Hong Kong Hotels
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Ronald McDonald meets Bruce Lee - Hong Kong
Entry 32 of 260 | show all | print this entry |
Every guidebook says the same thing about Hong Kong: it is where East meets West; it is a city of contrasts; it is where traditional China co-exists with futuristic China . . .
Come to think of it, is there any place on earth that isn't full of contrasts? Or where old meets new?
There are some amazing figures. Like the highest number of Rolls Royces per head of population. It's population, by the way, is only a mere 6.9 million. Most of the island and part of the mainland's inhabitants live in high rise apartments, meaning parts of the island and Kowloon have the highest population densities in the world, well above the 6,500 people per square kilometer (by comparison London is just 4,500 per square kilometer).
Being essentially a barren rocky island, Hong Kong island's growth has been around its shoreline - through reclamation - and up, up, up. But despite those tourist images of the Hong Kong island skyline lit up at night or ablaze with fireworks, Hong Kong is surprising green, with around 40% of the territories 1,029 square kilometers protected in some form or other. Sure, most of it is too steep, hilly, or rugged for development. And much of the vegetation in those areas are more scrubby than original vegetation. But it still provides a green buffer against pollution, which is a BIG problem, and also good recreational hikes. One study suggested the number of flower species has doubled in Hong Kong over the last century. Another, in AsiaWeek, claims Hong Kong has more tree species than Western Europe.
So what of Hong Kong since the handover back to China in 1997? Well, the Special Administrative Region (rather inappropriately called SAR, too close to that unmentionable SARS) is still the finance and business hub for north-east Asia. But I sense things are changing as more overseas business people head across the border to Shenzhen, Dongguan and the worse city on earth, Guangzhou, to do business and set up factories. This shift has taken away some of Hong Kong's former value as a middleman. And of late, they seem to be paying for it. Their currency has dropped lower than the Chinese yuan for the first time. The pollution from nearby Chinese factories seems to be choking the territory - causing 2,000 premature deaths each year. And the ease of living in Hong Kong is being negated by its expense - with more tourists heading into China to explore this newly opened more exotic land.
While the century and a half of British rule didn't bring in democracy, it did bring in some semblance of order and lots and lots of regulations. So if you arrive from China, like I recently did, you notice it is much cleaner and tidier than China. And you also notice lots of signs about rules and regulations and ordinances and campaigns.
In many ways Hong Kong is all about consumption: shopping, eating, moving around. And it seems if you have wealth you should flaunt it.
Though I did hear of one restaurant that had started to charge patrons for food left behind - around 64 cents per ounce - to help pay for the food digestor machine and offset the charges of dumping in the landfill. Apparently food scraps make up a third of the waste going into Hong Kong's landfills.
The city with more skyscraper density than New York runs at a tremendous pace. I noticed this coming from a small town where people are less hurried or stressed. In Hong Kong I surveyed the faces of those around me, and none seemed happy with their lot in life, their accumulation of possession and the latest gadgetry, or the Hong Kong weather.
Even though it was sunny and fine most the time, and the humidity wasn't too great, the freezing temperatures of Hong Kong's air conditioning means that as soon as you enter a building the sweat on your body chills. Then when you leave, you are greeted by a gust of warmed air. No wonder SARS flourished in such an environment.
I stopped by at one of the busiest eating establishments in the world: McDonalds. There are more than 200 in Hong Kong, and in Kowloon, there is one which claims to be the busiest in the world. One of the reasons why McDs is so popular with young people and travelers is that compared to most other options, food there is cheaper.
One research paper devoted to McDonalds in Hong Kong claims its presence is an example of two-way adaptation. While in China McDs is treated as a novelty, in Hong Kong it meets the local needs for both speed and efficiency, and - get this - as a shelter from fast and cramped Hong Kong.
The study says that for the Golden Arches to enter the territory famous for its food, it needed to present McDs as exotic and make sure there were no familiar items like rice or noodles. McDs also represented international culture and a chance for youth to become global citizens - albeit fat ones.
What's more, McDs 'raised consumer expectations of toilets', introduced queuing and 'civilized order' (anyone who have traveled in China will know what uncivilized order is like), and they introduced children's birthday parties.
The evil empire also adapted to Hong Kong behaviours, ensuring staff avoided smiling - its meaning is shady - allowing customers to leave their trays at the table rather than clean up - that's for the poor workers - and giving out napkins rather than allowing self-service. Why? Because of 'lack of consumer discipline' and consumer education, as well as the refugee mentality of the Hong Kongers living on borrowed time (this was before the Handover), punters would steal more napkins than they needed.
While pre-Handover many Hong Kongers faced an uncertain future and therefore had no qualms about pilfering napkins, these days there is a new breed of McRefugees who hang out in McDs. A recent AAP story, based on an article in Apple Daily, noted that the Golden Arches are becoming shelters for people down on their luck. [Was that why I was really there?]
It seems people who can't afford high rent or who want to save a few dollars on late-night transportation are sleeping in the fast food restaurants, which are open around the clock. The article had a photo taken at 4am at the same restaurant I visited, with 8 people resting with their arms on a table, enjoying the air-conditioning and not having to worry about safety.
During my visit five checkouts were constantly busy with queues of half a dozen in line awaiting their turn to order. The staff shuffled around taking trays and cleaning the floor, the 'I'm lovin' it' emblazoned on their yellow uniforms in stark contrast to their faces. Or maybe it would be culturally inappropriate for them to smile.
