HK Day 1

They say that if you can walk from the upper midlevels (where my friends live) to the ferry terminal without going to street level, you’re a local. I haven’t managed this feat yet, but I’m working on it. The pedestrian facilities here are extensive and were likely quite expensive, but that doesn’t make HK a pedestrian-oriented city. It isn’t. I’ve been here exactly 24 hours, and I would say they emphasize public transportation: buses, ferries, taxis, and metro (which I haven’t tried yet).

I slept pretty hard last night and woke up early. Guillaume rushed off the work, but Juliette and I had breakfast together and chatted. After she left for work too, I puttered for a few hours (my specialty) before getting out the house. Wednesday is free museum day in HK. So, that’s what I did, and this bit of ingenuity saved me a whopping US$3.

I took the Star Ferry from Central to Kowloon where the History and Art museums are. The ferry was fast, efficient, and cost about US$0.25. I took pictures. I had trouble finding the History museum, but once I did I found the first floor on natural and pre-history deadly boring. The upper levels covered the formation of the city. For example, the British interest in occupying HK was the result of a trade imbalance due to the English love affair with Chinese tea. The Chinese would only accept silver in trade, and I guess the Brits were running out of silver or something; so, they introduced opium which they were able to collect from India eventually causing widespread addiction here.

Chinese officials balked at that, but enough corruption existed that nothing was really done about it. Things stayed that way until the Japanese occupation of HK in the 1940s. When they invaded, they dropped flyers explaining to the English why it was in their best interest to surrender, and I guess that worked bc they did. How clever is that? Explain to people from afar why they should do what you want them to do… sort of like the jet-eye mind tricks that KT and I were discussing the other day where your boyfriend “explains” to you why you don’t want to breakup with him. Ahem. Anyway….

What the Brits had done right in their invasion of HK was to make it a negotiation based on trade where everyone maintained their dignity and got something in return. The Japanese had alienated the Chinese with their tactics and without trade with China, HK lacked food and water to support its population. They expatriated maybe 75% of the city’s original population but still couldn’t feed people. Photos showed bone-skinny people of both races.

You can see that I was paying attention. I couldn’t help but notice that while HK was a very long and successful British colony, isn’t colonization still disrespectful? And shouldn’t that be addressed or at least alluded to in the city’s history as provided by its own museum?

By this time, I was starving. I found a dim sum place recommended in my guidebook, and walked their via the waterfront promenade. 2:30 p.m. begins dim sum happy hour. So, I had a pot of tea and 3 types of dumplings in an elegant dining room with a view for about US$7. It took a long time, and we had a few misunderstandings, but I had no complaints by the time I left.

My next museum was the HK Museum of Art. The paintings inspired me: their compositions, story telling, and inclusion of the written word. I want to do an etching of a sail boat and water with traditional-Chinese-painting composition. I want to transcribe into lead the words I hear in my head rather than try to drive them away or understand what they mean or their source. I took a low-quality photo of a dorky gift-shop tapestry depicting a river of ducks for my future reference. Yes, I am excited.

By this time, it was about 5 p.m. So, I took the Star Ferry back across the water and again failed to avoid completely the street level on my way home. This area is the foreigners’ ghetto. I saw lots of white people, and many of them even pushed strollers. I could see myself living here in a pinch.

Posting these words will have to wait until Guillaume returns and fixes my wifi connection – it stopped working after a brief but delightful IM session with Tyler this morning. I don’t know why.

Note: this history of HK is from memory and may not have any basis in reality.