Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1994 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

November 21, 1994

First Impressions of Hong Kong

How Many Rolls Royce Can be Crammed Into a Single City?

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Hong Kong, China, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

Last week I had the great opportunity to go to Hong Kong on business to kick off a project that involved our company with HIT, Hong Kong's International Terminal. A real pleasure. This trip brought many "firsts" and was guaranteed to be exciting. Among the few "firsts" that immediately pop into my mind are: my first time in Asia, my first time on the upper level of a 747/Mega Top, first time that the hotel bill exceeded $200 a night, and first time frog legs for dinner.

Like the average traveller I started the trip preparation not until I was sitting in the plane somewhere over Japan. When I started reading the introduction to Hong Kong in my travel guide, I had to chuckle. The third paragraph read "The key to Hong Kong's existence, however, remains the port. Here the world's busiest container terminal, with the very latest automation systems, handles a major share of China's trade as well as the huge shipments of Hong Kong textiles, electronics, toys, watches, and other goods -- and it does it 24 hours a day." So, that would make me a key to the key to Hong Kong's existence. What exhilarating.

Right after arrival at the airport I learned two lessons. Hong Kong, or HK from now on, is a well organized and well prepared city. It's easy to find the way around the airport, clear signs make finding places such as information, money changers, and customs simple. Free leaflets with important tourist info are readily available and even all choices of how to get from the airport to hotels are listed with the approximate prices given. Finding the appropriate form of transportation becomes a snap. Clearly, HK which makes $1.2 billion each year from tourism is well prepared for the continuous stream of visitors. HK does a lot to make them feel welcome and it is noticeable. The second lesson I learned while still being at the airport is that, although HK is often praised for its efficiency, bureaucracy exists. The custom lines move terribly slowly. I have no clue what they due but processing a single person takes a lot of time.

Once out of the airport I hopped on a cab to downtown and was shocked by the hotel price. $200 a night. But it comes with all the fancy services such as a bell boy who carries your bag to the room. I hate that actually; how lazy can you get that you can't carry your suit case? The hotel was in the Central District. From there I started exploring the city on foot. I have never seen so many Mercedes in a single city. Even worse every 5 minutes a Rolls Royce drives by you. What a filthy rich city! I am serious. So much wealth is hard to comprehend. Even days later I would still shake my head in disbelieve. My brain can just not comprehend that wealth. The pollution was easier to comprehend but equally obvious and ubiquitous. The air pollution is pretty bad from all the traffic and the dust from all the continuously ongoing constructions. Even though during the time I was there a nice little breeze was making life easier I still wouldn't call HK's air any better than that of Mexico City. But pollution doesn't stop at the air, the water is equally polluted. While parks and recreational areas are clean many beaches have empty bottles and all sorts of other trash floating in it. The government is trying to improve the situation by putting ad spots on TV promoting recycling and a greener environment. A spot where a piece of paper thrown out of the window of a parked car jumps back into the face of the offender has won an award for best commercial. Similar HK is running a whole series of really well made commercials suggesting to leave the car at home and to take public transportation. I have expected the worst traffic congestions based on stories from my friends but it didn't turn that bad. The traffic is not worse then rush hour traffic in LA. The air, however, is much worse than that in LA. But not everything is bad when it comes to environmental conditions. Recycling seems to be catching on and due to a lack of resources or the lessons learned from the lack of resources in the past reuse is popular, and one person's trash can become the next person's treasure. The streets are surprisingly clean and there are hefty fines for littering and smoking in smoke-free zones. Due to the little rubbish, streets always look safe and inviting even at night.

HK Island is an island connected with the mainland (Kowloon and the New Territories) through tunnels and ferry services that is populated primarily in the N, NE, and S. The populated spots are covered with high rises. Business offices as well residential areas consist of these narrow but tall buildings. 60 story residential houses are not unusual. I am not sure why they are so narrow and short when looked at the cross section. Instead of one big building they would build 4 narrow ones really close together so that you can spit from one building to the other. It's also very puzzling to a foreigner like me that hardly any cranes are used during construction. Smalls lifts are used instead. Overall very simple tools and methods are used. Here in California they use helicopters to place the big air conditioning units into the center of buildings. The frames build to work on the outside of structures are made out of bamboo in HK. Another unbelievable sight. Bamboo frameworks more than a hundred yards tall are common. The individual sticks are held together with pieces of wire or strings. It seems to work, but it's scary for people who grew up to see these frameworks made solely of sturdy iron pipes connected with solid metal braces. These high rises make real canyons in which I wandered around. The business offices are usually shiny glass structures reflecting the sunshine during daytime and the artificial light at night. The residences are mostly shabby looking, grayish dirty with air conditioning units hanging from the windows. Laundry is hanging from many windows and ropes are connecting many windows in neighboring buildings for that purpose. Iron bars on windows are commonplace too. A sad sight.

