I took six different forms of transport to get to my office at Hong Kong University this morning. I did this for two reasons. Firstly, I did this, was because I had a bit of time and I wanted to keep my resolution of trying one new thing each week. I had not tried to get to the office with this particular routing and I wanted to see what it was like. While not the fastest way for me to get to work, it was not any more expensive and was certainly more scenic than the way I usually go, which involves a mini-bus, three MTR trains, and a double-deck large bus. Secondly, I used all these forms of public conveyance because I could. One of the amazing things about Hong Kong is the absolutely brilliant public transport system, which incorporates so many of the different forms of technology available for moving people around. My journey this morning involved an elevator in my building, a green mini-bus, two MTR trains, the Star Ferry , a double deck CityBus, several escalators sprinkled within this, and finally a couple of elevators to get from Pok Fu Lam Road to my office half way up the hill (HKU is very vertical). While I won’t talk about the escalators and the elevators in this account, I think it is worth providing a bit more about the MTR, the ferry, and the busses.
My first bus of the day was actually one of the green minibuses that one sees throughout Hong Kong. These little busses are great as they don’t always have a regular timetable, though this is not always the case. Instead there is a fleet of them running regular services along what seem to me to be shorter routes, linking the housing estates with shopping malls and transport hubs. Our route is the number 69K and there are several of these mini-busses making the circuit from the top of our hill to the Shatin station all day long and well into the evening. One must sit on these busses and they will pass you by if they are full. Fortunately, we live at the top of the hill so the only time when this really happens is in period just after the Shatin college lets out and the children take up all the places. To catch one of these busses, one needs to stand at the designated stop and wave your hand. If the bus is not full the driver will stop for you. If it is full, they will wave at you and drive right on by. Getting off is a bit more difficult as, unlike other forms of transport in Hong Kong, there is no bell or forced stop except at the end of the route. What you must do is yell out the name of your stop if you know it—ours is Sook Say (meaning quarters). Everyone also adds a please onto the end: mgoy in Cantonese. If you don’t know the name of the stop, then a “Yow Lok, mgoy” will also work. “Yow Lok” sort of means stop, but is only a phrase used on the mini-busses. You wouldn’t say this to a taxi driver, for example (actually I try not to use the Taxi’s as they are quite confusing and it is often difficult to convey where you want to go to the drivers).
The MTR is the subway system in the Hong Kong SAR. There are several lines that make up the system. Our line, the East Rail Line, starts at the border with China and extends all the way down to Hung Hom, which is on the right side of Kowloon toward the bottom. The trains come through our station, which is Shatin station, about every minute during rush hour and about every three minutes at other times. It runs over ground until it reaches Lion Rock and then does a combination of over and underground travel until Hung Hom.. Because this is a fast train to China, it also has a first class carriage, which you can use if you buy a first class ticket or swipe your octopus card at the machine before boarding. If you don’t swipe your card and the train people catch you there is quite a fine—I’ve witnessed several people trying to talk their way out of this. While the first class is a bit more expensive, it is sometimes worth it as you can ensure that you will get a seat. The other carriages are more like standard subway carriages and are mostly standing. It took me about 15 minutes to get from our station in Shatin to the Hung Hom end of the line. At that point I changed trains to the West Rail Line, which I rode for one stop to East TST. Approximately 19 minutes in total and cost just HK$12.6 (which includes the first class upgrade). It was a comfortable, if a bit boring ride as there is pretty much no scenery. I like the MTR, though because it is fast and very efficient.
At TST East I walked (or road escalators) underground to the L6 exit. This exit brings you out on the point of Kowloon right near the Star Ferry Terminal. There are several ferries that leave from this terminal, but today I rode the ferry to Central. The ferries themselves are small wooden boats, painted green and white and have two decks. There is the lower deck, which I tend to prefer, and the upper deck which costs about HK$1 more (the cost goes up a further HK$1 on weekends and holidays, but is still very good value). The total cost today for the ferry across was just HK$2.5, so I not really much expense at all. I chose the upper deck today because it is cold and rainy and the ends have glass on the windows, so it is a bit warmer and drier than the lower deck. I love the Star Ferry partly because it is a romantic way to travel. The boats, while not the originals, have been crossing the water between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island since 1880 according the company’s web site. There are 12 ferries that that are part of the fleet, each of which has the word star as part of their name (e.g., morning star, etc.). The boats in service now date primarily from the 1950’s and 1960’s and while electric, are still wooden. The style and age of the boats add significantly to the romanticism of the journey. As you cross Victoria Harbor on the ferry one sits and sees the cityscape of Hong Kong move closer, while Black Kites fly over the water looking for fish (there are no Gulls here). It is a calming and quite experience for me; time out from what is usually the crush of movement and people and the accompanying assault of noise and smog smells that characterizes my usual journey to work. These days, as was evident this morning, the ferries are not used by commuters in the same way that they once were. This is largely due to the movement of the ferry pier from near city hall to below the IFC building (the IFC building was, until recently, Hong Kong’s tallest building). I hope it does not mean the slow decline into extinction of the ferry.
