Hong Kong is a magical, magical place. It has cheese. It has garlic rolls. It has paninis. It has bookstores of English books. It has wonderful shops full of toys. It sells the traditional Chinese Almanac. Everyone speaks English.
We started the day a little late- we left our room at ten instead of the usual 12:00pm- and took a 45 trip on the subway to the port. We left China and entered Hong Kong (though Hong Kong is technically a part of China, it has its own laws, internet censorship, and customs)- which was another 45 minutes. Then we spent another hour getting to the downtown part of Hong Kong.
I had thought Hong Kong to be an island only, but it is also a peninsula or something- separated by a river. It's bigger than just a small island, however, and many areas had high hills (Iowans could consider them small mountains while mountain-dwellers will consider them hills) covered in forests. I had assumed incorrectly that Hong Kong was all city with no green- that is completely false. Hong Kong has a lot of green, and a lot of trees. I'd like to explore it someday. The green makes for a blanket; it feels as if we really were leaving China and going to a different country.
When we arrived in the downtown area, I went into the public bathroom, and I was surprised. Half the stalls are squat and the other half were sit-down. Each stall had toilet paper and the sinks had soap. These are little things that I'm sure will not shock my American audience, but certainly they were shocks to me. I'm lucky if the stalls in China have a door.
We went down the streets and looked at finding food along with a couple of shops I wanted to go to. We stopped for lunch- paninis- and then made our way to the shops. We bought things, and saw a bookstore- a beautiful, English bookstore. In fact, Hong Kong's colonization by the English was very noted- people line up for buses, the cars drive on the left, the speech is a form of British Pronunciation (not sure which one, it's not quite BBC English, and has the Cantonese accent, I think), and the spelling is all British as well. On the other hand, it's very welcoming to foreigners from non British countries as well, with helpful signs saying "LOOK RIGHT". I wonder how many accidents happened before it became standard for those signs to be posted on the streets.
The bookstore was great, and I was tempted to buy a tarot deck before I decided against it. While I miss my tarot, I didn't quite like the look of the cards- better to wait for a deck I'm familiar with and like than to buy something I don't. I was also tempted to get a "Berlitz Learn Chinese in 30 minutes a day!" set, but if I'm not using what I have now, then why pay money for something I won't use?
I feel these are fine questions, and I feel I made a wise choice. The downside was I'd already withdrawn money, and I had money to burn- in the back of my mind, it was like withdrawing had made me committed to spending all the HKD. There were places to transfer and exchange money, certainly, but it's easier to spend and bring back than to exchange, at least mentally. Even when I know the ideal is to transfer and place the money back in my account. I might try to exchange with Ann, as she uses HKD, or maybe I'll use it at the airport later.
For dinner, we were walking on the opposite of Hong Kong Island; near a place called "Tsim Sha Tsui". We ate in a New York Style Pizza joint- with huge pizzas with legitimate cheese. They also had pasta and garlic rolls, beers and wine, and I felt that I was back in New York or something. Hong Kong felt like China's Chinatown to me. IT WAS WONDERFUL.
After the pizza, we wandered around- all of us had our different ideas on where to go in order to find the light symphony. I pointed us North and East; Ann pointed us West and South, while Nicole pointed South and East. Though we kept moving, Nicole finally stopped and asked for directions: the correct way was actually North and West. It was for the best that we had directions, as I'm not sure our tempers were in the mood to be lost and miss the show after a tiring day of customs and walking!
We came back late- we left the downtown area at 8:15pm, and we made it to the transfer area at Shenzhen at 9. We stopped at a Japanese chocolate shop where we bought candy and chocolate in the bulk and then made our way through customs. By 11:15, we had made it back to our hotel, where we looked at our daily purchases, talked, and then fell asleep. Just like true explorers.
Did I mention Hong Kong was wonderful and magic because it was. It was like going home to the states for a day. It was certainly not my part of the states, but it felt like being back in a country I could understand nonetheless.
I will miss Hong Kong. I will return to Hong Kong, for it is magic.
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