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While my initial flight landed in Hong Kong, I didn't really have time to take much in outside of the MTR, so on the last day before I caught a flight to Shanghai I woke up early and took the fast train(direct from GZ) to Hong Kong for the day.
Despite being part of China, Hong Kong is also, in a way, not part of China. Formerly a British territory(meaning English speakers! Ngl, I was excited to be around strangers who I could understand perfectly), it's now one of China's two Special Administrative Regions, the other being Macau. This grants it a separate political system, a capitalistic economy, and control over pretty much everything except foreign relations and national defense.
Another difference that I heard tossed around from those in Guangzhou was that people in Hong Kong are, for lack of better way to put it, nicer than those in the mainland. It seems a lot of foreigners find mainland Chinese folk to be very rude. People spit, shove, yell for no apparent reason, piss in the street(men and children mostly), drive in a way that makes it seem they want to mow people down, and so on. Personally, I didn't think it that bad. Sure, it's surreal to run into someone head on and have you both just get up and walk away like nothing happened without a word uttered between you, but I found that it was more people mirroring one another than anything. Ex. If I accidentally elbowed someone too hard or stepped on someone's foot and shouted 'duìbúqì'(sorry/excuse me), I'd normally get it or something similar back.
Overall, I just got the sense of 'this place has the largest population in the world and is often busy, people don't have the time to care about you, so get over it' yet, at the same time, I noticed this sense of being in everyone's space/business. By that I mean I have never had so many people point out my shoe laces needed tied as I have in China.
That aside, back to the matter at hand, are people in Hong Kong actually nicer? I'm not so sure. More organized would be a better way of putting it, I think. People don't run into you as much since they follow the paths in the metro more and stand on the escalator the right way(people who want to move down quickly to the left and everyone else to the right). The way people acted felt more machine-like and less organic than in the mainland and gods help you if you got caught in rush hour there. Sure, again, people won't run into you but you won't be able to do anything but move with the flow of people. I couldn't imagine it being a very good place for non-able-bodied individuals to visit, much less live.
That all aside, the trip.
After a two and a half hour train ride, an hour of which involved a baby screaming nonstop, I ended up in Kowloon. At this point I really had no clue where anything was and only a vague idea of what I wanted to see. Tbh, I was a little proud of myself for the way I took it all in, but then I'd been getting around Guangzhou on my own and unlike this place no one(that I'd run into on the street) spoke English there, so this was a little easier.
To start, I asked a woman outside the station where the port was and headed over that way. Upon arriving at the Star Ferry Port, I found someplace to exchange some currency and picked up one of those touristy maps(this became my lifeline). From there I took the ferry across the river to Central.
When my cousin in Shanghai's boyfriend saw these pics he was jealous since he'd lived in Hong Kong for a bit, between being deported from Taiwan and moving to Shanghai(I'll cover that later), and never saw a junk(the boat).
As you can see it was pretty cloudy that day. That's because this was about the same time the dust storm was hitting Beijing and the wind was carrying dust and whatnot from that down over the water to Hong Kong resulting in this.
After getting off the ferry, I started toward the trolley that'd take you to the top of the Peak.
Along the way, some construction...
...lots of buildings...
(everything felt more clean and modern than in Guangzhou)
...a park-type area...
(lol, Bank of America)
...and after a bit of a walk uphill, I was there.
Bought a ticket and got in line, had to take a picture of these guys.
And then the tram arrived.
Gave me flashbacks of being in Pittsburg with the Duquesne Incline.
Now, some pictures from the top.
And so on.
I both love and have this absolute lack of fear of heights so anytime I'm in a high up place I feel really happy and content. Stayed up there for awhile and took quite a lot of pictures. XP
On the way back down I spotted something I found hilarious.
I just stood there for a bit like 'really?', their giftshop had a bunch of Forrest Gump merchandise.
Alas, my camera kinda died not too much later.
So that ends the Hong Kong pics. I hope to go back again someday, perhaps with a bit more time to look around and a better battery. Heh.
