In our quest to explore more of Asia, we have spent a few days in Hong Kong. Since unfortunately, they don’t do our kind of physics there, we did what we normally never do: we took 3 days off and just went on holiday!
While both South Korea and Taiwan seemed somewhat reminiscent of Japan, I found Hong Kong a different pair of shoes. Here’s a collection of my first impressions.
Hong Kong is very dense, and everything grows tall: the cityscape is full of skyscrapers, also the apartment blocks are very tall. Even trams and buses are tall, they are double deckers.
Hong Kong contains both an abundance of sparkling, if almost empty, malls in modern high rises offering all international luxury brands, and bustling Asian-style street markets: the flower market, the pet bird market, the goldfish market, the “ladies’ market” (for sale are clothes, not ladies), the Jade market, you name it.
Hong Kong has a shocking car traffic, and even on a nice day, the sky is never quite clear. Pedestrians live on a different level from the big, busy streets, they travel on footbridges or “skyways”. Despite the traffic, jaywalking is commonly practiced. Pedestrian crossings are governed by two only loosely correlated systems: traffic lights and collective impatience.
Drinking Tea can mean two things in Hong Kong: having an English High Tea at a fancy Western Hotel, or eating Dim Sum at a Chinese tea house. In both cases, the experience is closer to having a full meal than to having a drink.
Both the views from the Peak, Hong Kong island’s highest point, and from a boat in Victoria Harbour are quite stunning. And every night at 8 pm, the whole town puts on a stunning light show: for 15 minutes, all the high rises along the waterfront on both sides of the harbor sparkle to the rhythm of music, in a Symphony of Lights.
Das sieht ja surreal und phantastisch aus, vielleicht ein bisschen zu gross geraten? Hat es denn auch Gärten?
Phantastisch, wie lange kann man da wohl stehen und zuschauen? Ich wäre da wohl wie angenagelt!!!
Die Einwohner scheinen durchschnittlich gesehen offenbar wohlhabend? Oder sind alle Skyscraper Firmen oder Banksitze? das wird man wohl nie wissen.
[…] we have visited most of Japan’s direct neighbors. We’ve been to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, even Singapore, but we had never made it to mainland China. Luckily, we were able to remedy this […]