End Game Analysis

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It’s hard to believe an awesome year is over and no doubt I’ll be hit by frequent feelings of missing Hong Kong and nostalgia in the coming months. There are a lot of things that have happened since my initial rush of entries at the start of the year and from the comfort of my home in Chelmsford I’m thinking it’s a good idea to highlight the best and worst parts about Hong Kong, and going on exchange in general.

The Good

A pass/fail year - This applies to all exchange placements and not just Hong Kong, but it’s been delightful to have an easy year again with the pressure off. You can go out 2 or 3 times a week and miss days of university to travel with no real fear of the consequences. Since I was chasing a 2:1 in my first year in Leeds so I could do this year, I’ve never really experienced such a pressure free environment before. A few people have observed that my exchange has, from the outside, looked like one big party. I can’t really contest that despite my ability to turn the smallest assignment into a mountain. There were loads of great places to go out and different things to do which we made the most of.

Global network of friends - This applied more to my 1st semester more than my 2nd where I fell a little into a British bubble. I now have good friends from the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Taiwan and of course Hong Kong itself. I could find myself tour guides in the likes of Venezuela and Jordan if I went at the right time too; it’s been great to have such a diverse circle. Again this applies to all exchange programmes and not just HK.

The variety of Hong Kong - What makes the perfect place to live? I remember having this conversation with somebody on my Gap Year and I reached the conclusion that I’m definitely a city boy. I wanted somewhere modern, diverse and cosmopolitan. Beyond this, I’d always wanted to live near the beach and I had by 18 developed a love of the wild the outdoors. I was unaware at the time of this conversation that I was in fact describing Hong Kong. Within the city you have the sleek, glamorous impressive face of areas such as Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, parts of Wanchai and Causeway Bay. Walking around areas such as Soho and Lan Kwai Fong would make me feel an altogether classier human being even if I was walking about in tracksuit bottoms, a wife beater and a Nike sports cap.

You also have regions such as Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po and Yau Ma Tei which are a complete shambles. Elbows hit you and people walk directly at you as you walk around. There are loads of people giving out leaflets on the streets, there are hundreds of street stalls selling food that to my western nose smells like death itself. You’d have trouble getting hold of what you wanted wandering from market to market or travel agent to travel agent. Whichever hairdresser you went to, you were nervous due to their grasp of English. It sounds like a nightmare when I describe it now but I was captivated and always knew I was going to miss it; even when I was in situations where an “experience” turns into a pain I still knew I was going to miss it.

Now the things most people don’t associate with Hong Kong. I got to visit several islands such as Lantau, Cheug Chau and Tap Mun. Lantau Island is known by most tourists for its airport and giant Buddha statue. My 2 best experiences there were, however, Tai O the charming fishing village on stilts and the massive trek on the Lantau Trail I did when Chloe and Rosie were visiting. It was a really intense day going over 2 peaks and being over 17km long, but it was well worth it and HK has some great countryside to offer. I was also taken by Cheung Chau which I visited with my parents, whilst the exchange students’ trip to Tap Mun Island was delightful with possibly the greenest little island I’ve seen. Surely my greatest discovery of the 2nd semester was the Sai Kung peninsula, with some awesome beaches and a huge designated national park. Hong Kong Island’s south side also offers some more remote areas; much of it being turned into a middle class suburban area for expats (so it’s very expensive).

Needless to say this offers lots of variety for your social life. I’ve already written about the boat party for Katy’s 21st back in September, a great day. I’ve also had the pleasure of a beach party at Shek O back in November whilst this semester I’ve had 2 awesome camping trips to beaches in Sai Kung, one of which is so picture perfect you’d barely believe it was in HK. Add to this the option of all the clubbing places or the free terrace on top of the IFC mall overlooking the harbour, surrounded by skyscrapers, and there are so many things to do. We finished the year off with a tram party which wasn’t actually that great, but it’s something to say I’ve done.

Accommodation - Less than £800 for the whole year, I couldn’t have afforded this year otherwise. You get what you pay for, that rant’s coming later.

