The Hong and the Kong
I was in Shenzhen yesterday, a burgeoning commercial port in Guandong province, about 45 minutes outside of Hong Kong. Sitting in the back of a little red taxi, I looked up at the sky and saw the sun, radiating life-feeding energy and warmth to all species here on Earth. Remembering that I was 7000 miles from my home and friends in California, it occurred to me that people back home could be staring at the very same sun at the very same moment, and one thought leapt into my mind: Are they going blind staring at the sun like I am right now?
Somehow, sharing the same sun isn’t quite as romantic as sharing the same moon, like Fievel and that other cute girl mouse (I think it was his sister) in “An American Tail,” at the moment that gave birth to countless forgettable karaoke moments in the years to come. Still, I couldn’t help but feel farther from home than ever before. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was farther from home than ever before.
I haven’t made my marginal presence known in cyberspace for quite some time, as I’ve been busy with trying to force my way into a decent law school back in the States. Now with the LSATs and the application process finally over, what will heretofore be known as the “what the fuck was I doing” period is now behind me, and my adventures in Asia continue unabated.
I actually have been away from Shanghai for nearly a month now. I’ve always fancied myself a big city kind of guy, and while there are plenty of big cities in the world with deservedly huge egos, there is no city I’ve ever been to quite like Hong Kong. Unlike Shanghai, which was annexed into multiple principalities by a handful of Western countries, Hong Kong was own t>
Off the bat, Hong Kong is as modern as any city can get. Skyscrapers, fancy hotels, and crowds of Hugo Boss suited businessmen abound. Like New York, Hong Kong is actually a combination of land and island. HK proper (Manhattan) is the island, and Kowloon (which translates to “Nine Dragons”) is analogous to the rest of the boroughs. People who live in Hong Kong treat people from Kowloon the same way Manhattan-ites treat the Bridge & Tunnel crowd: an inevitable nuisance that just has to be dealt with. Personally, I identify with the Kowloon folk, since I’m always considered a nuisance that has to be dealt with. In solidarity, my Kowloon brethren.
Mike was on a mission to buy make-up for some friends back in Shanghai. I went along with him and got a fantastic banana-nut exfoliating cream that I had been looking for all over the States. Incensed that he was made to be an errand boy for co-workers, Mike ended up buying a bunch of in-demand makeup at sold it back at a 50% mark-up. He always used to draw the prettiest supply and demand curves back in business school anyway.
A note about Christmas shopping in Hong Kong: about half of the entire population of this dense and crowded city is out to buy fleece sweatshirts in the days leading up to Christmas, and they all happen to shop for them in the same shopping district. Walking down the shopping alley after we purchased our make-up, I was overwhelmed at how many people were walking (er, trying to walk) in the alleys. It seriously looked like Woodstock (you know, since we all personally know what Woodstock is like), and I even futilely tried to crowd-surf my way down to the Starbucks for my mocha frap. Shanghai is a much more populated city, but it is also much larger in terms of square kilometers. In Hong Kong, Chinese people are everywhere you turn. It’s an orthodontist’s paradise.
From there, we met up with Karen, and headed towards Lan Kwai Fong, which is a bar and club district situated on a little slope near central HK. A few years ago during a big holiday, the entire section of blocks was overflowing with the inebriated and the unbalanced, a railing at the top of the hill gave way and hordes of people tumbled down, creating a huge domino effect that ended up killing a few dozen people. Never to be deterred from a good brew, we headed over to have a few Boddington’s, and somehow ended up deciding to start a fashion boutique in Shanghai. ( I still scratch my head at how that came about).
I had been devoid of burritos for over 3 months, and I was in the midst of a serious burrito withdrawal, when we happened across a tacqueria in the trendy SoHo restaurant district (even the trendy districts are the same as NYC). Relative to American standards, it might have been the worst burrito ever made, with all the beef on one side and all the other crap on the other. It didn’t matter. Hong Kong had never seen anyone gnaw on a burrito with such glee as I headed back towards Lan Kwai Fong, where the three of us ended up getting piss-drunk and dancing with a huge throng of chubby Brits celebrating someone’s wedding. I figured the bride was the girl wearing the veil, so I swaggered over to her and congratulated her by shaking her hand, except I was so drunk that I had ended up in front of the groom and found myself vigorously shaking his crotch. The ensuing brouhaha need not be described in much detail here, but suffice it to say that this couple will not soon forget their wedding night. I hope he wasn’t too bruised for his big performance.
Hong Kong is a glamorous city that loves its celebrities, its nightlife, and its status as the beacon of modernity and freedom in a seeaof technocratic communism. A few years ago, during my first visit to this great city, I had an epiphany of sorts. I was walking on the Kowloon side one evening, essentially lost, when I turned a corner and suddenly saw the harbor separating Hong Kong and Kowloon. It was just after a rainstorm, and the still lingering clouds hung low across the water, yet there was a slit of an opening that allowed the most perfect and incandescent amount of moonlight through. The combination of the mist, the cerebral glow from the moon, and the seemingly endless lottery of lights emanating from the buildings on Hong Kong island made me realize how large and frightening wonderful this world really is, and how insanely huge its electric bill must be.
When the hell are we going to have cost-efficient solar power?