No matter if you are there for business or fun. It is always easy to get around and to express yourself. All signs are bi-lingual. Cantonese and English. British English that is. So, it's "centre" and not "center". "Lorry" and "tractor" instead of "truck". 1st floor instead of 2nd floor. And when the sign reads "subway", don't get confused. This is not a subway station but a walkway to cross under a street. Pronunciation is British too which adds some extra nice flair. Due to the fact that everything is in English and most people speak English I didn't learn much Cantonese. My Cantonese vocabulary is exactly 4 words strong: Thank you, money, four, terminal. Shame on me. Older people sometimes speak no English. So, when you are at a market or restaurant away from the beaten path get ready to start pointing. Also cab drivers often don't speak English which makes addresses written in Cantonese helpful. With all that tourism I met many people speaking German. Usually I would bump into groups of 20 Germans or more. Mandarin is a another language frequently encountered. Spanish, spoken by the Filipinos, is also wide spread.

People are always friendly. I haven't met a single rude or unfriendly person throughout my 9 day stay. Some car or truck drivers might run you over while you are crossing the street but other than that they are charming. They are helpful whenever you ask them and they are tolerant when you do something wrong like entering the wrong line (I guess I should use the term "queue" here instead of "line"). A local habit that I noticed that might be consider impolite is that as soon as the subway doors open people rush in before given people room to leave first. You just have to get used to that. All races live peacefully next to each other. That should give us hope that maybe after all we can coexist without domination and race clashes. I couldn't notice much of a segregation but I am sure it exists even there. The main groups are Australians, British, Chinese, Filipinos, Taiwanese, and New Zealanders. Religions cover Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Moslems. The world's tallest outdoor bronze statue is on the island of Lantau. On the island of Cheung Chau you can find 200 year old Taoist temples and in downtown Kowloon you'll find a mosque. The christian cathedrals are used by the Filipinos who originally got converted by the Spanish a long long time ago. If you want to enjoy some Christian music you don't even have to go as far as a church; just stop by the plaza in front of the Hong Kong Bank headquarters. Every day hundreds of Filipinos meet there and usually they hang out there all Sunday for chats, a picnic, and some spiritually motivated singing.

The dress code varies. In Central most business people dress in a dark suite, and women in attractive suites as well or in short skirts. Black seems to be a favorite color of women. Currently, the female fashion fad is black leather pseudo-military boots with either short skirts or lose black bell bottom pants. But no matter what the women wear they are all quite attractive. Walking down the street is a visual joyride. The reputation of the famous Singapore Girl from the airline with the same name describes a vast portion of the female population accurately.

Mobile, mobile, mobile. HK people like gadgets and flexibility. One out of 20 has a mobile phone. That's the world's second largest percentage. Phones and pagers go off left and right wherever you are. You can be yards under the ocean floor in the subway and the phone of the guy next to you will go off. They put transmitters into the subway system so that literally every square inch of HK is covered. Phone costs are high though. Not to mention the $4 surcharge that I had to pay for phone calls from the hotel. Quite a ripoff. Walkman is another item that everyone carries.

