Busy, clean, colourful, high.... It's a very clean city – cleaners out all the time sweeping the street often wearing masks – no litter. I initially thought that people didn't seem to enjoy their jobs but after getting to know them, perhaps they are just not morning people (after all they stay up very late into the early morning) but they are highly efficient, well organised (none of the bus trips were late picking us up – though we were the first to get on the bus each time - and we saw lots of school children walking in double file with their socks pulled up and their shirts tucked in).It’s a city of contrasts and after a very early breakfast in the hotel we took to the streets to have a decko at the markets. It was a bit early for them – they didn’t open till 10, or maybe 11, or possibly 12 (after being open most of the night I gather). We wandered down Ladies Street, Sports Street, Electronics Street and to the Fish Street (the latter the lady in the hotel said we would enjoy seeing – she was wrong!!!! There was shop after shop after shop selling gold fish (I guess there isn’t much scope for other pets in such a crowded place – though we did see one dog and a few ginger cats during our weekend and a few strays). These little fish were either in very overcrowded tanks or swimming 4 abreast in little plastic bags of water not much bigger than the sandwich bags you can buy in the supermarket. We did see signs about fines for cruelty to animals but not in that street! Harry bought a flash drive, and me a pair of running trousers (not that I am going to run) and then we went back to the hotel for a rest from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong life. Having not a lot of time we decided to do Hong Kong by bus tours and spent the next day and a half on buses, boats and eating in restaurants. We noticed that the central area is very congested with taxis, buses, some private cars and trucks. Anyway, Hong Kong is into colours – red is for happiness, gold for power and prestige and green for wealth and prosperity. So, these are the colours that seem to be everywhere (except most apartment blocks are shades of white I guess for practical reasons). Red – the colour I never wear if likely to be in a confrontational situation as I have always thought it envokes anger. Well, in the Hong Kong culture it signifies happiness. So, it is all over - on shop signs, signs for womens toilets (men were blue), decorations in the temples, ethnic clothing, taxis on Hong Kong Island, road work signs, road closure signs. Gold – the colour that once only emperors could wear and their temples could be painted. Now it is everywhere – the buddhas, on the shop signs, on clothes, yellow and red chrysanths and dahlias everywhere. Green – the colour of the trees and the gardens. Although very densely populated there is plenty of greenery, although unfortunately not where the multitude live in small apartments in clusters of tall buildings. The harbour, thought to be up there with SanFrancisco (although in our opinion not a patch on Auckland, Wellington or Sydney) is lovely, well lit in the evenings but inaccessible from most of the apartments that are built around the shores. No places for cycling, roller blading, wandering from home for a Sunday morning brunch – except in the area by the centre where the tourists stay. Even the stickers that we needed to wear to show what bus trip we were on where gold, green and red (some other tours got sun hats so we will choose them next time). We thought we were over the stickers and being labelled after the tours but at the airport Air New Zealand staff also gave us a sticker so that if the gate changed they could recognise us and tell us to go somewhere else!!
There are fines for everything including spitting into rubbish bins and drains, throwing rubbish into wicker baskets (we never could find out what the baskets were for once we found out not to put our rubbish in them), smoking in public loos etc.The other word that describes Hong Kong for me is ‘height’. The tallest building is 88 stories high – soon to be overtaken by one with 118 stories. 8 is the lucky number and 4 the unlucky one so if you own real estate on a floor with a 4 you are very likely to have bought it cheap and have some difficulty in selling it at a market price that other floors will go for. 4 means death and with a 1, 2 or 3 added to the 4 seems to mean that the death become more traumatic as the numbers go up. We couldn’t believe that most families live in these apartments (most are around 200 to 500 square feet – that’s about the size of our kitchen and dining room) and it made us appreciate both the home we have in New Zealand and the little terraced house we live in in Bristol.
Superstition seems to run fairly rife and there is one building that when viewed from an angle (designed by a well known architect) looks like the sharp edge of a knife. It is the home of the Bank of China. A CE wouldn't stay in his company apartment because it looked out on the building. The HSBC not far away also viewed it as a threat and so placed 2 cannons on the roof of their sky scraper pointed at the Bank of China. It has become quite a talking point. Lots of buildings compete for ‘best lit’ and many take part in an evening light and laser extravaganza that takes place every night. And did you know a dragon lives on the hill and a rather large building was erected with a hole in the middle to allow the dragon to continue to protect the residents of the bay (so it isn’t just taniwha that get special treatment). I didn't know you could get friendly dragons (except of course Puff).