Beijing's next, I think. Waiting on Siam Reap until I get my pics from my cousin(which should be soon).
Despite being part of China, Hong Kong is also, in a way, not part of China. Formerly a British territory(meaning English speakers! Ngl, I was excited to be around strangers who I could understand perfectly), it's now one of China's two Special Administrative Regions, the other being Macau. This grants it a separate political system, a capitalistic economy, and control over pretty much everything except foreign relations and national defense.
Another difference that I heard tossed around from those in Guangzhou was that people in Hong Kong are, for lack of better way to put it, nicer than those in the mainland. It seems a lot of foreigners find mainland Chinese folk to be very rude. People spit, shove, yell for no apparent reason, piss in the street(men and children mostly), drive in a way that makes it seem they want to mow people down, and so on. Personally, I didn't think it that bad. Sure, it's surreal to run into someone head on and have you both just get up and walk away like nothing happened without a word uttered between you, but I found that it was more people mirroring one another than anything. Ex. If I accidentally elbowed someone too hard or stepped on someone's foot and shouted 'duìbúqì'(sorry/excuse me), I'd normally get it or something similar back.
Overall, I just got the sense of 'this place has the largest population in the world and is often busy, people don't have the time to care about you, so get over it' yet, at the same time, I noticed this sense of being in everyone's space/business. By that I mean I have never had so many people point out my shoe laces needed tied as I have in China.
That aside, back to the matter at hand, are people in Hong Kong actually nicer? I'm not so sure. More organized would be a better way of putting it, I think. People don't run into you as much since they follow the paths in the metro more and stand on the escalator the right way(people who want to move down quickly to the left and everyone else to the right). The way people acted felt more machine-like and less organic than in the mainland and gods help you if you got caught in rush hour there. Sure, again, people won't run into you but you won't be able to do anything but move with the flow of people. I couldn't imagine it being a very good place for non-able-bodied individuals to visit, much less live.
That all aside, the trip.
After a two and a half hour train ride, an hour of which involved a baby screaming nonstop, I ended up in Kowloon. At this point I really had no clue where anything was and only a vague idea of what I wanted to see. Tbh, I was a little proud of myself for the way I took it all in, but then I'd been getting around Guangzhou on my own and unlike this place no one(that I'd run into on the street) spoke English there, so this was a little easier.
To start, I asked a woman outside the station where the port was and headed over that way. Upon arriving at the Star Ferry Port, I found someplace to exchange some currency and picked up one of those touristy maps(this became my lifeline). From there I took the ferry across the river to Central.
When my cousin in Shanghai's boyfriend saw these pics he was jealous since he'd lived in Hong Kong for a bit, between being deported from Taiwan and moving to Shanghai(I'll cover that later), and never saw a junk(the boat).
As you can see it was pretty cloudy that day. That's because this was about the same time the dust storm was hitting Beijing and the wind was carrying dust and whatnot from that down over the water to Hong Kong resulting in this.
After getting off the ferry, I started toward the trolley that'd take you to the top of the Peak.
Along the way, some construction...
...lots of buildings...
(everything felt more clean and modern than in Guangzhou)
...a park-type area...
(lol, Bank of America)
...and after a bit of a walk uphill, I was there.
Bought a ticket and got in line, had to take a picture of these guys.
And then the tram arrived.
Gave me flashbacks of being in Pittsburg with the Duquesne Incline.
Now, some pictures from the top.
And so on.
I both love and have this absolute lack of fear of heights so anytime I'm in a high up place I feel really happy and content. Stayed up there for awhile and took quite a lot of pictures. XP
On the way back down I spotted something I found hilarious.
I just stood there for a bit like 'really?', their giftshop had a bunch of Forrest Gump merchandise.
Alas, my camera kinda died not too much later.
So that ends the Hong Kong pics. I hope to go back again someday, perhaps with a bit more time to look around and a better battery. Heh.
Beijing's next, I think. Waiting on Siam Reap until I get my pics from my cousin(which should be soon).
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