National Day - 國慶節

On October 1, 1949 the People's Republic of China was established and later dubbed Nationals Day.

It's full name, National Day of the People's Republic of China, is a public holiday celebrated every October 1st throughout China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Similar to Hawaii's Statehood Day, this holiday allows all students a one day break from school.

There is no specific event or special dish to enjoy on this day so I spent this holiday as if it were another weekend.

In the morning, I did what all good students should do and did my homework.

Then in the late afternoon I went for a little jog with a friend at the Shek Kip Mei Park near the school. Only about a ten minute walk from the Student Residency, the Shek Kip Mei Park contains a playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer court, soccer field, and a little jogging circle.

Different from parks in Hawaii, the little jogging circle also had multiple areas that contained different exercise equipment like a stationary bike, parallel bars, back massager, etc.  Soccer courts are seen everywhere in Hong Kong because one: it is a very popular sport here, and two: soccer fields require too much maintenance (i think).

When jogging in the morning I see a lot of elderly roaming around trying to stay fit and healthy. Starting around 4:00PM is when all the high school and college students come out to jog and/or play some ball because they have just finished school and the sky isn't as sunny anymore.

After a nice run, my friend and I went to Mong Kok together for the first time. Mong Kok is home to not only Ladies Market but also Shoe Street and a lot of street food.

The stalls at Ladies Market sells a lot of cell phone cases, shoes, bags, towels, t-shirts, etc. (all of which can and should be haggled for)

Shoe street is about two blocks long on both sides containing a bunch of athletic shoe stores such as Adidas, Nike, Footlocker, etc. I personally did not spend too much time here because I was not looking to by a new pair of athletic shoes. A lot of the shoes I saw were nice looking, but I wasn't too sure if it would be able to perform well.

For dinner that night I had curry fish balls, shu mai, egg waffles, and milk tea; all of which are street food staples in Hong Kong.