Dear Family,

Here are some pictures from Hong Kong. I have had email difficulties (I learned that Hong Kong government blocked outgoing emails from "socket 25" due to spam problems and got it resolved with tech help from the USA) until today when all is resolved. Also, there has been so little time I haven't found the space to upload this to my blog with photos (took me so long last time to do that) - so I'm just dumping a bunch of photos on you again.

The photos have titles to explain a little about what is going on.

Hong Kong is a place with 1/4 the land of Sonoma County and 17 times the population. Some photos will give the scale of density in the way people live in high rise apartments - old and newer.

The Johnson's "home" is an upscale apartment on the 30th floor of an apartment building that overlooks the ocean on the south side of Hong Kong Island. We ride a bus to town that would give my mother a heart attack. The branches of trees scrape and slap the sides and top of the bus. It's a double decker and we ride on the top. Going in to town the first time Elaine sat us up top on the left and at the front. Only inches, and I mean INCHES, from the outside window is a short wall and the sheer drop-off to the ocean hundreds of feet below. There is often not enough room for two buses but the drivers try to set speed records anyway. It's crazy. The crowds downtown at rush hour are something to behold. Perhaps Japan is worse.


The first day here, Elaine took us walking to the nearest town where we shopped and gawked; then on a bus to downtown Hong Kong where she proceeded to try to kill me by walking all over town - almost 7miles of up and down and my feet didn't like it. The next day, Kaaren and I braved the place on our own - took a tour ferry around the bay between Hong Kong and Kowloon, then did some shopping and arranged for a tailor made suit for me.

The church and temple are built vertically in a land sparse environment. Some pictures of the exteriors are enclosed.
We visited the temple yesterday and I served as a witness to baptisms happening in Mongolian for a group of Mongolian Elders and Sisters just leaving on their missions - back to Mongolia. They looked just like the Chinese to me, but they could only communicate with the help of a Mongolian missionary returned recently from his mission in Western US. The temple president - native Hong Kong Chinese - was very busy trying to keep things organized but it was difficult and I appreciated the frustration of trying to administer the ordinances of the temple in a multi-cultural environment. It reminded me of the time Immo Luschin, my German friend, told me that when he became the Temple president of the Swiss Temple, the Fins and Swedes wept when they heard their ordinances performed in their own language for the first time (he was fluent in 9 languages).

The open markets in the side streets are very colorful and the stuff for sale boggles the mind. With more time, I'll describe some of the variety of produce and meat and fish and all those parts of animals that we would not like to consider are sold here. Note the picture advertising chicken foot soup, a favorite. We stopped for lunch at a place where they couldn't explain what we were going to be served so I thought - that's good, lets eat here. A photo of Kaaren's lunch is attached. We bought some fabulous jewelry and things for gifts (oops, forget that part) at the famous "Jade Market" in Kowloon.

There is great economic disparity in this town. There is a massive work force that lives very modestly, but Hong Kong is a center of trading and where money is made, that money can make more money and so there is vast wealth all around us. There are almost no small cars, and in the parking garages in this complex and others like it there are new Mercedes, BMWs and Audis. Toyota is less common. I have seen no Chinese cars and almost no birds to speak of. A few wild dogs live in the hills near us and they come into town to forage in the garbage.

Hong Kong money is "dollars" but there are about 8 Hong Kong dollars for every American dollar.

I spent some time before we left listening to Chinese CDs and reading a teach-yourself Chinese book. But, alas, they were Mandarin whereas in Hong Kong only Cantonese is spoken and it's quite different.

We are leaving for Beijing in the morning and perhaps I will recognize some Mandarin there.

I don't know what my email connection will be like in Beijing. So this may be it for a while. The vonage phone I left info about is not working at the present time very well. And we will be away from that phone in their apartment for the next 4 days - so in emergency use the other cell phones I passed along earlier. I'm also taking Kaaren's phone to Beijing, just in case it is needed.

We have a full schedule planned for us in Beijing - a trip to the great wall, a trip to see famous acrobats, dinner together, a driver and translator for the entire 4 days, a visit to the LDS services in Beijing on Sunday, etc. etc.

Take care and let us know how things are going with you. Our prayers are with you and all your needs, including especially at this time Jared and his final push through chemo.

love,

Dad