Hong Kong Impressions
I visited Hong Kong six months ago and I haven't blogged about my trip, except for, obviously, the food pictures. I have a few thoughts about Hong Kong that I wrote down soon after returning, but never got around to posting and I'll share them now.
The most noticeable difference is the sheer number of people. I thought New York was densely populated, but Hong Kong is denser by several orders. Everywhere you go, there are crowds and crowds of people, which doesn't even compare to a busy weekend in Toronto. Imagine a popular festival or crowded event at Nathan Philips or Dundas Square and then imagine if it was like that all the time all over the place. That is what Hong Kong is like.
A lot of people means a lot of pollution. The air is noticeably worse in Hong Kong, and I can't imagine how much worse Beijing can be. It's unavoidable that packing so many people together in such a small space will result in pollution. But at the same time, having such a densely populated area enables them to have a good transit system. And it's not only goverment sponsored, but since so many people ride transit there are private companies providing competing services. Although I didn't have a bad experience on the private buses, I wonder how the public transit is regulated, because I had the worse public bus driver in my life. I was literally falling out of my seat onto the ground because the driving was so rough. Regardless, people in Hong Kong don't need to drive and rely on pulic transit. Plus, I heard that there's a 100% import tax on cars. No wonder HK immigrants buy expensive cars when they come to Canada....it's already discounted 50%!
What makes the pollution worse is the really hot and humid weather. As many of you know, I prefer hot weather and I'm deathly afraid of the cold. I visited near the end of August, when it is still in the hot season, but I didn't mind so much except for the humidity. The toughest part is dressing for the indoors; buildings all blast the A/C, meaning dressing in shorts is too cold for me indoors. The craziest thing about the HK natives is that many of them are wearing sweaters in the middle of summer. It could be 35 degrees out with 100 humidity and people would still be wearing sweaters!
Maybe when they sweat through them, they'll just buy a new one. That is not a joke. The clothing industry is completely different in HK. Maybe because it's so hot, all the clothing is very thin and seemingly of lower quality. It is also much cheaper in price than Canada. This means there is a culture where people can buy clothes just for the current season and toss it next season. It also means people are "more fashionable" because they can afford to keep up with the latest fashions. From a Canadian perspective, I wasn't interested in the cheap clothing because of the low quality, and clothing with acceptable quality had similar prices to Canada anyway. I did find one store I liked, G2000, and the advantage in Hong Kong is that they hem the pants for free or a small nominal fee.
Even though I personally didn't have a great time shopping, Hong Kong really is a shopper's paradise. Everywhere you go is basically a mall. The whole subway system is one large mall. And right beside all that shopping is the eating. Everywhere you go, there is food to buy. There are the 7-11's on every block selling everything you could want, the fancy restaurants on the upper levels of every building, the street eat stalls that are now mandated to be on a piece of property and not just on the street, the plentiful dessert places advertising their sweet delicacies to passerbys, the casual cheap diners constantly packed with people and loud chatter, the bubble tea hangouts, the bakeries which draw you in with their smell, the list goes on and on. Hong Kong people eat out for every meal. That is their culture. Their living quarters are too small to cook, and the food that you can buy is so cheap it is not worth cooking yourself. Plus all these places to eat are just an elevator ride downstairs away. You can find lunch for $2 CAD and dinner for $3 CAD if you wanted. Now I understand why Hong Kong people don't know how to cook (sorry, broad generalization which I know is not true, but it has some truth to it).
Cheap, plentiful and convenient food should mean a large waistlines. This is not the case. Most people in Hong Kong are quite slender, especially the females and especially when compared to North America. I loved the desserts over there, partly because they were new to me and partly because they were so refreshing in the heat. What I did notice is that the whole city is plastered with advertising (even more so than New York) and a lot of the ads are for slimming products. I can only assume that it's a good business there. But a better reason is probably that their portions are smaller and there is less emphasis on overeating - AYCE style.
Anyway, Hong Kong was fun to visit and it was by far the most urbanizied place I have ever been. It's a paradise for eating and shopping and the attraction of the city is the city itself. A few of you have gone recently, are there right now, or will be going soon. Any thoughts?
