Hong Kong – The Little Britain of Asia

Changing the environment first from a “small” city (Guilin) to the countryside (Yangshuo) and then to the metropolis of Hong Kong… So different but so interesting. Of course getting into the Hong Kong is not as easy as changing the country inside EU where it is basically possible just to walk across the border. I went to Hong Kong by bus as it was the most convenient way for me. The bus departure from Guangzhou and drove to the border station, not just some barrier over the road, I mean like a real station! There was tens of busses (plus of course private cars, taxis etc.) which stopped and then all passengers needed to take all belongings and walk through the station: First Chinese immigration control (departure), then Hong Kong’s immigration control (arrival) and at last customs. After passing all this, there was (again) tens of busses etc. waiting and people did board on right busses according to bus companies they were using. That was market by a sticker that needed to put on clothes somewhere on a visible spot, so just in case if you get lost someone can guide you to the correct bus. Felt like being on a school trip :D

Hong Kong is certainly different from Mainland China, mostly because of strong British influence. Streets were narrow, signs were often first in English and then in Chinese, the font on the road signs were similar than used in UK and of course traffic is left hand sided, which I actually didn't even notice before someone mentioned that to me… I guess I was just still used to the left handed traffic from my Erasmus year in Ireland. Besides those few things I noticed, the first impression of Hong Kong was that its slightly chaotic city (so many people in such a small area) – Especially when Im now used to clear Beijing style city plan.

I stayed in a hostel, which was located on Hong Kong Island which is the wealthier and western part than Northern parts located on a continent (Kowloon, New Territories). It was something that was quite easy to spot over there – the amount of sky scrapers, international food places in SOHO area, fashion avenues etc. I heard that in Hong Kong, there are the biggest amount of millionaires compared to size of population. One of the main icons of Hong Kong is Victoria bay and the star ferries taking people from Hong Kong Island to continent. Before subway was complete those double deck boats were the only way to travel over the water, but nowadays they are more like a tourist attraction – So I took the ferry for crossing once and liked it actually much more than subway.

Taking the ferry to continent, the pier is located right at the beginning of “The Avenue of Stars”, the place that makes Hong Kong try to be like a Hollywood without that huge success in my opinion. Basically it is a seaside boulevard were the names of famous actors / actresses / director etc. can be found written at the star plates on the avenue. As every single tourist attraction, even this one has one “must see” thing, the statue of Bruce Lee – The “king” of martial arts in film industry. Been there, done that. Hah!

Continuing north of the city from the Avenue of Stars, there is an area called Temple Street. Names is a slightly confusing because on that area, there is only one small temple so that's why its described also the night market. During daytime that area is silent and empty, but when day turns to evening people start put up their tables and booths to sell whatever they have – mostly this usual “Chinaware” stuff. There are many nice restaurants also around that area, but more interesting than any food place in there were the booths of fortune tellers (which is more connected on the name “Temple Street”). China has a long tradition of astrology and people are still generally quite superstitious in China, or actually to be correct, I should say “in both Mainland China and Hong Kong because people in Hong Kong don’t like to be called as Chinese (they actually can even feel themselves hurted if doing that). Anyways, once I was there, I wanted to try something like that so I asked from few fortune tellers about their price and what they do – and the scale is huge. Its easily possible to spend from 50-500 Hong Kong dollars for that “fun”, I decided to listen what one elderly man had to say as he read my palm and face. But that is something Im not going to write here and it will stay on my own little secret, so if you are lucky enough I might tell you that story personally in the future.

Before I left to China, I took one Chinese language course in University of Tampere (which obviously haven’t help me that much…) and on that course I met Jussi who was going to study in Hong Kong also for this Spring term. Once I was in Hong Kong, it was cool to meet him and compare experiences between Mainland China and Hong Kong. Besides that kind of small talk on Sunday 12^th of April was the Thailand’s New Year (Songkran) and a festival was arranged in Hong Kong in area also called as “little Thailand.” Main thing of that festival was water throwing, or water fight it also could be called. Hundreds of people playing with water guns (or water bottles, bowls etc.) throwing water on to each other and putting chalk on their faces – why? 

Well of course it is actually really fun but also water has a spiritual meaning of washing all sins away and the chalk represents blessing commonly used by monks. After spending few hours at that festival I definitely felt that all my sins were washed away and my biggest wish was that my clothes would get dry before next day, because I needed to catch a flight back to Beijing and wait for the next adventures to become.