Report on China: Part Six
Hong Kong
By: Zeren Earls - Jul 06, 2008
Entry into Hong Kong from Mainland China requires filling out a customs form even for the Chinese. As we went through security we also cleared the temperature checkpoint, which was routine by now as we encountered similar devices at the reception desk of many of the hotels. Although Hong Kong became part of China in 1997, it still operates according to the British system with its own $ currency. National day in Hong Kong is a one-day public holiday as opposed to the "golden week" on the mainland.
Our arrival fell on the 56th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Flags and flowers dressed up city squares. Children wore traditional costumes and waved small national flags. Many headed for the newly inaugurated Disney World. People in festive mood clogged up the streets as they moved toward the harbor for the evening fireworks. To avoid the crush of bodies at the harbor my roommate and I enjoyed the fireworks from a distance before returning to our hotel for a quiet dinner at one of its restaurants. Cod in champagne sauce was the culinary highlight of the trip.
The next morning our local guide Alan taught us a few words in the Cantonese dialect, such as "good morning" and "thank you", Jo Son and Ma Goi Doco respectively. The tour of the city was a panorama of high-rise buildings, including the Bank of China designed by the renowned architect I.M.Pei and luxury apartments renting for $4-8000 a month. 90% of the population, mostly Chinese, live in high rises. The largest ethnic group is the Philippines, who work as live-in domestics to take care of children and the elderly. Nepalese soldiers work as security guards. The traditional China district included riding the world's longest covered outdoor escalator and the bustling local market of butcher stalls, live fish tanks, bags of spices, mounds of sprouts, assorted shelled nuts, and baskets filled with vegetables and fruits such as persimmons and yellow watermelon.
In the evening we took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island and rode up to Victoria Peak to gaze at the night view. The harbor shimmered in lights; the high-rise towers of Aberdeen presented a continuous light show with computer-generated patterns. We enjoyed a double-decker bus ride with the locals. At the night market we browsed through stalls of jewelry, crafts and racks of silk clothing. I bought a blouse for $3.
On our final day we toured Kowloon and New Territories that has 90% of the land in Hong Kong. The bird garden and flower markets were the highlights of this tour. Built as a redevelopment project the garden is a theme park with bird stalls for traders. Men raise birds as a hobby and gamble over best singing or fighting birds. Once a week they feed live crickets to the birds to make them sing better. Fresh flowers are brought to the market early in the morning and drop down in price later in the day. Many of the flower and poultry farmers have relocated to England and Holland for job opportunities.
The farmlands of twenty years ago have given way to high-rise buildings to accommodate those in the service industry and workers in the garment, jewelry and electronics factories. Due to limited land ashes after cremation are kept in the temples; some bones are put in a jar and left on the hillside. Farmers build cement walls to strengthen the hillside.
Chinese are superstitious. Locals buy special paper money to burn in the temples for prosperity. Lam is a village of people with the same surname, also known as the village of the Wishing Tree. At the Tin Hau Temple we each bought a paper prayer tied to an orange with a string to fling on the majestic banyan tree as we made a wish. We tossed our paper charm into the air hoping it would catch at first try to have our wish granted. Unfortunately, mine landed on the ground. The public restrooms at this site were the cleanest and the most modern of any we encountered in China. Freshly cut orchids above the washbasins were an irresistible photo op.
During our free time I walked over to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, which has become the destination of countless treasures as historical circumstances in the last fifty years brought collectors from allover China to the city. After viewing the antiquities I was delighted to come upon the witty installations by contemporary artists, whose works incorporated traditional techniques in innovative ways. "Ink Banquet" by Wang Tiande utilized chairs around a dining table set for eight, including a bottle per place setting. All furniture and dinnerware was wrapped in ink washed paper that cast monochromatic hues of gray over the entire banquet. Xu Bing's "A Book from the Sky" carpeted the ceiling with books that paid homage to traditional Chinese bookbinding and printing techniques. Lau Siu-hong Freeman's "Agenda No.1 was a commentary on the board room with every chair around the table made of different material, e.g. wood, rattan, steel, metal mesh, etc.
Our farewell dinner at the hotel was a joyous occasion as we celebrated new friendships and exchanged addresses. We left very early in the morning for our return trip to the States; we flew back across the International Date Line and arrived home on the same calendar day.
China is a vast country with each region offering different dialects, customs, cuisine, folklore and architecture. This 19-page journal attempts to give you a flavor of the regions I visited from the northern heights of Tibet to the southernmost tip of Hong Kong, where people run instead of walk. The willingness of the Chinese to work seven days a week for very long hours demonstrates their determination to become a major world economic power in the next ten years. This is a country where tradition and the new coexist in harmony. The glazed bamboo-shaped ceramic roof tiles of the pavilions in the imperial gardens reminisce the past while the contemporary high rises of Shanghai and Hong Kong embrace the future.