Hong Kong

It has been a mad start to the month with Doha, Hong Kong, and Prague in the first 16 days and all separate trips. Hong Kong is an amazing city; I grew up there and was asked by my hosts what had changed in the 25 years since I was last there. My answer is "everything and nothing" by which I mean the city is still about trade and making money; because space is severely constrained almost nothing is allowed to remain beyond its useful lifespan. This constant change means whilst I could see “ghosts” of the Hong Kong I knew and physically there were a lot of memories everything was “different but the same”   

 

This would be a typical scene in Hong Kong, land is hugely valuable and the only way is up, when they need to develop an area the old building comes down and the new one goes up, there will be a huge amount of cranes within the site and everything will move very fast. This was a Sunday morning but the site was still working.

 

I found this to be unusual; one of the key things the Hong Kong Government ensures is that there is a cheap and reliable transportation system to get the population to work. Unusually the off peak fares are more expensive than the peak fares.    

 

 

There is a huge amount of migrant Pilipino labour in Hong Kong, generally they work in the “domestic help” sector maids working for a family will work six days a week and will have a room in the flat of the family they are working for. They can earn far more doing this than they can earn “at home” in a skilled job such as nursing. Sundays is generally their day off and they congregate in huge numbers around in Central. There was lots of talking and trading of sim cards and Pilipino foods. As I walked along the raised walkway the noise they were making and the amount of people standing around I was reminded of birds roosting in the trees.