stood up while we were singing and gave us huge applause at the end of it – quite a little choir we’ve got here with Siyanda’s deep baritone booming through the sound system. Our booklets were handed out to every Rotarian at conference and people really seem to appreciate them. We are keeping some to bring to our District Conference at home.

A pretty poor picture of us doing our presentation - see the big screen with parts of Brendan's IT presentation



The outgoing GSE Team to South Africa were introduced – Alex and his Smart Angels is what they are calling themselves – they spoke about their plans for the trip and they are going to be great. We have quite an act to follow as far as hospitality goes but I know the clubs in our District will rise to the occasion. Really a super group of young people. After supper with some Rotarians on Sunday evening after Conference closed, we went to the Cirque du Soleil (pronounced Serk dooh Solay) to watch a show called “Zaia”. It was amazing, magnificent, outstanding – words fail us. Another thing for you to google. It is trapeze artists, clowns, acrobats, jugglers, live singing and music – an absolute extravaganza in the most magnificent theatre. The visual effects are out of this world. No pictures were allowed unfortunately so you’ll have to do the google thing.

The day ended with us going to our host families – we had checked out of our luxury quarters in the Venetian. Not a train smash as both Nivashni and Jonathan were getting a bit tired of the opulence and flashiness of the place. Getting into Rotarians homes and getting to know them is one of the things GSE is all about. We are happy to be doing this and looking forward to the rest of our week in Macau. Internet connection in Macau is a bit of an issue but we’ll try to get this posted asap.

Off To Macau - Friday 20th

Friday 20th February 2009

Today marks a move to different part of Rotary District 3450. After the last 13 days in Hong Kong, spent visiting Rotary Clubs on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, we are going across the South China Sea by ferry to Macau. This district is made up of clubs in Hong Kong, Macau and Mongolia. There are 6 clubs in Macau and this year’s District 3450 Conference is being held at the Venetian Hotel in Macau.

Another ferry like ours having a dice with us

Macau is another SAR (Special Administrative Region) of the People’s Republic of China. Originally colonised by Portugal, it was handed over to China in 1999. Under a special treaty with China, it will, like Hong Kong, be virtually self-governing for 50 years with China being responsible for Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Macau is best known for it’s casinos these days. Apparently more money is wagered monthly in Macau casinos than in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos put together. In the last two years there has been a proliferation of hotel/casino resorts.

Because the District Conference is being held at the Venetian Hotel, we are staying there on Friday and Saturday nights. It is a huge 3,000-room resort hotel with a casino with 800 gaming tables. It has 92,900 square metres of shopping and over 100,000 square meters of conference facilities. The place buzzes like something you have never seen at Sun City etc. The amount of people is simply amazing, there are full-blown shopping malls, restaurants, pubs – anything that you can think of including a mini golf course in the grounds!

The Venetian - everything in this pic is part of it - it's hard to get it all into one pic

Our rooms are suites – normally about R2000.00 per night – but the District organised a special deal for Rotarians for less than a third of that. The suites are out of this world.

Our ferry trip across from Hong Kong was quite smooth – you sit on the ferry as if you were on a plane – seats are numbered and adverts for Macau attractions are shown on big-screen TV’s during the trip.

We were met at the ferry terminal in Macau by GSE Chair PP Stella Kan and Conference Chair PP Fatima who got us onto the hotel bus to the Venetian.

Us with (from left next to Brendan) PP Fatima Ferreira, Connie (a conference helper) and PP Stella Kan

After we check-in a good friend I have mentioned previously, Wanchai RC President David Sarju met us and took us to a wine-tasting and supper snacks at another hotel, the Crown Plaza. It was a very pleasant time and we learned a lot about Macau chatting to him and his friend, Marc, who is the General Manager of the Crown Plaza. President David is certainly well-connected. Brendan seems to attract rugby-lovers like moths to a lamp. Within 20 minutes of arriving, he was chatting to a guy called Luis who loves South African rugby and coaches a side here in Macau. It seems Brendan will be able to keep up his pre-season training for the Rhino’s here on Macau as well.

That was it for the evening and we retired to our suites to sleep. District Conference starts tomorrow (Saturday 21st) with registration from 11am. We are waiting to hear when we will be doing our presentation to Conference, but assume it will probably be on Sunday morning.

Wednesday 18th & Thursday 19th

These two days are included in this post in order to catch up.

Going out this morning, it was great to pass a store labelled “De Beers”. Maybe I don’t get around enough but I’ve never seen one in South Africa. It trades in the most magnificent diamonds and it’s display includes branded watches with the De Beers label. SA capitalism scoring in HK.

Good old De Beers in HK

Our only meeting on Wednesday was a lunch meeting at the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Metropolitan where the speaker spoke in Cantonese about the art of Fung Shui – the art of keeping yourself and your surroundings with the right vibe, basically. A lot of Chinese are very dependant on this to stay healthy, wealthy and wise. He was also a bit of a fortune-teller and we were astonished to hear him telling one of the older lady Rotarians that she was going to be having health problems in the future. Siyanda wasn't impressed and said he wouldn't like it if someone walked up to him, unsolicited, and told him this. We all felt pretty much the same. A light moment was when one pretty young lady asked him about finding the love of her life. His response was “Don’t get too serious now – just play around a bit first”. Great hilarity.

