HONG KONG — Early into our three-day stopover in Hong Kong last year, my mom made an off-hand comment that I teased her relentlessly for through the rest of our visit:
“It’s kind of like New York.”
Granted, she had some good reasons for comparing this city on the edge of the Chinese mainland to the Big Apple. Hong Kong, like New York, is diverse. You can find cuisine from anywhere in the world there (but promise you’ll try dim sum somewhere). We heard quite a few languages spoken there, and a global smattering of English accents, from Australian to Scottish to our flat American. It’s easy to get around, whether you’re on foot or taking a taxi or public transportation. Plenty of the signs in Hong Kong are in English. Our hotel was a high-rise Marriott. It’s possible we were standing in front of the H&M in Central when Mom made the comparison.
Hong Kong even has a Times Square.
But the news — and copious photos, the backdrops of which will be familiar to many who have visited — out of Hong Kong recently is a reminder that there’s much more to this place than what we saw on our breezy jaunt through the city as tourists.
has been posting security advisories for the ongoing, growing democracy demonstrations. On Sept. 30, the consulate reported:
“Demonstrations continue. Areas that have seen large crowds gather include Central, Admiralty, Wanchai and Causeway Bay on Hong Kong island and Mongkok in Kowloon. Many businesses in these areas have closed, and public transportation has been disrupted. Travel to, from and within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region remains safe but disrupted in the aforementioned areas.”
As a tourist, some of these are places you won’t want to miss. Admiralty is home to Hong Kong Park, a tea museum and the , which carries people to the park at the top of the island for views behind the city, out toward the South China Sea, and of the city itself. Mom and I took the Peak Tram in the evening so we could watch the lights come on in the skyscrapers, first nearby in Hong Kong, then across the bay in Kowloon. We were there just after the New Year, when the buildings are lit up with the next year’s zodiac animal: Flowers and snakes danced on some of the city’s towers as the sun went down that day.
If you take a ferry back to the island from Kowloon’s flower market, or the night market (even better — you’ll have a new angle on the famous skyline from the ), you’ll land at the Central Piers. Those markets are in the Mong Kok area, and the Central Piers are in, you guessed it, Central.
Despite the protests, tourists don’t seem to be holding back from heading there. is proving to be a draw for some, and that it’s generally safe.
If I were planning a return trip right now, I wouldn’t cancel it.
I’ve been known to joke that going to Hong Kong is like doing China Lite. Everyone speaks English, and you don’t need a visa. My only reminders of mainland politics were a few anti-Falun Gong signs I saw in Kowloon and the anti-Western flavor of the stories I read in the South China Morning Post over breakfast. With dumplings. Dim sum is for any meal.
My strongest memories include watching the city’s lights come alive in the humid dusk, and sitting down to a . But these are fanciful memories from a city that is changing quickly, and facing some frightening possibilities.
Jenn Fields: 303-954-1599, jfields@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jennfields
