Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Instead of trying to produce the above all too long name, one could do as every one here and call it simply “HKUST” (for those interested, you’ll find their web page at http://www.ust.hk). This post will act as a short introduction to my visit in Hong Kong and to this travelblog (those who read Swedish can read Claes post about it).

First, some basic facts. The flight went from Gothenburg to Helsinki, and from Helsinki to Hong Kong a couple of hours later. The flight time was approximately 1 hour to Helsinki and then approximately 10 hours to Hong Kong. The waiting time was 6 hours (but that time passed very fast thanks to beginning it by having a snack with a very nice and cute Finnish girl, Maija). I slept for 1 hour during the whole trip (hooray!) and the jet-lag was clearly noticeable.

The airport was fantastic – giant halls in steel and glass and everywhere polite chinese airport employees. The views on the chaotic cab drive from the airport was undescribable (and unfortunately, I don’t have photos to prove it… you just have to go and see for yourselves). But to summarize it – windling freeways, loads of highrises, beautiful green mountains, a giant harbour, etc. The complete combination of nature and artificiality.

I’ll spare you the administrative details we had to go through at the university (but we were much surprised of how quickly it was done). I’ll just throw in some pictures which might atleast give a hint of how it really is (more images can be found at Claes page above until I’ve installed a thumbnail function here):