Team with RC Metropolitan Rotarians and Fung Shui Master (seated left front)

Here’s a pic of one of the courses at the meal:

Oh, and we sang a Rotary song:

We have encountered this song in a few clubs now. In Port Shepstone, we sing our National Anthem at the start of each meeting, but quite a few clubs in Hong Kong, especially the Cantonese clubs, this song is sung. I’ll teach it to you when we get back. It has a catchy tune.

R-O-T-A-R-Y That spells Rotary
R-O-T-A-R-Y Is known on land and sea
From North to South, From East to West
He profits most who serves the best
R-O-T-A-R-Y That spells Rotary

R-O-T-A-R-Y That spells Rotary
R-O-T-A-R-Y Is one great family
Where friendship binds for man’s uplift
Where each one strives his best to give
R-O-T-A-R-Y That spells Rotary

The rest of the day was free so we went our separate ways and on Thursday morning at our report back, some had slept, some had shopped, some had just chilled, but most were feeling a bit homesick.

Thursday turned out to be a busy day.......

Before going out I was on the terrace and noticed an adjacent rooftop – to my surprise it is a Nursery School – on the roof of a 15-storey building. Only in Hong Kong!

Rooftop Nursery School

Our first meeting was at the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Financial Centre. There are lots of big hitters in this club. The view from the meeting venue was amazing – more land reclamation. Very nice Rotarians – although it was a Cantonese club, we did our presentation and there was tremendous interest – particularly in South Africa as a destination for Soccer 2010 and for wildlife. Lots of questions and interest. A bottle of Marula Cream was produced and we had a little sip and thought of home.

Santosh talking about Broadcasting in South Africa

After lunch the President Joe-Joe took us to see a Traditional Chinese Doctor who is a Rotarian. Traditional Chinese medicine is practised alongside Western medicine in Hong Kong. Practitioners have to have a basic certificate in Western medicine which is really a very condensed course in medicine, in order to be registered and practise.

It was fascinating, we watched as he consulted with a few patients, taking pulses, looking at eye and complexion colour and writing prescriptions which are then filled in his office from behind a “pharmaceutical” counter in reception. I spoke to a Western style, Australian doctor at our evening meeting, and far from being sceptical, he said that a lot of these traditional doctors are very good and there is a good fusion of old and new in medicine in China these days.

After our introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine we had a break until our evening meeting. I went back to my host's home in Mid-Levels, Hong Kong. Hong Kong is really beautiful in the evening.... how's this view from the rooftop terrace:

Our evening was meeting was a delightful affair. President Wendy of Rotary Club of Hong Kong Harbour made us feel very welcome and there were a number of visitors including our friend President David Sarju of Wanchai Club, PP Joseph Chan, our superstar GSE vice-chair and HK mentor, an ambassadorial student from California and a visiting Rotarian from Australia. Our presentation went down very well. Brendan got huge applause for his exploits on the rugby fields here – apparently the team he played for last Saturday is as popular as the Sharks in KZN and they were very impressed that he actually was one of the try-scorers!

Two GSE gentlemen waiting to present to the RC of Hong Kong Harbour!

Tomorrow we go to Macau, a one-hour ferry trip. We’ll keep you updated. We think of everyone back home all the time.

Tuesday 17th February - Stock Exchange, Bank Liars and Pianos

Stock Exchange - the team with PP Joseph and our guide from the Exchange

We started our day with a visit to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. What an experience. This is one of the biggest stock exchanges in the world and has been heavily affected by the Global Financial Crisis. I’m using capital letters because our friends in Hong Kong, many of whom are deeply involved in the financial markets, refer to it as the “Financial Tsunami”.

Disaster

It has wiped billions of dollars off the wealth of people in Hong Kong. Despite this, their generosity knows no bounds.

We expected to see a bustling trading floor like you see in the movies, but our guide explained to us that a lot of trading is done electronically nowadays and most traders don’t even have to come into the exchange, they trade live on the exchange’s network from their offices. Most of the people on the trading floor are representatives of companies that trade for clients and client institutions.

It is all very high-tech but they have examples in the exhibition area of the old trading screens and telephones that used to be used in the old days.

Nivs, the trader

Siyanda, the stock exchage trader

On our way to our meeting at the Rotary Club of Hong Kong, we passed some demonstrators outside a bank in the financial district.

Apparently because of the severe financial crisis, people have lost a lot of money and they are blaming the banks, holding slogans up calling the banks liars and devils. It is all very orderly, no toyi-toying. We could teach them how to get some rolling mass-action going, man.