Cheers to Hong Kong, roast duck, the best dim sum in the world, and the British for building a fantastic subway system. Though I may never be truly Hong Kong-nese, I could ride the metro forever. Hong Kong, I will be back!
Somehow, sharing the same sun isn’t quite as romantic as sharing the same moon, like Fievel and that other cute girl mouse (I think it was his sister) in “An American Tail,” at the moment that gave birth to countless forgettable karaoke moments in the years to come. Still, I couldn’t help but feel farther from home than ever before. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was farther from home than ever before.
I haven’t made my marginal presence known in cyberspace for quite some time, as I’ve been busy with trying to force my way into a decent law school back in the States. Now with the LSATs and the application process finally over, what will heretofore be known as the “what the fuck was I doing” period is now behind me, and my adventures in Asia continue unabated.
I actually have been away from Shanghai for nearly a month now. I’ve always fancied myself a big city kind of guy, and while there are plenty of big cities in the world with deservedly huge egos, there is no city I’ve ever been to quite like Hong Kong. Unlike Shanghai, which was annexed into multiple principalities by a handful of Western countries, Hong Kong was own t>
Off the bat, Hong Kong is as modern as any city can get. Skyscrapers, fancy hotels, and crowds of Hugo Boss suited businessmen abound. Like New York, Hong Kong is actually a combination of land and island. HK proper (Manhattan) is the island, and Kowloon (which translates to “Nine Dragons”) is analogous to the rest of the boroughs. People who live in Hong Kong treat people from Kowloon the same way Manhattan-ites treat the Bridge & Tunnel crowd: an inevitable nuisance that just has to be dealt with. Personally, I identify with the Kowloon folk, since I’m always considered a nuisance that has to be dealt with. In solidarity, my Kowloon brethren.
Mike was on a mission to buy make-up for some friends back in Shanghai. I went along with him and got a fantastic banana-nut exfoliating cream that I had been looking for all over the States. Incensed that he was made to be an errand boy for co-workers, Mike ended up buying a bunch of in-demand makeup at sold it back at a 50% mark-up. He always used to draw the prettiest supply and demand curves back in business school anyway.
A note about Christmas shopping in Hong Kong: about half of the entire population of this dense and crowded city is out to buy fleece sweatshirts in the days leading up to Christmas, and they all happen to shop for them in the same shopping district. Walking down the shopping alley after we purchased our make-up, I was overwhelmed at how many people were walking (er, trying to walk) in the alleys. It seriously looked like Woodstock (you know, since we all personally know what Woodstock is like), and I even futilely tried to crowd-surf my way down to the Starbucks for my mocha frap. Shanghai is a much more populated city, but it is also much larger in terms of square kilometers. In Hong Kong, Chinese people are everywhere you turn. It’s an orthodontist’s paradise.
From there, we met up with Karen, and headed towards Lan Kwai Fong, which is a bar and club district situated on a little slope near central HK. A few years ago during a big holiday, the entire section of blocks was overflowing with the inebriated and the unbalanced, a railing at the top of the hill gave way and hordes of people tumbled down, creating a huge domino effect that ended up killing a few dozen people. Never to be deterred from a good brew, we headed over to have a few Boddington’s, and somehow ended up deciding to start a fashion boutique in Shanghai. ( I still scratch my head at how that came about).
I had been devoid of burritos for over 3 months, and I was in the midst of a serious burrito withdrawal, when we happened across a tacqueria in the trendy SoHo restaurant district (even the trendy districts are the same as NYC). Relative to American standards, it might have been the worst burrito ever made, with all the beef on one side and all the other crap on the other. It didn’t matter. Hong Kong had never seen anyone gnaw on a burrito with such glee as I headed back towards Lan Kwai Fong, where the three of us ended up getting piss-drunk and dancing with a huge throng of chubby Brits celebrating someone’s wedding. I figured the bride was the girl wearing the veil, so I swaggered over to her and congratulated her by shaking her hand, except I was so drunk that I had ended up in front of the groom and found myself vigorously shaking his crotch. The ensuing brouhaha need not be described in much detail here, but suffice it to say that this couple will not soon forget their wedding night. I hope he wasn’t too bruised for his big performance.
Hong Kong is a glamorous city that loves its celebrities, its nightlife, and its status as the beacon of modernity and freedom in a seeaof technocratic communism. A few years ago, during my first visit to this great city, I had an epiphany of sorts. I was walking on the Kowloon side one evening, essentially lost, when I turned a corner and suddenly saw the harbor separating Hong Kong and Kowloon. It was just after a rainstorm, and the still lingering clouds hung low across the water, yet there was a slit of an opening that allowed the most perfect and incandescent amount of moonlight through. The combination of the mist, the cerebral glow from the moon, and the seemingly endless lottery of lights emanating from the buildings on Hong Kong island made me realize how large and frightening wonderful this world really is, and how insanely huge its electric bill must be.
When the hell are we going to have cost-efficient solar power?
Cheers to Hong Kong, roast duck, the best dim sum in the world, and the British for building a fantastic subway system. Though I may never be truly Hong Kong-nese, I could ride the metro forever. Hong Kong, I will be back!
posted by sushipanda at 7:21 PM
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