HK Island has a lot of trams and for just $2 (17p), you can travel the length of the whole line. The tram route runs along King’s Road right outside my window so I’ve gotten used to the clunky, whirling electric-motor sound of the trams as they trundle past. It used to be right on the waterfront when it was originally built a hundred or so years ago, but as land has been reclaimed from the harbour it is now a couple of hundred metres inshore.
Something happened yesterday afternoon and a line of trams became backed up outside my window. Guess it can cause major problems if one breaks down or has to stop as it isn’t possible for them to just pull over to the side of the road and let others pass while they await repair…
It has been a busy few weeks here in HK, and has been great to have some friends visiting for the first time. We did all of the touristy things like The Peak and nightly light show in the harbour, and also took the cable car out to see the giant buddha on Lantau Island. The ride lasted about twenty minutes each way and gave a great view of the island and international airport which is located there. Thanks to the HK Lonely Planet guide book we also found out that HK has the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, covering over 800 metres, so we went for a ride on that as well!
Unfortunately my friend’s visits coincided with a cold spell which saw temperatures falling down to about 6 degrees on HK Island! It was cold enough to prompt me into buying a small heater for my apartment, which I had been trying to get through the winter without. I hardly ever get ill (have never taken a whole day off from work sick) but the recent cold spell took its toll and I developed quite a nasty sore throat and cough. I had bronchitis once in Taiwan during the cold winter months and was worried it might be something like that, so decided to pay my first visit to see a GP here.
I have private health insurance through work so just took my card along to a local clinic (conveniently located in the office building next to mine) and was very impressed with the service. I sat in the waiting room for about two minutes, the doctor had a quick look at me and prescribed a load of pills, which I then picked up immediately from the pharmacy within the surgery. The whole thing took less than ten minutes, probably more like five, and the medicine seemed to do the job. Why can’t the NHS be like that?!
Last weekend the USS Nimitz and its strike group of four other ships stopped off in HK. With recently souring relations between the U.S and China over an arms package to Taiwan and the visit of the Dalai Lama to Washington, some people were surprised that the Nimitz visit was allowed to go ahead. However, with estimates that the 5,000 sailors aboard the ships would spend over US$ 1 million during their four-day visit, the potential economic boost after the Chinese New Year lull was probably too attractive for the authorities here and in Beijing to turn away.
I had heard that taking the ferry from Central to Park Island would provide the best opportunity to get shots of the carrier so I went out on Saturday morning and got some great snaps and video. Here is a montage that I put together:
The usually sedate and hard-working atmosphere (really!) of the office was disrupted by the drums of a lion dance this afternoon! It seemed to be the same group as I saw in Macao over the first weekend of Chinese New Year. They danced around the office for about five minutes, picking off the ‘hong bao’ (‘lai see’ in Cantonese – red packets with money in) that people had tucked into the ceiling. Quite exciting for a Tuesday afternoon :
Xin nian kuai le everyone! Hope the Year of the Tiger will be prosperous and full of good fortune for you all, and not too fierce
I had a fantastic New Year weekend in Macao. The hotel had a traditional lion dance on the first morning which was amazing. I had seen lion dances before but never ones which involved the lions jumping across podiums and climbing poles. The way in which the two people inside moved seamlessly as a single unit was really impressive:
When the lion dance was finished the hotel staff set off 100,000 firecrackers to scare away evil spirits. I thought the drums during the lion dance had been loud but the sound of the firecrackers and the amount of smoke they produced was immense. In the interests of the readers of this blog, I selflessly stood close by and took this video :
The weather was pretty rubbish for the rest of the weekend so we ended up in the casinos. The buildings themselves are incredibly lavish and should give any potential visitor a warning of how much money their owners are making. Needless to say I left with a loss, but was several hundred dollars up at one point (it’s all about knowing when to walk away!) and stayed within the budget that I set myself so figure the deficit is okay for a good few hours of entertainment.
After a choppy ride back to HK on the Turbojet ferry, we went to watch the New Year fireworks in the harbour. Managed to get a great position right on the waterfront in Wanchai:
Chinese New Year coming up, so what better way to celebrate than a Lady Gaga/New Year mash-up! I personally find Lady Gaga a bit annoying, but must admit this version of her song ‘Poker Face’, in Mandarin with the lyrics changed for a Chinese New Year theme, is pretty catchy. There is also an acoustic version on the guy’s YouTube channel, which has English subtitles as well, if you are interested to know what he is singing about.
