Chinese Confession - Hong Kong

One of my lifelong dreams finally became a reality. For more years than I can count I have wanted to go to Hong Kong. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to finally be able to go. I had heard great things about the city and entertained even more spectacular visions of what it would be like to be there. Finally I would be able to see if it measures up to all of the hype. As high as my expectations were, I think it is pretty safe to say that it even beat those.

Hong Kong has almost everything that I could possibly hope for in a city. It’s lively, vibrant, affluent, not too prohibitively expensive (unlike NYC or London), extremely international, clean, modern, and orderly. It has amazing architecture, with some of the most widely recognized skyscrapers in the entire world. As land is extremely scarce, it is incredibly dense, easily rivaling Manhattan Island. In fact, much of the flat land where the buildings stand has actually been reclaimed from the ocean. Majestic, rocky mountains set a beautiful back drop that offers a unique contrast with such an urban environment, and a deep-water harbor welcomes both small ferries and massive ocean vessels.

When darkness falls, the lights bath the city in a dazzling, energetic glow. Every night at 8:00pm, you can stand at the edge of the harbor in Kowloon and listen as music is played overhead and the skyscrapers on both sides of the harbor come to life and offer a light show unmatched anywhere else in the world. Synchronized with the music, the lights dance and streak across the sky, meeting each other in the middle, while stationary lights on the building flicker and change color, offering free entertainment for the millions who come every year to see it.

Above this spectacle, on the peak of Hong Kong Island, is an observation deck that offers a breathtaking, unobstructed view of all of Hong Kong. As you stand there and gaze out over the magnificent eye candy before you, you truly see just how beautiful, dense, colorful, and dazzling the city really is. The lights reflect off the water of the harbor below as yachts and ocean liners make their way through. Stargazing is definitely out of the picture here.

If you want to find a quiet, uncrowned beach where you can take a swim in the warm, water of the Pacific Ocean, you can easily find that on the South side of Hong Kong Island in Stanley, or venture of to one of the many other beaches elsewhere around the city. The climate is very warm, with temperatures jumping well into the 100s at times in the summer and dipping into the 50s in the winter. So, if you are dreaming of a white Christmas, you had best look elsewhere. If, however, you dislike the whole of winter like I do, from the biting cold winds to scraping frost off of your windshield in the early morning before the sun rises, then Hong Kong offers a wonderful refuge. In fact, you don’t even need a car. The public transportation system on the island is so good that getting around is a breeze. Double decker buses, innumerable cabs, subway lines, ferries, and trams can take you anywhere you need to go. The prices are quite reasonable as well, which is more than can be said for the Lamborghini dealership which was mere blocks away from our hotel. But if you do want to drive your car, be prepared to not feel too wealthy. Mercedes and BMWs are as common as Toyotas, Nissans, and Hondas in the United States.

Overall I would say that prices in Hong Kong rival those in the United States on average. A decent meal in a restaurant will cost about US$10, which was definitely a transition from the US$1 to US$2 I have been paying in Shanghai. The variety is amazing though. Do you want authentic Indian food? How about Turkish, American, French, Italian, English, German, Vietnamese, Korean, or Japanese? Hong Kong has it all, and it is readily and abundantly available.

One of the most enjoyable things for me was the availability of information. English bookstores were easy to come by. News and internet content is unfiltered, which means you are free to spend as much time on flickr, blogspot, or BBC.com as you would wish. For the first time since I have been in Asia, I felt like I was truly free to say what I really thought about things and didn’t have the feeling that there was a government hovering over me, watching my every move. Perhaps this was a mere delusion, but it was a welcome feeling nonetheless.

Beneath the glimmer of Hong Kong, however, lies a culture and environment that, since the 1800s, has developed a unique fusion of Chinese and European style. It does have some similarities with Chinatowns in America. Still, there is no place in the world quite like it.

So what is my impression of Hong Kong now that I spent five wonderful days there? If Shanghai is the pearl of the orient, then Hong Kong is the diamond.