Monday morning we had some extra time to take a tour of Hong Kong. First stop was the beach of course. (Which was fairly unexpected for me at least; beaches aren't the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of China.)
A few of us guys decided to swim out to the raft in our shorts, it was pretty warm comparable to Minnesota lakes. We realized after we swam to the raft that there was a shark net not too much further out. At least we knew we were "safe".
Next we were able to take a bus ride to the point to enjoy the view of the city. I was able to snatch a photo of Professor Sobelman on top of the mountain; he showed me this amazing view, so it's fitting I give him credit by taking the picture with him in it.
The ride down was taken by trolly, though a bit on the steep side, the view made up for it. We could see across the whole harbor and all the mountains were visible in the distant background.
To end the day we visited ASTRI (Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute). Although only one photo is up on the blog of the visit, much more was packed into the visit than is shown. Our hosts produce many spin off companies in Hong Kong and their research center is beautiful. It would be an amazing place for a summer internship if one's desired study is more research based. LED power conservation and 3D TVs were projects topics presented to our group lead by students; they were interesting and well executed.
The next morning was a foggy humid rainy overcast day (I'm trying to say it wasn't very cheerful). However, after it rained, it cooled off and the sun came out revealing some of the most breathtaking campus scenery we've seen. HKUST (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) will be turning only 22 years old, but is worldly renown for its academic achievements and beautiful landscape (shown at bottom of the blog post).
We were first given two presentations including the history of HKUST and also micro-needles. It was very interesting and relatable since UMN has an exchange program set up with HKUST and the micro-needle project was carried out by undergraduate students. After the presentations we were able to browse some of their labs including the robotics lab shown above (the robots were getting in their daily exercise).
As shown, the students get quite a bit of natural lighting in their library (they must do it for the electricity costs or something). Hopefully UMN will eventually put in a bay window for our ocean view.
Soccer fields next to the ocean? Seems like pretty irresponsible considering how many balls you'd lose in the water (joking of course). The facilities were unreal and we wished we could have stayed longer and played a quick pick-up game.
A quick picture by the sundial was a must!
