By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China.

After 17 hours of flying, and four hours of sitting at the airport, we finally made our way into Hong Kong, which is the first stop on the wonderful tour that we are on as the Augustana basketball team. As we came into Hong Kong at about 1:00 a.m. we saw some sights that none of us could have ever imagined.

One of the first things we learned as we left the airport was that Hong Kong was home to the world’s largest combination (both rail and automobile transportation) bridge. Something small, but an interesting point that Dr. Norm Moline, an Augustana professor of geography who is acting as our de facto tour guide, was able to share with us. Hitting a little closer to home, we also learned that Hong Kong had the most 30-story plus buildings, with something above 500 in the city, than anywhere in the world. Compared to Chicago’s 90 (give or take), that’s quite a few.

We spent today in Hong Kong touring the city, practicing for our games, and having a great time. Not only were we able to see some of the main tourist attractions Hong Kong has to offer, we also got to witness the more subtle places in the city. These are the types of places that many people will never even know about. For instance, we ate lunch at a local restaurant that we would probably never come across regularly. While we all were a bit tentative at the beginning, the food was great, the service was better, and we all came away with a good taste in our mouths.

We had our first practice since getting into China today and it was great. We were able to use the facilities at Hong Kong Baptist University and it’s hard to imagine a more accommodating place. The gym was air-conditioned, we had Nike balls, and it was not that far off from a practice we could expect back in the states. All in all, the reception by the people here in Hong Kong has been phenomenal and our stay here has been the same.

We leave tomorrow for inland China, and will play our first game tomorrow night. It should be a great test for our team as we hope to see where we’re at and how far we’ve come since the end of last year. We all know that we have to compete and work hard. Hopefully we can push through any adversary that may come our way, and learn from the experiences from our upper classmen, especially seniors Dan Rukavina, Dain Swetalla, Oliver Rorer and myself.

Hope all is well in the QCA, and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.