The most noticeable difference is the sheer number of people. I thought New York was densely populated, but Hong Kong is denser by several orders. Everywhere you go, there are crowds and crowds of people, which doesn't even compare to a busy weekend in Toronto. Imagine a popular festival or crowded event at Nathan Philips or Dundas Square and then imagine if it was like that all the time all over the place. That is what Hong Kong is like.
A lot of people means a lot of pollution. The air is noticeably worse in Hong Kong, and I can't imagine how much worse Beijing can be. It's unavoidable that packing so many people together in such a small space will result in pollution. But at the same time, having such a densely populated area enables them to have a good transit system. And it's not only goverment sponsored, but since so many people ride transit there are private companies providing competing services. Although I didn't have a bad experience on the private buses, I wonder how the public transit is regulated, because I had the worse public bus driver in my life. I was literally falling out of my seat onto the ground because the driving was so rough. Regardless, people in Hong Kong don't need to drive and rely on pulic transit. Plus, I heard that there's a 100% import tax on cars. No wonder HK immigrants buy expensive cars when they come to Canada....it's already discounted 50%!
What makes the pollution worse is the really hot and humid weather. As many of you know, I prefer hot weather and I'm deathly afraid of the cold. I visited near the end of August, when it is still in the hot season, but I didn't mind so much except for the humidity. The toughest part is dressing for the indoors; buildings all blast the A/C, meaning dressing in shorts is too cold for me indoors. The craziest thing about the HK natives is that many of them are wearing sweaters in the middle of summer. It could be 35 degrees out with 100 humidity and people would still be wearing sweaters!
Maybe when they sweat through them, they'll just buy a new one. That is not a joke. The clothing industry is completely different in HK. Maybe because it's so hot, all the clothing is very thin and seemingly of lower quality. It is also much cheaper in price than Canada. This means there is a culture where people can buy clothes just for the current season and toss it next season. It also means people are "more fashionable" because they can afford to keep up with the latest fashions. From a Canadian perspective, I wasn't interested in the cheap clothing because of the low quality, and clothing with acceptable quality had similar prices to Canada anyway. I did find one store I liked, G2000, and the advantage in Hong Kong is that they hem the pants for free or a small nominal fee.
Even though I personally didn't have a great time shopping, Hong Kong really is a shopper's paradise. Everywhere you go is basically a mall. The whole subway system is one large mall. And right beside all that shopping is the eating. Everywhere you go, there is food to buy. There are the 7-11's on every block selling everything you could want, the fancy restaurants on the upper levels of every building, the street eat stalls that are now mandated to be on a piece of property and not just on the street, the plentiful dessert places advertising their sweet delicacies to passerbys, the casual cheap diners constantly packed with people and loud chatter, the bubble tea hangouts, the bakeries which draw you in with their smell, the list goes on and on. Hong Kong people eat out for every meal. That is their culture. Their living quarters are too small to cook, and the food that you can buy is so cheap it is not worth cooking yourself. Plus all these places to eat are just an elevator ride downstairs away. You can find lunch for $2 CAD and dinner for $3 CAD if you wanted. Now I understand why Hong Kong people don't know how to cook (sorry, broad generalization which I know is not true, but it has some truth to it).
Cheap, plentiful and convenient food should mean a large waistlines. This is not the case. Most people in Hong Kong are quite slender, especially the females and especially when compared to North America. I loved the desserts over there, partly because they were new to me and partly because they were so refreshing in the heat. What I did notice is that the whole city is plastered with advertising (even more so than New York) and a lot of the ads are for slimming products. I can only assume that it's a good business there. But a better reason is probably that their portions are smaller and there is less emphasis on overeating - AYCE style.
Anyway, Hong Kong was fun to visit and it was by far the most urbanizied place I have ever been. It's a paradise for eating and shopping and the attraction of the city is the city itself. A few of you have gone recently, are there right now, or will be going soon. Any thoughts?
posted by Nelson at 12:25 AM
7 Comments:
An interesting entry Nels, thanks for the HK recap, it was a good read.
Hope you are enjoying Smash right now. If there are any copies around downtown tomorrow I may pick one up.
Interesting impression. You've made a few sweeping generalizations that certainly have some truth in them. I can understand your observations from your relatively short visit.
