I’m in Hong Kong!

 

 

A glimpse of the most recognizable tower in Hong Kong, whizzing by from the taxi

 

Despite some delays at the airport, I made it! I’m in Hong Kong and ready to start anew! My hotel is quite nice and I can already tell that I’m going to love this place. Some of my first impressions (based only on coming from airport to hotel via taxi):

• Ah, they drive on the wrong (err, left) side of the road! It’s so disconcerting. And because I forgot, I tried to get in the driver’s seat in the taxi (we always ride in the front seats in Beijing. Maybe they don’t here though.). Whoops.

• There are Shell gas stations! They look like… not China!

• It really does look like New York with Chinese characteristics. Especially because the city is an island on the water, like Manhattan, with expansive skylines, busy streets, high-rises everywhere. But unlike China, thus far, I’ve yet to spot any giant piles of trash or other ugly sights.

• Huge hills (mountains) in the middle of the city! How pretty.

• There was a stylish, older Hong Kongese gentleman on the tram in the airport, dressed in a spiffy suit and a nice hat. I rarely ever saw stylish men under 30 in Beijing, let alone over 30! And you can tell just the way people are dressed that it’s a more stylish city.

• The language. This whole thing of the locals speaking English keeps throwing me off. I keep forgetting and trying to speak Mandarin Chinese to them (I’m not sure which they speak better, English or Mandarin, because Cantonese is their native langauge here).  Even the cab driver spoke English.

• Tipping: What?? After a year in the land of no-tips-anywhere, I forgot about these things. I didn’t even think to tip the taxi driver – and now I feel terrible about that – and the bellboy in the hotel awkwardly stood in my room for several seconds before the American in me kicked in and I realized I was supposed to give him a tip. Whoops! Guess I’ll have to get used to that again (although I think you’re not expected to tip as much as you are in America).

• Weird outlets. Bummer. Guess nothing I own is going to plug in here. Luckily, the hotel has one converter but looks like I’m going to need to buy some (most of my two-pronged American products worked OK in the Mainland with their two-prong plug-ins; here, they’re three-prong at a different angle).

Brian is coming down today to spend a day or two exploring with me since his visa required that he leave the Mainland after 90 days, so assuming we can find each other (our Chinese cellphones seem to not work here), we’re going to go hit all the famous spots and see what all we can find. I’m sure I’ll have lots more to come in the next few days!