I never imagined I'd like
Hong Kong. I had always had a kind of snobbish view of it and its people, encouraged by my years of studying Mandarin, and so having only friends from
Taiwan and the Mainland, and they always take a contemptuous view of
Hong Kong. This North/South divide is as old as Chinese culture, and can be witnessed in the biography of the
Sixth Patriarch of the
Zen school, a Southerner who had to flee for his life once elevated above his Northern co-religionists. But over the years I've developed a taste for
Hong Kong cinema, and when I finally visited Hong Kong last year I absolutely fell in love with it. The insane business of
Mongkok, its
perfectly operating public transport system, its
crowded temples full of bewildered urbanites and its sheer kookiness - Hong Kong is full of surprising little subcultures, and really must be one of the most livable cities on earth. It has energy, charm and
great food. And
Honkies (i.e. people from Hong Kong) are downright beautiful - stylish and shy and inclined to offer up a helpless smile when things go wrong. And I even found myself falling in love with
Cantonese, that abrupt, loud and really quite difficult language that so many sneer at. On the lips of the right people it is enchanting.
So today I am at home sick, coping with a fever I doubtlessly picked up on the streets of Hong Kong. And I am missing Kowloon and its teeming streets.
Here is a photo taken from our hotel room - we were staying at the
Langham Place in Mongkok, and it really must rate as one of the most beautiful hotels in the world.
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