Back in the high life again

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Sound and vision

A taxi ride, a plane flight, a bus ride, a taxi ride, a train ride, and an underground ride over the course of 6 hours took us from Xi'an to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. I can't deny experiencing a sense of relief being back in a familiar place with no language issues and access to a world of handerchiefs. I think this was an even stronger feeling for LA Woman as this was her first visit to Hong Kong and she probably hadn't imagined there'd be such a contrast between it and the mainland.

One thing that was immediately apparent was the vast price differences of common goods. My green tea habit, a cheap vice at about 40c per bottle on the mainland, was now an extravagance costing 3 times as much. Dim sum places I'd regularly eaten at on previous visits now seemed shockingly expensive. I'd already known we'd have to fork out considerably more for accommodation in order to avoid meeting our doom in Chungking Mansions, but hadn't quite realised the disparity in everything else.

Transport is also more expensive than the mainland but still good value. We rode the trams several times (I'd never done it before), and they were a pleasant anachronism in amongst the skyscrapers and flash sports cars. At night, sitting at the front of the top deck, with the breeze giving some relief from the heat/humidity and gazing at the neon universe, you feel much more a part of the city than when peering out from the frigid interior of a bus or taxi. There's also something vaguely exciting about the fact that oncoming trams pass close enough to you to take you head off if you happen to be leaning out of the window taking photos.

There's much more diversity in terms of people, with representation from many other Asian countries as well as more than a few Westerners. One of the strangest demonstrations of this is the Sunday gatherings of domestic helps (mainly from the Philippines) at various points around the city, Sunday being their day off. The area under the HSBC building is one such location and what is normally a fairly empty open space from which you can gaze upwards into the bowels of the building is transformed into something more resembling a refugee camp.

We visited the Peak on a bright sunny day, the first time I'd been up there in such circumstances. Since my last visit, the Peak Tower had been completed, an unnecessary shopping mall with such Peak-related attractions as a Madame Tussaud's. Its saving grace is the viewing platform at the top, offering uninterrupted views though strangely no shelter from the sun.

Though I'd never thought about it much previously, land reclamation has made several Hong Kong place names inappropriate, e.g. the Tin Hau temple to the goddess of the sea is hundreds of metres from water, the Landmark Hotel is marooned in the middle of Central, and Causeway Bay hasn't had the sea lapping at its fringes for decades.

An interesting article in the local press made me realise that the 1 child policy in China - which would probably strike me as more sinister if I actually had any intention of having kids - is not as simple as I'd first thought. Indigenous tribes, for example, are exempt from it, and couples in rural areas are allowed 2 children if the first is a girl. Further perusal of the South China Morning Post revealed interesting eating habits in Guangdong province (neighbouring Hong Kong). One article concerned a shipment of 10,000 cats destined for Guangdong restaurant tables that had been bought by some animal-lovers, who now had the issue of what to do with them. Another story detailed the plague of literally millions of mice that was on the march as a result of rising floodwaters in the Yellow River provinces - seems as though more than a few platefuls of these too will be sent to Guangdong for consumption. It's a shame we didn't have a chance to see the menu at the Shenzhen McDonald's.

On a more personal note, I also read of a ramen theme park just opened in Hakone in Japan, which is now on my to-do list.

My MP3 player - silent since Vietnam - was long overdue replacing, and Hong Kong seemed to be a likely location in which to pick up something new and cheap. Unfortunately market forces seem to have pushed the field in the direction of players with screens that can support video, whereas my personal requirements (namely a minuscule player than can hold abot 100 songs or so but which has enormous battery life) seem to be in a minority. The prices for the items most closely resembling what I was after were little lower than buying them in the US and attempts at bargaining were generally met with a shake of the head. I guess these low-end electronics are already on a slim margin. Anyway, a Samsung YP-U3 will be my music provider for (hopefully) the rest of the trip.

Flying out of Hong Kong tends to be rather expensive so we decided to pay a short visit to Macau, then take advantage of the rash of budget airlines that fly from there to head to the Philippines.

Dull but possibly useful info
Getting there: Take a cab from Xi'an to the airport - we paid 100 yuan, but I have no idea if that's the right price. There is a shuttle bus that's a lot cheaper but it doesn't start running very early in the morning. We then flew to Shenzhen on China Eastern at 7:55AM (many through the day), costing 950 yuan and taking about 2 hours 10 minutes. Note that check-in only opened 1.5 hours before departure - not sure if that was because it was an early flight or if the 2 hour check-in time quoted on most websites is a myth. From Shenzhen airport, you can take a bus all the way through to Central in Hong Kong for 160 yuan, or to the border for 60 yuan. We decided to get to the border on a cheap local bus, getting hopelessly lost and eventually shelling out 97 yuan for a taxi. Once across the border, we took the KCR to Kowloon Tong (33 HKD) then the MTR to Wan Chai (11 HKD).
Stayed at: Cosmo Hotel. Cost 700 HKD for a double. Good location, good quality rooms and free wifi access. Have stayed here several times before and will stay here again.
Notes: i. The Peak Tram costs 22 HKD one way.

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Comments

[Budokan]

Excellent pictures
What nice pictures of Hong Kong! Marvellous