First impressions of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the most vertical city I’ve ever seen. I had thought Manhattan was a city of skyscrapers but it’s nothing compared to Hong Kong. And, unlike New York, HK is a very hilly place. It’s really a marvel of civil engineering that they managed to cram so many towering building on a tiny, uneven land mass.

The other you really notice when you’re here is that this is a city on the move. Only we tourists stand about idly and even then, it’s at our own peril. For everyone else, it’s all about selling, buying, and generally getting to the next place as fast as humanly possible. The Boxing Day madness we experience in Toronto would be just a normal working day in Tsim Sha Tsui.


We’ve had two improbable encounters here so far. Last night, John, Leanna, and I were heading out for dinner and we ran into Marjorie on the street. That was the minor miracle. After all, it was dinner time and we were all in a restaurant district reasonable close to our respective apartments. But this morning, a major miracle occurred. Leanna and I were strolling on the elevated walkway in the Central District and who should we run into? There was John quietly reading by a fountain in front of the IFC Mall. You really have to experience HK to appreciate the miniscule odds of that random meeting.