Hong Kong and China

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Hong Kong

I have a wonderful friend in Hong Kong. Her name is Caness and we met in the U.S. Five years after our time in Iowa, I decided to visit her. I knew this would be different trip than the others. Visiting friend, having a local tour guide with me and being able to ask any question that comes to my mind makes travelling much more remarkable.

Hong Kong is amazing city!
Sometimes all of these palisades of skyscrapers make you feel dizzy, but it is definitely worth to see.
Hong Kong is basically one big shopping mall. There are malls at every single metro station, so you cannot move around the city without passing at least three malls. Plus there are many little shops with traditional Chinese stuff and also wetmarkets – food markets where they sell everything fresh (in case of meat it often means alive).
Fancy five-star restaurants stand next door to typical Chinese eateries. This combination of shiny luxury on the upper floors and greasy food-stands underneath the skyscrapers is just fantastic. It all works in perfect harmony. One day we have lunch in a cheap smelly cafeteria and in the afternoon we drink hot chocolate in a posh café on the 103rd floor of the highest building in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong you find Buddhist and Hindu temples that remind peaceful oasis contrasting the hectic city in the background.
People are nice and friendly, well-dressed and playing with their smartphones most of the time of their metro journey. They have no problem to answer your question in English.
On the first day of my visit we see spectacular light and sound show in the city centre with more than thirty skyscrapers flashing and lighting up in the rhythm of the music, which takes place every day at 8 pm.
To get around the city, apart from a metro you can use minibuses and double-decker buses, which very often have the upper fist rows unoccupied, so you can enjoy the best view. To feel the historical atmosphere you can also take a double-decker tram.
We cannot miss the Peak – rich neighbourhood of Hong Kong with the second most expensive housing in the world – so we take traditional tram up a very steep hill. On the top of the hill we find beautiful view of the city (and of course another shopping mall).
Caness takes me to one of the smaller islands of Hong Kong, called Lamma, so I can see different faces of the city. It is lovely quiet place. Some HK residents (often foreigners) choose to live here rather than inside of the hectic city. The island is full of bicycles, little houses, restaurants, beaches, small hotels and souvenir shops. You also find here a couple of hiking paths.
I have to see the statue of Big Buddha before leaving HK, so we go there on the last day of my visit as it is not far away from the airport. To get up there we take “Crystal Cabin” – cable car with a glass floor. Big Buddha gives majestic impression. I appreciate that it takes the figure of young Buddha, who (according to me) looks better than “happy Buddha” with fat belly and wide smile likely to be seen in most of Chinese temples.

China

Short journey to China was really impressive. The image in my head of poor labourers, working in sweatshops or on the rice fields under terribly hard conditions for a little amount of food, disappears when I see wonderful highly-developed cities, wide roads, high-speed trains, clean streets and smiling people.
I spend hours and hours asking Caness her opinion about life in China and Chinese government. She can give objective view; she lived in the U.S. for two years, she spent a year in London and Barcelona; she would hardly believe any of communist propaganda and she has no problem to say what’s on her mind. Of course Caness doesn’t support governmental steps 100%!,(MISSING) but she agrees with some of them. I have to admit that she is right.
This is not a communism as I know it from the stories of Czech Republic, where everyone had to have a job, everyone was earning the same money (no matter if you work hard or not). This is just centrally planned economy. When you want to earn something you have to work pretty hard. Of course, something else is a question of human rights. But what would be a better way to lead such a big country (that used to be poor) to a prosperity? ...in the time of Industrial revolution in Europe workers rights were also not fallowed... People inside China work hard in factories, so they kids can go to school and have better life in the future. What better they can do for their children? It’s tough but that’s the way it is.
“When you don’t walk fast in China you are gonna eat shit” says Caness’ mother as she runs into busy road to hail a taxi. She just exactly described the reason why Chinese economy is so strong. And by the way this lady really knows what she is talking about. Caness’ mom grew up in a village in south China; she hardly got any education – because of Mao Zedong regime; she moved to HK; and from salesgirl on a fish market she become manager in ING bank. She is really admirable woman. I keep her business card in my wallet to always remind me that you have to work hard to achieve something.
Watching this fast growing economy, I become to think: “Dear Europe, your time is over... there were times when you (and the U.S.) were stronger, but you are not competitive any more... and that will probably get you down... soon...” When a man in a metro talks his little daughter into saying hello to me, so she can practice her English, I think to myself; isn’t it me who should be learning Chinese, maybe it will be necessary to survive in the future.

City of Shenzhen is the first we visit in China. It is basically Honk Kong on the Chinese side. Just a few days before our arrival there was the Universidade. Enthusiasm of this huge event can be seen on every corner. On the big screens everywhere you can watch opening and closing ceremony; there are pots of flowers around the roads; people are smiling on me (like on every foreigner), which Caness calls “Universiade smile”.
This city is built for the future, for way more than 10 million people. It has an impressive modern metro. Caness covers two thirds of the metro map with her hands and says: “Last summer when I was here the metro looked like this. Most of it was built within a year.” Well, this is truly a country of unlimited possibilities...
In Shenzhen we visit “Mini China” – a park with miniatures of the most famous Chinese monuments including mini-Great Wall of China. Next to this park is “Folk Culture Village” presenting different Chinese ethnic groups. We meet a guy from Tibet who works here. He says he is not very happy with a job of “showing himself to the tourists” and that he came here to try living somewhere else than in Tibet, but after a year he wants to go back. He recommends us to visit Tibet as soon as possible, because it is rapidly changing into touristic destination and it is losing its authenticity every day.
A part of our tour is also a day in Danxiashan Global Geopark. There is a huge rock in the shape of penis and a few kilometres next to it stands a big stone vagina. In this nature park the man and woman – or the jin and jang – elements meet, which makes it a very sacred place. Local people come here to pray, especially when they have problems having a baby.
On our way we visit growing city of Shaoguan. This is a perfect example of Chinese fast development. First they choose the area to invest in. Big factories and a high-quality infrastructure are built in the area. It soon brings businessmen there. And as soon as there is a self-sufficient city with running businesses and trade centres the government investments move to another place. The whole process takes less than 20 years. Shaoguan is about half-way through; there are some skyscrapers and shopping malls, but also some beggars on the streets.

... well this trip was full of discoveries. And the most important one was to discover that I have a wonderful friend in Hong Kong. Thank you so much Caness!!!

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