People say, including myself, say Beijing is similar to Washington DC with its rich history and culture as well as being China's capital city. Further Shanghai is like China's New York City. Bright, Vibrate, new wealth, and a huge financial market for investments and trade. Then you have Hong Kong. Having traveled a good part of the US and the world, you can't really compare Hong Kong to any other western city. Hong Kong is, for a lack of better words or comparison, Hong Kong. A rich, diverse, populated port city/island on the SE China. A literal hop, skip, and jump away from the two major cities in southern China - Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Having spent some time living Hong Kong with my folks as an very early child, I have no recollection of this city but have always imagined to come back after hearing so much about it from other people who been there.
I arrive in Hong Kong via an 2 hour train ride after my weekend stay in Guangzhou. I checked into the Holiday Inn on Nathan Road, one of the busy tourist districts in New Kowloon. New Kowloon is a peninsula directly facing Hong Kong Island and is considered part of Hong Kong territory. Within the first hour or two being in Hong Kong, I felt I was at home and could easily navigate my way around the city. There are considerable differences between Hong Kong and a city like Shanghai. First, all the Chinese locals speak Cantonese, my original dialect. Most educated Chinese locals are also fluent in English. I could finally eaves drop in the subway and used both languages when walking into a restaurant or shopping. Second, people didn't spit, litter, or jay-walk the streets - all are violations and against the law. A nice and refreshing site. Third, things cost a whole lot more compared to mainland China, closely resembling big city life in a US city. Fourth, the diversity of people in Hong Kong was like a united nation council meeting. With a Brit I spoke to on a ferry, Aussies in an Aussie owned bar, to a variety of languages spoken in the streets, it was a big contrast to China where you have to speak Mandarin to live and survive.
Hong Kong is made up with several smaller islands that includes Hong Kong Island. HK Island itself is easy to get around. You could walk the entire north side in a day. I didn't attempt to do that but I did my fair share of walking in one day by hitting the Tram up the hill overlooking the city, the world's longest escalator, catching a cheap ferry ride to the island, running into a small zoological park to see a jaguar and monkeys, and walking around in two of the trendy shopping areas. Thankfully, I had amazing weather with blue skies and 80F everyday. With cuisines from all over the world and theme bars and lounges, I understand why my classmates (Paul, Heidi, and Annie) who studied in Hong Kong loved it so much. You don't even need to learn any Cantonese as everyone can speak English in the city. Shopping is great here with trendy and more stylish men's clothes that I could wear. You could see by the clothes that people wore in the streets. Almost every office worker wore suits and professional attire. Paul, my classmate at UW, was able to hang out and show me a few places while I was there. It was great meeting up with him and catch up with a good classmate whom I have seen since I left. He took me to SOHO and Lan Kwai Fang, the happening night spots in the city. We swapped and shared our experiences living in each city. We both really understood the importance of having a global (not just business) perspective when viewing the world. And living abroad helps bridge the gap in understanding what the rest of the world is thinking and experiencing. We agreed that we could see ourselves living here for some period of time in the future.
Paul and I decide to visit Macau the next day. We took a quick ferry ride on these small but fast boats that took us to Macau Island. After an hour on the boat, we arrived. At the ferry terminal, all the major casinos had free shuttle buses taking visitors to their casinos. It is early November, probably the low season but still saw swarms of people hitting the gambling casinos. From what I saw, it was mainly locals and Southern Chinese mainlanders who were the visiting these casinos with very few foreigners. Paul mentioned he had a winning slot (ATM cash) machine that has won in the past at the Wynn Casino. So we headed there! These newer casinos were amazing. I didn't know if I was in Vegas or Macau. The only difference are the customers (all Chinese of course) and the background noise in these places. Paul did briefed me that they don’t have slots machines that make that ringing noise and people are a bit more subdued. With club lounge music playing in the background, I liked it and preferred it over Vegas style. Since most of these casinos were relatively new, it was immaculately clean and caters to the people who obviously have money or willing to give away all their money. Paul and I hit the slots, craps, and other gambling machines. I tried my hand at a game not found in the states called Sic Bo. It's like the roulette table but instead of using a ball and wheel to guess the winning number, they use three dices. A guess at the combination, total sum of the dices, and other things could make you money. We took a break from gambling and stumbled to find a great all you can eat, high-class buffet at the Lisboa Casino. One of the best meals I had in the last few months with fresh produce to produce great food. It beats most high-end buffets in Vegas. 5lbs heavier and $25 lighter in the wallet, we headed to the Venetian Casino. Located on the a different island or part of Macau, we took a 20min taxi ride over a long bridge which makes the I-90 bridge look small. Once we got to the Venitian, my mouth dropped to see that this Venetian almost looked identical to the one in Vegas. Situated along a long flat strip of land, I could see a dozen cranes and at least 3-4 more large casinos being built. If Vegas was hit by a hurricane and wiped out the casinos, I would be seeing the first phase of construction. This part of Macau was large to fill most of the casinos on the Vegas strip. I can't imaging the billions of dollars by US and FDI (foreign direct investments) as well as local investments to build up this place. No wonder people in Vegas are sweating that this place could cannibalize the Asian market of gamblers.
After a long day of gambling, I was out $200 USD and Paul probably broken even, we headed back on the Ferry at 3am. A great day to a great experience!
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