Steve and Cathy's Blog

Quit note: Yes, our intention was to publish day-by-day, but things got a little out of schedule after our visit to Hong Kong.  Our notes were very thorough, so we said: “let’s go back to that later” so we could post at least within 10 days of when we were actually there.  Today, as you will see, is almost a month later and there have been many other more current posts.  This is such a special place, and we were so taken by it, that we did not want to give it less attention than it deserved.  We will have the next day asap.

At the very first glimpse we got of Hong Kong, we knew we were in a very unique place on the planet – a place we had heard so much about during our lifetime.  Romantic, vibrant, exotic Hong Kong.  Insignia was due to arrive around 5:00pm, and Enrichment Lecturer Peter Croyle is up on Deck 10 around 4 talking about the city, its history and place in the world.  We definitely want to be there, so we grab our camera around 4pm and head up.

Whew!  The weather is hot and the atmosphere is h-a-z-y.  While that is often the weather situation in early Spring, the hills surrounding the city trap the air over its busy self, and the pollution generated by the city is worsened. Someone asks: “Is this fog, smoke, or car exhaust?”  Peter answers: “Yes.”  In other words, all of the above.

He goes on to describe Hong Kong in staggering statistics: Population density is fourth highest in the world, with 7.4 million inhabitants occupying 1,064 square miles, of which 60% is water.  That works out to 17,552 people per square mile.  Consequently, the city contains more skyscrapers than any other place on earth. It is the world’s largest transshipment port, meaning goods manufactured elsewhere flow through Hong Kong.  This community has the 35^thlargest economy in the entire world.

With the deep, large and easily defensible harbor, it is no wonder it was so coveted by the British during their imperial period.  British control of Hong Kong came about in 1842 after the first Opium War, so named because its genesis was China’s attempt to stop the flow of opium into their drug-addled country.  During the first decades of the 19th century “European demand for Chinese commodities like tea, silk, and porcelain was high.  However, Chinese interest in European manufactured goods was comparatively negligible, creating a large trade imbalance between Qing China and Great Britain.  To counter this deficit, the British began to sell increasingly large volumes of Indian opium to China. Faced with a drug addiction crisis, Chinese officials pursued ever more aggressive actions in an attempt to halt the opium trade.” (quote from Wikipedia).  After Chinese officials confiscated and destroyed stockpiles of opium, the British sent in troops.  After British military victories in 1839 and 1840, a ceasefire was arranged and the Treaty of Nanking was negotiated and ratified in 1842.

This sorry episode ceded Hong Kong Island in perpetuity to the British.  The Second Opium War ended in 1860 with the addition of parts of mainland Kowloon being ceded in perpetuity as well.   The colony was expanded further in 1898, when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of additional territory: Lantau Island, the remainder of Kowloon north of Boundary Street, further territory beyond Kowloon up to the Sham Chun River, and over 200 other outlying islands were given over to British control.  At that point, the colony of Hong Kong had achieved its current size with three distinct sections: Hong Kong island, Kowloon on the southern tip of the mainland, and the New Territories north of there.

While the colony grew steadily in the first few decades of the 20^thcentury, on December 8, 1941, Hong Kong was attacked by Japan.  Within three weeks, it fell.  During the war, “widespread starvation and forced deportation of residents to mainland China for use as slave labour drastically reduced the population of the city from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945.” (Wikipedia again)

Hong Kong’s post-WWII history has been dazzling. It was one of the earliest Asian economies to industrialize.  This was driven by the rise of Communist China.  Millions of refugees sought to escape, and that especially included many newcomers who had owned businesses located in major Chinese cities.  Many businesses relocated to Hong Kong, and the city became an oasis of economic and social freedom, especially during the Maoist Cultural Revolution madness.

In the 1970s, The Peoples Republic of China began to assert itself globally, and with the eventual termination of the 99-year lease for the New Territories area acquired in 1898, the future for the colony became difficult to chart.  Negotiations between Hong Kong’s governor and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping began in 1979.

