Hong Kong is the most modern city I have ever seen. Everywhere you look on the main island there's a skyscraper of huge proposions and of eccentric design. It's the city of the future without a doubt, and a million miles away from the rest of China. On my return to Tokyo last weekend I was amazed at how old everything looked, the buildings, the metro, even the supermodern area of Shibuya.
The second thing that suprised me about Hong Kong is the amount of shopping malls, and the number of shops in general. This is consumer capital of the world. I have never seen so many shopping malls in my life! And these aren't the cheap and tatty shopping malls you sometimes see. In Hong Kong all were home to shops I wouldn't even enter for fear of having a heart-attack when looking at the price tag. I have no idea how any of these shops make any sort of money at all!
Anyway, I spent a week in Hong Kong with me ole' Mum, seeing the few sights and generally soaking up (or rather forcibly ingesting) the atmosphere and spending money. However, the pass of life appears to be slower that Tokyo and Osaka. It seems a little bit more laidback.
Also I took in the most amazing cityscape I have ever seen - the view from Adam's Peak of Hong Kong. Absolutely breath-taking. We were lucky to see it, however, since the weather was pretty stinking every day. The clouds were low and the rain bucketed down. So the first chance that the weather cleared for a bit we made up way up the peak for the view.
We managed to fit a day trip over to Macau - the old Portuguese settlement, which like Hong Kong has now been given back to the Chinese. Unlike Hong Kong this place seems to survive on one thing, and one thing only - Gambling. The only buildings that seem to have had any sort of renovation are the hotels and gambling casinos, whilst the rest of the city seems to be sinking into dereliction. It's a shame, as the old centre of the city is realy quite beautiful. So hopefully the fact that it has recently been made a world heritage site will mean it will be looked after a bit more from now on.
Cool things to do in Hong Kong:
1. The view of the city at night is breath-taking from the top of Adam's Peak. You also take a cool little tram up to the top passing through rainforest!!
2. Temple Street Night Market - full of complete crap, but complete crap that you are actually tempted to buy. I walked away with some cool T-shirts, leather wallet and lots of omiyage.
3. Stanley - little town at the southern end of Hong Kong island. Felt a bit like being back in Dorset. Complete with little market, with more cheap stuff to buy. Ended up buying a wardrobe full of ties. Nice!
4. Macau - The Portugues architecture is pretty cool (although for Portuguese architecture you might be better off going to Portugal). But being out in Asia for two years, it's nice to get a little bit of European culture in (even though there aren't any Portuguese people living there anymore). We also made a visit to the gargantuan Sands Casino - dancing girls, shady/tired looking men and tastless decor! Yeah boyee. It also meant another stamp in my passport.
5. Harbour City, Kowloon. The biggest shopping mall I have ever seen. A rabbit warren of all things expensive and classy. A shopper's dream/nightmare. Not really sure which.
I have been really crap at keeping this blog recently! I can't give the excuse of being really busy because I haven't been. Although this week it has been quite mad, burning Bento Boys Cd's and printing out the album cover (which has proved to be an extremely arduous task), but at least it is something to do as the kids are sweating out their exams.
wood, very old and falling down. It's also the smallest which means I got to know the kids there relatively well. I've found that the bigger elementary schools it's so difficult to remember even the kids faces (learning all the names is an absolute impossibility).
