Observations, Part II

OK....I've decided to talk more about the things I've noticed about Hong Kong. As you know, I am a keen observer of the human condition. And there is LOTS to see in Hong Kong.

Bag Lady
Back home in Canada, we have the term 'Bag Lady'. Generally, it refers to a homeless woman who wanders the streets pushing a shopping cart. She would have dozens of bags attached to the cart, filled with all manner of recyclables and usable goods. Here in Hong Kong, there is a woman that is well known, that puts a new spin on the definition. This woman actually WEARS plastic bags on her body and head. She ties them up into knots, and applies them to various body parts. She basically encases herself head-to-toe in plastic bags. You can't really see her face, and she lays down on the ground in plastic splendor. I've seen here occupying a few street corners in Central, usually at one of the major zebra crossings, in order to beg for coins.

Tidy Construction
Hong Kong is under perpetual construction (and destruction) like most cities around the world. But what amazes me about roadwork here, is just how neat and tidy it is. There is a construction site near my apartment that exemplifies this concept perfectly. I am not entirely certain what they are doing, but basically its a huge pit in the street - I guess it has something to do with underground piping or wiring. But what makes it strange to me, is that every day after quitting time, they dismantle the construction site and cover it up like it never existed. And the next morning they return, put up the fencing, remove the flat metal plates that cover the large hole, and bring the heavy equipment back. So in the daytime, it's a chaotic site with dozens of people in a huge pit, with several large diggers. And at night, thousands and thousands of people walk over the covered hole oblivious to whats underneath the metal sidewalk.

Super Cleanliness
Every morning, on my daily pilgrimage to Starbucks, I have to go up 2 floors to get there. And every morning, 7 days a week, there is a small army of people scrubbing the place down like it had never been cleaned before. Just how dirty does the floor get every day, that they need to polish it every morning? There is a woman that is on all fours, with a scrubber looking for shoe scuff marks. They wipe down the escalators, step by step. They feather dust every nook and cranny, and make all the glass surfaces squeaky clean. Every day. And this happens everywhere. This city is obsessed with cleaning.

Signs
Signs are a way of life here in Hong Kong. There is nary a flat vertical surface on any building without a huge sign on it. In fact, it's pretty clear that buildings are designed in order to maximize the sellable space for signage. The city is well known for it's neon signs that hang out perpendicular from the buildings over the roads. And what gets me, is that the large advertising billboards (I am talking about signs 20 stories high) are replaced very frequently. No sooner do I become familiar with a large ad, then it is taken down and replaced overnight. I think there is a whole subset of the population here that rappel down buildings in the middle of the night putting up huge new Adidas ads.


Walking with Beer
Public drinking is not illegal here. I've seen, on many occasions, men dressed in suits walking down the street with a can of beer in their hand. And even more strangely is that I've seen it at 8 in the morning. Guys will walk in to the local 7-11, and buy a tin, pop it open and slurp it down, on their way to work.

Maximum use of space
Hong Kong is a city of about 7 million people (plus one!). Yet, it's a small city in area. And what makes it interesting, is just how clever developers and city planners are with space utilization. I guess that they are forced to think about the best possible way to fit everything in. In Canada, this is not really a problem, since the country is huge. As an example, here in Hong Kong, petrol stations are very often located underneath bridges and overpasses. Since this city is hilly, there are lots of elevated roads, and what better use for that space? I've also noticed that people don't live on the ground floors here. All buildings are designed to hold businesses in the lower floors. What would often be unusable space anywhere else in the world is valuable real estate here. If there is an empty space, somebody is selling something in it.

Umbrellas
It's been raining a bit here lately. And as noted previously, I am a bit taller than the average person in Asia. If you combine rain, umbrellas and a short population, you can imagine just how dangerous it is for me to walk on the streets when it is raining. The rain won't stop people from being outdoors, so the streets are just as crowded, except they all have umbrellas. And they are all pointed at my eyes. I am constantly dodging the business end of countless umbrellas from short women who can't see my head from underneath the canopy of nylon. I am always batting away their weapons, and they don't know why.

Update on plans...
I will be leaving Hong Kong on Thursday, heading to Taipei for 5 days. I really enjoyed my time in Taiwan last year, and I look forward to going back. I would like to explore other parts of the country, but once again, I will remain in the city. After Taipei, I will enter China for a month, starting with Shenzhen (and possibly Guangzhou). I will fly up to Shanghai in the middle of April and look around there. I think you can expect more regular blog posts from me once I am traveling again.