Upon exiting the Ferry I caught the second and last bus of my journey: The number 7 CityBus. This was a double decker bus similar to those you would find in the UK. Indeed, as the traffic travels on the same side of the road as is the case in the UK, I believe these busses are indeed the same models. Adrian would know more about this than I and I believe he muttered something about one of the bus companies in Sheffield is operating retired stock from Hong Kong on one of its routes. I must confess that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to this bit of trivia at the time of the telling, but I do wish I could sound a bit more authoritative at the moment about this. I sat in the tourist seats, on the top deck at the front. Most regular riders seem to keep clear of these seats, but tourists gravitate toward them. I like these seats because you can see where you are going and as I was not entirely sure how far along my stop was seeing where I was going seemed a good idea. As it turned out, this was a good idea as the stop was at an entrance to the university that I was not so familiar with and I would have missed it if I were not looking carefully. The journey of the number 7 goes up Queen’s road Central to Queen’s road East before eventually entering Pok Fu Lam Road. As one progresses along the ride the bus seems to travel back in time. The area around the ferry terminal is all reclaimed land, with tall (very tall) new buildings all proclaiming their connection to the west. By the time you reach Queen’s Road East, the streets are full of shops selling edible birds nest, shark fin, and Ginseng or red lanterns and incense to burn for the ancestors. There are also small sidewalk vendors selling bau out of the small bamboo steamer baskets and restaurants with bright yellow cooked chickens hanging in the windows. One eventually travels through a winding street, climbing up the hill, which is full of antiques sellers with widow displays of wooden Chinese furniture or ceramic pots, before finally emerging out near an overpass (which leads back over to the new Harbor tunnel to Kowloon). People have been living in the area around where Pok Fu Lam Road meets Queen’s Road East since the early 1700’s. In contrast, the area near the overpass is near the university and where the new campus is being built. In the next few years there will be a new MTR line with a station here, thereby making my journey route today even more irrelevant and seemingly inefficient, but I am sure no less interesting.
Showing posts with label transport systems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transport systems. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Jetlag, socks...and did I mention it is cold?
I am back in the UK. Sheffield to be more precise. Sitting in my office. I've been up since midnight (it is now midday). I have jetlag. It was just two days ago, or Tuesday whenever that was, that I was welcoming the very efficient Hong Kong members of Crown Relocation into our flat to deliver our things from Ilkley. By the end of the day, most of our stuff was unpacked--at least in a way that is livable--and I was heading off on a plane to England via Bangkok, Dubai, and Manchester (It was a VERY long flight).
I have two things to say about the transportation systems that I engaged with. Firstly, Air travel is not what it used to be. I flew with Emirates, which was fine, though the longer portion of the trip involved a plane set up for shorter passengers. I got to the airport, passport etc. in hand only to be asked for the credit card with which I purchased the ticket. I bought this ticket quite some time ago and of course the correct credit card is sitting safely in Sheffield, far, far away. I had to purchase a new ticket for about £100 more than the original, and I have been told that I can get a refund for the original. I think the £100 is a penalty for being stupid or disorganised or whatever. No doubt I will be writing about the saga of getting the refund at some point--I am still waiting full satisfaction from the Ash Cloud incident with KLM and once had to take Expedia to small claims court, so I am sure that element will not be uneventful.
While this aspect of the travel was new for me and caused quite a bit of initial anxiety, there were other things that let the experience down a bit. Firstly, when I booked the flight I had not realised that the first leg stopped in Bangkok, rather than flying straight from Hong Kong to Dubai as the outward journey had done. This stopover involved sitting on the plane while those stopping their journey got off, the cleaning crew cleaning around the remaining onward passengers, having to remove cabin luggage so that the flight staff could ensure that every piece of carry on baggage belonged to someone, and then waiting while the Bangkok to Dubai passengers boarded. I guess, given that by this time it was about 1 am Hong Kong time, I should be grateful that we were made to remain on the plane and could watch the movies, instead of being required to disembark and re board. We did get all loaded on the flight, and then were delayed because one passengers luggage had to be removed because they did not show up at the gate. The flight from Dubai Airport, which does not appear to shut down at night like North American airports--you can buy anything you want at 4am--was similarly delayed though this time by a person who was drunk and had to be escorted from the plane and the luggage off loaded. I guess what is so disappointing was the change in attitude that passengers have of air travel. It has become so ordinary. When I was a child and flew to California to visit my grandparents and father in the summer holiday I used to get dressed up in my best clothes. Air travel was something you did in a formal way as it was special and to be taken quite seriously. Now people, probably sensibly, wear sweatpants--EVEN IN FIRST CLASS--because they are comfortable. I guess if you are spending that much on a first class ticket, you can wear whatever you want, but the pageantry and specialness becomes tainted a little. It is all a little more ordinary.
Secondly, the first major thing I noticed when I got back to the UK was that the North of England is worlds away from Hong Kong with its public transportation. I had to take a train from Manchester Airport to Sheffield. This is all fine and there are such trains. However this particular station has no signs that indicate destinations. Just information about the trains. As a traveller you must be aware that the train to Cleathorps is the one you want to catch if you want to go to Sheffield. As I was trying to work this out, I kept thinking how difficult it will be for all the Chinese students who were on my flight to find the relevant trains to take them to their new universities. Nightmare. To top it off, they changed the platform and provided no announcement about this. You just had to know to look at the signs. It was probably a good thing that there was a 40 minute wait for the train as the time was needed to sort out where to go and to unpack jumpers from the suitcase (did I mention that it is quite cold and rainy here just now?). In Hong Kong, the same distance would have cost a fraction of the £18 that I paid for my one way ticket and there would have been trains every one to three minutes. Arriving in Sheffield I then had to wait a further 10 minutes for the tram to take me to the flat. It is no wonder the English are so good a queuing. There is plenty of time to practice and the stakes are high if you miss what you are queuing for. No need to que in Hong Kong as another train or whatever will arrive at any minute.
