Hong Kong has been like visiting New York City, if you had grown up in North Dakota. Eating, getting around, exploring, sight seeing have all been pretty much as your instincts suggest, but you never can actually expect how it’s going to be. I expected translation issues would be harder, but I didn’t expect to have two hotdogs in my breakfast noddles. I expected touristy stores at the top of Hong Kong’s famed Victoria Peak, but not a mall, McDonalds and a preschool. I expected HK to be expensive, but not cheaper than San Francisco. I expected fancy stores, but not Gucci, Dior and Coach littered around like Gaps. I expected HK to be hyper-modern but without cosmopolity and unique flavor. I expected there to be stunning skyscrapers, but not as far as they eye could see.

Who knew a city could grow o fast and maintain a transit system and policies to support it. Who knew that bamboo is still used to erect skyscrapers and who knew junks would still ply the harbor besides the container ships. I guess anyone who lived or visited Hong Kong is who, but it’s been very enlightening and inspiring to swim in this wonderful sea.

[Hong Kong photos: set 1, set 2]

[Hong Kong suggestested reading: Myself a Mandarin by Austin Coates. Stories of a post-WWII English Magistrate who resolves local issues according to traditional Chinese norms. Pretty insightful read into the ways and norms of ancestral Chinese norms and traditions.]