Below Belief

Hong Kong, that wonderfully civilised and characteristically British island seemed the perfect place to make an entrance into China. During our stay in Hong Kong we are joined by Chris, on his way to work on a Geography dissertation in New Zealand.
Hong Kong is an incredible place. Nothing is as you would expect it and everything seems to be a jumble of different cultures, styles and designs all living together seemingly in harmony and certainly in close proximity. Hong Kong’s success is a tribute to the nature of the Chinese – they are slave drivers to themselves – never ceasing to be busy or to bustle with whatever they are doing. The futuristic marbled walkways of the banks and skyscrapers, providing for the ceaseless trade of stocks, shares, futures and options, huge production lines fabricating money from time, tower over a world beneath which is about trading of a different kind. At street level there is a wild, ever-changing world of tiny backstreet alleys filled with closely packed shops, barbers, tailors, supermarkets and restaurants. A million things to buy and a million people to sell them to you – all at once in noise and chaos. To the uninitiated it is confusing and daunting but at the same time exciting and colourful. I am frequently amazed, not that this world exists, but that it actually works at all.
My first impressions are of a hot, poorly maintained and over-crowded city. People said Hong Kong would grow on me, but the only thing I find growing on me when I first arrive is profuse sweat followed by a kind of nervous exhaustion at being assaulted and overwhelmed by so much life at once. We stay with a family in Hong Kong, Graham and Riemie Coulson, who are brilliant in making us feel at home. Their apartment is quite large by Hong Kong standards although adding three six-footers to the three children already in residence hardly leaves much room for living. The view from the balcony over the world’s busiest waterway is exciting as well as impressive and helps to give a feeling of space which, one day into our trip, I still find hard to be without. The natives seem to thrive on the lack of it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 1997 at 1:49 pm and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.