Last afternoon in Hong Kong

I had a few hours to kill before I had to get to the airport so I thought I'd have a look at the Science Museum, which was only a short walk from the hotel. When I got there it was closed. A sign said "Closed on Thursdays, except on public holidays and the first two days of the lunar New Year". Presumably the lunar NY is what they mean by the Chinese NY. Never mind, it was right next door to the "Museum of History (sic)" and so I went there instead.

It was not large, but very well presented. I think a lot of our musems could leard something about presentation from they had done. It covered the entire history of Hong Kong from 500 million years ago to the "re-unification" with China. I enjoyed it a lot, notwithstanding the class of schoolkids, who seemed to be forever on my back. My one criticism was they didn't include dates on much that happened before the Opium Wars (1840s).

One thing I learnt was that the population is made up of four separte Chinese clans. Most of the immigration has been since the British came. In fact, the general who first captured Hong Kong was sacked because the British Government decided that he'd just captured and island that had very few people and was of little use to anyone. Of course, it was to become strategically very important. Presumably, there was a lot of inter-clan mixing because today the population looks pretty homogoneous. There's not much sign of non-Chinese immigration, though, apart from the residual British. There are almost no blacks, just a few Indians and Pakistanis, although very few wearing nijabs, etc. The tourists are mainly from the mainland or from Australia, with a few Brits thrown in.

A few more random thoughts:

• The taxis are all Toyotas.
• There seem to be quite a few Crocs shops (for the shoes), but hardly anyone wearing them.
• There are a lot of electronics shops offering "Tax Free" goods. There is no sales tax in HK and these are the shops to avoid as they sell a lot of fakes.
• It feels, and apparently is, very safe on the streets.
• For some reason, quite a few people are wearing face masks, even though there is apparently no swine flu (I have been sneezing a bit!). It's a bit off-putting when you go to a restaurant and the girl on reception is wearing a mask.
• They use bamboo for all their scaffolding. It doesn't look very safe, but I'm told it's very effective. It's cheap, light and quick to erect/take down. They just tie it together with a few twists of plastic tape.
• Yesterday, our guide asked us to wear a badge as he said that "we all look the same to him". He was smiling.

In summary, I think it deserves its title of "The Pearl of the Orient".
I would like to tell you about the temple I visitied, but I have to leave for the plane now. Perhaps tomorrow.