“Diplomatic negotiations with China resulted in the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984. The United Kingdom agreed to transfer to China the entirety of the colony, including the perpetually ceded areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, at the conclusion of the 99-year New Territories lease in 1997. Hong Kong would then become a special administrative region governed separately from the mainland, retaining its free-market economy, common law judicial system, independent representation in international organizations, treaty arrangements, and self-governance in all areas except foreign diplomacy and military defense. The treaty further stipulated that the territory would be guaranteed a high degree of autonomy for 50 years after the transfer, with the Basic Law of Hong Kong serving as its constitutional document.”  (moreWikipedia)

Official handover of Hong Kong took place on July 1^stof 1997.  For China, this was a day of celebration.  For the citizens of Hong Kong?  Not so much.  Yes, they are a “Special Administrative Region.”  Yes, there is a treaty guaranteeing extensive independence until 2047. But we are dealing with China here, folks.  More on all of that later.   Let’s get back to the tour.

The ship sails slowly into Victoria Harbor under a late afternoon sun.  The haze is so thick that “sunset” comes early around 5:30pm.  Steve snaps photos of the sunset and of the stupendous number of huge buildings.  Hong Kong is a vertical city.  It is like nothing either he or Cathy has ever seen.  We are astounded, as are our fellow passengers.  We have arrived at a very special place.

The ship docks at one of the cruise ship terminals, this one in Kowloon, called Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.  It was built on top of a runway from the old airport.  Twenty years ago, a new airport thirty miles from the city center was built as the old airport was just getting too dangerous as it was a difficult approach for large aircraft because of all the skyscrapers.

We are due to take an excursion that evening, Open Top Bus & Temple Street at Nightthat begins at 7:30pm.  Port clearance and paperwork are handled with typical Hong Kong efficiency, and we are on our bus around 8:00pm.  We are greeted by Lilly, our tour guide, a native of Hong Kong with a long career in tourism.  In minutes, we know that she will be a special part of our visit.

The tour consists of two parts, our first being a trip to the Tsim Sha Tsui district to cruise down the Golden Mile.  Our conventional bus takes us to a place in Kowloon where we transfer to an open top bus, identical to those you now see in every major city that hosts lots of tourists.  Of course, we are on the top deck.  The itinerary is fairly straightforward.  We will cruise through a few areas and then drive down Nathan Road, the longest street in Hong Kong.  It is both Hong Kong’s Times Square, with dazzling lights and energetic nightlife, and its Fifth Avenue, a major shopping and dining district.  Hong Kong is known for its dazzling city lights, and this certainly lives up to that reputation.  It is also mobbed with tour buses, many like our own.  The city hosts over 25 million tourists a year, and it looks like about half of us are there that night.  Traffic is slow, but there is plenty to look at and plenty of time. Hey, where are we going?  We’re in Hong Kong!  It’s a pretty festive atmosphere, as we pass other similar tour buses to wave at and take pictures of our fellow tourists.

After that drive, we embark on the second part of the tour.  We transfer back to our conventional bus and drive to the Yah Ma Tei area where the Temple Street Night Market operates each evening.  This market runs for three or four blocks, and a customer runs the gauntlet between carts set up on both side of a narrow six-foot wide path.  There are dozens and dozens of merchants, selling mostly souvenir stuff but also other things that people living in Hong Kong would use.  So the market is teeming with us touristas as well as locals.

Before arrival, Lilly briefs us on what to expect and how to handle this Night Market.  This is a place where you bargain.  She does a wonderful job, not only describing the market but also instructing us on how to bargain.  She fills us with the confidence that we can successfully handle this new retail process and that “we should never, ever pay the price that they ask.”  She adds: “This bargaining is expected.  You really must do this!”

Cathy and I aren’t so sure, but, armed with Lilly’s enthusiasm that we will be victorious, we wade into the sea of vendors.   We have an hour, and we wander down between the rows of vendors.  It is one busy place.  Cathy and Steve actually make three separate purchases, and we bargain for each one of them. At the end of the hour, we are quite pleased with our newfound skill and delighted with our small purchases. [It was fun! Most of the vendors did not speak English but they understood spoken numbers, or we used our hands. Prices were posted on most things, and we would gesture or speak our opening bid. They used calculators to counter our bids. After two or three exchanges we would agree on a price and hand over our Hong Kong dollars. We were very proud of ourselves.]

Eventually we complete our shopping and our bus returns to pick us up at around 10:00pm.  We arrive about a half hour later at the cruise terminal.  As we wind our way through it, we come upon a huge display of a cruise ship.  It is, in fact, a model made of Legos.  It is, as the sign says, the world’s largest ship built out of Legos – 2.5 million of them. Apparently it was some kind of marketing gimmick from Costa Cruise Line.  Very imaginative.

It has been a fun night, and a really great introduction to this exciting place that we have been looking forward to seeing for a long, long time.  Lots more to learn tomorrow.