Introduction: Hong Kong is one of the world's most sophisticated and exciting cities, a vibrant, futuristic port on the South China Sea. Prosperous, colorful, and busy, it's a city-state composed of superlatives, a cosmopolitan mixture of East and West. Writer Jan Morris describes Hong Kong perfectly: ". . . . hard, rich, opportunist, hospitable, and like it or not exhilarating." The British acquired Hong Kong Island from China in 1841 by near-accident, and for a long time regarded it with scorn. Gradually they expanded the tiny colony, adding a chunk of mainland peninsula and a collection of scattered islands. What was once a "barren Island with hardly a House upon It" today ranks among the world's 15 largest trading entities. British administration combined with Chinese entrepreneurial energy proved to be a magical blend. Modern Hong Kong is a financial, commercial, and manufacturing powerhouse, and a transportation and communication crossroads for all Asia. It's also Asia's major tourist destination, drawing over ten million visitors a year. It offers an unrivaled setting on a magnificent deepwater harbor, superb food, and world-class shopping. Exotic enough to satisfy even the most sophisticated world traveler, Hong Kong is also well-organized, comfortable, and easy to get around -- a unique blend of Western luxury and Eastern ambiance.
Hong Kong's appeal lies in its sheer dynamism and pure energy. Its intense and vital Chinese essence makes other regions of China look like a pale replica of the real thing. So much of traditional China was obliterated in the Cultural Revolution, but in Hong Kong it coexists alongside the glitz and glitter. Beneath its glossy facade, Hong Kong is Chinese to the core.
Sightseeing here is not a matter of working through a list of monuments and exhibits. The real thrill is in weaving your way through the vital, crowded streets, taking the fast-beating pulse of the city. People are everywhere, shopping, working, eating, walking, chatting, even, somehow, sleeping. The gregarious Cantonese appear immune to crowds and noise. Over one million people live jammed onto Hong Kong Island's 78 square km, while the Kowloon Peninsula has some of the most crowded neighborhoods on earth.
Hong Kong typifies the staggering energy level of south China. Like New York, it's a city in a hurry, with the same energy and hustle, the same loud, fast, pushing crowds (Hong Kong's are even louder and pushier), and the same infectious excitement. Unlike New York, there's no alienation or lurking violence: Hong Kong's urban culture is purposeful, focused, and extremely pragmatic.
Hong Kong is focused on the pursuit of money, embodying a strain of capitalism as pure as can be found on the planet. Money is its lifeblood, business and shopping its leitmotivs. Hong Kong's post war transformation is testimony to the power of capitalist enterprise, and to the strength, tenacity, and drive of its people. Its status as a city made largely of immigrants gives its sense of transience, resilience, and a stubborn certainty that the future can be improved through hard work.
At first glance Hong Kong may seem thoroughly Westernized, but that is a sophisticated illusion. At its core are traditional Chinese customs, beliefs, festivals, and religious rituals that have continued largely uninterrupted, unlike the rest of China, where traditions were ravaged by the vicious Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Hong Kong's sidestreets reveal glimpses of a traditional China long vanished from the other provinces. Old-style pharmacies display glass jars of mysterious dried roots, pickled snakes, and wizened antlers, essential ingredients in Chinese medicine. Bakeries dispense flaky pastries filled with bean paste, lotus seed, and duck egg. Food shops are festooned with long strings of red-and-white Cantonese sausages and shiny pressed ducks. Other stores sell lacquered chopsticks, carved ivory chops, and padded silk jackets.
Hong Kong is the rattle of mahjong tiles, the slow graceful movements of early morning tai chi, colorful "flower boards" advertising parties and weddings, noisy restaurants crammed day and night with groups enjoying some of the best food in the world. Old ladies in black samfu burn incense in front of animistic shrines, and gaudy Taoist temples are crammed with supplicants and soothsayers. Even the smells are evocative: the big-city scent of auto exhaust dominates, but underneath is the ocean's salt tang, meat frying in a wok, the delicate fragrance of the purple bauhinia flower, sandalwood incense drifting from a doorway shrine.
Hong Kong has its peaceful side too. Most of its area consists of green hills, rugged coastline, and isolated islands. Visitors seldom realize that nearly 70% of the SAR is undeveloped, 40% of it preserved in an extensive series of country parks. Try to spend at least one day beyond the urban canyons, exploring a glossy New Town or a quiet fishing village on one of the Outlying Islands.
Don't expect to experience all that the SAR has to offer in two or three days. Most travelers devote that much time merely to shopping. A week is the minimum allotment to see Hong Kong, after which you can venture farther afield. A recommended first stop is the tiny Portuguese enclave of Macau, an hour's boat ride away on the opposite side of the Pearl River Delta. Macau's tangled old streets are a charming blend of old and new, Chinese and Mediterranean, and superb food, plentiful wine, and lower costs only add to its appeal.
Another option is a visit to the south China city of Guangzhou (formerly Canton), accessible from both Hong Kong and Macau. This big, busy metropolis ranks among China's most progressive cities. A visit here provides insights into the speed and frenzy with which the rest of China is striving to catch up to Hong Kong. Viewed together, Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou neatly encapsulate Chinese life, both traditional and modern--always vital and fascinating.
