Update from Hong Kong

This is Tim’s update from Hong Kong:
Hong Kong is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The weather this past week has been a bit stormy, hot and humid but a lot has been accomplished.

When I arrived on Tuesday at lunch time, I couldn’t get into my hotel room until late in the afternoon, so I left my luggage and took a taxi to the Stanley Market. It is a beautiful area, and it turned out to be the only somewhat clear weather of the week. The market is famous and so is Repulse Bay, the resort area nearby.

The Area Office
The Area Office in Hong Kong is a high-rise, only a few years old and sits in a prime location on the main thoroughfare in Hong Kong. (note photos on right and left below) It is a combination office building and chapel for several wards, as well as having apartments for the Area Presidency etc. My trip to Hong Kong this time is to meet with the Area Presidency on AV matters and to set up the recording of the triple combination in Cantonese, including finding an appropriate studio and identifying a member who could become the contract producer for the project. This week I was also able to talk extensively with Rick Lee the Area Translation Manager about Translation personnel and upcoming projects.

The Area Presidency
On Wednesday afternoon I had a great two-hour meeting with the Area Presidency: Elders Garn, Hallstrom, and Perkins as well as Terry Oakes, the Director of Temporal Affairs. We discussed the scripture project here, in Cantonese, as well as in Mongolia, Cambodia and the Mandarin Chinese recording in Taiwan. We also talked about all the other projects and AV issues in the Area.

AV Production
Nicole Hui (right) is the Area Production Manager in the Asia Area and has the responsibility to oversee all the AV work here. She is the one taking the lead in finding studios and people. We visited and evaluated several studios in the Hong Kong area. We also traveled to the New Territories to visit a potential producer and the DVD authoring and replication facility. The double-decker bus trip with Nicole and Joe Khan through Kowloon north to Yeung Long during rush hour Friday evening was quite an experience. I returned back via the HK Metro (subway) system.

Changing Itinerary
We learned this week that Joseph is getting finished earlier than we had planned in Qingdao so we needed to rearrange all our travel plans. Vivien Poon (on left) is the Area Travel Manager and a good friend, she used to be the Area AV Manager before being re-assigned. She was such a big help. It seems like we have friends all over the world, wherever the Church is.

Macau
Saturday I took a day off and traveled by ferry to Macau, a small country close to Hong Kong and adjoining Mainland China. At one time it was an important Portuguese colony, then the Dutch had a major influence. Visiting the historical sites and the museum was very interesting. Macau has recently had mega millions invested by Las Vegas gambling moguls and is the hub of gambling in Asia, with new casinos going up everywhere like in Vegas. The Chinese have a long tradition of gambling, so with the new wealth in China, Macau is filled with Chinese tourists. It is quite the cultural melting pot.

Next week I am in Taiwan working on the Mandarin scriptures recording.