What is nice about the return is the fact that the leaves are beginning to turn and they are pretty. It is a bit cold here (did I mention that?) and so there is a feeling of autumn. I have had to put on socks for the first time since early August today. One of my workmates said thy put the fire (heater) on last night for the first time. People are wearing coats. There is something quite business-like about having to wear socks and put the heater on. It marks a transition from holiday to work time. Of course I can imagine other ways of marking that transition as well, but this is what I have to work with at the moment, and as I have much work to do I must pull up my socks and get on with it until I can go back to the warmth of Hong Kong, see my family and leave my socks at the door.
I have two things to say about the transportation systems that I engaged with. Firstly, Air travel is not what it used to be. I flew with Emirates, which was fine, though the longer portion of the trip involved a plane set up for shorter passengers. I got to the airport, passport etc. in hand only to be asked for the credit card with which I purchased the ticket. I bought this ticket quite some time ago and of course the correct credit card is sitting safely in Sheffield, far, far away. I had to purchase a new ticket for about £100 more than the original, and I have been told that I can get a refund for the original. I think the £100 is a penalty for being stupid or disorganised or whatever. No doubt I will be writing about the saga of getting the refund at some point--I am still waiting full satisfaction from the Ash Cloud incident with KLM and once had to take Expedia to small claims court, so I am sure that element will not be uneventful.
While this aspect of the travel was new for me and caused quite a bit of initial anxiety, there were other things that let the experience down a bit. Firstly, when I booked the flight I had not realised that the first leg stopped in Bangkok, rather than flying straight from Hong Kong to Dubai as the outward journey had done. This stopover involved sitting on the plane while those stopping their journey got off, the cleaning crew cleaning around the remaining onward passengers, having to remove cabin luggage so that the flight staff could ensure that every piece of carry on baggage belonged to someone, and then waiting while the Bangkok to Dubai passengers boarded. I guess, given that by this time it was about 1 am Hong Kong time, I should be grateful that we were made to remain on the plane and could watch the movies, instead of being required to disembark and re board. We did get all loaded on the flight, and then were delayed because one passengers luggage had to be removed because they did not show up at the gate. The flight from Dubai Airport, which does not appear to shut down at night like North American airports--you can buy anything you want at 4am--was similarly delayed though this time by a person who was drunk and had to be escorted from the plane and the luggage off loaded. I guess what is so disappointing was the change in attitude that passengers have of air travel. It has become so ordinary. When I was a child and flew to California to visit my grandparents and father in the summer holiday I used to get dressed up in my best clothes. Air travel was something you did in a formal way as it was special and to be taken quite seriously. Now people, probably sensibly, wear sweatpants--EVEN IN FIRST CLASS--because they are comfortable. I guess if you are spending that much on a first class ticket, you can wear whatever you want, but the pageantry and specialness becomes tainted a little. It is all a little more ordinary.
Secondly, the first major thing I noticed when I got back to the UK was that the North of England is worlds away from Hong Kong with its public transportation. I had to take a train from Manchester Airport to Sheffield. This is all fine and there are such trains. However this particular station has no signs that indicate destinations. Just information about the trains. As a traveller you must be aware that the train to Cleathorps is the one you want to catch if you want to go to Sheffield. As I was trying to work this out, I kept thinking how difficult it will be for all the Chinese students who were on my flight to find the relevant trains to take them to their new universities. Nightmare. To top it off, they changed the platform and provided no announcement about this. You just had to know to look at the signs. It was probably a good thing that there was a 40 minute wait for the train as the time was needed to sort out where to go and to unpack jumpers from the suitcase (did I mention that it is quite cold and rainy here just now?). In Hong Kong, the same distance would have cost a fraction of the £18 that I paid for my one way ticket and there would have been trains every one to three minutes. Arriving in Sheffield I then had to wait a further 10 minutes for the tram to take me to the flat. It is no wonder the English are so good a queuing. There is plenty of time to practice and the stakes are high if you miss what you are queuing for. No need to que in Hong Kong as another train or whatever will arrive at any minute.
What is nice about the return is the fact that the leaves are beginning to turn and they are pretty. It is a bit cold here (did I mention that?) and so there is a feeling of autumn. I have had to put on socks for the first time since early August today. One of my workmates said thy put the fire (heater) on last night for the first time. People are wearing coats. There is something quite business-like about having to wear socks and put the heater on. It marks a transition from holiday to work time. Of course I can imagine other ways of marking that transition as well, but this is what I have to work with at the moment, and as I have much work to do I must pull up my socks and get on with it until I can go back to the warmth of Hong Kong, see my family and leave my socks at the door.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Lift off and landing
This has been an eventful week. Perhaps this is an understatement.
This week we sold our house (finally--long and very stressful story), got on a plane, and arrived in Hong Kong as residents. I am now sitting in the lounge of our flat at about two in the morning local time--Jet lag takes its toll. The flat is great. It has a wonderful view. There is a balcony and a large glass window across all of one end. Looking out one direction we see mountains and out the other 50+ story housing buildings. Our building is located near the top of a tall and steep hill and the housing we see is located below us about half way up the hill, but the tops of these buildings extend higher into the sky than our building. Looking out between these closest buildings we can see the bay. As it happens, the area we see is called Fo Tan and it is built on reclaimed land as the valley was once part of the bay. In fact, I learned recently that this bay is on a fault line. I will try not to think about that too much.
We've been here two days. In that time, we have visited the IKEA to buy hangers (it is in the mall that is at the bottom of the hill, so very convenient), seen (by accident) a light show of the buildings on Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side, ridden the ferry across the harbour and the mid-level escalator up into SOHO, visited the markets in Kowloon, watched a thunder and lightning storm from our flat, witnessed the domestic helpers on their day off and had glorious, sunny weather (yes, with blue sky). It is warm, but it is also easy to escape this as air-conditioning is readily available, all one need do is enter a shop or jump on a bus. There are wonderful smells here and great fruit, fruit juice, tea, and fish to be had though I do not feel hungry. Today I had a green tea frapachino at Starbucks (yummy) in a shop on the mid-levels and a lemon grass and green tea drink at the RBT in Mon Kok. We had intended to buy curtains for the children's rooms, but we ended up with a TV for Simon instead. I had promised him the TV for doing well on his exams (Grace got a trip to Rome). The man will deliver it on Wednesday and another will come and set it all up.
