It's been just over a week of my Asia trip. We're only two cities in (Macao, and now Hong Kong), there's one phrase I've already heard over and over again, strangely enough..."It's like Venice [Italy], but not." First, they said that about the Venetian Hotel in Macao, (it's more not, in my opinion), and today my tour guide to Lantau Island said the same thing about Tai O, a small-and-now-defunct fishing village.
Tai O should have been a great place. Located on Lantau Island, the village enjoys a prime spot where the Pearl River meets the South China Sea -- in another words, loads and loads of fish. However, years of aggressive fishing have depleted all the fish stocks and now the fishing village imports all of the fish and seafood that it then dries or cures to sell to tourists and Hong Kong locals (a little known fact -- the importing part). Another unique feature of Tai O is that many of the houses are built on water, hence the comparison to Venice. However, all of the village's fishing glory has disappeared and it's now one of the poorest areas of Hong Kong. Sad. :(
Today I also visited the Tian Tan Buddha -- the largest outdoor seated Buddha in the world. I must say it was extremely serene yet impressive to see this bronze statue halfway up on the hills, surrounded the greenery. The beauty of the whole surrounding environment took my breath away. Link to more pictures
Every time I come to Hong Kong, I'm struck by how different things are, and how fast things change. Hong Kong's probably one of the few places you could visit year after year and notice significant cultural and social changes in that short period. Some thoughts on this trips observations:
It's all about thin...
For women that is. "Slimming" services and companies make up the majority of all popular advertising, promising guaranteed results in ridiculously short time frames and without any effort on your part whatsoever. Most "case studies" show women losing 10-20 pounds (often 20 to 30% of their total body weight) in 14 days, using scary looking space capsule type machines that dehydrate you (literally) and pinch your fat until it falls apart. And no, of course the results don't last. That's how these places suck you in and continue to make money off you.
...and pale.
But only for your skin. While Americans are obsessed with teeth whitening, the Chinese (and Asians in general) are obsessed with skin whitening. Today I walked by a billboard with an ad for some skin whitening product, and noticed that like the teeth whitening chart, this product actually came with a colour strip so you can measure how many shades you've lightened your skin. And here we are fussing about our tans! Craaaaazy!
The flip side of efficiency is laziness
Hong Kong people are crazy efficient. The take-out service of any restaurant is faster than that of McDonald's, and the transportation network puts almost all other international cities to shame. And yet, I suspect that the true reason behind all the efficiency (other than to save money, or to make more of it), is that people here are lazy. Case in point, in one of the MTR (subway) stations, there are 3 exit escalators since there is so much traffic. This is very efficient, except for the fact that everyone only uses 1 of the 3 escalators. The reason? Because you have to round a corner to reach these escalators, and only the one on the right is the fastest and closest one, and walking three extra steps to reach the other 2 would be, well, a waste of steps. Or people are just plain lazy.
We are in China after all
Forget the promise of no change in 50 years by the Chinese government. The reality is, Hong Kong has changed, and we are now in China. Mandarin is now spoken as common as English, and the Mainland Chinese are everyone. Walk into any nice store, and they're usually the ones actually buying something. (The locals will go to look at the latest styles so that they know which fakes to buy.) Go to any restaurant, and the loudest table will be filled with Mandarin conversations, not Cantonese. Today I saw someone empty their nostrils onto the side of the street, China style. (Yes, directly without using a kleenex. It's too gross to even describe.)
Tomorrow's my last full day in Hong Kong for this leg of the trip. Friday we are off to Chiang Mai!! :-)
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