Best of Hong Kong
We arrived to Hong Kong on June 24, 2013 and enjoyed 9 days exploring these territories while getting our first introduction to their Cantonese characters, culture, international cuisine, public transportation, and history. Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest and most dynamic cities, where human influence on the landscape is highly visible. Countless skyscrapers and high-rise apartments dominate the skyline with huge construction projects that appear to be everywhere. However, their immediate impact is insignificant compared with the dramatic work of nature. Hong Kong’s forest, freshwater, and coastal ecosystem have been preserved and continue enlightening the majority of the territories.
One of the most fascinating aspects about Hong Kong is without a doubt the transformation it has undergone over the past century and a half from a few villages to an international metropolis. Hong Kong history and culture has been marked by the lifestyles of their original tribes and inhabitants, Chinese Dynasties from Han to the Qing, the Portuguese merchants first settlement in Macau in 1498, trading between China and Europe, the Opium Wars, Hong Kong was granted to the British colony in 1841, Japanese occupation during World War II, and the recent return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.
Before Hong Kong became a British colony in the mid-19th century, there were four main Chinese ethnic groups living in Hong Kong: the Punti, the Hakka, the Boat Dwellers (Tanka), and the Hoklo. Before the beginning of the British Opium trade from India into China in 1838, China didn’t have any interest in the products Western countries could offer. The British Opium trade caused serious repercussions on China’s economy and its people’s health, increasing significantly the number of addicts that ranged as high as 10 million. As a result, the Chinese government prohibited the trading of opium and it was the beginning of the war. After multiple British attacks, on August 29, 1842 China ceded the island of Hong Kong to Britain.
Afterwards, Hong Kong like many other countries in Asia, was invaded by Japan on December 25, 1941, which followed a period of three years and eight months of Japanese Occupation. The occupation ended after World War II and on August 15, 1945 the Japanese Emperor unconditionally surrendered. Hong Kong was resumed by the Britain governorship on April 30, 1946.
Hong Kong became a place where the East met the West and many aspects of people’s culture and lifestyle started to change. A clear example of this blending process is expressed by the changes in the medical practices, which the majority of people changed from traditional Chinese medical science to Western medicine. On June 30, 1997, after 155 years of British colony, Hong Kong was returned to motherland China under the condition that it would retain its free-market economy as well as its social and legal systems for 50 years. China has called it: “one country, two systems”, however Hong Kong citizens describe that the implementation of changes by the Chinese government are already taking place and a sense of tension, uncertainty, and anxiety about their future can be felt all over the air. We left Hong Kong with the happiness of having found a place we could live in and the curiosity of how it will be in the next 34 years.
Below are other great things we enjoyed about Hong Kong:
Food and Drinks
Beef Brisket and Tendon
Shrimp and Pork Wonton
Fried Fish Ball
Boiled Shrimp
Steamed Scallops with Garlic Sauce
Drunken Chicken
Fried Noodles with Squid
Dim Sum: steamed fresh shrimp dumplings, steamed pork and shrimp dumpling, steamed beef ball with bean curd skin, baked bun with BBQ pork, glutinous rice dumpling, vermicelli roll stuffed with beef
Favorite Sights and Activities
The Views from Victoria Peak and Peak Tram
Enjoying a Cantonese Opera
Learning about the City in the Hong Kong Museum of History
Riding on all the Different Modes of Public Transportation
People
Sylvia: from the US, our Couchsurfing host in Hong Kong who treated us like family and got to spend a lot of time with her sharing stories.
Cecilia: from Hong Kong, we randomly met in a mall and taught us a lot about Hong Kong culture, politics, and language.
Native Words
Cantonese with nine voice tones and thousands of characters is a very difficult language to learn, especially for us who only know the Roman alphabet. We were fortunate that our friend, Cecilia, thought us a few of the characters. You can see, in the side, the scratch paper we used for our Cantonese lesson.