Hong Kong will be hosting the Olympic Equestrian events later on this year. They are proud of their racing heritage passed on by the English. The 2 race courses hosts 2 race meetings a week and the horses enjoy air conditioned stalls and 2 months off every summer (while most employees only seem to get 14 days annual leave). The race courses are private non profit and give their gains to either gamblers or to charities (like the park that now has 4 pandas living happily there). To save space the horses run around a few tennis courts and sports fields.The people are proud of their local businesses (clothing, electronics, jewellery are three of the main exports – with tourism being a good money earner as well). We visited a jewellery manufacturer with some very impressive and expensive jewellery but we still get quite put off by the salesman not leaving us alone to browse. It is obviously a cultural thing again – but I am sure I would buy more if I could look in peace. The other thing that seems to be a nagging theme – is get your photo taken – even in this day and age of digital photos there is a real drive to have your photo taken and put on a plate with Hong Kong written around it. Admittedly the guy who seemed to be attached by his camera to the bus trips did take some quite good photos and we ended up buying one (but not the plate!!). We are also proud of some of the photos we have taken – though the smog does play a little bit with the clarity of them – but that reflects life in Hong Kong and China. It’s interesting seeing well known PRADA,Gucci, Levi, Body Shop, NOKIA, Marks and Spencers sitting quite comfortably alongside Cantonese businesses that sell local products (meats, fish bladders, clothing, watches, pearls and so on).
For both of us I think that the highlight was the trip to Lantau Island. Once home to only a few residents enjoying the green hills, walks and beaches the new airport was built and 10% of the Hong Kong population moved in to Lantau's newly built apartment blocks. A shock for the residents!! Traffic is controlled by only residents and businesses based on the island allowed to drive there. That means you have to change taxis (from red to blue) if travelling to the island from somewhere else, but it you are travelling to the airport you can stay in the red. Overnight, property values skyrocketed and now children left derelict houses by dead relatives are enjoying sitting on little gold mines. We couldn’t resist paddling in the south China Sea and wandering the golden beach (where you weren’t allowed to smoke, play ball or throw a discus, fly a kite, park a bike, fish, throw sand or stones but you could swim even though the shark net was down for maintenance).
We went to a little fishing village Tai O – it used to be a bustling town – but due to over fishing (the lobsters we saw would have been thrown back in NZ) the population has now declined to about 1800 and with about 70% of the population over 65 it looks as though it will close down in about four years we were told. The villagers lived on stilt houses with tarpaulin roof – allows for indoor outdoor flow I guess and some televisions were spied sitting on card board boxes (I did wonder about possibility of electrocution). It didn’t look like an enviable life and we wondered how they made a living until we walked passed a money machine in the middle of the stalls – ah tourists - that's us. There was one building called Tai O Liquor Store (the Chinese name for accommodation and food) but long since used for other things. Saw 2 lovely little authentic temples and some lovely smiling villagers. The little shops sold lots of interesting goods - most we had no idea what they were for - however, we did find out that the fish bladder once dried forms a gelatine for soups etc - guess that is the 'gluggy' material we often have in chicken and corn soup. Then onto the Buddha – which I can't really say much about –built in the 1990’s as a tourist attraction he stands 37 metres high and overlooks the valley and the temple below. Inside the exhibition centre we saw fragments of bones of the real Buddha and learnt a little bit about the history of Buddhism. Then onto the temple for lunch where we thought we would eat vegetarian food silently as monks strolled past in prayer like stance. Well – think again – busy busy – huge tourist attraction – hundreds of people, nice meal but in a huge restaurant catering for bus trips. Saw 2 monks (one talking on a cell phone) and there was no request to be quiet in the temple. Then on to the gondola for a 5.7 kilometre ride down the hill and back to the airport. Impressive – seeing an airport from up above – looked like little dinky toys moving around – and below a harbour at low tide with people wading into catch we presume shell fish.
We were lucky to enjoy 2 Chinese meals, one vegetarian and one at the floating restaurant. Both, though lovely, lacked the spices and curries that I was hoping the Chinese would use (thinking of Hot Beef in Chilli Sauce from our local Chinese takeaway in Johnsonville). I’m not sure, but they may have catered for the English taste. While sitting at the harbour one night waiting for the laser and light show three young girls came up asking if we would answer a survey. They were researching the differences between European eating habits and Chinese and asked me what I usually ate for lunch ‘rice, noodles, red meat, fish, vegetables or other’. When I said sandwich, they didn’t know what it was (my accent perhaps)– I could have said bagel, baguette, salad, to confuse it even further but decided to say ‘bread’ which they understood.
We have only ever been to Singapore and Hong Kong in Asia. Both are very European with English widely spoken. Our trip to Hong Kong has probably whetted our appetite to see more of the real Asia rather than the touristy bits and we just might like to walk some of the Wall of China at some stage – what an adventure that would be.
6.00 saw us back at the airport...I got hauled up by security as my hand luggage included something they couldn’t identify through the scanning machine. Oh yes, I was taking back a birthday present from friends for their son – beautifully wrapped. The customs officer apologised, carefully unwrapped it, looked at it, and then carefully wrapped it back up even adding cellotape. Never thought about that question ‘have you packed your own bags’ but at least our friends told us what was in the present.
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