Surprising facts about Hong Kong
I still remember when I visited Hong Kong back in 2011 for my birthday in November. I spent a few days there with someone who was a friend of mine that time (but not any more) and lovely Monika (I met before in Bangkok and we then traveled to the flooded Cambodia).
I spent just 5 days in a cheap hotel in Hong Kong after I visited crazy Singapore but sometimes such a short time gives you enough thoughts. I was surprised by so many things I found in Hong Kong. Many of them I did not expect. Ok, I am not going to lie to you. Maybe the only thing I did expect there was A LOT OF PEOPLE. And I was right about this one as well as about Hong Kong being the same great city for night photography as Singapore . If not that fog following me there every day of my visit, I could have took some calming shots!
Beside the obvious, I also found many surprising facts about Hong Kong during my visit:
- overcrowded
crowds at Hong Kong streets
- many hair salons
- many buses
- small funny buses
- double decker trams
double decker tram
- small packed restaurants
- eating dumplings all the time
- many skyscrapers
Hong Kong skyline
- many cosmetics shops
- locals don’t exercise that much comparing to Singapore, I did not see many people running but only walking and slowly jogging
- saw more people smoking than in Thailand or Philippines even though there are many no smoking places around Hong Kong
no smoking
- bathroom cannot be found in the restaurants but in the shopping malls like in Singapore and in many parts of Malaysia too
- wear boots a lot
- almost no locals wear sunglasses, not even when it’s sunny
- locals walk with their older parents/grandparents holding their hands in the parks
- people of different religion go to parks and the whole families eat there, dance and listen to the music
families in parks
- they have a spaghetti house – I would not expect such a popular and expensive pasta restaurant in Asia
- people walking in all directions
- rushing
- massages are popular
- black tea with chinese food is famous
- overcrowded trains in the city centre
- both Chinese and English names and signs at the street
signs in Chinese and English
- many signs what not to do
- people with shopping bags are everywhere
- red and white taxis
- taxi stands at the street have a sign and only there you can wait for a taxi. There were long lines of people waiting.
- many bakeries – also less common in Asia
- sliced pork and beef in street stalls
cooking meat in street stalls
- not that posh like Singapore
- many people with glasses
- no old cars
- European prices – yes, forget about SE Asia cheap holidays
- budget accommodation is not easy to find
- sings on the road ”look left, look right”
look left
- I also found surprising that not many people spoke English which was a problem for me in the restaurants to find out what kind of meat was it as I don’t eat anything else but chicken.
- overcrowded
gj
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I like how HKG is open 24/7. You can always find stuff to do/eat/see. At about 0330 in the morning you will find a lot of people walking everywhere.
I LUV shopping in the street markets…I only buy the cheaper non-breakable stuff…like no electronics as qualify is shaky. I love getting massages, so HKG is nice for that…but not as good as Shanghai.
Kowloon, where I usually stay, is the most crowded place on the planet. Sometimes It even shocks me, even though I have been there a bunch of times.
Paulo Tan@Travel Bugs
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Hong Kong is just like my 2nd home. If you explore deeper, you will find more interesting things!
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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I hope to see more of the city my next time there, for sure ;)
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ grasya:
Hope your 2 days won’t get too foggy :)
grasya
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i might be spending 2 days here then 2 days in Macau. thanks for the observation dear lady!
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ Ahmed:
I did try! I usually visit places for very short period of time, so I need to be observative!
Ahmed
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Your observation is great, in just five days you found as many things. What about Philippines girls every where :P