Hong Kong - Where East and West Are One

As we have gotten to know this interesting city over the past few days, the mixture of its past comes through in its personality. As you probably know, until 1997 Hong Kong was a dependant territory of the United Kingdom. The treaty signed after the First Opium War stated that total control of Hong Kong would return to China after 1997. So for over 100 years, Eastern and Western culture have not only coincided but have fused to form a unique identity on this small island. The influence of the British can be seen just about everywhere, beginning with the roads. There are only a few places in the world where it is the law that everyone must drive on the wrong side of the street. Thanks to “Jolly Ol’ England”, Hong Kong is one of them. This has caused me much angst over the past few days. When I come to intersections, I constantly want to look the wrong way. I am so grateful that most intersections have “Look Right” stenciled on the ground. (I wonder how many tourists they had to lose before they started doing that.)
Another way you can see the influence of England is in the language. Officially, the language spoken here is Cantonese but of course many speak English, and by that I mean the “Queen’s English”. Well at least “Her” English with a Chinese accent. It seems very strange to hear people who are obviously Chinese sounding like they just stepped off a lorry in London. Something else that has been odd for us is seeing so many Chinese faces but not being able to understand the Chinese that they are speaking or read the words that are written (They use Traditional characters instead of Simplified). To us, Cantonese is harder to understand than Mandarin. It has nine tones. Mandarin only has five. This trip has been really good for us though. It has helped us realize that we are actually making progress in learning Mandarin. The thing that really drove this point home is the fact that on several occasions we have had dinner with people that our host has set us up with who speak little or no English. On these occasions the only common language that we could all understand was Mandarin. So for entire evenings we communicated mostly in Mandarin. It was not easy. There were times for all of us when we really had to struggle to get our point across, but we did it. There were times when some of the things said were funny and we actually could genuinely laugh. (Unlike our usual nervous courtesy laugh.) They say that humor is one of the hardest things to understand in a different language, so it felt good to really get it. Of course Amanda did even better than that. She even said some of the funny things. (Sure people often laugh when I speak but that is for an entirely different reason.) I was so proud of her. She is really doing well, and of course everyone loves Amanda. Amanda says that she could tell the improvement in my Chinese. After that night I truly felt that I could learn this language. I felt like shouting like Frederick Frankenstein “It, could, work!”
Speaking of our host, she is 最好“zuihao”or the best. From the minute we arrived, she has taken care of everything for us. She has made sure that we have someone with us to make sure we get where we are going or she has written out directions for us to make sure we knew which bus or train to get on and where to get off. She planned a big dinner for us the second night we were there, her brother and his wife took care of us the next night, and then she took us to a small island in the South China Sea for seafood. The amazing part is that we just met her. We were set up with her by a friend. As I said, she is definitely 最好, the best.
Another interesting aspect of visiting here is riding public transportation. The public trains here are very efficient but a little on the pricey side. No matter what city you go to, subways systems have got to be one of the easiest ways of getting around. The bus though is another matter. Due to the aforementioned habit that they have of driving on the wrong side of the road, combined with the fact that many of the intersections are “round-a-bouts” it is easy to get disoriented. I often had trouble determining which direction we were travelling. One day I was going by bus to meet Amanda and a friend, when I found out an interesting fact about the buses here. Sometimes they don’t stop at the bus stops. It seems that at certain times one must push the button if the bus is to stop. What is more, on that particular bus they were not even announcing what stop you were at or what the next stop would be. Apparently you had to use “The Force” to know which stop to get off at. (Help me Obiwan Kenobi, you are my only hope!) Needless, to say I got lost.
To sum up my thoughts on Hong Kong so far, I like it. It is a beautiful city. It reminds me a lot of New York but is much cleaner. It has all of the trappings of the Big Apple but with a decidedly Oriental slant. It is a wonderful place to visit but I miss China. I miss the simple life that we have there. I guess it is true what they say. There really is no place like home, wherever it is that you call home. – Frank 付伟国
England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950