• I was prepared for rain before the
trip because I had read in “10 things NOT to do in Hong Kong”, that I should not to go during
the rainy season, which includes June unfortunately. I never did see the sunshine in my whole time
here. This shot of the weather tells it all.
• I found people very helpful and friendly. I did not have a
single experience where I felt unwelcome.
I also felt quite safe (not that I ventured widely, but everywhere I
went throughout the day and evening I never felt worried).
• I know that China
struggles greatly with pollution in many forms, but I wasn’t sure was to expect
with regard to environmental efforts in HK.
I did see some recycle bins, particularly in the metro and train
stations, but they were not everywhere.
In fact there weren’t that many public trash cans. Surprisingly however, the city was quite
clean, especially considering how many people live here! I even saw a lady sweeping some mud and broken
brick up from the gutter and putting it in a trash bin. I don’t know if she was a employed to do
that, or was a dilligent resident keeping her gutter clean.
I did notice however, that McD’s is NOT doing its part to
help cut back on the use of plastics.
Every person who walked out with a drink in a cup had that cup placed
inside a small drink-sized plastic bag for easy carrying (even those who
appeared to be eating in). Talk about a
waste!
• At first I thought that the norm was to walk on the left in
the metro, just like they drive on the left, but then I discovered that there
were some metro tunnels where the guidance arrows were on the right side. I never could quite puzzle out why this
changed from station to station, but it obviously had something to do with the
flow of the passengers.
I was also startled to discover that there were areas of
the stations where you could pass through without going through the pay
turnstiles and these were separated by a simple low level fence. In most metros that I’ve been in, this would
invite a lot of “fence jumping” to avoid paying, but I didn’t see any of that
at all. Perhaps the omnipresent CCTV
played a role, or just the culture of rule following.
• People are pretty polite getting on the metro. There are arrows on the boarding areas showing entry to the sides and exit in the center. I'm amazed at how many people can quickly mount the escalator steps as they move from level to level in the stations (the escalators move pretty fast).
• I thought it was interesting that many of the apartment
complexes were designed with two levels of windows, so you could mount an AC
unit in the top one, and open the other one for laundry, a breeze, etc.
• I did not observe any obvious homeless people (not that I
had a lot of opportunity), but it made me curious whether people are allowed to
live on the streets at all. This picture
might appear to be homeless people camped out at first glace, but it was
actually a bunch of kids (apparently high school age) who were sitting on
collapsed boxes and eating their picnic lunches near the main pier. There must have been at least 100 of them all
underneath this elevated roadway. Since
there were virtually no benches or anywhere else to sit down in public, it
makes sense that they were seated on the ground out of the rain.
• I can’t imagine the energy usage in this city. Its obviously necessary to cool the metro
stations and tunnels or they would be unbearably hot, but so many businesses
have the air blowing and their doors wide open.
This is the lobby of the Marriott. You can see the extra tall (and wide)
sliding doors that opened for everyone coming in. There was no point really in even trying to
cool the lobby because all the AC rushed out the door every time it opened!
• These ferry seats were fascinating. The back supports flipped forward and
backward so you could sit one way or the other.
• Had to laugh at the supposed capacity of the small elevator
in my hotel. 12 people – ha!
• Lots of 7-11 convenience stores everywhere!
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