Lunch at the Hong Kong Rotary Club was great. It is the first and oldest Rotary Club in Hong Kong having been chartered in 1931. It’s President, Patrick Lam, is a delightful man who has invited me to play golf with him before we go back to SA. Can’t wait, that will be something in Hong Kong! I don’t know if they allow handicaps as high as mine in Hong Kong though.

The Club meets in an very exclusive place – the Hong Kong Banker’s Club and has many ex-patriates as members. One of the Club members is my home host, Sandra Logan. She is the Chief Executive Officer of a large insurance business and a really delightful, friendly and knowledgeable person. We heard a delightful speech by Dr. Robert Cautherly whose family have been trading in China and Hong Kong for 200 years. He traced their history and told us really interesting stuff about the old trading days when his forebears, the great trading family the Heard’s, had been the backbone of East-West trade in the area and when Hong Kong was a tiny port used as a gateway for trade with mainland China.

The Rotarian who thanked the speaker could give Patrick Schultz a lesson in after-dinner thanks. He was a dry, witty Hollander who had us in stitches with his thanks. He said he had never heard of the “Heards” but was thrilled to hear they had actually existed!

After lunch, we had a free afternoon and I took the opportunity of visiting a shop in Tsim Sha Tsui called Tom Lee Music. It is a music store that has 4 floors with every conceivable music instrument – from Bosendorfer Grand Piano retailing at over HK$ 1,2 million (that’s over R1,5 million, folks) to a chrome-plated Harley-Davidson signature Fender Stratocaster for over HK$ 100,000!! An absolutely amazing store. I drooled and got a chance to sit and play the most fantastic Yamaha Stage Piano for a bit.

A really nice piano for 60,000 dollars!

It’s not Texas, folks, everything is really bigger and better in Hong Kong except the size of the ranches.

A Car with dual-registration - it can operate in Hong Kong and China

MONDAY 16TH - AIR CARGO AND ROTARY PARTY

Today was a muggy, misty day in Hong Kong. We all gathered to attend a Rotary meeting at the Rotary Club of Tsim Sha Tsui which is situated in the really busy tourist shopping area of Kowloon. As with all meetings it was grand, with excellent food. The team was very well received and we had a chance to chat with Rotarians and answer questions about South Africa.

The view from RC of Tsim Sha Tsui's meeting room

After the lunch, Past President Kenneth Chow took us to the Cargo section of Hong Kong International Airport. This was a long trip – all the way from Kowloon to the Airport. The Cargo terminal It is entirely operated by a company called HACTL (Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited). It has over 90 airlines as it’s customers including SAA, and handles all the air cargo in and out of Hong Kong. HACTL actually handles over 250 million tons of cargo per annum.

Jessica Lai of HACTL explains model of cargo terminal to team and PP Kenneth Chow

It occupies an absolutely huge building with 5 storeys of storage space that is all computerised and totally automatic. The best way to describe it is once an item is received, it is allocated a parking bay and giant mechanical arms load it onto a type of trolley and it is carried away and stored in a spot somewhere in the this huge warehouse of racks and shelves where the computer will fetch it when it’s required. We were shown around by the Corporate Communications Officer, Jessica Lai. Very high-tech and fascinating. Outside the building are about 90 parking bays for cargo aircraft – the kind we very rarely see because they always fly in and out of the cargo areas of airports. It’s amazing to see huge 747’s with no windows except at the front with “Cargo” stencilled on the sides.

Cargo Section parking area

After this interesting vocational visit we went back to town to get ready for a meeting of the Rotary Area 6 Spring Dinner at the Hong Kong World Trade Centre. Apparently all the clubs in Area 6 which is central Hong Kong, get together for a dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year. It is a very festive occasion with lots of noise and laughter, competitions and lucky draws.

DG Albert Wong introducing "Chinese Father Christmas" who handed out Chinese New Year Lucky Packets

We also met a very important Rotarian from Rotary International Headquarters who is in Hong Kong for the District Conference as the Rotary International President’s Personal Representative (RIPPR) (whew! another Rotary term). His name is John F. Germ –a past Vice-President of RI and one of the Trustees of the Rotary Foundation. Seeing that GSE is a Rotary Foundation programme it was great to be able to introduce the team to John and his wife Judy. Really nice people, they come from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA (Pardon me, boy………)

One of the competitions of the evening was that people had to guess the weight of 4 people as a group. Two thin and two under-tall Rotarians were selected – one of whom was me, Jonathan. I was definitely the biggest person in the group but to my surprise and delight, a short squat Rotarian named PP Frederick weighed a whole two pounds more than me. Anyway we weighed over 900 lbs collectively, and the prize was won by none other than RIPPR John F. Germ who had correctly guessed our weights. The prize was a very fancy wine which he promptly auctioned off for the Rotary Foundation and raised HK$ 10,000.00. There is lots of cash in HK.

RIPPR John F. Germ supervising the wine bottle auction

It was a great evening – lots of Chinese food – lots of laughter and fellowship. The Rotarians in Hong Kong are very warm and friendly.