Hong Kong

 

Waking up to an overcast sky. So a long vessel near the horizon.Thought it was a warship. After checking with my binoculars I found that it was an exceptionally long Cosco container ship. I must be getting jumpy.

 Hong Kong is a rich and lively city but with very sad suburbs full of anonymous high rises. Yet the landscape is spectacular and the way that residential blocks are left perched on sheer mountain slopes is quite dazzling. As the Borealis made its way to the harbour in Kowloon we were faced by a forbidding regiment of such miserable looking residential 30 storey high rises on Hong Kong Island, which appeared to be giving us a negative vibe.

We docked somewhat later than had been announced and we had foreseen a complicated process through Hong Kong immigration. After all, we had had to submit to a covid test and photograph the result, as well as complete a landing form in advance, and we expected similar treatment to what we had undergone in Singapore. To our surprise we entered the cargo terminal and were simply waived through without any fuss. We were able to reach our coaches without being stopped by a single official. We had been urged to keep a photocopy of our passports but even these proved unnecessary. So far so good. 

We drove first past those dismal suburbs and through several tunnels including the 1.8 kilometre long Cross Harbour Tunnel and climbed through a zig zag of steep mountain road to reach the top of the highest point in Hong Kong, Victoria Peak. We noticed that the high rises seemed to be accompanying us as we climbed, though often with a somewhat more affluent appearance the higher we went. Some 40% of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million inhabitants live in the more mundane communal skyscrapers, piled on top of each other, with no access to gardens or even parks in the inner suburbs, and displaying their air-conditioning motors and their washing to their immediate neighbours at the same high level a few hundred metres further on.  I understand that their rent is around US$250 per month, which does not sound too expensive. Depends what their income is of course. Those on the higher escarpments, just as those near the trendier city centres, are living in private more expensive residential blocks. Yet even as we climb to the top, thinking that despite the low rain clouds we would be able to find an isolated viewing platform at the peak, we were surprised wen we got there, that this “isolation” was shared with two retail galleries, a Madame Tussauds waxworks museum and a funicular railway station at the top as well. Our coach stopped there for 45 minutes for us to take in the view and the shops with their outrageous prices. 

                        

The view itself was breath-taking from whichever side of the peak you looked out from. It covered the main urbanized area in the valley below, including the green turf at the plush and historic Jockey Club, Victoria Harbour and the channel beyond, Kowloon itself and even a chunk of the China mainland. The sight of the dense housing was broken up by the greenery of those sections of the mountain that had not yet been developed. Somehow this level of development at such a high level leaves me thinking how much more exploitation can the soil and rock of this mountain take in the face of some future extreme typhoon. After all, the climate is deteriorating, the latest UN climate report expected under present trends for the world temperature to be 2% higher than in the nineteenth century. I have seen similar modern high rises hugging mountain slopes in Monte Carlo, and I would not live there for all the tea in China.

Then we moved back down through the high hills towards sea level and stopped at the Repulse Bay Beach for a comfort break. I spotted one of those high private residential blocks overlooking the beach with a large space cut into the lower part of the building like a space for a door. I had heard that due to Chinese superstition architects often build some of the more prepossessing buildings with this kind of gap to allay suspicion that the evil spirit, or dragon, resting in the hills behind the building will still be able to draw water from the Bay through this huge aperture.

We drove back through two tunnels to return to Kowloon by coach and were able to obtain fleeting glances of Nathan Road and The Peninsula Hotel, which is Hong Kong’s answer to the Raffles Hotel. Next, the coach drive way out to the viewing platform for the 2 mile long Tsing Ma Bridge, a beautifully designed suspension bridge, the second biggest in South East Asia, which links road and rail from Hong Kong to its new airport. We stopped for a comfort break as well. I have to say that Albina and I were very impressed with the toilet facilities, which were pristine clean and had automatic sensor flushing. Certainly, in terms of overall hygiene and lack of litter in the streets Hong Kong ranks very highly indeed.

The coach returned to the city centre and parked next to East Tsim Sha Tsui metro station on Chatham Road in Kowloon. Passengers were invited to leave the coach if they still wanted to explore Hong Kong further, or they could stay on the coach and return to the Borealis on the Kai Tak terminal in Kowloon Bay. Shuttle buses were to arrive at the same sport every half hour between 3pm and 8pm. Albina chose to return. I chose to stay in Hong Kong a little longer to explore the Victoria Harbour area and Nathan Road.