Growing up in HK, I find myself drawn to the nitty-gritty, not-so-glamourous side of HK when I go back to visit. Most of these areas are not frequented by tourists. And to be honest, I don't know if they hold much appeal other than nostalgia. But there's a level of awesomeness for me to be hanging out in an old neighbourhood, sipping milk tea in a "Cha Chan Tang" (tea cafe) listening to some local regulars bantering with the waiters (usually about stock market, where everyone is an expert apparently). Surprisingly, there are some pretty good hiking trails in the countryside as well.
Such is my impression. But HK is a place where everyone finds/sees something different!
- Horace
Yes, I made some sweeping generalizations, but if I didn't I wouldn't have anything to say. I know that there are obviously many exceptions, but the things I noticed were generally different from here so that's why I wrote about them.
It also seems like I missed out on a lot of the natural parts of Hong Kong. I visited the Big Buddha, Repulse Bay, Tai O and Stanley Market. They were very nice places, but next time I'll definitely try some hiking. Tim mentioned this on facebook and I'll repost it here:
Hey Nels, I just read your blog about HK. It's too bad you only experienced the urbanized side of HK. It's surrounded by some beautiful outlying islands, and about 40% of the territory is acutally protected parkland -- one of the highest rates in the world. Only 25% of the territory is developed. That means that there is no urban sprawl -- the urbanized areas are crazy urban, but you can experience some of the world's best hiking trails a few minutes outside the city (no need to waste an entire weekend driving out to cottage country). Part of that is due to necessity. There is simply nowhere to build on such mountainous terrain and the people who do live here are crowded into the few areas that can support development. But the ruggedness of the terrain makes the area amazingly scenic. --Tim
i dunno if it's personal bias, or timing, or both, but personally i found TW to be cheaper in terms of food and clothing/shopping. hk certainly has tons of international stores for shopping, but their prices are essentially that of canadian prices. g2000 is actually one of the cheaper places i've seen with what i'd consider quality clothes. i think the main attraction is the tax, at only 5% compared to ours... for food, prices have gone up 50%-100% within past few months - meals are now approaching $5-7 CAD, some even 10-12... TW is still at around $3 or so, but who knows, maybe in a few months it'll be several times larger there too. because of that, quantities at restaurants/local eateries are smaller and/or people are eating less. there's actually a local report, if i understood/translated it correctly, that said there's 1 million ppl in poverty.... hk has a population of 7-8 million... that's quite a large amount of ppl... so yeah, i'll agree with what you said about the attraction of hk is the city itself... but because of that, they are heavily dependent on tourists. many locals are just barely getting by, heavily dependent on the 28 million tourists HK gets a year.
hmmm, i'm not even sure what point i was trying to make (if any, haha!) but oh yeah, imho, TW has much better desserts, and a lot more variety of food ^_^
i'm reading ur blog some one month later but i'll still comment. You probably left out the most important part, or it's already too obvious that you don't feel the need to mention - the fast pace in HK. When I was there for visit last Oct, it's ironic how I felt so rushed all day yet I was actually on vacation. If you eat at some local, smaller restaurants where you have to share a table with other pple, you'll find urself done eating in 15 mins not coz u r sharing a table but the pple at the next table probably have changed twice already. There's not much downtime actually. Once you step out of your home, u r bombarded w/ the 2 billion ads, noise, heat, pollution and surrounded by crowds who are always so rushed to go somewhere. I'm too spoiled by the laid back style in Canada. In response to your comment about pple wearing sweaters in the summer, I want to say that HK pple don't really sweat. At least not as much as pple here. Most pple who stay in their offices 12 hrs daily (at a min.)w/ the blasting AC probably got immuned to the humidity and have a different system running in their bodies =P
I think at this point, u get that i don't like HK that much but i definitely agree w/ u on the food part. DELICIOUS! i'm going back next time JUST for the food, i'm not joking.
-tea
Forgot to add, food prices are rising FAST globally, not just HK altho the prices of their rice and cooking oil probably skyrocketted coz they import everything. We depend on oil too much and we're paying for it directly out of our paycheques...
-T
Tea, thanks for the comments.
I know people work crazy hours in Hong Kong and that the pace of life is very fast, but I didn't feel overwhelmed by it. Perhaps because I was a tourist, I was insulated from it. The crowds were all in a rush, yes, but I have adopted the Waterloo walk, so I'm use to it.
Yes, they must be used to the humidity...I am not.
When I was there food was cheap, but I bet it's increasing in price now.
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