Living in Hong Kong

TODAY in HONG KONG it is raining. I can see fog rolling in on the harbor and around the tops of the buildings around my apartment. Yes, I have a water view! You really only have crane your neck a little and I can see the water through two, count them! TWO spaces between the buildings. I am on the nineteenth floor and all around me are dirty skyscrapers and shorter multistory housing projects with leaky air-conditioning units in every window and multiple TV antennas coming out the tops. Most have roof-top sanctuaries with tables and chairs, plants, and, of course, clothes lines. The other day was a hot sweltering day and a family was dining on their rooftop. Today, several rooftops are full of potted plants as people take advantage of nature’s sprinkler.





I live in Central- a very convenient area for spending money. Lots of cafés, international foods, pizza, etc. It is possible to pretty much live an all air-conditioned existence in this downtown area, walking from one up-scale shopping center to another, passing Chanel, Prada, Bulgari, and the Armani Center on your way to a salad lunch in Pacific Place or Coffee in the Alexandra building, or Manolo Blahnik shoe shopping in the Landmark, you really don’t have to go out into the sweltering heat at all! The buildings are connected by glassed-in bridges and there are long air-conditioned foot paths over large expanses of area, so that you are in this sort of never-ending mall and don’t need to know the names of streets or where you going, just know that you need to turn right at the Chanel Perfume store.

This is Hong Kong

Today in Hong Kong I get a view from the Peak on a clear day. Hong Kong is a totally modern city and quite bedazzling depending on your view. Around the harbor the buildings are all new with mirrored surfaces, reaching toward the sky. The tallest, the IFC, is 88 floors and towers above all the others. When I was here 11 years ago, in 1995, the newest and tallest building was the Bank of China building, built by I.M. Pei with his signature triangular shapes (he built the pyramid of the Louvre) outlined with white neon all up the building. It looks like a building made by trianimoes. (For those of you who did not spend countless hours trying to entertain yourselves while snowed-in in Tahoe during your formative years, this is a game like Dominoes but with triangular pieces instead of rectangular). At night these outlines are lit with stark white lights that reflect in the newer buildings around this totally cool building. It is still the coolest building in Hong Kong in my humble opinion.


This is my first impression of Hong Kong. It is a pretty amazing city, really. In this city of amazing dichotomy, one thing holds constant: where ever you are, there are always hundreds of people around you.

I am looking for jobs- most want me to have a permit to work here, which I can't get unless I have a job. Total catch-22 and so aggravating.

Hong Kong: City of Lights

TODAY in HONG KONG a storm has cleared away all smog and only a few wispy clouds are visible, reflecting the lights of the glimmering city that has innumerable high rises all lit up. At 8 o’clock every night the bigger office buildings put on their own little light show with blinking, color changes, and movement of light up and down their reflective surfaces. The taxi took me from the airport on a flyway through the city so you have a great view and it was so crisp and clear and almost magical - kinda like Blade Runner but clean and shiny and nice! With the neck craning I can see a few of the shiny new buildings of the famous Hong Kong cityscape from my apartment.

I have moved to Hong Kong from smoggy Shanghai and this brilliant sight is my first view of my new home.