The TV is Simon's and will live in his room for his xbox. He has xbox live, so should be able to meet up with his friends once we figure out how to make the broadband wireless. The TV is all Internet based here, so I am not sure how that will work. To be honest, I have not missed watching it. There is so much to do here in the evenings. Shopping centers are open until 10:30 at night and there is a pool here in the compound. The pool is open from about 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night, with closure during meal times, and also has a life guard. Simon has taken full advantage of this facility. He is using it as a way to meet people in the compound and to "get fit". He has decided that he will be swimming to exercise. He has actually jumped into the life here with both feet. There is a confidence about him that I did not expect or even that one would not normally expect from an 11 year old. He is happy to go to the pool by himself. I can see him making his way down the hill via the minibus to the mall in no time. In six months I expect him to own this city.
Grace has been somewhat more reluctant. She spent the first day locked in her room refusing to talk to anyone--she is a bit angry about having to move and wants to make sure everyone knows. We did manage to wedge her out of the house yesterday. By the end of the day there was enthusiasm. I am sure she has come to realise that the opportunities here are endless and that it is not difficult to get around. While it is certainly very Chinese and nothing like Ilkley, it is also not too hard to navigate. People are friendly and speak English so she was able to manage much more than I think she thought she would be able to do. She, of course won't admit finding Hong Kong to her liking though. She continues to behave as a 14 year old in the extremes of selfishness that only 14 year olds can manage.
As a family, we have pretty much decided we prefer the buses to the trains. The trains get you to where you want to go much more quickly, but they are crowded and you have to stand. The buses afford a view and so far we have been able to sit. We all have Octopus cards that allow us to ride the transport without having to dish out change each time. Much easier. I would recommend this as a first purchase for anyone visiting Hong Kong. One can even ride the ferries with this little card. Our little bus is the 69K, but there are others that will be key--the 7 goes along the bottom of Kowloon down to the Star Ferry.
In an early post I indicated that I was quite worried about how I was going to manage the shopping. I am now less worried about this. In the housing half way down the hill there is a small market with fresh veg and a small Park and Shop (kind of like Tesco or Safeway). The Park and Shop is pretty basic, but very cheap. In the big mall there is a very fancy--kind of like whole foods--store that sells groceries and also ready made food. Simon and I had Sushi from there for dinner tonight. Everything is available from this store from Belgian beer to designer chocolate to tortilla chips to American peanut butter. It is more expensive, though some things are very good value. The sushi I had tonight was wonderful and fresh with about 9 pieces for about £4. There is also a Taste in the big mall near where Adrian works. This store is somewhere between the Park and Shop and the fancy store. It sells Waitrose branded food and has a stunningly deep fish section and fruit and vegetable section. I think I could quite easily live off the fish and fruit with a bit of rice thrown in to bulk it out (Adrian bought a rice cooker and we are making rice in volumes--everyone should have a rice cooker as they are great).
While people do speak English, I realise I will need to expand my language skills fairly quickly. I have learned to say the name of the bus stop where we live: Souk Say (it means quarters). One can throw in a "m-goy" at the end sort of as a please. This is important to know as you have to shout it out to get the minibus that brings us up the hill to stop where we live. No bells to press, so shouting is necessary. It isn't actually the end of the world to go beyond the top as it is only about a 10 minute walk down from the end of the line. Felix, one of my work colleagues in Sheffield said numbers would be useful and he is right. The way the numbers work is not difficult as it is all base ten. To say twenty, for example one would say two tens; twenty two is two tens two. A bit like listing out the units on an abacus. But one still has to learn the basic numbers to begin with, which I have yet to do. Also, you bargain for about everything apparently. Even in some of the big shops--though not in places like IKEA. This will be a bit hard I think.
There are stores for everything here. Adrian got some coffee for us at a shop that sells only Egyptian coffee beans. We went into a place today that sells only orchid plants. There is a chain of English language book stores here that we went into today and I was able to buy a Big Red Book, which is sort of a directory of places to purchase things that is indexed. As a listing it feels a bit to focused on Ex-Pat folk, but it does provide a listing of where one can find Louis Vitton handbags at 50% off and purchase hand made shoes and tailored dresses-- The tailors will even copy a picture for you or work from your own designs. I can't wait to visit these places!
I have now been up about an hour in the middle of the night. I am off to fix myself a cup of tea and try to go back to sleep. I have brought my camera, so in some future post I shall try to upload some photos. It is really lovely here and exciting. I look forward to some opportunity to just rest a bit--Adrian has taken some days off work so we are being tourists quite a bit. I am also looking forward to a chance to do some exploring on my own. There is so much near by, but getting further afield is not difficult to do (the 80M bus that leaves from Sui Wo Court goes all the way into Kowloon Tong). So far, I am glad we've come.
This week we sold our house (finally--long and very stressful story), got on a plane, and arrived in Hong Kong as residents. I am now sitting in the lounge of our flat at about two in the morning local time--Jet lag takes its toll. The flat is great. It has a wonderful view. There is a balcony and a large glass window across all of one end. Looking out one direction we see mountains and out the other 50+ story housing buildings. Our building is located near the top of a tall and steep hill and the housing we see is located below us about half way up the hill, but the tops of these buildings extend higher into the sky than our building. Looking out between these closest buildings we can see the bay. As it happens, the area we see is called Fo Tan and it is built on reclaimed land as the valley was once part of the bay. In fact, I learned recently that this bay is on a fault line. I will try not to think about that too much.
