Hong Kong, China

On August 20th, 2006, I arrived in Hong Kong and stayed there for six days. My first feeling about Hong Kong was it is very similar to Japan. Probably because Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, people did not look like the typical Chinese figures; like the way they dress, their hair styles are very similar to Japanese ones. Also, shopping malls, subway systems and underground shopping areas were very similar to Japan’s.

There are a lot of people in Hong Kong. The precise number of their population is about 7 millions. That’s a lot of people in that small piece of land. So, in and out of the city, there are massive amount of residence buildings, and each one of them is very very tall. The each apartment is not that big. As a matter of fact, my hotel room was the smallest one I’ve ever seen. There is a bed, and that is it. Probably the whole room was 2 meters by 3 meters including a bathroom.

The first day to work in Hong Kong, someone came to pick me up at my hotel, and he brought me to this local restaurant. According to him, people in Hong Kong come to local restaurant and have breakfast including rice soup, sandwiches, noodles etc. And what’s worth, it is very cheap! I think the sandwich he recommended (in the picture) cost about 1 dollar. This was a looks-like-SPAM and scrambled egg sandwich. It was pretty good.

My friends in Hong Kong took me to a floating restaurant, called JUMBO. This was the first time for them as well, so it was kind of an experiment for all of us. The reason the restaurant is on the water seems something to do with the taxation. Perhaps, if this was built on land, the tax (property tax?) would have been much higher. Anyways, because it is a floating restaurant, we had to take a boat to get there. It was fun! The course we had start with shark’s fin soup, abalone with nappa and five more dishes, and deserts. It was A LOT of food, and I couldn’t even touch the deserts!

I think this was very Chinese, or more like I felt that I was in Asia. This is a street that I take to go to work. This is not a back road or anything. This is an official street that people take. This street or side-walk is made right below the high-rise apartment building. The space from the ground to the ceiling is about 2 meter high. So, typical Asian people can go through here, no problem. But any Western peoole would feel uncomfortable. I walked with a Swedish person, and even though his head did not reach the ceiling, he was putting his head down, just to make sure that he did not hit his head.

The food that I enjoyed the most in Hong Kong was dim-sum. I love dim-sum! And they taste sooo good! The typical dim-sum that I know of is from China town in New York. And there is a big difference between that and this. There are no old ladies with pushing the dim-sum carts! I was told that it is an old style, and you don’t see it anywhere in Hong Kong, or maybe in China any more. I suppose some place like China town all over the world has a stopped-culture from China when mainland China is changing their culture every day.

	(top-left) Sweet buns, (top-left) Shrimp steamed dumplings and (front) pork buns.
	Xiaolongbao (Sho Lon Po in Japanese) is the best! Not in this particular restaurant, but I was lucky to be treated for the best Xiaolongbao in town! Basically, it has ground pork with vegetables inside with tasty soup. As you can see, there is a leaf of Chinese cabbage at the bottom of the basket. It is necessary so that the skin doesn’t stick to it; therefore, the juice inside is still kept within until it is in your mouth! oh, delicious!
	At dim-sum restaurants, there are a small bowl and a plate. When I was brought there for the first time, I was using the plate during the meal and kept the bowl for when soup is served. The second time I was there, I realized that Chinese people keep their bowl on the plate. It’s strange, huh? so I asked. Okay, the answer is… when you have Chinese food, you have fish bones or some garbage, right? Chinese people like to separate them from food. Understandable. What that means is that people use the bowl during the meal, and use the plate as a disposal space. Wait a minute! So I was using the garbage plate as a eating plate the last time… ouch! Okay, why didn’t this person tell me from the beginning!!

Every time I travel to different countries, I really am thankful for the opportunities that I have. That is because I am there not as a tourist, but a local visitor, so I get to visit places that typical tourists wouldn’t even know about. Okay, I also get to eat something not really eatable some times. But I feel that I am in the culture that is close to the local people live in.

… Of course, as always, I really enjoyed the food here! Hong Kong was delicious!