HONG KONG - Crossing Victoria on the Golden Star

Hong Kong is the sort of city I like. Vast beyond all reason, sprawling over green hills and a harbour without overwhelming them but still being a place which makes you want to walk around it at all hours of the day and night. It's got a lot to do with the people. Hong Kong is a very touristy city: hotel prices are some of the highest in the world (although hostels are completey reasonable and actually a lot more upmarket than in most Western countries. For around eight pounds a night I'm basically sharing a flat with three other people, with living room, kitchen and scrupulous cleaning done every day. It also has the fabulous "security camera TV channel" where you can watch live feeds from the lobby and the lifts to your heart's content, seeing if any misenthropes are headed your way so you can put the chain on the door. It is also, sadly, compulsive viewing) but, assuming you stay away from the grotty parts of Kowloon where people desperatly try to sell you things, it's an unintrusive kind of business.

In Causeway Bay where I'm based Hong Kong's denizens, instead of hawking you things, always seem to be doing something interesting. Whether it's wandering to work with paper in one hand, iPod in the other and taling breahtlessly on a hands free mobile. Or in the local parks in their droves early in the morning doing their excercise routines. It's the best city in the world for pure people watching. And they're usually happy to take a few minutes out of their time to explain to you what they're doing (except the mad shouty phone people. But, then, when are they ever?)


Early morning excercises in Victora Park. There are at least ten sites around the park with the same thing going on, as well as countless indivduals from 8-80 going through their own routines.

There is, of course, plenty of stuff to see. My favourite spot is down by the harbour where Hong Kong hosts its answers to Hollywood boulevard: Avenue of the Stars. Despite sounding suspisously like a Troy Mclure film, it's really a long walkway filled with stars, handprints and signatures from some of the big names in local cinema. There's even a big bronze statue of Bruce Lee there for good measure.


John Woo's star. Sadly, no doves fly around it in slow motion.


Meanwhile, at the harbourside, trouble was brewing. Thankfully bronze Bruce Lee was there to stop it.

As I wandered around I was repeatedly accosted by groups of blue and yellow clad schoolchildren breathlessly asking me to help them with their surveys of Hong Kong. I later found one of the teachers who explained to me that they were all from the Mission Covenant Church Holm Glad Primary School, and that the survey was part of their English langauge teaching. And jolly good speakers most of these five year olds were (a few of them probably come from English speaking families, though, since Hong Kong is completley bi-lingual) Apparently, the teachers had been kept busy by trying to help communication with some of the German and French tourists whose English was shakier than the students. They all looked pretty exhausted. The kids were pretty happy, though.


Probably the tenth group of Holm Glad students I met this afternoon. Little sweethearts, every one of them.

The Hong Kong History Museum is also well worth your attention. With information ranging from prehistoric Hong Kong harbour (similar, without the skyskrapers) to British colonisation, Japaneese occupation and eventual return to Chinese rule. (For the unitiated, Hong Kong was the last piece of the British Empire to be returned in 1997 and has never had quotas on the import or export of currency. Hence why the city is a vast business centre and is bi-lingual.) It's all very happy and chirpy, very nice about British rule and scathing of the Japaneese occupation during World War II. It also has a comprehensive rundown of the impressive, but utterly confusing, traditions of Chinese Opera. Chinese society is one of those interesting ones where everything (from early morning tai-chi to those costumes) has a deeper, spiritual reason for it. Speaking of which, there's a big bronze Buddha to go and see somewhere nearby...


Chinese Opera costumes. Not shown: the vast amount of taboos which have to be circumnavigated before actually putting them on.

And finally mention must be made of the Star Ferries. A Hong Kong institution which have been running for some hundred years. For a miniscule fare (10p or so) you can take a rocky eight minute ride across Hong Kong's Victoria harbour. And you'll probably wonder if it's not just the instituon which has been there for a hundred years. The boats creak, they rock and there are tires on the sides instead of lifebelts. Well, I guess they might float...


The Star Ferry. It's what they mean when they call something 'classic.'

An awesome city, then. One of my favourites. Like New York, except they don't close the parks at night and actually pay to have them lit and policed so they can be frequented. Wandering around Victoria Park on my way to my hostel on my first night in a thick, warm mist felt like wandering around a peaceful bayou rather than going through one of the world's biggest cities. Not that I've ever been to a bayou, peaceful or otherwise...


Every night Hong Kong boasts one of the biggest light and laser shows in the world. It impresses us tourists. And also lets all the local skyskrapers play a game of "my lights are more impressive than yours" against each other.