How Many 7-Eleven's Can a City Have??

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My quick visit to Hong Kong was an unscheduled stop off. My old friend Vicky from when I had worked in Bangkok was back to her home town for a few days, so I diverted to see what the British had done for this little corner of Asia. Ironically she was back home the days that I would be the closest to Hong Kong during my entire trip, so with the coincidence how could I not stop in?

The overnight bus from Yangshou brought me to the city of Shenzhen. A fairly sterile place that the Chinese seem to have set up as it's own mirror of Hong Kong across the line. Its a special economic region, theoretically the richest in China. It's ironic the location of the richest city in China, when you cross to central Hong Kong and see the money that floats about there. Emigration is completed basically between train stations, one that gets you from Shenzhen to the border, and the other into Hong Kong. For the volume of people that cross the border, if it didn't work as efficiently as it does, a long wait would be store.

I hadn't come to Hong Kong expecting to find some hidden tribal village or a festival that other travelers would never find. I came to see, Hong Kong! The train to the city center passed countless scruffy high rise apartment blocks, if you didn't know that it was Hong Kong you could guess that the sight was the outskirts of a communist city. This ain't the Hong Kong that we see on postcards, the best was yet to come.

I got off the train at the end of the Kowloon Peninsula. Trying to navigate my way out of the train station was more the Hong Kong that I had expected. A complete maze of walkways made for almost a complete navigation of the area underground. I found my way out to the famous Chunking Mansions, the only place to stay on any sort of a budget in a central area. The building was full of random Indians and Africans offering much more than cheap hotel rooms.

I wandered the Peninsula for the evening. One of the first things that really struck me was when I went into a bookshop. The first book that I spotted was the Lonely Planet Tibet. You certainly will be waiting a while to see this in China. The next day was set aside for what everyone comes to see, Hong Kong Island. Navigating the city, it was interesting to try and compare it to 'the Mainland'. I was in a civilised part of town, but not once did I see a person spit on the street, never mind on the floor of a restaurant. As soon as I was looking lost in almost any part of the city, someone would come and ask me where I wanted to go, and this would include police and security guards. They have a beautifully park in the middle of the island with a little zoo. It couldn't be China that I was in when there was nobody on the gate to collect any entry fee. The Peak Tram to the high point on the island has been ferrying people for over a hundred years. The view from the top gives a birds eye view of the full mix that is Hong Kong.

The downtown area really is flowing with money. Walking about in a T-shirt and a pair of scruffy shoes, I was wondering if someone was going to ask me if I was in the right place! Western and Chinese suits zipped about. Whereas Kowloon has a mini city below ground, the Hong Kong Island side had a full network of walkways above street level, almost like something off a Futurama cartoon. Any doubt about the money in the air was put to rest with the shops that lined the streets. The only car dealer that I saw during my visit was the Rolls Royce dealer and yes, I did see a Rolls on the street during the day. With all of this though, you were never too far away from something local. Even with these riches, there was a nice vibe in the air. Maybe this was because the Christmas season had started two days before. Christmas carols were ringing from lit up Christmas trees by night. A five minute walk from Hong Kong's tallest building though and you're on the traditional medicine street. Here you can get anything from dried deer legs to boil into your soup to dried sea horses.

I was impressed my the fact that the government building on the island is in one of the old English buildings. Standing looking at it, the skyline behind is a mess of modern high rises (see photo).

I was glad I had made it to Hong Kong. The vision of a boring high rise city is far from the truth, for a quick stop at least? The view of the Hong Kong Island skyline from the peninsula with the Star Ferry motoring back and forth to the island is one that you could sit and watch for the night.