The weather in HK has been pretty rubbish for the past few weeks. Very grey and dull with little sunshine at all. People have told me that it is always very cold around the time of Chinese New Year, and whilst it isn’t that cold right now, it continues to be very bleak. Actually, I turned on the air conditioner tonight for the first time this year as the temperature reached about 24 degrees, but with the long holiday weekend coming up, I’m hoping the sun will come out too.
The weather forecast in Hong Kong always makes me laugh. The first time I saw it and wasn’t really paying attention, I thought there had been a mistake. They cut to ‘Freddy’ at the end of the forecast for a summary of the weather, and it really is a summary! I guess in such a small place as HK the weather doesn’t vary very much across the territory, so instead of watching the long-winded and detailed report, you can just tune in for Freddy’s summary. Here are a few clips to show you what I mean:
And some other Freddy forecasts…pay attention BBC!:
I’ve been meaning to mention this page for a while as I think it is really cool. It has diagrams of the world’s highest buildings, which you can view by country or by city. They also have a diagram showing the tallest buildings in the world right now against each other, and another showing buildings currently under construction, which will come to dominate the world of skyscrapers in the future. No surprise that China dominates the top ten…
The diagram for HK: The International Commerce Center will soon be completed, and One Island East is just at the end of my road.
Just saw this on the evening news bulletin so had to post the clip. A woman (apparently the niece of a high-profile Judge) was involved in a traffic accident and refused to co-operate with the police. She refused a breath test and tried to walk away but when a policeman stood in her way she slapped him in the face. What is really funny is the policeman’s delayed over-reaction – he even gives a little scream! He is then shown getting into an ambulance to be taken to hospital for a check up! Expect to see him picking up his award at the Oscars in March…
As you can imagine, there are a lot of lifts in Hong Kong. With my apartment being on the 19th floor, and the office on the 20th floor, I find that I spend a lot of time in them. When you spend so much time every day going up and down in a small metal box, you start to notice things (or perhaps I just think too much?!).
There seems to be a certain etiquette involved with taking a lift. Nobody looks at each other and it is usual for people to just stare at the ground. Some people watch movies on their phones, or even read a book. I guess if you do the same long commute every day you get used to how much downtime you have on the various legs of the journey and keeping yourself occupied for them.
Someone usually assumes the role of the ‘driver’, pressing the button to close the doors immediately when it is clear that no one else is getting in or out. This is something I’ve found myself increasingly doing as well, and think it must be a symptom of HK people spending so much time in lifts. In England people are usually content to relax and wait for the doors to close automatically of their own accord. Not in uber-efficient HK though. With the frequency that people use lifts here, closing the doors a couple of seconds earlier than would happen automatically could probably save about an hour of your life every year (not sure how mathematically sound that stat is!).
People also try to save time by being the first person to get out of the lift. Everyone seems desperate to get out a millisecond quicker than everyone else, so it can sometimes be a bit of a race to see who can get through the doors first. That’s assuming the lift isn’t so crammed full of people that it is barely possible to breathe. The lifts in my apartment aren’t usually too busy, but in the office building there are people whose sole job seems to be to cram as many people into each lift as possible during peak times.
I won’t even begin to mention the implications of being in such close proximity to other people in a place that can be as warm and humid as HK (anyone who has ever taken the Tube in London during rush hour on a summer’s day will know what I mean!) – let’s just say I prefer taking the lift a lot more now that the weather is cooler than in the summer when I first arrived. If the lift goes straight to my floor without stopping I can just about hold my breath, but when it stops at every other floor this can be a bit difficult…
All in all, taking the lift can be a pretty melancholy experience. It can be worse still though. It has happened more than once that someone gets in the lift, stands right next to me, and then burps! It is usually an old lady and of course they never say ‘excuse me’ (or the equivalent in Chinese), or acknowledge in any way what they have done. They do nothing at all, except for perhaps another burp!
There have also been occasions when children have pressed every single button in the lift so it stops at every floor. It happened once when I was searching for an apartment with the property agent and although I felt slightly nauseous as the lift jolted to a stop at every floor on the way down from the top of the building , I could also see the funny side.
I’m trying to think of ways to make the time that I spend in lifts more interesting and enjoyable. In Taiwan I used to have races with my students to see which lifts were the quickest by taking as many separate lifts as available, which with hindsight, probably isn’t very environmentally-friendly! Or perhaps I could try to start a sing-along or tell some jokes next time I’m in a packed lift. I’m pretty sure nobody in HK would look up or even flinch if I did.
By the way, the fastest lifts in the world are still in Taipei 101. Their top ascending speed is 16.83 m (55.22 ft) per second (60.6 km/h, 37.7 mi/h), meaning that visitors can go from the fifth floor to the 89th floor in just 37 seconds, and each one costs US$2.4 million! Bet old ladies still burp in them though
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