BootsnAll Travel Community

RE: http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/05-06/the-rich-china-hong-kong.html

Hong Kong is fresh on my mind, I just got back.
I can really relate to this one! It seems we had many of the same feelings going through HK.

I enjoyed his observations that Hong Kongers seemed serious. The reason that I got a kick out of that is because he admits that he was just in Thailand before that where "serious" is an insult and people walk around with perma-grin. Well, my first travel experience abroad was in February of this year, and I went to the Philippines for 10 days. I was so completely spoiled knowing and staying with a family there and being an instant insider to the tune of buying property (in two weeks I'm moving there).

So when I got to mainland China people looked pretty serious to me. The Philippines reminds me of how people speak of Thailand where people are warm and friendly and helpful. I kept telling myself that I wouldn't notice the "coldness" of the people so much if the Philippines wasn't my frame of reference.

But let me say this about Hong Kong- my time there was spent after a month on the mainland, and I can assure you that Hong Kongers are happy and not so serious as mainlanders. It was a surprising change from Zhuhai, China. I thought that a big city would make people cranky.
The cab drivers were friendly and spoke full sentences. Even shared in full conversations. People waved to eachother.

Anyway, my advice is to try HK after mainland, not Thailand.

The city struck me as beautiful as it did the author.
I loved Hong Kong, and my 11 year old son said that he wouldn't mind moving there. I was surprised to hear that.

Parts of this article puzzled me. I found his observations of the girls of different races next to him at a restaurant to be a somewhat bizarre distraction. And I am very tired of the United Colors of Benetton references from everyone (authors, comics, whoever)- stop already. I didn't find myself caring what his imagination conjured about the girls' families. How could he know? Hong Kong is one of the most international cities in the world. There's not much to ponder there.

Also earlier in the article he complains about customs workers showing no emotion. For one thing, don't use Star Trek to invoke something negetive (ha ha, trekkie here)- newsflash: the immigration officers have a boring job. It has nothing to do with wathcing too much of Spock. We get a lot of stamps in our passports, but it's almost a no hassle crossing. (My experience).

(Later he does describe the city as something out of Star Trek but in a good way, so Star Trek points earned back again.)

And yeah. Hong Kong can be expensive.

Enjoyed the article. Enjoyed Hong Kong.
Thanks again, Phillip.