Days 2 to 5 - in Hong Kong

I've really enjoyed my first trip to Hong Kong. It's an interesting mix of East meets West. Not surprisingly, the British influence is still very apparent, with all the street signs first in English, then Cantonese. Many of the street names are very English. For example, I've been staying on Middle Road, which is off Nathan Road, which runs down to Salisbury Road. Nearly everyone speaks English, too, which makes things easy. They even drive on the left!

The picture shows a rickshaw man on the 'phone to his bookie. This was taken at Victoria Peak and is obviously there for the tourists as you don't see them on the streets at all (but maybe in Vietnam or Laos).

I had expected that the communist influence would be more obvious. Our lease on Hong Kong ran out in 1997, and it's been a "special economic region" since then. Apart from all the colourful Chinese signs, Hong Kong is really much like any other modern city, with lots of modern buildings and all the international brands much in evidence. The only indication of the mainland influence was a sign at the Panda House saying that An-An and Jia-Jia had been donated by the Central People's Government.

The city itself is entirely capitalistic, but much cleaner than most places. And the people are more friendly (apart from the tourists from mainland China, who seem to love pushing in front of you at every oppportunity). At the Ocean Parks sea life and animal theme park, for example, not only do the cleaners keep the place spotless, but they also smile and say "good morning" as you pass by. Even on the bustling streets there is little litter.

Hong Kong is the second most densely populated city in the world, after Tokyo. It has a population of 7.1m people, in an area of 1.1 square kilometres. With that sort of density, you would expect a lot of hassle on the streets, but I found the locals to be charming and considerate. The only problem I encountered was all the young men either trying to sell you watches or persuade you to have a suit made. But even then, unlike other cities, they were polite and, if you said "no, thank you", they ley you go without following you down the street.

With that sort of population density, obviously nealy everyone lives in apartments and the whole city is covered with rather tall apartment blocks. Only the very wealthy live in houses. The city is obsessed with money. Our guide on the city tour hardly said a sentence without mentioning money. He kept asking us to guess the price of everything, from property, electronic items, lottery prizes, tunnel charges, etc. Of course, it was either very cheap (mainly electronics and clothing) or very expensive (property, marina costs, golf club membership, etc.).

A few things I noticed:

• Even the bus drivers wear seat belts.
• Most of the girls look like Suzy Wong.
• I was only accosted by hookers once, by two girls who didn't look more than fifteen. Needless to say, I declined.
• The people are rather short, giving rise to a number of odd effects, like steps being too short, urinals too low, etc.
• The food is very good.
• All the models, especially those advertising clothing, appear to be western (mostly white). I never saw a single Chinese looking model on a poster.
• The traffic can be horrendous.
• There seem to be an inordinate number of young men pushing trolleys around the streets (carrying what?).
• The views, especially from the Peak are quite spectacular, but it was a bit misty and so my scenic photos aren't that great.
• According to our guide, the harbour has been voted the second besting looking in the world, after San Francisco, but ahead of Sydney.
• On my tour of the city, I ate dim sum in the largest floating restaurant in the world and it wasn't bad.
• Although the Chinese are inverate gamblers, all they can gamble on are the horses. They are hoping to get permission for a casino soon.
• Nearby Macau now has 21 casinos and generates more revenue that Las Vega.
  

I'm off to Bangkok tonight, which is slightly worrying given all the trouble there at the moment. I only hope the demos they're having are not near my hotel. It will interesting to see if Thaksin Shinawatra can make a successful comeback and overthrow the military. He didn't make much of a success at Manchester City.

Talking of football, shame about Chelsea. What was the game like? And I see that Becks and Bridge are now both out of the World Cup.

Here are a couple of videos. The first is of An-An, one of the pandas at Ocean Parks.


The second video is of jellyfish, also at Ocean Parks.