2006 Soap Box Archives

Hong Kong

A few years ago to think that I would be celebrating my seventieth
birthday in Hong Kong would be all but unthinkable. But here it is and here
I am. And some city it is.

Hong Kong is forests of unique skyscrapers and high rise apartment
buildings, double decker buses and double decker trolley cars all going
somewhere in a hurry.

They drive on the left hand side of the road and if you don't pay attention
to where you're walking you could get clipped by a passing car.

Hong Kong is many things, traditional and modern, bamboo and
steel. It is New York on steroids with enough bright lights to make Las
Vegas jealous. The harbor is busy with anything from Chinese junks to
passenger liners.

The city is loaded with wonderful restaurants of every description and the
hotels rival any in the world. There are seven million people in the city
and the skyline is as modern as any city on the planet.

Although the British who ruled Hong Kong for over a century turned it back
over to the Chinese in the late nineties, China is adopting a sort of hands
off policy and has agreed not to change anything for fifty years. When you
enter Hong Kong from Mainland China you still have to go through
immigration and customs and have your passport stamped. They also have their own currency, the HK dollar.

The area is made up of two parts, Hong Kong and Kowloon. Hong Kong is an island and Kowloon is across the bay, a short ferry boat or tunnel ride
away. They are both ultra modern, ultra busy.

Now don't get the opinion that it is all peaches and cream there. As with
the other Oriental cities the pollution problem is bad, although not as bad
as Seoul and Beijing.

If you keep your eyes at street level on the big boulevards and avenues you
get the impression of overall affluence. But if your eyes wander above the
facades and down side streets you can tell that everybody in Hong Kong is
not swimming in wealth. They have their share of the disadvantaged.

You don't see many big department stores in Hong Kong. There are a few but most of the city streets are lined with mom and pop businesses. Fruit
stands, jewelry stores, restaurants, teashops and tailor shops where you can have clothes made really fast for bargain prices.

If you go over to the night market you can even have a live snake, killed,
skinned and prepared for you to eat.

All the cities I visited in the Orient are growing by leaps and bounds and
Hong Kong is no exception with scores of construction cranes rising on the
skyline.

Hong Kong has long been the gem of the Orient and if you ever have the
chance I would recommend a visit.

I know I'd like to go back one of these days.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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