One of the positive oddities of Hong Kong is that so many of the traditional streets still retain their English names. Considering how intensely effective the Chinese Communist government has been in suppressing democracy and freedom of the press in Hong Kong and in challenging aspects of British culture and European values in the former colony, it is not surprising that Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial centre has suffered. In the last year Hong Kong has slipped from 13^th to 23^rd place on the Global Power City Index, a very dramatic and significant fall. It seems strange therefore that with all these changes, the key road to Victoria Peak remains Stubbs Road and that Kowloon is criss-crossed with roads still named Salisbury, Nathan, Jordan, Chatham, Cameron and Kimberley. Even street names such as Peking and Hankow remain on the maps even though the former anglicized version of those cities’ names have long since been changed in mainland China. In any case, for Europeans like us, it is convenient.

Walking up and down Nathan Road is a delight, as you share the vibrant sounds and smells of China’s young as they mix and share the streets with tourists. Our guide had said it had  some 6000 shops, obviously an exaggeration, but he could have been referring to the surrounding district. I was puzzled by how many young Chinese I saw wandering the streets wheeling suitcases. They did not look like someone looking for a hotel as they seemed to sight-seeing and taking photos, while encumbered with their metal suitcases. A puzzle. Nathan Street is marked by smart clothes shops and jewellers, amidst the banks, galleries and hotels. Most of the food shops are off the street in side roads (still with British names). 

                            

I walked down to the southern end of Nathan Road, took a picture of the posh Peninsula Hotel, and crossed the five lanes of Salisbury Road to walk along Victoria Harbour. There was a superb view of the esplanade on the Hong Kong Island opposite dominated by the highest building of all, the highly visible Central Plaza tower, seemingly adorned with perpendicular organ pipes. Meanwhile, on my side of the harbour I was able to wander round the outside of the Hong Kong Space Museum with its large white egg-like dome, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Cultural Centre, as well entering the large beautifully decorated K11 Arcade which is the size of a large department Store.

I then returned to Nathan Road and walked northwards past the stores, hotels, and jewellers. I stepped into a couple of the side roads and tried my luck by eating lunch at a tiny Chinese restaurant where I ordered a fish in a Ramen-style soup bowl full of the most fiery spicy soup imaginable. I was determined to make a go of it all the same and I picked at the fish and the accompanying rice and steamed green vegetable with my chopsticks. The sweat was pouring off my face and I had to keep blowing my nose with a paper tissue, using the plain rice to deaden the effect of the soup, until in the end half the bowel was empty and all the fish it contained, and the accompanying vegetables had been eaten. This little meal set me back 43 Hong Kong dollars, which must be around £7.

Enriched with that experience I returned to Nathan Road and walked past an elegant white mosque endowed with four minarets. Apparently, it was the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre, the largest in Hong Kong. Adjoining the mosque were some carefully decorated steps, quite steep in fact, shaped to appear to be the backdrop to a picture of a garden. 

At the top of the stairs was Kowloon Park. The park was an unexpected and unplanned joy. Like other parks in the East, it was divided into separate compartments which included a Chinese garden, an aviary that I had no time to visit, a number of beautiful ponds centred around tall fountains, a sculpture garden and a collection of bizarrely placed hedges at waist height which purported to be a labyrinth. Hardly a challenge when compared to Hampton Court. There was a playground for children, an ornamental pond with some golden koy, and, most memorable of all, a small lake full of flamingos. That would be a flamboyance of flamingos, as I remember according to the answer given at one of the quiz sessions, and which we got wrong at the time. I took plenty of photos, but the flamingos were an unalloyed delight, and quite made my heart sing.

I made my way back to Chatham Road to catch the shuttlebus for 5pm and felt that I had had a very fulfilling journey around the city.

Unfortunately, when I got back to the boat, I was disappointed to see that there was still no clear internet signal. Consequently, I had to complete the text of my blog covering Hong Kong on Word programme and hope to transfer it to my blog programme early tomorrow. For that same reason I could not send a quick Facebook report on Hong Kong, as I was not able to download my Hong Kong photos. Nor was I able to make a transfer payment to reduce my credit card bill. All very very frustrating. In the meantime, I finally had confirmation of my Council Tax for the year 2023/2024 and will now have to arrange the finance to pay it. Also, the ship’s Guest Services were unable to change back my 300 HK dollars into sterling. Best thing will be to change into yen when we reach Hakata in Japan in four days’ time.

A couple of days ago Alicja Donimirska had sent me a copy of the first newsletter from her as Chair of the Federation of Poles in Gt Britain. I circulated it on her behalf to the international Polonia organizations. They responded very promptly by circulating the bulletin to all their member organizations around the world.

Only 12 out of 15 in the quiz today. Just not good enough.