Walking in Hong Kong
The culture of Hong Kong is based on the traditions of the people of China. The indigenous people preserve the culture of their ancestors and often in their homes you can find elements of the Cantonese, Tanka, Hokklo, Hakka and other nationalities. Hong Kong is like a giant showroom where English and British cultures showcase the fruitful interaction of opposites.
In Hong Kong, flights over the city are allowed. Probably because the power of his architectural concept becomes clear only from a height. Modern buildings, masterpieces of design and technological thought, were erected here in strict observance of the laws of the ancient Asian teachings of feng shui. Hong Kong is considered its world capital. For example, keeping in mind the legend of the dragon sleeping in the mountains, architects design square openings in residential buildings several stories high. When the reptile wakes up, it can fly to the sea by the shortest route through these holes. One of the most unusual buildings in Hong Kong, the Bank of China Tower looks like an aquamarine crystal because of its asymmetrical edges and dark blue glass, and does not make city residents feel the most pleasant precisely because the architects neglected feng shui when designing it. People think,
A half-hour helicopter tour over the city costs 150 euros, the departure point is the roof of the Pennisula Hotel. But there are also cheaper ways to enjoy panoramic views. For example, a free observation deck on the 43rd floor of the China Bank Tower. Or shopping malls on the Kowloon Peninsula: the tables by the windows on the upper floors are already occupied by six in the evening, wishing to watch the daily light show of Hong Kong skyscrapers, which starts at 20:00. Or the observation deck at Victoria Peak: you need to take a tram to reach the 550 meter mark, and then use escalators to make your way to it through a line of snack bars. With a good lens, you can stand here all day, hanging over the high-rise picket fence and Victoria Bay, in the waters of which barges, ferries and sailboats swarm like fish in an aquarium, as if they had descended from ancient engravings.
Or the cable car, which runs over Tang Chang Bay and Lantau Island, where you can order a cabin with a glass bottom. The route stretches from the Tang Chang metro station to the 900-meter peak of Mount Lantau on the island of the same name, to the tourist village of Ngong Ping to the feet of the 24-meter bronze Buddha. Nearby is the Po-Lin Buddhist Temple. Despite the ancient surroundings, the sculpture appeared here in 1993, and the temple complex at the beginning of the 20th century.
Even 150 Years ago, there was nothing on the site of Hong Kong except mountains and fishing villages. Today there is a modern metropolis with a population of seven million people. Together with 260 neighboring islands, it formed the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, an autonomous region that prefers innovation in tradition and English over Mandarin. Hong Kong's history defines its choleric temperament and alien look, woven from Asian innovations and Victorian relics. In the middle of the 19th century, England needed sea routes in Asia and trade relations with China. The Chinese were reluctant to sell their goods to foreigners and rejected the attempts of the British to tempt them with European charms. Emperor Qianlong forbade British traders from leaving the port and his subjects from teaching them the Chinese language.
Then the British began to import smuggled opium, which, of course, pleased the fishermen, but did not at all like the authorities, who were already unfriendly to foreigners. In 1840, the First Opium War broke out. As a result, England, in addition to the right to freely sell its goods on Chinese soil, received the desired Hong Kong and gradually captured the surrounding islets. Queen Victoria turned the island into a strategic port in the East, and since then its development has gone by leaps and bounds.
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The Hong Kong air is full of events taking place on different tiers on the pavements, where concept cars, not yet launched into mass production, roll side by side with jingling British trams; on the top ten floors where hostels coexist with massage parlors; on the floors of the second dozen, in holes covered with burnt rags, guest workers huddle; on the upper tiers of skyscrapers receding under the clouds, where clerks rustle papers, generating world financial news.
In the evenings, a human river flows out of office skyscrapers and floods the streets. It seems that the neon windows of shops and restaurants are about to drown in its waves. “Who wants to sit in their cage after work? They only come home to sleep, “explains the evening pandemonium, 30-year-old Rainbow Wong, coordinator of the excursion center. Miss Wong claims that her real name only confuses Europeans, as it means “red, green, blue”, and therefore she is used to calling herself “rainbow” in English.
Hong Kong is full of entertainment for all tastes, but people come home late for this reason. Another of its features, conducive to long walks, tiny apartments, where the bed rests against the closet, and the table is adjacent to the shower stall.