Since I am from Austria I always pay attention to find something coming from my homeland. It wasn't hard. The silverware in the canteen for managers was Berndorf from Austria. On StarTV they ran the "Rock Me Amadeus" video clip from Falco and as always Swarovsky crystal can be found worldwide in any souvenir shop. Talking about shopping, big shopping malls are spread all over the city. I heard that during the humid summer time they are a favorite air conditioned hangout. From fashion to watches everything is on sale. I haven't necessarily found that the items are particularly cheap. Electronic items seem to be equally cheap or expensive as in the US. Smaller outdoor or indoor markets are more exciting than these US-style malls. Some markets focus on a particular product; e.g. there is a meat market and a vegie market. Other markets sell any kind of stuff from flea market items to toys, socks, traditional drugs such as herbs, and so on. The traditional drugs are strange to westerners. Deer horn, illegal tiger penis, and many other items. One night I was strolling around in the northern part of Temple St. close to Market St. Live snakes, rabbits, and chicken are sold there like in several other places. That is not unusual, but two guys were taking live snakes including cobras, played with them to show how aggressive they are, then one took a pair of pliers and ripped the teeth out of the snake. Later he punctured the snakes and pressed some innards out of the snake. I am not quite sure what it was but it might have been the bladder. He continued by ripping the innards out of the snake, washing it with water, cutting it open and pooring the dark green liquid into a small bottle which he then sold to bystanders for $40. On occasions he would pour it into a glass, add some other oily looking liquid and sell it as a drink. I should have tried it. After the whole process the snake was still alive and crawling around. So, to have more fun he would chop the head off and then both pieces would continue to move around vividly on the street. On one instance he crushed the snake's head by biting into it breaking the bones. It sure is an interesting part of the culture.

During the evening hours food vendors offer their wares on the street. You can buy pretty much everything from street vendors. The mangos were the best I ever had, really sweet and full of flavor. They also had several types of mangos. The star fruits were so-so. The different banana types were good but didn't knock me out of my socks. The unusual drinks included soy milk variations, jelly grass drinks, crunchy water chestnut drinks, and other stuff I never had. I tried them all without regret. My favorite desert became the banana rice cake made out of sticky rice powder, sugar and banana oil. Delicious. I also found some food that I didn't like: The next time I'll stay away from the crispy egg cake. It's just way too sweet. Most of these street vendors close up at 10pm. Supermarkets seem to stay open till midnight. Supermarkets are always small places cram packed with items up to the ceiling. The selection is limited. Three to four types of breads or cereals, that's it. Most of the food is more expensive than in the US. Restaurants are more expensive too. $30 barely covers dinner in a good restaurant. Once we had a $50 per person dinner. An okay price considering we had frog legs. Certain food vendors offer simple dishes dirt cheap. In the suburbs you can get a noodle dish for less than $1. It is served in a small plastic bag with two oversized tooth picks which become chopsticks. The portion is big and due to the high amount of oil the dish is very filling. Try some of the food along Bowling St. or Kings Road. With a single exception I had dinner from these street vendors and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

My nightly adventures brought me into many suburbs such as Aberdeen, famous for the junks, the dirty water, and the restaurants in the middle of the bay surrounded by water. Other trips showed me North Point, Yau Ma Tai, and Chai Wan. I felt always safe, even when I was by myself. In no way would I walk around in New York City like this. Homeless people exist. There are not that many, but along Shanghai St. and near Ferry Rd. are several dozen. Panhandling is unheard of. Unlike San Francisco where you can't walk for a quarter mile without being ask for money and cursed at if you don't give any, nobody will bug you here. Some means of transportation stop at midnight. The subway, tram, and busses are operational past midnight. So getting home should never be hard.

The weather was perfect. The temperatures were in the 80s. Daytime temperatures were warm to slightly hot but not humid. So, were the evenings. A shirt was perfect to stay outdoors till midnight. No rain ever but a nice breeze refreshed one (assuming the air pollution was at a tolerable level). It's very cool to stretch on a chair on the open deck of a ferry boat and let the air blow through your hair while you enjoy the HK's skyline. Both HK and Kowloon have a unique skyline. From my hotel room I could see over to Kowloon which is dominated at night by the gigantic Motorola neon sign. In the bay you'd see busy ferries go back and forth, British military ships patrolling, and junks dumping rocks into the bay 24 hours a day to reclaim land.

Among the well known sights that are described in each tour guide are the Man To temple in Central, The Peak, and the Rolls Royce fleet of the Mandarin Oriental and the Peninsula Hotel. They are all worth checking out. In particular the steep tram ride to the top of the Peak is interesting. Once on top, there are trails from which you can view all of HK Island. One trail is rather short, 20 minutes, from where you can view the eastern regions. The other trail is 45 min long and gives glorious peeks of south, west and north HK Island. Sunset is of course the best time to do this leisurely hike. You can then watch the sun settle behind other smaller islands and watch how the city turns into an ocean of lights. Doing this hike also shows you that not all of HK is high rises. Here many acres are untouched, covered with semi-tropical trees and bushes. If HK wants to grow beyond its current 6 million inhabitants then there is obviously still room for it. It's nice to see that there are still getaways left were one can recreate.