We've been here two days. In that time, we have visited the IKEA to buy hangers (it is in the mall that is at the bottom of the hill, so very convenient), seen (by accident) a light show of the buildings on Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side, ridden the ferry across the harbour and the mid-level escalator up into SOHO, visited the markets in Kowloon, watched a thunder and lightning storm from our flat, witnessed the domestic helpers on their day off and had glorious, sunny weather (yes, with blue sky). It is warm, but it is also easy to escape this as air-conditioning is readily available, all one need do is enter a shop or jump on a bus. There are wonderful smells here and great fruit, fruit juice, tea, and fish to be had though I do not feel hungry. Today I had a green tea frapachino at Starbucks (yummy) in a shop on the mid-levels and a lemon grass and green tea drink at the RBT in Mon Kok. We had intended to buy curtains for the children's rooms, but we ended up with a TV for Simon instead. I had promised him the TV for doing well on his exams (Grace got a trip to Rome). The man will deliver it on Wednesday and another will come and set it all up.
The TV is Simon's and will live in his room for his xbox. He has xbox live, so should be able to meet up with his friends once we figure out how to make the broadband wireless. The TV is all Internet based here, so I am not sure how that will work. To be honest, I have not missed watching it. There is so much to do here in the evenings. Shopping centers are open until 10:30 at night and there is a pool here in the compound. The pool is open from about 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night, with closure during meal times, and also has a life guard. Simon has taken full advantage of this facility. He is using it as a way to meet people in the compound and to "get fit". He has decided that he will be swimming to exercise. He has actually jumped into the life here with both feet. There is a confidence about him that I did not expect or even that one would not normally expect from an 11 year old. He is happy to go to the pool by himself. I can see him making his way down the hill via the minibus to the mall in no time. In six months I expect him to own this city.
Grace has been somewhat more reluctant. She spent the first day locked in her room refusing to talk to anyone--she is a bit angry about having to move and wants to make sure everyone knows. We did manage to wedge her out of the house yesterday. By the end of the day there was enthusiasm. I am sure she has come to realise that the opportunities here are endless and that it is not difficult to get around. While it is certainly very Chinese and nothing like Ilkley, it is also not too hard to navigate. People are friendly and speak English so she was able to manage much more than I think she thought she would be able to do. She, of course won't admit finding Hong Kong to her liking though. She continues to behave as a 14 year old in the extremes of selfishness that only 14 year olds can manage.
As a family, we have pretty much decided we prefer the buses to the trains. The trains get you to where you want to go much more quickly, but they are crowded and you have to stand. The buses afford a view and so far we have been able to sit. We all have Octopus cards that allow us to ride the transport without having to dish out change each time. Much easier. I would recommend this as a first purchase for anyone visiting Hong Kong. One can even ride the ferries with this little card. Our little bus is the 69K, but there are others that will be key--the 7 goes along the bottom of Kowloon down to the Star Ferry.
In an early post I indicated that I was quite worried about how I was going to manage the shopping. I am now less worried about this. In the housing half way down the hill there is a small market with fresh veg and a small Park and Shop (kind of like Tesco or Safeway). The Park and Shop is pretty basic, but very cheap. In the big mall there is a very fancy--kind of like whole foods--store that sells groceries and also ready made food. Simon and I had Sushi from there for dinner tonight. Everything is available from this store from Belgian beer to designer chocolate to tortilla chips to American peanut butter. It is more expensive, though some things are very good value. The sushi I had tonight was wonderful and fresh with about 9 pieces for about £4. There is also a Taste in the big mall near where Adrian works. This store is somewhere between the Park and Shop and the fancy store. It sells Waitrose branded food and has a stunningly deep fish section and fruit and vegetable section. I think I could quite easily live off the fish and fruit with a bit of rice thrown in to bulk it out (Adrian bought a rice cooker and we are making rice in volumes--everyone should have a rice cooker as they are great).
While people do speak English, I realise I will need to expand my language skills fairly quickly. I have learned to say the name of the bus stop where we live: Souk Say (it means quarters). One can throw in a "m-goy" at the end sort of as a please. This is important to know as you have to shout it out to get the minibus that brings us up the hill to stop where we live. No bells to press, so shouting is necessary. It isn't actually the end of the world to go beyond the top as it is only about a 10 minute walk down from the end of the line. Felix, one of my work colleagues in Sheffield said numbers would be useful and he is right. The way the numbers work is not difficult as it is all base ten. To say twenty, for example one would say two tens; twenty two is two tens two. A bit like listing out the units on an abacus. But one still has to learn the basic numbers to begin with, which I have yet to do. Also, you bargain for about everything apparently. Even in some of the big shops--though not in places like IKEA. This will be a bit hard I think.
There are stores for everything here. Adrian got some coffee for us at a shop that sells only Egyptian coffee beans. We went into a place today that sells only orchid plants. There is a chain of English language book stores here that we went into today and I was able to buy a Big Red Book, which is sort of a directory of places to purchase things that is indexed. As a listing it feels a bit to focused on Ex-Pat folk, but it does provide a listing of where one can find Louis Vitton handbags at 50% off and purchase hand made shoes and tailored dresses-- The tailors will even copy a picture for you or work from your own designs. I can't wait to visit these places!