Location - Perfect for travel. Macau is an hour away on the ferry. You can get to China in an hour (although Shenzhen isn’t worth writing home about; you’d have seen a blog entry in December if it was) which is all well connected by rail. Beijing is less than £100 return and 24 hours away or £200 and 3 hours. Shanghai is a little closer, Guilin is 12 hours on the train. You can also get a train from Shenzhen to Xi’an whilst 2 of my friends are in Sichuan right now (basically a Himalayan region bordering Beijing with lots of pandas). I really didn’t see China enough when I say all this, largely being put off by the cost of their visas.

It’s also because South East Asia was so cheap. Asia’s yet to have an airline quite as cheap as EasyJet and Ryanair, but once at destinations the countries are massively cheap. I got to visit Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and thought they were all awesome. I’d probably rate Vietnam as number 1. For now I’m happy with what I’ve seen of Asia and won’t be going around making plans on how to get back. However, if the opportunity to spend a decent length of time in Vietnam falls into my lap I’ll jump there in a shot. I’ve written blogs on everywhere I went so I won’t describe them anymore, but I can say that there’s the opportunity to see so much more. I’ve had friends go to Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia; Hong Kong is located in a great place for all of them. More extravagant plans I’ve heard include getting the Trans-Siberian railway home from Beijing at the end of the semester, taking the chance to visit Australia as we’re “only” a 9 hour flight away whilst some students have also made it to India. As many opportunities as your wallet and schedule allows. Combined with the diversity of HK, I can’t think of many exchange placements which offer all this.

Transport - London is a joke next to Hong Kong. The MTR runs on time without fail. So do buses, they can take you anywhere. They also have appropriate pricing in Hong Kong, with a journey from my university to Central costing 40p and the bus from my residence to the airport £1.50. The concept that public transport should be for people too poor to afford private transport is a reality in HK.

Safe - You can walk alone anywhere at night and you’re safe. You can leave your laptop bag unattended for a couple of minutes with no guards or security about and know it’s safe. I’ll have to bring common sense back in the UK even if I hardly live in a ghetto.

Clean - So clean apart from the air pollution. When you go to Mainland China you notice the difference instantly.

Add on top of these the given factor of living in a foreign culture and getting to know local people which has been really good. I was an English Language Mentor last semester which was a good way to get to know local students. Teddy and I discovered how seriously Chinese people take karaoke which made some of our renditions more cringe worthy than funny. I also got to know people through group work and my floor which has been good. Naturally the only Cantonese they taught me was the swearwords, I have the vocabulary to insult people in Hong Kong and tell people in the Mainland that “My mother is a teacher” or “My big brother is a doctor”. It did cross my mind to try one of them on our lost taxi driver in Beijing but thought better of it.


The Bad

A love of rules - You must sign in to visit other people’s halls. This makes it easier for them to enforce the rule of making you leave at midnight. Fun is effectively banned at the residence. Throughout the residence and the campus tonnes of security guards are employed. As I wrote above, HK is a ridiculously safe place. These security guards have nothing better to do with their day than uphold petty rules and can often act like total jobsworths. Don’t sit out on the lawn without your student ID. Don’t have your photo taken on the statue. Don’t take coffee into the library even if you’re planning to clear up after yourself. It’s not just the university where this is a problem, it’s the entire city. It’s infuriating at times and is totally counterproductive because I only became more and more determined to take coffee into the library with me and willing to take silly rules.

