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My Asia Diary, Continued: Hong Kong
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Causeway Bay shopping district in Hong Kong: a buzzing place, even at 10:30pm on a Saturday night! |
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I
arrived in Hong Kong late in the evening.
I went to the information desk to get a bus ticket, and a woman
asked me if I needed a guest house.
I replied that I had one -- the Noble Hostel on Hong Kong Island.
Turns out she was the owner, Mrs. Lin.
I'd talked to her just a few days before.
She escorted me to the bus stop and an hour later, there I was. Downtown
Chicago can't hold a candle to Hong Kong!
I arrived at 10PM on a Saturday night, and it was a blaze of neon,
bumper to bumper traffic, and a vibrant sea of people everywhere -- that
went on for miles. I called
Laura: "This place is unbelievable!
I've never seen so many people and so much going on!"
Every store was open and it looked like everyone was out shopping. This is the week of Chinese New Year, so I thought that was why it was so busy. Later I found out it's that busy EVERY weekend of the year.
To
put some numbers to it, the entire province of Hong Kong is something like
100 square miles, with 7 million people.
Half of the land is mountains, so what you have is the entire
population of the Chicago metro area in 1/10th the space.
High rise apartments everywhere, and the streets crammed with
buses. I'd been 48 hours with only 3 hours of sleep, so I went to bed. The Noble Hostel was a terrific bargain for only $30 per night - I got a nice but tiny room (5x10 feet size) and a non-connected shower. It was on the 17th floor of a building above a department store in the Causeway Bay shopping district. |
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New Year's weekend in a park in Hong Kong |
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Looking down on Hong Kong's busy streets |
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Just the sort of thing I'd typically notice: a Hong Kong high-end stereo shop with more speakers per square foot than anything I've ever seen! Next
morning, Sunday, I wandered around for a few hours, had breakfast and did
a bit of shopping. I asked Mrs. Lin to recommend a good restaurant, so she recommended a particular "Dim Sum" (Cantonese) restaurant. On the way there I wandered through a park where throngs of people were celebrating the holiday. I arrived at the restaurant and put my name in the hat. It was well after lunch time but still very crowded. |
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