I have now been up about an hour in the middle of the night. I am off to fix myself a cup of tea and try to go back to sleep. I have brought my camera, so in some future post I shall try to upload some photos. It is really lovely here and exciting. I look forward to some opportunity to just rest a bit--Adrian has taken some days off work so we are being tourists quite a bit. I am also looking forward to a chance to do some exploring on my own. There is so much near by, but getting further afield is not difficult to do (the 80M bus that leaves from Sui Wo Court goes all the way into Kowloon Tong). So far, I am glad we've come.
Monday, 1 March 2010
The visit
What a great trip. What a great place. When can we leave???
It will be hard to write this in whole paragraphs as I am still processing the visit to Hong Kong in flashes of impression. As just a bit of context Adrian and I when to Hong Kong for a few days. We left on Tuesday last week. Arrived sometime on Wednesday in the evening. We then returned on Sunday, leaving quite early in the morning, so just three whole days in the city.
I guess one of my first impressions is that to call Hong Kong a city is really not right. It is more like a region. Hong Kong island itself is not a city as there are quite large areas of non-city and if you travel around the island to Stanley, one feels quite in another place. It takes very little time on the bus to do this. The bus ride involves traveling through a tunnel to get to the other side, rather than following a coastal path. Kowloon, across from Hong Kong, is connected to HK in that there are any number of ways to cross over--ferry, train (under the water), by car/bus over a bridge, but it is also quite separate as in Kowloon you must make a change to another train or bus that will transport you around this side of the water. Also, there are different colour taxis for this part of HK than for the island. Kowloon provides a very impressive vista for those on HK island, but this is mutual. In other words, incredibly tall buildings on both sides. The waterfront on the Kowloon side is a lovely place to walk around--day or night--and there are some wonderful restaurants and museums. Then there is the new territories, which we really did not get into that much. But because of the really great public transport system in this city/region the ability to travel quite far into them is not difficult to do rather quickly.
Second, unlike many other cities I have been to in countries where English is not the first language, I felt very comfortable and confident in my ability to get around. I think this was partially because there was enough that looked familiar, pretty much most things were written in English as well and in Cantonese, and there are enough people around who understand English and can tell you what you need to know if you get lost. So the infrastructure for people who are not Chinese is there. I wouldn't put this down too much to the fact that Hong Kong is a fairly recently former territory. The bodies are very much largely Chinese bodies walking around. I did see a few non-Chinese people, but this difference was not something that was foregrounded. Indeed, I notice the difference much more when I have visited China Towns in the US or UK much more than I did in Hong Kong. This might be the result of apparent middle-classness, though a large proportion of the city does not earn enough to be required to pay the 15% income tax. Moreover, one is aware that Hong Kong is not American or European. It is its own city, but it is a comfortable one to be in. At least it was for me. It is a place that puts you at ease, while at the same time is exciting.
Third, while Hong Kong is very full of people, this again is not the overriding impression one gets. There are amazingly tall building, and looking at them you know the population density is incredible. Some of this housing is quite grim, but that is the same in all cities. So much of Hong Kong is new build, however, so the decay that comes from prolonged use, high humidity, and so forth is not a present. Plus, there is a lot of green space--not really grass, but green: Trees, tropical plants, etc. Quite a bit of Hong Kong is not built upon, probably because the landscape is so steep. Incredibly steep. At times overwhelmingly steep. Exhaustingly steep.
Fourth, this is a very efficient place. I understand that there is as much bureaucracy here as one might think given that it has its roots in the UK and its crown in China, but there is a work ethic and a competence I just don't find in the UK. Maybe this is linked to some degree to an overall culture of humility rather than arrogance and an ethic of consideration for others and open friendliness, rather than a selfishness that seems to permeate British life. I can't comment on the potential differences/similarities between HK and China. While we were there we were able to get octopus cards, which get you on to the transport system kind of like the pay as you go sim cards for mobile phones (you can also buy coffee at Starbucks and groceries with your octopus card and the school uses them for registering the children and for paying for school lunches and printing). We also got a mobile phone that we can use in HK, a bank account, an apartment, almost a school for the children, an amazing amount of intelligence about how to work and live in the area, and some new friends. Adrian and I both commented that this just would not have been the case in any other place were we have lived.
Fifth, Hong Kong is en engineering wonder. Not only are there some (several) of the tallest buildings in the world here, but they are build on some of the steepest terrain. In Hong Kong itself, you see buildings being built and wonder how in the world they got the equipment up the narrow and winding roads to the site. There are tunnels cutting through mountains and under all this there is an underground transport system that is not only extensive but very reliable. Just about every form of transportation is available here--buses, ferries, mini-buses, trams, funiculars, elevated cable cars, subways, trains, and even an outdoor escalator. This last transport mode is particularly incredible as not only can you travel around most of the second and third stories of the central part of the city via passageways through the buildings, which you access via escalator, but you can also travel from the ferry terminal to the upper part of the mid-levels via a half hour escalator ride. This is covered and runs down hill for the morning commute, but up hill most of the day. Not only does this mean that the thing is reversed every day, but because of the high humidity and rain one would think that it would always be broken down. But it is not. Stunning. We noticed advertisements in estate agent windows that there is a rent gradient based on distance from these escalators. Given how steep it is, this makes a lot of sense. We did walk up through a residential neighborhood and this is something one would not want to do out of necessity. Added to all this is the fact that while the tram is several blocks inland now, it once ran along the waterfront. The amount of reclamation is amazing. You would not immediately understand that so much of what is the present day commercial Hong Kong is on reclaimed land, but once you know this you understand why the area where all the tall commercial buildings are is also quite flat.
