Vancouver Meets New York City

I haven't been great about blogging about my travels. Since arriving in China, I've been to Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Beijing and most recently, Hong Kong. For whatever reason, I think writing about me being a typical tourist is not as interesting as my everyday life as an English teacher in Changzhou.

However, I'll make an exception for Hong Kong. Two weeks ago I spent the weekend there with my usual travel buddies, Peter and Adrienne. I knew HK would be different from the mainland, but I wasn't prepared for how different. It was China, but without the 3 "S" vices: smoking, spitting and staring. While HK hasn't gone so far as to make bars smoke-free, you saw a lot more no-smoking signs in general. And fewer people seemed to smoke anyway, so even bars and clubs weren't too bad.

I didn't see one person spit the entire weekend - or for that matter, do anything rude in public. And if anyone wanted to stare at "waiguoren" (foreigners) in Hong Kong, they'd be doing A LOT of staring. Unlike the rest of China, where Han Chinese make up about 95% of the population (and more like 98% in Jiangsu province), Hong Kong was very diverse and cosmopolitan. In Beijing I saw a lot of foreigners, but they always looked like tourists. Even there, I couldn't escape the occasional stare or request for a photo - Beijingers may be used to foreigners, but the city gets a lot of tourists from other parts of China. Not so in Hong Kong. It is actually easier for a foreigner to travel to HK than a Chinese person. To prevent an influx of people across its borders, HK requires mainland citizens to get a visa. We only needed our passports.

Compared to Beijing or Shanghai - the mainland's most "diverse" cities (relatively speaking) - HK had a lot more foreigners, many of whom looked like they worked there. We came across this expat scene in the famous Lan Kwai Fong bar district...

Although HK has been reunited with China now for almost 12 years, it still has its own currency and government. People drive on the left, just like in Britain. Its subway system, the MTR, is one of the cleanest and most efficient I've experienced. And Hong Kongers are taller than people on the mainland.... I resumed my natural role of bringing down the average height in a room. To me, HK felt like a combination of New York City (skyscrapers, famous skyline) and Vancouver (coastal, yet mountainous). It even had a beach area that reminded me of the south of France.

Hong Kong's famous skyline

At the top of Victoria Peak, with a view of Hong Kong's city centre

Hong Kong was expensive. It was hot. And I loved every minute of it :-) It is the kind of city that I can see myself living in long term. I've loved my time in Changzhou, but I don't think this could be anything but short term for me. I miss aspects of western life. The inability to blend in gets to me. You could live in HK, but still have a piece of home. And a piece of other people's homes too. In the two days we were there, we had Cantonese, Indian, Vietnamese and Western food. On the Western front, I finally got to indulge in the steak I've been craving for some time. And paired with a good red wine at that! We were delighted to see an Outback Steakhouse across the street from our hostel.

Tasting steak for the first time in 3 1/2 months - yum!