Our 2 hour flight is on Dragon Air. For lunch we had a choice of 3 entrees! Since we have left the mainland of China we have to go through customs.
We meet our guide, Ken (short for a long female Chinese name) and she leads us to our bus. Immediately we all decide we already miss Annie! Ken expressed several prejudices immediately and "out us off". She told us the Hong Kong people are Cantonese and speak Cantonese, unlike the Mandarins on the mainland. She said she knows how to speak Mandarin, but she doesn't tell her employer because she hates having Chinese tour groups.
She said the Cantonese are very petitie, even compared to the Mandarins. She said they do so much walking and eat 4 small meals a day. She said we wouldn't be forced to eat Chinese food here. And she said "You won't have to eat all that watermelon like you did over there."
She told us Hong Kong's population is 7 million. In addition to all the foreign tourists, they know 6 million mainland tourists visited H.K. in 2009. She told us people escaped Mao's rule in 1949 and others had come from the Mainland hundreds of years before.
She said they have a different political system and Hong Kong dollars instead of the Yuan China uses. But they accept American money everywhere.
She mentioned the lease Hong Kong is now under. It is an involved history of British and Chinese rule. In 1997 it was handed over to the Chinese on a lease. British flags disappeared from everywhere except on their Embassy and the Queen's picture was removed from the currency. The British press refers to the event as "the Handover" and the Chinese refer to it as "The Return". Ken said most people don't care who rules them at the end of the lease in 30+ years, as long as their economy stays strong. English is still the language taught in schools, though some learn Cantonese in school also.
We decided the city and people are a real mixture of the two societies. Traffic drives on "the wrong side", as in Britain, for instance. Changing that over will be a real treat to witness!
Ken said Hong Kong has 3 main parts and 60 islands, though some are undeveloped.
She expressed disdain at Mainlanders who come to Hong Kong as pickpockets and prostitutes. She said some act as monks, begging for money. But, she said, we know monks are in monasteries, not walking the streets. She said they are disgusted by the Mainlanders who rent out their condos in the cities over there and then move to H.K. and obtain some of the cheap government-subsidized housing. Those apartments are as small as 200 square feet (about the size of the inside of our tourist bus) and rent for $300 per month. Sometimes 3 generations live in one. We had just read in the paper the prior day that there is a waiting list in Hong Kong of 130,000 for the apartments.
She told us income tax runs 15-17% and there is little government pension. Most moms teach their children the value of saving money. Her mom had her give her 50% of what she earned at her jobs while living at home. She is now 39 and bought a condo a few years ago with her husband. Her mom handed her all that money she had saved so she could use it towards that purchase.
China Airlines is owned by the government. There is a train to the mainland. It takes 28 hours to travel to Beijing by train. There is an under the harbor tunnel that was built in 1972. It is 2 KM long and sees 100,000 cars in it daily.
As we passed the port, Ken tells us it is the largest container port in the world, operating 24 hours a day. 3.85 million containers went through it in 2009. We could see semi-truck sized containers piled high for blocks on end. Guess who the biggest importers are - America. There are countless ships in the harbor. She tells us the busiest container ports in the world are Hong Kong, Shanghai andSingapore.
We are once again surrounded by highrise condo and commercial buildings. She tells us the most expensive condos are near the harbor and run about $2,000 per square foot. Most homes in our area sell for about $100 per square foot. 16,000 people per square KM (.62 miles) live in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong.
She tells us Hong Kong has a big quality control business. Here's the circle: items are manufactured in China, quality control performed in Hong Kong, items shipped to Europe for labeling, and back to Hong Kong to be shipped.
As we pass the Ocean Harbor mall she tells us it houses 736 shops and restaurants.
We reach the fanciest Holiday Inn we've ever seen - in downtown. There is a gorgeous chandelier in the lobby and another that extends over the mezzanine. As with all the other hotels there was a mini bar. It was stocked with water, pop, beer, candy, booze and condoms! That was a first. Also a first was the message on our phone that said we had to either give the front desk a $1000 Hong Kong dollar deposit (about $53.00 US) or ask that someone remove everything from our room. We had them remove everything.
We headed out to find the nearest McDonalds. So much of the Chinese food we had eaten for over a week had little taste and we were hungry for a burger. Also on that block were an Adidas store, 7-11, Pizza Hut and Shakey's Pizza. The McDonalds offered the same menu as the American ones, plus tomato soup and sweet potato pie.
By the time we walk back to the hotel we are more than ready for bed! We have more free time here than on the Mainland and have enjoyed just walking around tonight, stopping for a sundae and enjoying the harbor view.
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