When in Hong Kong I prefer to get a decent meal which is healthier and cheaper than a Big Mac. For $25HK - that's around US$4 - you can get an Indian lunch set at the nearby Chungking Mansions.
Now the word 'Mansions' is used here as inappropriately as McDs use the words healthy and nutrition. In Hong Kong large apartment blocks are called Mansions.
Here's how GoHongKong (http://gohongkong.about.com/od/whattoseeinhk/ss/Chunkingtour.htm) describes the place:
One of Hong Kong's most iconic buildings both derided and loved; immortalized in Hong Kong movies, home to some of the best ethnic cuisine in the city, as well as the cheapest accommodation in Hong Kong. Chungking Mansions are well-worth a visit, to see a completely different side of Hong Kong.
Set in the middle of the Tsim Sha Tsui tourist district, Chungking Mansions are instantly recognizable by the touts collected outside, pitching everything from cheap meals and cheap accommodation, to tailored suits.
Originally, Chungking was the accommodation block of choice for new arrivals from India, Pakistan and Africa. This is a legacy that remains today, Chunking is a veritable United Nations of nationalities. Famed, wrongly or rightly, as a rat-infested haven for criminals of every stripe, Chunking has cleaned up its act considerably.
Its inhabitants still hail from the sub-continent and Africa, but both the Chinese triads and most of the rats have been swept away. Nevertheless, the mansion retains a seedy feeling when compared to the modernity seen in the rest of Hong Kong. Chungking is certainly one of the best places see the down and dirty side to Hong Kong, as well as enjoy some of the best ethnic cuisine in Asia.
You can find Chungking Mansions at - Tsim Sha Tsui, Nathan Road 36-44
Chungking certainly has cleaned up its act, though the touts offering 'cheap suit' and 'copy Rolex' are still loitering around the entrance on Nathan Road's Golden Mile (so-named because of the high retail rentals and also because tourists often buy cameras and other electronics from shops with no price tag - and get ripped off) .
In a way, Chungking stands in defiance of efforts to spruce up Hong Kong post-SARs. As far as I could tell there were no infrared hand-cleaning machines in the foyer and it was only by the infamous lifts that I saw a poster about fines for spitting.
Here's what photographer Patrick Donovan wrote about the place in Urbanphoto.net:
A cluster of Indian touts stand outside at all times of the day trying to lure you in with "cheap suit," "best curry," and the occasional "jiggy-jiggy massage." The entranceway seems innocuous enough with its generic souvenir stalls and rip-off moneychangers. Delve a little deeper into the bowels and you enter a claustrophobic sewerlike maze of cracked bathroom tiles, concrete, rusted metal vents, and frayed electrical wires hanging from the ceiling. The stench of curried sewage and an acrid humidity soon envelops you.
The Chungking Mansion's entrails are the most cosmopolitan place in Hong Kong. In addition to the thousand varieties of cockroaches and rodents, hundreds of poky Indian/Nepali snack bars with one or two faded linoleum tables jostle for space with cheap linen shops, Sikh tailors, Pakistani barbers, Filipino tattoo parlors, Chinese acupuncture dens, cellphone shops, pirate CD stores, and lots of fake Rolex vendors. There's also a contingent of Africans wandering around, haggling with wholesalers, bargaining over containers of cheap goods to ship back and resell at a higher price. Others seem to loiter in the corridors all day slapping people on the back with friendly greetings. The upper levels are a mixture of sweatshops, housing for illegal immigrants, and cheap backpacker hostels with closet-sized 4-bed dorms.
I love the place, but who knows how much longer it will survive. If they don't tear it down in the drive to Disneyfy Hong Kong, this massive fire hazard and eyesore will probably end up collapsing onto itself.
Anyway, if you ever go to Hong Kong, you should go to the Mansions. You don't have to stay there - there are better places down the road at Mirador Mansions where you can get a single room for $HK$150 ($US20) - but you should have a look around the lower floor shops and maybe even venture up the stairs to the first floor where you can try delicious Indian food for under $HK50 (US$7) - soup, dahl, rice or roti, main dish, salad.
And then wash it down with a cup of Indian masala tea. There is something special about sipping a cup of hot tea, a blend of local water (possibly coming from Guangdong province in China), black tea from Sri Lanka, spices from India, sugar from Hainan island in south China - all served by a guy from Bombay who is staying there illegally and trying to do some business for his brother-in-law.
While coffee is sometimes like a stampede of horses that gallop through your body, their hooves thudding on your heart, a good cup of tea is more like going down to a river and gently easing into it - the water, the milk, the spices, the sugar, the tea all blending together.
So after a few days in Hong Kong I headed out, loaded up with 22 books - thanks Amazon - various kitchen things and some special ingredients like vanilla pods, laksa sauce, Thai curry paste - and a lingering impression about what a great city Hong Kong is. The Star Ferry that chugs between the island and mainland, the bamboo scaffolding, old Chinese pushing wheelbarrow carts along streets packed with BMWs, the ping of the scanner on the MTR underground when you pass your Octopus card over it, the world's eighth largest economy and the small shopkeepers lining lanes and stairways, home to a Russian ice vodka bar and rainfall from air-conditioning units above, a busy city with oasis in hotel lobbies and silent elevators.
So long - and thanks for the China visa.
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| 32. | Ronald McDonald meets Bruce Lee - Hong Kong - Hong Kong, China Aug 04, 2007 |
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