There was one afternoon near the end of our Shenzhen visit that Ji's mom and sister went to get massages (turns out it was a blind masseuse clinic, which makes me think of this hilarious news mishap), Eric was catching up on some work and Ji and I hung with his dad in the apartment. We sat around and watched TV and Ji practiced with the Amazing Calligraphy Water Mat.
Our time in Shenzhen could not last forever. Our next flight would take us from Hong Kong to Bangkok, where we would travel further south in Thailand for a wedding. Our flight left early in the a.m. and Hong Kong is three hours from the campus in Shenzhen so we traveled to Honk Kong a day early. This gave us an afternoon to bop around. Ji-Soo and I set out with about 3 hours to explore the city. After about 30 min we were both in love and thinking about moving there. My three hours of experience in Hong Kong tells me that it is interesting, diverse and sci-fi futuristic. Some highlights:
It is hilly and this steep, densely vegetated park is right in the center of downtown, next to all the financial buildings, right across the street from the HSBC building (more on that later). It was an exciting and refreshing mix of development and nature. It seems much wilder than parks in NYC and other cities I've visited, probably because it is less planned. What can they do with a giant rocky peak in the middle of the city besides let it be? It was most like Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan if it is like anything, although the contrast is not as great in NYC. You get the sense that in some cases, nature wins and we just build around it.
This is the Citibank building. I read in a guide book that people were upset by the use of triangles in the design because it goes against many principals of Feng Shui. I tried to imagine what it would be like to work on one of those upper levels and all I could come up with was: scary.
And here is the amazing HSBC building. I love it. Does it not look like a space station? This building and its designer are on my list of Things to Learn More About. As we walked around downtown we kept seeing this building from different angles. Each of them was exciting and a little shocking. What? Someone actually designed that and built it? All things are possible.
More ridiculous architecture: the Lippo buildings. I read somewhere that these building were designed to look like koalas hugging trees, which is exactly what it looks like. Again, crazy. I can't imagine that in the real world someone would think up this building and that it would get built. I thought ideas like this were saved for Disney World. I love it.
I want to go back to Hong Kong and get an architectural tour of the city. I want to know everything about these buildings and I want to go inside of them and up to the top. Must add to Bucket List.
Here is a view of Hong Kong park from across the street.
This picture captures so many of the things that I loved about Hong Kong (after only 3 hours). You can see the raised walkway over the expressway to get to the park. There are elevated walkways all over the city and unlike the ugly, crappy ones you find in NYC, they are clean and curvy and, well, futuristic looking. I felt like we were in the future. I guess if I had to boil down my love for Hong Kong to one aspect, that would be it: it made me feel like I was in the future.
Oops, I got sidetracked. I also love this photo because you can see the mix of developed land and more rugged looking landscape. In the foreground is the multi-lane highway, then the park, then apartment highrises, then mountain peaks. Ah! Such diversity of land use in such a small area! I love it. I'd also love to learn about the city planning history of Hong Kong. I want to know the history of this city. There is another item to go on the bucket list. Maybe it can be a sub-category under Live in Hong Kong.
You can also see in this picture a cylindrical tower with a cone top rising above the trees of the park. This was a six-story observation tower. Ji-Soo is scared of heights but we climbed up anyway and took a gajillion photos. Fret not, I have them here in line, waiting to be uploaded.
Hong Kong park from the inside. Lippo buildings, pond and Ji-Soo, who was also obsessed with Hong Kong and took a gajillion photos also. We're pretty dorky, but at least we can dork out together.
Hong Kong park is built on a a big hill. We took a lot of steps. It was great.
View from the observation tower. Old buildings, new buildings, steeps hills, lovelovelove. It's funny the things you never knew you love until you actually see them and come to love them and then you wonder why you didn't start loving them earlier.
This is the Tai Chi garden next to the observation tower as seen from the observation tower (duh). There was not a lot of Tai Chi going on.
This was a tribute in the Tai Chi garden to the nurses and doctors that lost their lives treating people during the SARS epidemic. After returning to NYC Ji and I watched Contagion and spent a few days obsessively disinfecting everything and stocking up on non-perishables.
Still in Hong Kong park. So many things to love in this picture.
Ok, still not finished but it's time to go get pancakes. I leave you with one last video of the highway in Hong Kong, taken from the futuristic walkway on the way back from Hong Kong Park.
