Preamble: Arrived in Hong Kong yesterday after approximately 36 hours traveling. Unfortunately, my luggage is still traveling and I have yet to receive it. Fortunately, nothing really important is in the luggage except for clean clothes and essential items like shampoo and razor – all things that can be simply acquired.
There is a lot I’ve heard about China that amazes tourists the first time they arrive: huge numbers of people, constant smog, etc. But that’s not what strikes me about Hong Kong. The overwhelming impression I’ve had here has been the smell.
Hong Kong is a city awash in smells. Food, spices, fish, dirt, and diesel are all present in some mixture. And in a pleasing way. The city isn’t a sterile concrete jungle, but a living city.
And Hong Kong is a city that is very alive. I don’t mean by the number of people or construction, I mean by the way the actual people function within the city and the city functions around them. There is a much tighter cohesion between the infrastructure and the population. Stores spill out from their building into the sidewalk and street.
Food vendors such as bakeries, noodles, herbal medicines all have open stalls. Restaurants never have closed doors and often may be cooking and serving directly to pedestrians as they come by.
This is in contrast to at least US life where almost everything is kept sterile and behind a glass case. One comparison of a US city may be New Orleans, where it has a more open feel to it. There are “western” stores coming in: malls, retail chains, Starbucks – that are bringing the “customer experience” and sterility to the city.
Hong Kong is a dichotomy of old and new. From cellphone wielding monks, to using bamboo for scaffolding in renovating buildings, it has the feel of a city that has grown more organically. Every hole in the wall is a restaurant or vendor. A building may be crumbling and peeling, but have a new facade or be adjacent to a beautiful office building.
Overall, the architecture almost seems like a SimCity game. There are several iconic buildings that are unique and stretch into the sky. But then they are surrounded by ‘cookie-cutter’ generic buildings for residential or commercial, almost seemingly copied & pasted.
Just some thoughts on the first day. Unfortunately, I started falling asleep on the Victorian Bay waterfront watching the “building light show” – so called it an early night.