I love Hong Kong.

After a busy week of classes, I’m finally getting around to giving my trip to Hong Kong a proper blog post. You may want to grab a snack before you begin, because this one is going to be a long one.

Friday morning I headed to the bus station with my friend Katherine to buy a bus ticket to the airport. As luck would have it, they were sold out. So while I tried to convince Katherine to just let me get in a taxi, she instead bought me a ticket to downtown Chongqing, dragged me kicking and screaming on to a bus, and waved as the doors closed promising her boyfriend would meet me downtown to direct me onwards. Okay, well maybe I wasn’t kicking and screaming, but mentally I was shouting, “But I don’t speak Chinese! I don’t know what your boyfriend looks like! I don’t even have his number!”

Cue lots of traffic on the way down that turned a one hour bus ride into two, and my anxiety level shot up to Mach 10. I was now heading in the wrong direction of the airport, planning on a rendezvous with someone I had never met somewhere in a city of 28 million people, and I only had two hours left of the five I had allotted to get to the airport. When the bus dropped me off at the street corner that passes for a bus station, I called Katherine to get her boyfriend’s number. It turns out he does not really speak English, so as she hung up she said, just find a Chinese person to tell him where you are!

Oh man. Just at that moment, a guy asking for signatures on a petition shoved his clipboard in my face. In return, I shoved my cell phone back in his, gesturing with a pleading look on my face. Right as he was about to run in the other direction from the crazy foreigner, one of his female colleagues picked up on my desperation and talked to Katherine’s boyfriend. Who apparently had gone to the wrong "bus station" (read: the wrong street corner).

To my relief, I made my flight to Hong Kong after a four hour circular trip to the airport. And as soon as I saw the skyline from the airplane, all my annoyance at the morning's events disappeared.

Skyline as seen from my hotel room

I was practically jumping up and down with excitement by the time I got to the hotel where my aunt was staying for business. She was kind enough to let me share her room, and this place was amazing. I'm pretty sure I cracked her up by oohing and ahhing over the simplest things, like fluffy, white towels. But come on, there was a shower that had different modes and temperature settings! And a free mini-bar with peanut M&M’s! And a pool with the coolest view imaginable!

Hotel pool

I was already in love with Hong Kong and I had only seen the airport and the hotel.

The first thing we did Friday night was get to work shopping. Hong Kong is known as the shopping capital of Asia, and I managed to do all of my Christmas shopping in approximately 48 hours while blowing my budget for the rest of the semester. Those of you getting gifts should be thankful for this, because had I been forced to do my Christmas shopping in Hechuan you would probably all be getting chicken feet.

There are four different main markets that sell everything from jade jewelry to t-shirts to Chinese scrolls. You bargain for everything, so generally my exchanges would go something like this---I would find something I thought was mildly intriguing and pick it up to look at it. The clerk would come up and state a ridiculous price. I would tell them thank you, but that’s too high and I don’t think I really want it. They would lower their price marginally. I would walk away, because I really didn’t need this random trinket. Then they would call me back, hand me a calculator, and ask me to type in what price I wanted to pay. I would type in a ridiculously low number, because once again I didn’t really think I wanted this. They would negotiate until I would buy said trinket since the price was too low to pass up. So I generally walked away happy with something I didn’t really need, while the clerk probably smirked behind my back, laughing at the stupid foreigner who paid $3 for that thing they made for 20 cents.

Stall at the Jade Market

After more shopping early Saturday morning, my aunt and I had traditional Dim Sum for breakfast, which included buns with BBQ pork and shrimp dumplings. Not my typical breakfast, but it was some of the most delicious food I’ve had in China.

my Aunt Sharon and our dim sum!

Then it was off to a ferry across the harbor, and a tram up to The Peak to look out over Hong Kong’s awesome skyline.  Hong Kong is made up of two parts, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Kowloon is actually a peninsula connected to mainland China. Our hotel was on Kowloon, where all of the giant markets are, but Hong Kong island is what you think of as Hong Kong because it has the most famous sites and is the main business district which makes up the majority of the fantastic skyline.

Tram up to the Peak 

View from the Peak

On Sunday my aunt had to work, so I was on my own. I hopped on a bus tour to Hong Kong Island's south end, not quite knowing what to expect. I was amazed when we left the city behind for a more tropical, Caribbean island-type atmosphere. It was 85 and sunny, and we drove along a beautiful coastal road passing resort hotels and beaches. When we came upon a stop in a town with a really cute boardwalk, I jumped off and took in the sea air and the least crowded strip of land I had seen since landing in China. It was absolutely perfect, and a welcome relief from the smoggy, crowded streets of Hechuan.

South Hong Kong Island

One thing I have concluded after this trip, though, is that I need to upgrade my imaginary boyfriend to an imaginary husband. On the ferry over to Hong Kong by myself I had two different men approach me to talk. Both at one point asked if I was married, and one even said he wanted to take me to a nice dinner. So clearly I need to get a fake wedding band to ward off unwanted suitors.

Ferrying back to Kowloon

My aunt’s sister used to live near Hong Kong, so she had told me about a few places I could buy Western goods. I was in heaven as I wandered the aisles of a giant grocery store, relishing the look of foods I hadn’t even realized I was missing. Since I calculated I only had a minimal amount of space in my bags after all the souvenir shopping I had done, I skipped the boxes of Cocoa Puff’s and instead settled for one block of sharp cheddar cheese, two small jars of peanut butter, and a Hershey’s bar. I was so happy that I didn’t even flinch when the register told me I owed 200HKD or approx. $25. (At the airport later on, I learned that peanut butter is technically considered a liquid, so I could not take it in my carry-on bags. Instead of forfeiting that precious commodity, I chose to walk back out through security and check my bag.)

Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, on my way back to the hotel I passed by a place called Rocco’s Pizzeria. As many of you know, or have picked up on by reading this blog, pizza is the food I miss the most. So I was immediately drawn inside, and was happy to discover that the place was packed with ex-pats because the bar was playing the New Zealand vs. Australia Rugby World Cup Semi-Final Match. (An event I’m sure you all have been following diligently back in America.) Knowing a little about rugby after going to two games when I lived in Scotland, I sat down, enjoyed the most delicious pepperoni pizza I have ever had, and jumped on the New Zealand bandwagon because I had seen them play in person before (and they were winning). A great end to a great weekend.

Hong Kong at night from the Peak