Enjoy HK, but don't imagine it's like China

Trip Start Oct 05, 2004
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Trip End Jun 30, 2005


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Flag of Hong Kong  ,
Wednesday, March 30, 2005

I arrived in Hong Kong to meet my parents who've come to see what I'm up to out here, and Hong Kong is an awful lot nicer as a place to meet than Southern China for the uninitiated. The horror stories of new arrivals trying to figure out how to get into China are legion, and I need no excuse to go and visit Hong Kong myself. So it was that I arrived in the plush and pampered hotel bar of a Kowloon hotel and was delighted to see a couple of friendly familiar faces.

My parents were quite enjoying Hong Kong, once they'd got past the shock that a lot of first time arrivals get and we enjoyed pottering around the city, getting lost in the shopping malls, heading out to Stanley Market, watching the spectacular and taking in the French Impressionist exhibition from the Musee d'Orsay. Ironically, my parents had found some of the paintings missing from the Musee d'Orsay on a recent trip to Paris and this touring exhibition completed the set.

For me one of the most fun things we did - apart from deliberately ordering stuff that's difficult to eat with chopsticks for them - was a trip to Aberdeen and a tour of the harbour on a Sanpan. It's a total tourist trap, but the old ladies fleecing us were so friendly you couldn't really object, and the harbour is tremendous juxtaposition of old and new Cantonese culture, from the old fishing smacks and food prepared dockside to modern motor yachts, floating restaurants and the tower blocks seemingly dwarfing the whole harbour.

Hong Kong was a nice break for me becuase even though it is a busy bustling city it is genteel by comparison with where I'm living in southern China, and it was great to enjoy it with my parents. I didn't really want to tell them what was coming next......
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