we went to hong kong, a couple of months ago or so. hong kong is so different from shanghai that on the way back we realized that we were actually a bit disappointed to return “home”, to shanghai, and china. our experience is as biased as it gets, since we were only there for a single day (most of which was spent inside cafés, trying not to melt or get soaked up outside, on the inconstant spurts of rain). what follows is a gathering of random thoughts from that day. they are going to sound rough, i know, but that was exactly how i felt when i came back: angry and bitter at all the potential that this city has and that is currently being wasted.
so, we arrived in hong kong in the evening, took a shuttle to the city center, crashed in a small hostel and the next morning, by 8:30 we were queuing at the chinese administrative services doorstep, waiting for our turn. when it opened, we delivered the forms and our passports and were told to return around three o’clock in the afternoon. which we did, everything was ready, we picked our passports and strolled around a bit longer, window shopping and dodging the rain.
while we were at it, it rained a lot – not the kind of plum rain we see in shanghai. really pouring down cats and dogs, as i wish it would around here more often. maybe for once this city would be cleaner, maybe we could even see the skies more than once a month.
it seemed pretty bilingual to us, everybody we spoke to seemed to speak english. the people queued and gave way in the escalators, the buses were all double decks (an eye-blink from far away london), the metro stations had this tiny colorful tiles that made them gorgeous. the sidewalks seemed decent (not the chinese version of sidewalks, irregular patches of tiles and cement). we didn’t see any beggars or stumbled upon fake dvds stands, yet we stared in awe to the happy mesh of signs and neons in the narrow streets.
and then there’s disneyland (and not some fake imitation, like in the mainland). all banks can issue their own version of the hong kong dollars bills, which can be confusing but also colorfully fun and original. coffee franchises were everywhere (something i’m beginning to find quite reassuring) and we spent some hours on one of them, while i introduced p. to scrabble. no one (not even a single one of the 20 employees of the café where we had lunch) screamed “qing guoling!”* to welcome us.
there’s a quiet sense of normality, there are so many foreigners in this fast paced city that no one really cares (or stares) anymore. the driver that took us to the airport actually drove slowly, the whole way, letting us enjoy the ride and the view. and what a view! hong kong is beautiful. the geography of the place, with its bays, islands and peninsulas, hills and waterfronts…
anyway, as soon as we had set foot outside pudong’s international airport in shanghai, late night that day, there were hoards of taxi drivers trying to lure us into their taxis. we choose the shuttle back to the city – the bus dangerously (and disappointingly) sped all the way to the city center, where we leaped into a taxi and went home, feeling tired and sad.
an indian friend once told me that if britain hadn’t colonized india years ago, they’d still be in the middle ages – and ironically, that’s the exact same feeling i have about hong kong vs. china. hurray for british colonies and their civilized manners.
now, knowing the portuguese record on this field, i’m curious about macau…
* i don’t know if that’s exactly what they say. sounds like that and it should mean “welcome”. you can’t go inside any restaurant around here without having at least a dozen of waitresses screaming it in unison to your ears… quite literally, i’m afraid.
hong kong image by J.Yip, on flickr.