Sixth, the food is great. Not only is there really good Cantonese food (my favorite type of Chinese), but you can get every other cuisine you want at about any price range. While we were there we ate Cantonese food as well as food from other regions in China, Vietnamese, and Japanese. We had coffee in an American style coffee shop (at 7 in the morning at the nearby mall). We also learned that the restaurants located in the big shopping malls are not to be avoided. Indeed, the Japanese restaurant we ate in was located on the the tip of Kowloon in a shopping mall that was focused on the eating, with shopping interspersed between the restaurants. It was great. We also went to one of the grocery stores. Admittedly this was the posh store--for those of you in the UK it was like Waitrose, and indeed there were Waitrose branded products on the shelves. Prices were largely similar to UK prices, with the exception of things like cheese and yogurt, which are imported from Australia. The equivalent to £6 or $8 for a large container of yogurt. I don't really like yogurt that much so this won't bother me too much. I guess I shall have to learn to enjoy my coffee with soya milk instead of cows milk. I can adjust. I like soya milk. The cheese will be a bit harder to go without, but I am thinking that my waistline could benefit from this. Thankfully, and contrary to what we expected, wine is not more expensive.
While these impressions are largely positive, I don't want to sugggest that everything was rosy. I did learn that it will be quite difficult for me to get a job. I met with one of the heads of department at one university and learned that not only would my research never fit with their idea of sensible and useful work (quantitative, rational choice models, neoclassical), but also that I was not chinese enough and too old! The Chinese bit I may or may not be able to overcome by learning the language, but age is someting one cannot mess with. No such thing as age discrimination there. There were some gender issues at another university that will make it difficult for me. But the third place I visited was very welcoming, and even if I don't get a job with them, I feel that there is the possibility for connection and collaboration. I am very excited at the prospects of doing research in Hong Kong. There is a lot of work that I can envision doing that builds on my existing research and which focuses on sustainablity issues.
Most of the people we met also have some form of domestic help. This can range from what has historically been referred to as an Amah, a term that is now not considered politically correct. Flats for middle class people all have an area off a laundry room off a kitchen consisting of a bedroom and a bathroom for the helper to live. This room in the flats we looked at, but which appear to be equally as small elsewhere was miniscule. Just enough room for a narrow bed and not really anything else. In fact, the room in our flat has no window. There is a window in the bathroom, which has a shower, toilet and sink. I can't imagine living there, so I guess no Amah for us. Others have helpers come once a day or a couple of times a week. Some of these women are doing this work illegally as they are Amahs for another family already. Some are Chinese women. Many people I spoke with said that the helper would do the shopping and cooking for you, which is an advantage because the helpers have the skills to bargain at the wet market, thus saving money on food buying. The wet markets are less expensive than the grocery stores. I shall just have to learn enough cantonese to do this, or pay more at the supermarket, most of which will deliver dry goods to your home for you. I was also told that while some locally produced food is available, culturally the imported food is considered better food, and this is not just because it is more expensive. I expect some of this is linked to the recent health scares over things like tainted milk and beef products.
Overall a brilliant trip. I am really looking forward to going back. I hope something works out for me on the employment front as I am having some difficulties with getting leave from my current employer. I think I just must be patient and keep trying. I will keep updating...
It will be hard to write this in whole paragraphs as I am still processing the visit to Hong Kong in flashes of impression. As just a bit of context Adrian and I when to Hong Kong for a few days. We left on Tuesday last week. Arrived sometime on Wednesday in the evening. We then returned on Sunday, leaving quite early in the morning, so just three whole days in the city.
I guess one of my first impressions is that to call Hong Kong a city is really not right. It is more like a region. Hong Kong island itself is not a city as there are quite large areas of non-city and if you travel around the island to Stanley, one feels quite in another place. It takes very little time on the bus to do this. The bus ride involves traveling through a tunnel to get to the other side, rather than following a coastal path. Kowloon, across from Hong Kong, is connected to HK in that there are any number of ways to cross over--ferry, train (under the water), by car/bus over a bridge, but it is also quite separate as in Kowloon you must make a change to another train or bus that will transport you around this side of the water. Also, there are different colour taxis for this part of HK than for the island. Kowloon provides a very impressive vista for those on HK island, but this is mutual. In other words, incredibly tall buildings on both sides. The waterfront on the Kowloon side is a lovely place to walk around--day or night--and there are some wonderful restaurants and museums. Then there is the new territories, which we really did not get into that much. But because of the really great public transport system in this city/region the ability to travel quite far into them is not difficult to do rather quickly.
Second, unlike many other cities I have been to in countries where English is not the first language, I felt very comfortable and confident in my ability to get around. I think this was partially because there was enough that looked familiar, pretty much most things were written in English as well and in Cantonese, and there are enough people around who understand English and can tell you what you need to know if you get lost. So the infrastructure for people who are not Chinese is there. I wouldn't put this down too much to the fact that Hong Kong is a fairly recently former territory. The bodies are very much largely Chinese bodies walking around. I did see a few non-Chinese people, but this difference was not something that was foregrounded. Indeed, I notice the difference much more when I have visited China Towns in the US or UK much more than I did in Hong Kong. This might be the result of apparent middle-classness, though a large proportion of the city does not earn enough to be required to pay the 15% income tax. Moreover, one is aware that Hong Kong is not American or European. It is its own city, but it is a comfortable one to be in. At least it was for me. It is a place that puts you at ease, while at the same time is exciting.
Third, while Hong Kong is very full of people, this again is not the overriding impression one gets. There are amazingly tall building, and looking at them you know the population density is incredible. Some of this housing is quite grim, but that is the same in all cities. So much of Hong Kong is new build, however, so the decay that comes from prolonged use, high humidity, and so forth is not a present. Plus, there is a lot of green space--not really grass, but green: Trees, tropical plants, etc. Quite a bit of Hong Kong is not built upon, probably because the landscape is so steep. Incredibly steep. At times overwhelmingly steep. Exhaustingly steep.
