Hong Kong

July/August 2001

You soon sober up when you see the prices in Hong Kong! It had recently been declared the 3rd most expensive city in the world to live after Tokyo and Moscow. London didn't even make the Top 10 (New York was 9th). I arrived at the new (1998), clean Chek Lap Kok airport around 1pm and lined up with hundreds of others arriving from all over the world. I then had to hang around there for 6 hours to await Jo's arrival from Bangkok. At least the coffee shops offered free Internet usage.

We caught an airport shuttle bus over the massive new 2 km long Tsing Ma suspension bridge (HK's 'Golden Gate' Bridge) downtown into Kowloon that which was a mass of neon lights, shops and hawkers. Accommodation is really expensive here and we explored the traditional cheap tower block of guesthouses at the Chungking Mansions - the most extreme of mansion blocks in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon. 17 stories high, they are a festering collection of grimy rubbish strewn corridors, tiny lifts and cramped accommodation. We checked out a few places, which all offered tiny rooms with a/c and TV and settled in at Beverley's Guesthouse on the 8th floor, for about £10 a night.

It must have been the cheapest because it was full of black African men looking for work, and every immigrant group you could imagine. It was a real shithole but the best we could afford. At least we had no rats in our place. In very humid conditions, the a/c was a lifesaver.

Our first evening's stroll around the streets involved being bombarded by the offers of fake Rolex watches, tailors and even an optician outside his shop looking for business. The food prices were very expensive - £1.50 for a bowl of soup, £3 for a Chinese dish in the local stalls. Even an iced tea cost £1. Ironically, McDonalds had the cheapest food in town, and I'm ashamed to say that we lived off burgers and milkshakes throughout our stay of 5 days.

Hong Kong was originally used by the British to smuggle in opium to the Chinese masses. China objected. Britain sent in the gunboats, kicked ass, and was awarded a Hong Kong Island and Kowloon on the Chinese mainland on a 99-year lease. In 1997, we handed it back. "It is a curious anomaly... an energetic paragon of the virtues of capitalism and yet is now part of the largest Communist country in the world" (Rough Guide).

Hong Kong (the ‘City of Life’- HK Tourist blurb) is about 1070 sq. km in area, divided into four main areas - HK Island, Kowloon, the New Territories on the mainland and other outlying islands. HK Island is the economic heart of the territory but only has 7% of the land area. 6.7m people populate the territory, making some districts (esp Kowloon), among the world’s most densely populated areas. Cantonese and England are the dominant languages. Visiting in late July, we hit the typhoon season of ‘dai fou’ (‘Big Wind’ oo-er), or rather the typhoons hit HK. A few days before we arrived, a typhoon had blasted the place - even the airport had shut down.

First impressions: HK has lost much of its traditional flavour. Air-conditioned shopping centres (with free Internet) and office blocks have replaced the old street markets. It still has more atmosphere than Singapore and is a hell of a lot more lively, but western consumerism rules. I think that there is still a maximum 15% tax rate. It is a very walkable place (if you can stand the humidity) with walkways over the roads to get you around the buildings but it all looked rather the same. The same shit for sale - different city. My old guidebook said I’d find some street markets in the Central District - Wing Sing Street to buy eggs, Wing On Street which was the old ‘Cloth Alley, and Man Wa Lane for wooden seals. They had all disappeared, destroyed by the new shopping centres.

The locals seem to have three speeds for walking - old people doddering around in no hurry or pushy people on their way somewhere. In-between are the mobile phone users yapping away (and everyone over the age of 10 has one in HK). So we battled our way through these three groups, but it was still pretty relaxed. No one bothered us. Security guards with guns stood outside every building, but everyone was very polite and civilised. No sign of the Triad Gangs threatening to rip our lungs out.

Hong Kong means ‘Fragrant Harbour’ in Cantonese - I think not with the current heavily polluted waterways. But Victoria Harbour was one of the major reasons why England wanted HK. It was once, one of the busiest, deep-water harbours in the world. It is still a hive of activity; Star ferries crossing the harbour, turbo jets en route to Macao, local fishermen in old Chinese junks, dredgers, cargo vessels, container ships, coastguard boats - all attempting to cut each other up on the choppy waters. I’d never seen such a busy harbour anywhere.

To reach Hong Kong Island from Kowloon, you catch a Star Ferry. These efficient spacious wooden ferries have been plying the harbour for over 100 years. There are two levels. Top deck has a/c and costs 18p, lower deck 14p. Since there are no windows, lower deck was fine. The ten-minute crossing across Victoria Harbour gave us a superb view of Central’s tower blocks, framed by the green hills looming above it. It is one of the most thrilling images of HK and we used the ferries frequently (along with the other 100,000 passengers a day). I never got bored of the stupendous view.

Hong Kong Island was not planned. It is ever changing – old buildings knocked down to be replaced by higher tower blocks. It is an organic mass of concrete and glass that has been squeezed into every available space.

