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Posts tagged: Hong Kong

Hong Kong

By schrier, 30 August 2009 11:47 pm

Hong Kong Harbor Scene

I had a chance to visit Hong Kong on August 18th through 22nd. It was my first time in Asia – that is, west of Hawaii! I was invited to speak at a conference of Chief Information Officers sponsored by FutureGov. The conference was two days. I stayed an extra day-and-a-half and spent a lot of time sightseeing and shopping and just walking around. I bought an “octopus” pass and I rode the very modern underground (subway), buses, ferries (the Star Ferry over to Kowloon), the ding-ding (an electrified trolley which runs on tracks) and the tram which goes up to the peak. There seem to be a number of superficial similarities to Vancouver, British Columbia, just a couple hours north of Seattle, which also has a British heritage.

One of the first things I did – which I almost always do when I’m on the road – is to go running. Running or jogging in Hong Kong is like running in a sauna. It was both hot and humid – worse than Washington DC and even worse than Iowa. My shirt was soaked after ten minutes. Another thing which happens is fogging up – of glasses and cameras – leaving the cold of the hotel to go out into the humidity.

They drive on the left in Hong Kong, like England or Ireland. So I had a few close calls while running – I tend to ignore the traffic lights, which is ok if you watch for traffic, but I was always looking the wrong way to see if traffic was coming. Hong Kong has a lot of construction still in progress – lots of building going on. It also has a LOT of tall, skinny skyscrapers. Reminded me of a city out of a science fiction move. Hong Kong is crowded – streets are jammed with people. Many of the sidewalks are elevated walkways above the streets, because the streets are so crowded too. Hong Kong Central is just a strip of land less than a mile wide along the edge of the mountainous island. But there are are many other parts of Hong Kong which are older and more dense than Central.

They just give up whole streets to shops and vendors – very tiny shops usually, and not a wide strip to walk. Most people I met spoke some English, but I think English is still a thin veneer – Chinese is much more common and I’m sure there are large parts of Hong Kong in which only Chinese is spoken. All official signs are in both English and Chinese, but outside the tourist areas,Chinese predominates. There are still a lot of Britons or descendents of the British working in Hong Kong. I think a lot of multi-national companies have headquarters there.

Photos are posted on Picasa here, and three or four videos are posted on You Tube here. I’ve extracted a few photos below, and links to a couple videos. Click on any of them to see a larger image or play the video.