Hong Kong March 8 - 10, 2007

Hong Kong March 9, 2007

Hong Kong is among the leading trading centers of the world. Many of its exports actually are the re-exports of products manufactured in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States, distributed through Hong Kong. Since the reunification with China in 1997 it is a special zone, operating as “one country, two systems policy”, which is being used in the reunification of British held Hong Kong, Portuguese occupied Macau and in two decades, (it is predicted)
nationalist Taiwan. Two features strike the traveler: the mountainous nature of Hong Kong, where only 6 percent of land is arable; the other is the beautiful Victoria Harbor, which separates Kowloon and the new territories from the island of Hong Kong. This body of water reflects the glittering affluence of the office towers of the financial, banking, electronic, shipping and commerce centers, along with the luxury hotels and conference centers that display amazingly diverse architecture. What still retains a flavor of old Hong Kong, are the pockets of fishing junks doting the fringes of the shoreline. The Seven Seas Voyager has docked next to the famous of Star Ferry terminal at the bottom of Kowloon. Of course we step off the ship to enter a several block long series of high-end shops and restaurants before spilling out into the streets and the teeming masses. We shopped for some dress up clothes for Barbara, took two excursions on the Hong Kong side and had a wonderful dinner of Cantonese food at the Yan Toh Heen restaurant in the Intercontinental hotel on the harbor, where we were exposed to the evening laser light show. The excursions were through with back streets where stalls sell everything from dried shark’s fins to year old bird’s nests for soup thought to clear the complexion; to meats being freshly butchered; and fish thrashing in water ready for the evening meal. These multiple small shops gave us an idea how the native Chinese live with no Costco or Wal-Mart. Another insight came from our double decker electric tram ride. From it we saw thousands of Philippino young women, on their Sunday day off, sitting the whole day on the pavement singing, laughing, praying and sharing their life stories. These girls are the live-in help for the wealthy of Hong Kong. There also is a one-kilometer long escalator up the side of the island. Residents from above the business and shopping centers descend on the escalator between 7 and10a.m. to then return to their homes after that time when the escalator now goes up. We have left the Islam mosques and Hindu temples for the incense laden Taoist temples that are an intractable part of every day life, which includes shopping for food, praying for good health and throwing sticks to read the day’s fortune. In one of the temples we saw them pray to two gods, Man and Mo (no Jack). At the second, in an old fishing district, they pray to the gods of: fishing; good health; wealth and the new god who is an upgraded judge. He was considered honest and just in his decisions about the fate of the people in the temple. Next, we are off the ship for seven nights as we go to Vietnam, Bangkok and Cambodia.