We spent (I was surprised that time passed so quickly), 5 days in Hong Kong, pretty much just exploring without a guidebook and here is a list of worthwhile sights we discovered: Central district on HK Island contains all the major economic infrastructure:

Hong Kong Exchange - the ‘Hang Sang’ is housed in a pink, pastel coloured marble and glass building and ranks 4th in the World’s Stock Exchanges behind New York, London and Tokyo. Everything is computer operated and what you find when you enter is an expanse of computers lined out around a central digital screen in a square. Not very atmospheric. No yelling and no floorwalkers running around with bits of paper in their hand. At 10am when it opened, it was deserted. No wonder the stocks took a bath that day. Noone could be bothered to turn up for work.

In 1986, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Building (HSBC) was the most expensive building in the world. It cost $1 billion US and wears its innards on the outside. The ladder like construction hangs from towers like a suspension bridge. When you walk under the lower glass canopy, you can look up through the glass underbelly into a 60m high atrium. Two long elevators are the only access from the ground to the first floor.

It is a rival to the 70 story Bank of China Building nearby, shaped as two spear like glass towers symbolising stalks of bamboo, which sway in the wind. Interesting building. Pity that 6000 employees were due to lose their jobs there soon with Chinese banking centralising on the mainland.

All new buildings in HK have to conform to the dictates of the geomancer who is called in with the planning of every new building to ensure that the spirits aren’t disturbed and that the building is favourably sited. Even the angles of the escalators were fixed at the HSBC according to geomancer instructions.

Lippo Building was another new concrete and glass tower block. Inside was ‘Le Village’ a selling job for the new apartments being built in ‘Happy Valley’ overlooking the racecourse. It was empty, so the sales rep gave us a guided tour of the new luxury flats for sale. Three tiny rooms (reception, den and bedroom) and a kitchen so small, I could touch all four walls from the centre with my hands. It wasn’t a case of swinging a cat around as ‘how do I hold it up to start with’. The bathroom had touch screens that glazed over when you went to use it. For this state of the art Hong Kong apartment, fit for gerbils, 42 floors up, the price was $4.2m HK - about £400,000. Still, you could watch the racing for free with high-powered binoculars. It made my flat in London look very spacious.

I didn’t expect to find trams in HK, but they have been on HK Island since 1904 and are the cheapest transport. They are old double decker affairs where you climb on the back, head upstairs for a front seat and descend to pay the driver at the end - only 2 Yuan (17p) from one end of the line to the other. It was a great way to see the central business district and street life below. From the top deck we saw great business names like ‘Fook Dak Ltd’ ‘Fook Hin Hot Pot Seaside Restaurant’ Fook Hin Dispensary’ and ‘Wanko’ boutiques. A laugh a minute. Excellent transportation system.

During our stay, we had jobs to do. I took my camera to be fixed at the local agent on HK Island. Unlike Manila, it actually existed. I was dealt with professionally by a polite man, who, despite the usual 10-day wait, said he’d try and get it fixed within 5 days. Which he did - free of charge. I was very impressed. We also visited the Chinese Resources Building to apply for and get a Chinese visa. Despite the hour-long queues, it was efficient and produced within 2 days. More importantly, with the expensive food prices, we found a ‘Park and Shop’ supermarket, which did cheap, and enormous Chinese take away lunches. It was worth the tram fare just to come here and eat!

The Convention and Exhibition Centre was completed in 1997, near the Chinese Resources Building, in time to hold a farewell ceremony outside to give Chris Patton, the then, British Governor General the final boot (‘And take those blwoody Spice Girls with you’). It is an impressive building with the roof designed like a seagull’s wings in flight. Its 7 story, plate glass wall ‘glass curtain’ is one of the largest in the world. It was a huge complex full of thousands of Chinese youth who’d come to visit a ‘Comics festival’. It was like watching crowds leaving Wembley after a FA Cup Final.

Overlooking it was the newly built Central Plaza where a high-speed elevator took you up to the 46th floor (for free) for an awesome view over the skyscrapers of the Central Business District. Happy Valley on one side and the harbour on the other. Not exactly the Empire State building, but still impressive.

Our first day in Hong Kong was a Sunday. Thousands of Filipino maids gathered in the Central District during their day off. They are Hong Kong’s cheap labour source. They collected in open squares and under buildings to have picnics, exchange gossip, read Filipino newspapers, compare shopping, sing and play cards. Photographers would take group shots of them. It is a traditional weekly ritual and worth a look.

On our climb up to Victoria Peak, we took in another couple of places: Man Ho Temple was one of the first traditional style Chinese temples built during the colonial era (1847). Inside, the air was thick with plumes of aromatic smoke from massive lit coils (2ft long by 1ft wide) and incense sticks said to carry prayers to the spirit world. Around us were gold encrusted altars and red-lit shrines to the Taoist Gods of Literature and War. A few locals dropped in to pay their respects or get their fortunes read.

