April 30 2009

Countdown to Hong Kong – Day Three

DAY THREE, what up (or down). I said in my last post that I should go pack. Well, I’m putting it off until the weekend at least since I still gotta wash a bunch of stuff before packing ‘em in. So today is another less than interesting post about what I like and don’t like about Hong Kong. Woo, stay in your seats everyone.

Up

Traveling to Hong Kong means that I will be needing to read Chinese and speak Cantonese 24/7. That is totally different than what is going on here. The only time I speak or read either is when I’m with my parents; the rest of the time is me reading, speaking, and writing in English. So yes, my level of fluency in Chinese deteriorated immensely since the last time I went back. This will be interesting. My relatives at least weren’t going what the beep when talking to me. More than likely my Chineseness will come back out when I get back and get used to thinking of words in Chinese instead of translating it from English back to Chinese.

ChineseÂ Neon Light BannersÂ (from muddum27)

I remember last time I was even watching the English channels (and got yelled at by my grandma) just to get some English in me (or that there weren’t anything else good that was on after the drama shows were over). Or that was when I finally watched an episode of Doctor Who then got sucked into it after I went home. Good times.

Down

The only time you would see a lot of high-rises and skyscrapers is when you head to Downtown Vancouver. Condominiums only started to shoot up in the sky in recent years, and even then their heights are limited to 20-30 (rarely up to 40) levels. And considering the amount of two-level housing in Vancouver, its sightline is plentiful.

When you’re in Hong Kong, the apartment buildings are beyond 40 and 50 floors. If you stand in front of the building, you’ll have to crane your neck as far as it’ll go before you can see the top of the building. You don’t even need to be up in the air or be at the top of a mountain to look down, you’re already an ant when you’re walking along the streets.

: Tall & Even Taller Buildings (from jburgin)

So yes, not only are the streets crowded with people, you’ll feel even more closed in when the buildings tower over you, with neon lighted signs hanging over the streets. Any second now it would seem before the wires snap and the signs fall down onto the streets. For some reason, I’ve only ever heard of one incident of that happening, and one incident of it falling onto the two-level buses. After being used to spacious places and low-level buildings, the towering buildings and tall buses can feel totally overwhelming.

So that’s Day 3 of 7 days to the countdown. More to come tomorrow!