Hong Kong (, Macau, Zhongshan, Shenzen)

Lonely Planet China says it best:

If Hong Kong was a person, she’d be a difficult woman to understand. She’d be constantly changing, without losing touch with her heritage. She’d be superstitious, but scientific when she wanted to be. She’d love dim sum, and pizza too. She’d be exotic, but familiar; sexy, but never easy; a gambler, but she’d always know the odds. She’d be immaculately dressed, but she’d know how to let her hair down. She’d be all of this, a contradiction and a conundrum, but more than anything, she’d be a lot of fun to be around.

Can I get an Amen?? AMEN!!! Hong Kong spoke to me in volumes! – figuratively (as above) and literally, as since I was able to understand and put my Cantonese to the test!… I believe I passed! Oh how wonderful it was to be placed in public and actually COMPREHEND what the hell was going on around me and/or what was asked of me!

About Hong Kong:

Along with Macau, Hong Kong is one of two special administrative regions of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong was a dependent territory of the United Kingdom from 1842 until the transfer of its sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. The Sino-British Joint Declaration and Basic Law of Hong Kong stipulate that Hong Kong operate with a high degree of autonomy until 2047, fifty years after the transfer. Under the “one country, two systems” policy, the Chinese government is responsible for the territory’s defense and foreign affairs, while Hong Kong maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, immigration policy and delegates to international organizations and events.

With that preface, Hong Kong was simply fabulous to me!! It was totally awesome to enter a territory in which streets were impeccably clean (automatic fines of 1500HKD/ $200USD are handed out for littering, spitting etc.), people were very much courteous, (please and thank you’s were frequently heard and folks were actually willing to lend a helping hand), civilized (none of that pushing and shoving business that happens in the mainland), plenty more speakers of English if needed if ever Cantonese proved to be an issue (but not for me, thank goodness I grew up in a household that enforced the importance of picking up the language). The pinyin itself in Hong Kong was much more efficient and followed Western sounds vs. Mandarin pinyin where letters are trickedified, ie. “q” makes the “ch” sound — No wonder mainland Chinglish is a level below Hong Kong Chinglish. In fact, as a result of the Brits footprints in HK, some natives there speak with British accents! But enough about that… I can honestly go on and on but will save it for some live talk if you’re interested in finding out more, you know where to find me; for now, I’ll cut to the chase and show a fraction of some flicks I took in my travels.

First off, I dim summed everyday! Love it! Love it! (Back in NY, my friends Joy, Jeff, Edric and Kristin would always invite me to dim sum excursions so that I can order for them…. guys– we gotta do it up in HK!!) So here are food shots… Mmmmmmmmmmm I miss it already!