HK has more easily accessible getaways. HK Park and the Zoological Garden are the best examples. All are free and well used. On weekends tons of people go there to relax and to be surrounded by green. The Park really fascinated me. The aviary is true magic. Once you enter this outdoor aviary you are in the midst of a tropical jungle. Birds surround you and their chirping stirs your senses. The air is fresh and you can walk around the tree tops on an elevated path. At the same time you are circled by the skyscrapers with their glittering facades. A spectacle. To me anyway. The Park is also the favorite place for wedding pictures. Brides and grooms flock the Park on weekends. In the evening it's a cozy place for lovebirds to snuggle.

Another highlight to me were the live Chinese opera performances at the intersection of Temple and Market. Nearby you can also watch people play mah-yong at a lightning speed. A treat by itself.

If you want to get out of the city take a ferry to one of the islands. I spent a day in Lantau and a day in Cheung Chau. Lantau is bigger than HK Island but only has 17000 people. Since most people are Buddhists, cows and bulls are considered holy animals. They roam around freely. On occasions they go through trash cans on the search for food. Lantau is famous for the world's largest outdoor bronze Buddha statue. But there is more to the island. It's a paradise for hikers with a variety of trails. It also has beaches and fishing villages. The main beach in Silvermine Bay remindered me of Santa Monica. There is a boardwalk, bike rental places, food vendors, and lovers watch the waves roll in. The water, however, is not attractive to say the least. Bottles and garbage is floating around. Most of the island visitors take the bus to the Buddha statue. It is 100 feet tall and you'll see it 20 minutes before you even get there. It shows up dominating the hill right when you pass the prison. Right next to the statue is a monastery that is quite commercial and visited by thousands of people each weekend. You will not find any peace there. A strong scent of incense sticks is in the air. Religious music pours from some speakers somewhere. Equally famous as the statue is the vegetarian meal that is served in the monastery refectory. Thousands of people get fed there. Don't miss it. For $9 you get to enjoy a classic meal in a great setting. There are more than a hundred tables so even finding your assigned seat is fun. The meal consists of soup, white rice, egg rolls, mushrooms, togan, and vegies. It's a filling meal and I stuffed myself. Afterwards people get their fortune/future read by picking a stick with a number from a bundle of sticks in a cup. A religious act, not like the fortune cockies in the US. This Po Lin (Precious Lotus) Monastery is a tourist attraction. If you want to see a more idyllic monastery you need to walk about an hour on the trail that passes by the horse stable and the restaurant. There you'll find the Po Lan Zen Monastery and I nearly missed it because I was about to turn around when I finally spotted the bell tower. It seems to be a self sufficient monastery growing its own food. Monks are dressed in simple grey. The roof of the temple is impressively decorated. And of course, since it's an hour from the nearest bus station and road not too many people make it there. On one of the gates miles before the monastery I found the following inscription "To the great monk Sing Wai there is no time what memory". I am still puzzling over it. If you figure it out, let me know.

The second island I visited is Cheung Chau. It's a tiny island with 30,000 people making it the second most populated island after HK. It started out as a fishing village and still has a well run fish market where you can buy everything from eels to shrimp, clams, and lobsters. The island is covered with trails. One runs all around the island. I did the whole round-trip in about 4 hours. You can figure out how small the island is. Again, the main attractions are the markets near the ferry, the temples, and the caves. The big beaches are all polluted and not very inviting. Due to the strong breeze wind surfing is popular here. If you look hard enough you can actually find small clean beaches that are surprisingly attractive and a visual joy. In between the trails lead through small patches of woods and pass by some residential luxury apartments. The caves are not worth talking about: They are simply a 50 yard tunnel through some rocks. People on the island seem to follow a slower lifestyle compared to those in HK. In summary, it's another nice getaway to leave the smoggy concrete canyons behind.

There are more things to do in HK such as taking a train to the New Territories and to the Chinese border or to take a hydro foil boat to Macao. I didn't expect to cover everything in a week. There are still plenty of places left to see when I get back to HK the next time. I am already looking forward to it.