Flagstaff House (1844) was the residence of the Commander of the British forces for well over a century. It survives as an impressive piece of colonial architecture (few and far between in HK). It is a cool, white, shuttered building, and it’s simple pillars and surrounding garden were an elegant contrast to the, ugly resident tower blocks all around. Inside, the Museum of Tea Ware was a small engaging exhibition of tea making with pictures and instructions of how to make various teas (heat the teapot etc). Newly weds had their photos taken outside the building so it must be classy for Hong Kong.

Victoria Peak (550m) is really popular on a Sunday and most people catch the 1888 Peak Train - the world’s ‘steepest’ funicular railway (I’d challenge that claim) which takes you 1400m up to 400m with a 27% gradient through the tower blocks. But despite the sweltering heat, I forced Jo to walk up the hill via a quiet winding concrete trail for the cheapskates. Peak Tower, our destination, was a strange wok-shaped building full of crappy souvenir shops and expensive restaurants, but from where, we had a fine view down across the cityscape and the harbour to Kowloon. On a Sunday afternoon, the Chinese masses were up here on their day off. Mist and clouds would occasionally envelop the view, but it was still the best view of Hong Kong. For some reason, Deep Purple’s ‘Highway Star’ boomed out of outside speakers.

On the way back down, we found the 1994 Hillside Escalator Link, an 800m moving walkway (‘travelator’ which runs from the bottom to the ‘Mid Levels’. It takes 20 minutes to travel from one end to the other with about 30 entry and exit routes off it. I thought it would be continuous, but it is a series of broken escalators and moving walkways.

Kowloon, where we were based, had some of it’s own sights: The fabulous Peninsula Hotel, near the waterfront was another throwback to colonial times. Built in the 1920’s, this hotel housed the railway travellers at the end of their Grand Railroad Tour all the way from the UK. It is a sister to the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay and Raffles in Singapore, which we had seen previously on the trip. It is the most expensive hotel in HK so no riff raff. Despite our shorts, we were allowed to peak into the spacious opulent lobby of pillars, gold trimmings and chandeliers. A string quartet played while the rich tourists partook of coffee and cake. The doorman even went to fetch me a free postcard of the lobby. Which was nice. “Now kindly leave the building, you oik he probably said in Chinese.

The Cultural Centre (1989) lay across the road from the Peninsula Hotel on the waterfront, looking over the harbour to Hong Kong Island. The architect, despite a massive budget, came up with a baize brick complex with no windows! Designed as large bird’s wings enshrouding the egg that is the adjacent Space Museum, it is a bold, contentious design. I rather liked it, having seen nothing like it before.

We explored the Kowloon district in an attempt to find some traditional markets. Few and far between, we found them. The usual fake designer clothes markets were bypassed to reveal the small Jade Market and then more interesting specimens. The flower market was teeming with colourful streets of intricate bouquets. But the Bird Market was something else. Hundreds of songbirds perched in small cages, singing their hearts away outside in the sun. There were stalls selling packets of live locusts/grasshoppers for the birds. A small market but very engaging.

We also did a day excursion to Lautau Island using a high-speed ferry. Twice the size of HK island, it is the largest island and very green and mountainous. A bus took us up through the hills to Po Lin Monastery (‘Precious Locus’. Established in 1917, it is home to 40 odd monks and the site of the 100ft tall, black bronzed, seated Buddha - known locally as, inevitably, the ‘Big Buddha’ As we climbed the staircase, Mr Buddha was shrouded in mist. It looked very atmospheric and ethereal. Chinese tourists attempted top flip coins into the hands of surrounding Buddhist statues. Not exactly challenging Thailand’s Buddha statues in grandeur, it was an enjoyable visit. At the monastery, Jo picked up the casket of numbered sticks, shook out one and had her fortune read. It was pretty depressing. I think it said ‘6 months to live’.

Final impressions: Hong Kong has lost much of the character I expected it to have. Capitalism is king. Shopping malls are the predominant markets and McDonalds is replacing the street food stalls. The pushy Chinese people and crowds grind you down in the humidity. Worn out, you flee to your cramped expensive accommodation to seek air-conditioning (picking up a Big Mac on the way, because it is all you can afford here). If you don’t want to go shopping, there isn’t much else to do and besides, you can find everything cheaper elsewhere. I didn’t need a ‘cheap’ Rolex watch so that was half the hustlers dealt with. Jackie Chan had moved to Hollywood years ago, and there wasn’t even a Bruce Lee Museum (there must be some money in that idea). I was glad to leave, but also happy to have seen it - even if I was too late to see what I had always heard about Hong Kong -lively, interesting markets. Worth a stopover, but who’d want to live here?

Costs in Hong Kong for 6 days (in British Pounds Sterling)

Travel - £40.41
Accommodation - £32.72
Food - £24.45
Other - £25.17
Total - £122.75
Grand Total - £12,436.88