Food - I don’t want to touch junk food back home for a year. More expensive Chinese food is good; you can get a relatively healthy meal which tastes good for £5. We normally do this once a week in the Nam Sham estate behind the university. Good you think? Try spending that twice a day - £70 a week. I can sort out my weekly food at home for less than £25 largely due to a well equipped kitchen and supermarkets that sell cheaper ingredients. This isn’t the case in HK, it takes a real determination to cook. Keeping below budgets has been difficult this year, largely because of food. You can get cheap Chinese food, but it’s not healthy, you can see the fat in the sauce they put on. We had Homeys kitchen at the residence, so lose count of the amount of times I walked out saying “Never again” because the food was so poor. You can get for £2, but you get what you pay for. The same applies in university canteen. There were a couple of meals I could eat there such as BBQ pork with rice or sweet and sour dishes. For around £1.50 they were great value, but it was also a bit like playing roulette. If you got a good bit of meat with the BBQ pork it was great but you could get more than 50% fat with a bad cut. There was one time it must have been over 75% and I could barely eat it, fat slipping down feels disgusting and made me gag. I stuck to the rice from that bowl. I also got a crunchy (not bony though) load of pork a few times. Sweet and sour chicken would involve pieces with no meat on them, just 100% bone. The life saver at the university was the western style Garden Cafe, with all meals ranging from £2.50 - £3. Their spaghetti bolognaise was good and their burgers were popular. However it still felt quite junky a lot of the time. The other usual eating place was in festival walk. There was an area upstairs with several eating places. There were a couple of Japanese and Thai curries I loved however they would be around £4 each. Just a few steps away, the golden arches of McDonalds would beckon you in with meals for barely £2. I’d gone practically a year without McDonalds or much fast food before HK; I can’t wait to do the same again. It’s so tempting when the alternatives aren’t as cheap and don’t taste much better, even if they are healthier.

It appears the Chinese will eat anything. To quote my friend Jack “You could grate up these chairs and tables, serve it on rice and they’d eat it.” For people who have slightly higher standards, you need a little more money to enjoy good, healthy food. Students don’t have that. I need a long detox from junk food now; you always have a slightly crappy feeling inside when it becomes your diet. I don’t know how some people do it for a lifetime; it’s a reason not to move to the US.

Goodbyes - International friends makes saying goodbye harder. In the 1st semester there were 6 of us who were very good friends. Myself and Andreas are English whilst Peter studies in Bath for now. However once he graduates he’ll be going back to Taiwan for military service. Teddy lives in Washington DC, Vash lives near Toronto, Raj in Brisbane. Hard to organise a reunion to put it mildly. I’ll be doing just about everything in my power to make the summer 2011 road trip in US and Canada idea suggested possible. Then there’s the issue that most exchange students are around for 1 semester only. I made great friends in the 2nd semester but it did feel odd coming back with so many I previously knew gone. It also means I’ve also gone through the goodbye process twice in 1 year, not fun.

The air - It’s rather polluted largely due to southern China factories and it can look quite thick at times. My room apparently had a view over the harbour yet quite often it was eaten up by mist. On a bad day you could stand on the promenade at Tsim Sha Tsui and barely be able to see HK Island. It’s also a very humid air; sometimes you can’t work out if your sweating or if the moisture in the air has just settled on you.

The university standard - As already stated, the university wastes money on security guards. Spend it on a decent library instead. There’s no space to work, people think it’s okay to leave their bags and books for hours to reserve their seat and then call security guards if you move them. That would be okay if the library was big, but it’s tiny and you simply can’t find a working space if you don’t do it. The other option is to wake up the sleepers. There aren’t enough computers for a university of 25,000 students, you must book your work station if you want one. If you don’t, expect somebody to come and kick you off. There’s often just one tiny room functioning as a gym which you need to book in advance - combine that with the food problems.

Then there’s the standard work. When I did group work I didn’t expect the students English to be as good as mine; it’s their 2nd language and its understandable. What did come as a surprise was the amount of plagiarism with chunks ripped off Wikipedia with no reference. If you asked your group mates so sort this out, they’d simply reference Wikipedia. They would use one supporting statistic or text to “prove” their argument. It seemed like academic standards just didn’t matter. For the second semester I deliberately avoided group work. Standards in exams were also poor. Students could take in bags, in every exam I sat a phone went off and people would continue to write after time was up. Plagiarism in Leeds gets you expelled, it’s accepted in HK. It’s bizarre that they love petty rules but will allow people to fake their way through university breaking the most important of academic rules.

