On Thursday, a group of us from the conference I’m attending in Guangzhou had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong as part of a commercial tour. Hong Kong was an amazing city, and the tour was a fascinating experience on a host of levels.
The Hong Kong skyline as seen from the Hong Kong film walk of fame.
Our group of academics, both American and Chinese, got on a big tour bus for the two-hour drive to Hong Kong at about 6:30 in the morning, accompanied by box breakfasts from the hotel. These included a packaged chiffon cake (quite tasty), a red bean paste cake roll (interesting), a cold hot dog on a stick (I didn’t open it) and a carton of milk. Unfortunately, but predictably, there was no coffee.
The first major stop was at immigration. Going through immigration from China to Hong Kong is an extended process. Despite Hong Kong being under Chinese control, it is still treated as a separate country with its own currency and passports.
The process got started with our group going through a huge facility with long walkways covered with severe sounding signs. You eventually enter a giant hall full of stations labeled either “Chinese National” or “Foreigner.” Once you make it through the long lines, the young man or woman working at passport control processes your passport efficiently. Given that our group has both nationals and foreigners, we’ve been split up, so we have to reassemble on the other side, then walk to a bus station, were we take a crowded yellow stand-up bus for a couple of miles to the Hong Kong immigration station. Once again, we que up, only this time it is “Hong Kong Residents” and “Visitors.” But the process is the same, only instead of a stamp in our passport, we get a little slip of paper stapled to a page. Again we reassemble, again we get on a yellow bus with standing room only. And finally we get on a new tour bus – our original one staying behind to wait for us in China. From start to finish, I think that immigration took about two hours. (Though on our way back in the late evening, it probably only took an hour.) My sympathies are with those who must make this journey on a regular basis.
Once we arrive in Hong Kong proper, our first stop is the Hong Kong Film Walk of Fame, featuring handprints and stars for the most famous Hong Kong action performers and a statue of martial arts great Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee will always be the biggest of the Hong Kong action stars.
The walk of fame was pleasant, but the view across the water of the Hong Kong skyline was spectacular. Then it was off to lunch at a restaurant we entered through a back elevator that led to an entrance through the kitchen, and finally down a marble corridor to the dining room. Our food was all preordered for us, and quite fancy I suppose. But as we left, I thought the more ordinary rice and noodle dishes we saw young people enjoying looked even better.
We then had a couple of rapid fire stops – first to the exposition center where reunification ceremonies took place back at turn of the century, when Britain turned over its colony of Hong Kong back to the Chinese government.
This is the sculpture that commemorates the transfer of control of Hong Kong from Britain to China. Despite China’s control of the territory, Hong Kong still has its own currency, and you still need a passport to travel between the two.
Our next stop was a brief photo op at an overlook near the top of a mountain that gave a fantastic view of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor.
Hong Kong’s magnificent Victoria Harbor
I felt a little bit like Moses having to stay outside the promised land, to gaze into it, but not able to enter. Hong Kong’s harbor is so full of such rich history, and I would have loved to have at the very least taken a ferry across it. But alas, this brief look was all I got. Should I ever get back to Hong Kong, that’s what I want to really spend some time seeing.
Our last stop of the day was at the Ocean Park amusement park. And while I confess that an amusement park was probably not my first choice of places to go in Hong Kong, the park was pleasant enough, and the view from the cable car ride was wonderful.
The view from the cable car ride at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park was gorgeous.
As the day wound down, I was hot and tired, and relieved to get on the bus for the trip back to our hotel. But before any of us could sleep on the bus, there was the multi-bus, multi-line immigration process to go through.
We got back to Guangzhou at close to 11:30 that night. And while I was exhausted, I was also thrilled to have gotten at least a glimpse of one of the world’s truly great cities.