Fourth, this is a very efficient place. I understand that there is as much bureaucracy here as one might think given that it has its roots in the UK and its crown in China, but there is a work ethic and a competence I just don't find in the UK. Maybe this is linked to some degree to an overall culture of humility rather than arrogance and an ethic of consideration for others and open friendliness, rather than a selfishness that seems to permeate British life. I can't comment on the potential differences/similarities between HK and China. While we were there we were able to get octopus cards, which get you on to the transport system kind of like the pay as you go sim cards for mobile phones (you can also buy coffee at Starbucks and groceries with your octopus card and the school uses them for registering the children and for paying for school lunches and printing). We also got a mobile phone that we can use in HK, a bank account, an apartment, almost a school for the children, an amazing amount of intelligence about how to work and live in the area, and some new friends. Adrian and I both commented that this just would not have been the case in any other place were we have lived.
Fifth, Hong Kong is en engineering wonder. Not only are there some (several) of the tallest buildings in the world here, but they are build on some of the steepest terrain. In Hong Kong itself, you see buildings being built and wonder how in the world they got the equipment up the narrow and winding roads to the site. There are tunnels cutting through mountains and under all this there is an underground transport system that is not only extensive but very reliable. Just about every form of transportation is available here--buses, ferries, mini-buses, trams, funiculars, elevated cable cars, subways, trains, and even an outdoor escalator. This last transport mode is particularly incredible as not only can you travel around most of the second and third stories of the central part of the city via passageways through the buildings, which you access via escalator, but you can also travel from the ferry terminal to the upper part of the mid-levels via a half hour escalator ride. This is covered and runs down hill for the morning commute, but up hill most of the day. Not only does this mean that the thing is reversed every day, but because of the high humidity and rain one would think that it would always be broken down. But it is not. Stunning. We noticed advertisements in estate agent windows that there is a rent gradient based on distance from these escalators. Given how steep it is, this makes a lot of sense. We did walk up through a residential neighborhood and this is something one would not want to do out of necessity. Added to all this is the fact that while the tram is several blocks inland now, it once ran along the waterfront. The amount of reclamation is amazing. You would not immediately understand that so much of what is the present day commercial Hong Kong is on reclaimed land, but once you know this you understand why the area where all the tall commercial buildings are is also quite flat.
Sixth, the food is great. Not only is there really good Cantonese food (my favorite type of Chinese), but you can get every other cuisine you want at about any price range. While we were there we ate Cantonese food as well as food from other regions in China, Vietnamese, and Japanese. We had coffee in an American style coffee shop (at 7 in the morning at the nearby mall). We also learned that the restaurants located in the big shopping malls are not to be avoided. Indeed, the Japanese restaurant we ate in was located on the the tip of Kowloon in a shopping mall that was focused on the eating, with shopping interspersed between the restaurants. It was great. We also went to one of the grocery stores. Admittedly this was the posh store--for those of you in the UK it was like Waitrose, and indeed there were Waitrose branded products on the shelves. Prices were largely similar to UK prices, with the exception of things like cheese and yogurt, which are imported from Australia. The equivalent to £6 or $8 for a large container of yogurt. I don't really like yogurt that much so this won't bother me too much. I guess I shall have to learn to enjoy my coffee with soya milk instead of cows milk. I can adjust. I like soya milk. The cheese will be a bit harder to go without, but I am thinking that my waistline could benefit from this. Thankfully, and contrary to what we expected, wine is not more expensive.
While these impressions are largely positive, I don't want to sugggest that everything was rosy. I did learn that it will be quite difficult for me to get a job. I met with one of the heads of department at one university and learned that not only would my research never fit with their idea of sensible and useful work (quantitative, rational choice models, neoclassical), but also that I was not chinese enough and too old! The Chinese bit I may or may not be able to overcome by learning the language, but age is someting one cannot mess with. No such thing as age discrimination there. There were some gender issues at another university that will make it difficult for me. But the third place I visited was very welcoming, and even if I don't get a job with them, I feel that there is the possibility for connection and collaboration. I am very excited at the prospects of doing research in Hong Kong. There is a lot of work that I can envision doing that builds on my existing research and which focuses on sustainablity issues.
Most of the people we met also have some form of domestic help. This can range from what has historically been referred to as an Amah, a term that is now not considered politically correct. Flats for middle class people all have an area off a laundry room off a kitchen consisting of a bedroom and a bathroom for the helper to live. This room in the flats we looked at, but which appear to be equally as small elsewhere was miniscule. Just enough room for a narrow bed and not really anything else. In fact, the room in our flat has no window. There is a window in the bathroom, which has a shower, toilet and sink. I can't imagine living there, so I guess no Amah for us. Others have helpers come once a day or a couple of times a week. Some of these women are doing this work illegally as they are Amahs for another family already. Some are Chinese women. Many people I spoke with said that the helper would do the shopping and cooking for you, which is an advantage because the helpers have the skills to bargain at the wet market, thus saving money on food buying. The wet markets are less expensive than the grocery stores. I shall just have to learn enough cantonese to do this, or pay more at the supermarket, most of which will deliver dry goods to your home for you. I was also told that while some locally produced food is available, culturally the imported food is considered better food, and this is not just because it is more expensive. I expect some of this is linked to the recent health scares over things like tainted milk and beef products.
Overall a brilliant trip. I am really looking forward to going back. I hope something works out for me on the employment front as I am having some difficulties with getting leave from my current employer. I think I just must be patient and keep trying. I will keep updating...
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