Category Archives: Hong Kong

What is in a sign?

Posted on by

IMG_0872

Hong Kong is a city where you can’t escape signs. Even the buildings are signs advertising international finance and exchange. The ICC, for example, holds the Guinness World Record for having the largest light and sound show on a single building.  Indeed, one of the things that makes Hong Kong a fascinating place to wander through as a tourist are the signs that visually assault you. The combination of faded paint and rusted metal, hang over the streets in such way that one wonders how in a place prone to Typhoons they could still be there. As you get your eye in, however, there is a repetition to some of the signs.  You see the sign in the photograph all over Hong Kong.  Supposedly representing a bat holding a coin, they are the sign indicating  Continue reading →

Visiting Hong Kong–Things I would do if I were coming to visit.

Posted on by

One reader of GeoFoodie.Org recently told me she was planning a trip to Hong Kong and asked if I had any recommendations for what to do. This is always difficult, because what I like to do might not be what other people like to do. But if I were coming to Hong Kong here is what I would seek out first–and more or less in this order…

Continue reading →

Returning

Posted on by

I find myself awake at 4 in the morning because I am thinking about returning.  I have come to Hong Kong as a trailing spouse.  It is a common story in this place, and while it is often gendered female, I can think of a number of couples where the trailing partner is male.  Indeed, there is even an internet group here called Tai Guy–a pun on the reference to Tai Tai.  Tai Tai are the Hong Kong equivalent to ladies who lunch… and shop… and occasionally volunteer…and attend gallery openings on the first Tuesday of the month…and shop…and sometimes start businesses…and shop. Did I mention shopping was part of being a Tai Tai?  Although technically the term for wife, it isn’t a complimentary one. It implies being kept. Continue reading →

Morning Reflection

Posted on by

Morning reflection

One of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong is have a coffee, or in this case a green tea latte, at the Starbucks located on the Avenue of the Stars (Hong Kong’s version of the Hollywood’s Avenue of Stars). This is one of the few Starbucks in Hong Kong with a view and it is a stunningly unobstructed panorama of the famous skyline.  The skyscrapers on the island side now have to compete with an almost equally magnificent skyline on the Kowloon side, dominated by the ICC tower, which you can just see in the reflection on the cup. Sandwiched between these two competing, and sometimes overwhelming views, is Victoria Harbour. Behind this landscape, lost in the background, is a story of fishing boats, food safety, and the decline of an industry.  Continue reading →