I’ve also given a couple of rants on the etiquette and less polite nature of people in HK and Ladies Night in previous blogs; I won’t repeat them here. If anything I’d actually take back a few comments about Ladies Night; it’s not like I’d pay much more for nights out than at home and if the girls can go out free, why not? The occasional tendency on the girls’ part to forget what we were paying to keep up and the lack of recognition was the most annoying thing about it, not so much a problem down to the clubs themselves. (I could get in a little trouble for writing that...)

Other comments

Never buy a t-shirt in foreign characters you don’t understand - It’s hard not to laugh at some slogans unwitting HK citizens walk around with. My personally favourite was the spotty teenager with glasses on the MTR wearing a t-shirt bearing the slogan “I’m smiling because they haven’t found the bodies yet.” I hope he didn’t understand anyhow.

Football in Asia - Massive. I had no idea. “You’re English? You support Man Utd? Arsenal?” Get out.

The weather - Couldn’t work out where to put this. The intense heat and humidity of August and September was too much. October and early November were brilliant. Ever since then it was massively unpredictable. Some nights it dropped to 8 or 9 degrees. Not a problem at home, but nowhere in HK has central heating because it’s barely necessary, and I lacked clothes for the cold. 8 or 9 degrees can feel very cold when this is the case. I think this was a particularly cold year when speaking to locals. In November there was a day when HK was officially colder than London. It was in the week when Chloe and Rosie were visiting; half sad half funny. April and May have been decent, but it’s been heat without the sunshine mostly. It’s not so nice. I discovered at Christmas and in Beijing I don’t mind the cold too much and the weather so far in England since my return has been awesome.

The demise of the Lonely Planet? - Yes, I’m attacking what many travellers regard as the Bible. It is useful to travel with but definitely not essential. In several places we turned up and found a hostel with no help from the Lonely Planet. The internet is making it redundant. The best hostel I ever stayed in, in Beijing, was found online and Wikitravel can give you all the transport and travel advice you need. It really earned its money finding us the $1 hostel in Siem Reap, but seeing as I paid £7 for a second hand copy in the first place it hardly justified the fee. It is very interesting to read; it gives you a good background on where you’re going. It’s also so comprehensive that you’ll leave every country regretting what you didn’t have time to do as opposed to simply savouring the experience. The true rant however, is saved for the Lonely Planet website. What a waste of space. Its top pick for Cambodia online is Preah Vihear, an abandoned hill top temple complex. Awesome as this sounds, it failed to mention the Foreign Office warning against all (even essential) travel to the region. Apparently Cambodia and Thailand have been exchanging live gunfire over the region for a few years; the Lonely Planet website made it their top pick. More utterly perplexing is their overview of Asia, including India and China. 8th on the list of must see places is, unbelievably, Bangkok?!?!? The Taj Mahal and Great Wall of China had no place on the list at all. It’s not even 20th in my Asian experiences, and I haven’t even been to Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia or seen China in great detail. Despite this, according to several well travelled journalists, don’t trek along the Great Wall of China. You’d be better advised to spend your money on a sex show in Bangkok. If there was ever a way for a travel guide to lose credibility. My HK guide advised me to visit Tsuen Wan. 2 guys on my floor were bewildered when I mentioned it to them; it’s an industrial and suburban area. Next time I go travelling I’m not going to bother buying an edition. Hostelworld.com and Wikitravel.org are the future, not to mention spontaneity and flexibility in travel.

I’m running out of thoughts and it’s long already so I’ll finish off by saying it’s been a brilliant year that I’d recommend to anybody. As a student you have the time to look around places and with student loans, local charities and scholarships it should be possible for anybody in the UK to afford it. For me, reality beckons.

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Photos

Friends
From around the world

Lantau Trail
Taste of HK's scenery

My floor
After dinner at start of 2nd semester

Muse live
Incredible night. Thankful for HK's western side

Interviewed for Chinese TV
This is what happens when you go out on Chinese New Year dressed as a communist.

Camping round 1
Arrival at Tai Long Wan, great beach.

Tai Long Wan
Who needs Thailand when this is in HK?

Camping round 2
Men in charge of the fire.