Hong Kong, best city on the globe?

Posted by avsm Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:18:39 GMT

I decided to stop by Hong Kong for a couple of days en route to Ubicomp in Japan, and stayed with Sibyl's parents and Colin for a couple of days. My impression of Hong Kong has just been completely awesome! Its been a packed couple of days, as we walked up to Victoria Peak to get a really cool view of the city from above, grabbed the Star Ferry to look at the mainland side, and of course went shopping everywhere to find the good deals. Some things really made Hong Kong stand out though...

• The Octopus card is an anonymous stored-value card that you just put some cash into, and can then seamlessly use on all of the public transport (and even restaurants and dessert places). It makes it so quick and easy to get around. London is just starting to catch up with Oyster, but Hong Kong leads the way with almost everyone having this card. It's great to see it implemented the correct way and letting individuals preserve their anonymity instead of a centralised e-cash system.
• The food is simply awesome, ranging from the seafood on the floating Jumbo to the incredibly fresh Mango deserts at Hui Lau Shan. Not only does it taste great and fresh, its super-cheap, as most people I talked to preferred to eat out rather than cook as it works out cheaper and easier!
• Everything is clean and spotless; although most people live in really tall tower blocks, the public places are really large and well laid out, so it never felt claustrophobic (even coming from somewhere like little Cambridge).
• Unlike Japan, where its quite a lot of hassle to get around without speaking some Japanese, most people I met in Hong Kong spoke enough English to get by (as you might imagine given its history). It was much less stress-free; I could consider living in Hong Kong I think, unlike Japan which I love to visit but not actually move to.
• It isn't flat. Must...leave...Cambridge...

Hong Kong on a misty day

I loved the floating restaurants

Buildings. Lots of buildings