The modest size of the dwellings explains what the inhabitants of the islands eat outside the home, because they often do not fit either a stove or a refrigerator. Everyone knows a chic restaurant for an important occasion, a simpler place for dinner with friends and eateries for every day, where a bowl of beef noodles costs two or three euros. Markets also work in the “buy-eat” mode: the seller will also cut the selected fish into sashimi, and chop the bird into pieces and stew it on a skewer, so that it is more convenient to eat on the way to the cinema.
In the San Kung area, there is a street of restaurants with sea food. It begins with rows of aquariums with phantasmagoric animals, giant crabs, lobsters, oysters and the world's largest molluscs, geodaks. While the tourists are excited, like children in a zoo, rushing between the windows, Hong Kongers fearlessly choose a reptile to their liking, looking into his bulging eyes, and ten minutes later they butcher his toasted body in the nearest eatery.
Cantonese cuisine is suitable for those who like minimal processing of food, that is, it is steaming or quick frying over high heat. This kitchen uses sauces instead of spices. The main dish in Beijing cuisine is noodles. You can watch it cooking, because often whole concerts are held from kneading dough to cutting into thin strips. The most famous Peking duck is served with pancakes and plum sauce. Try the beggar chicken.
Chiu chow cuisine is replete with sweet sauces and seafood. If you prefer spices and herbs, do not pass by the Sichuan cuisine; pepper, anise, coriander, garlic, fennel and many other spices are the basis of this cuisine. Cooking takes a long time. If you love rice, then pay attention to Hunan cuisine.
With the thriving restaurant industry, which introduced the naive Hong Kong to the cuisines of the world's peoples, externally, Fife-o-Clok remains unchanged for the locals, inherited from Victorian rule. The lobby of the Penissula Hotel has been crowded with people since three o'clock in the afternoon; people are ready to queue for hours to get to the real British tea, which is held in the hotel restaurant. Everything here is like under Queen Victoria: waiters in white gloves pour tea into porcelain cups, ladies put triangular sandwiches in a hat, English scones buns made of dense dough, pancakes, muffins, muffins are languishing in expectation on elegant tables.
The feeling of space in Hong Kong is very unusual for Europeans due to the fact that there are all three axes of coordinates, that is, the movement progresses not only forward and sideways, but also up and down, as in many Asian megacities. While walking, you suddenly discover that the whole city is under your feet; Or, raising your head, you realize that now the whole city is hanging over you: on the first floor there is a diner, on the second is a beauty salon, on the third is a hostel, and on the 20th there is a Jackie Chan fan who has pasted over the windows with posters of his idol.
A guided tour of Kowloon Island on the Big Bus double-decker helps to develop a new Hong Kong understanding. Passengers are given headphones and a raincoat. Although a helmet would not hurt at all: tourists, mesmerized by the prospect and riot of colors, often forget to bend down and knock their foreheads against the chaotically hung hieroglyphic signs.
Many buildings in Hong Kong are mainly shopping and business centers that are smoothly merging into each other, connected by overground walkways. This is the best place for walking on hot days: the air conditioners work at full capacity, the hustle and bustle remains under your feet, but at the same time you can see, hear and feel the rhythm of the city.
It is expensive to maintain a private car in Hong Kong, so locals prefer to use the metro and ferries. Moreover, the streets are in traffic jams for many hours. The main traffic flow, as in London, is made up of red double-decker buses and multicolored taxis. But unlike the capital of the former metropolis, there is an air taxi for which there are no traffic jams. It takes ten minutes to get anywhere in the city, which is especially important in business Hong Kong and the Chinese and British value punctuality. Air taxis have not yet become everyday, mainly due to the lack of landing sites. But the mayor's office is actively negotiating with the management of skyscrapers, intending to “lift” at least business passengers soon.
The city, meanwhile, strives further and further upward. The Ritz-Crlton, the world's tallest hotel, opened in the 118-story tower this spring.
The best time for a holiday in Hong Kong is from October to April until the rainy season and typhoon. Temperatures range from 18 degrees in winter to 26 degrees in summer. In spring, it usually stays at 24 degrees.