People here speak Catonese, sometimes thought to be the hardest dialect of Chinese. Rather than four tones, it has seven (or was it nine?). Everyone also speaks Mandarin because of state pressure coming from the mainland, and most people speak some degree of English. The younger a person is and the more educated a person is, the more English they probably speak (and if they work in a service job with lots of foreigners).
It's been really interesting seeing how people use English. I saw Germans and Chinese speaking in English. It really is a world pigeon language. I've made an effort to interact as much as possible without English and feel really bad when I have to resort to it, but a quick "thank you" in the native language and asking how to pronounce something "properly" often puts a smile on everyone's face. Culturally too, it's just important to be patient, smile, and try to meet a person more than half-way.
Arrival
Arriving in Hong Kong was crazy. I've never been in a plane that flew that close to water before touching down in the airport. I'm not sure where "Hong Kong" really is. There's "Hong Kong" island, and then a portion they call the "mainland", but it's all one big city. It appears almost as if there are three city centers. Skyscrapers are everywhere and the people really have made the best use of space here. I went to a "laundromat", which could barely fit two people, but somehow, they had managed to make a thriving business.
A funny event: when arriving in Hong Kong, Americans do not need a visa, at least not for the first ninety days. Nor do many people coming from Europe. However, people from China require a visa. China! China owns Hong Kong. It was returned to them from the British back in the 90s. However, Hong Kong maintains some self-rule, and I think they keep that up just to poke the Communists in the eye.
The Hotel we're staying at has very small rooms, but, once again, economical use of space. There's a lot to learn here about that. The cars drive extremely fast down curvy lanes of traffic, but they all stay in their own lane and obey all traffic signals. People, for the most part, wait for their turn to cross the street, which is painful after Saigon. I know, I know, it's another way of doing things, but I already miss the fluidity of traffic flowing around me in Saigon.
I decided, after arrival, to get myself lost. I walked around the city with no place really to go, just checking out stores randomly and looking at things. Since Hong Kong is far more monolingual, English is less prevalent than it was in the other cities. Don't get me wrong, it's EVERYWHERE, but not as much everywhere (don't try to hook me on logic here, I'm using pragmatics :P). Anyway, I bought a few items to try my hands at things, and it all worked out alright. I got back to the hotel and went in another direction. I did this about three more times and really got a feel for where I was and observed how people generally conducted themselves.
Monday: The First Full Day
Today was the first full day in Hong Kong. I got up early, ran in a pathetically small gym (they're doing renovations), and headed off to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Traffic was worse than usual, we were late on arrival, but all worked out. We had a great class discussion with a professor who was an expert on China. Then, we had lunch together with the class and got to swap stories between the SE Asia group and the China group (we've merged again in HK).
Finally, I've done some research and decided on a few clubs to go out and go dancing, so I bought some hair gel, a nice shirt and undershirt, and am all prepped and ready to go. I'm going to wait 'til later in the week so that I can hit the clubs when they are packed. Tonight, I field tested everything, and was complimented thoroughly. I'll consider that a success.
Exploring Hong Kong is great. There's something new everywhere. The mountain-islands are amazing to look at. The past two days have been cloudy and rainy, but it's been cool because of how that makes the city look and how some of the mountains break the cloud-line.
I'm looking forward to learning more. Hong Kong appears to be the biggest capitalist paradise so far (although, again, they need more guns, gold, and a good bit more Catholicism, i.e. God). Also, Asia needs more philosophers and people who work in the humanities. But that is another story, to be told another time. Good night ya'll.
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