Hong Kong — City Center

22 May 2010

We arrived in Hong Kong Friday evening after a long, bumpy, but otherwise uneventful flight from San Francisco. (Scheduled flight time = 14.5 h; we made it in about 13.5 h.) During the first 2/3 of the flight, I read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, which Alexis had strongly recommended. The novel is centered on a spirituality theme being narrated by an old preacher as a rambling letter for his seven year old son to read once he becomes a man; it was good company for a long flight.



We were met at the airport by Vincent, a PhD student at Hong Kong University (HKU), and a driver. They whisked us to our accommodations at the Robert Black College at HKU. We have a functional and unadorned 2-room unit. From the desk in the living room, I have a sheltered view over blue tile roofs and between tall trees of the Hong Kong harbor.



It has been very warm and oh so humid since we arrived. Mostly, the sky has been heavy with dark clouds threatening an intensity of rain that hasn't yet materialized.



Saturday morning, after breakfast, we called Vincent and asked if he would escort us around the city center for a half day. These photos were shot on that outing. We took a bus to the heart of the city and visited a few major buildings that Ingrid had learned about in a guide book: the atrium of the HSBC building with large bronze lions and the Bank of China tower by IM Pei, where we could ride the elevator to a 43rd floor observation room.



We then spent a few delightful hours at the Hong Kong Park, a marvel of creative landscape architecture. There, we saw photo shoots of a few weddings (including one with a Chinese bride and an anglo military husband accompanied by bagpipes and six sword-wielding honor guards!). We also visited a lovely aviary, where a high wooden walkway allowed us to see close up an extensive collection of birds. We also saw a moving memorial to the health care workers who perished in the SARS outbreak in 2003, including Dr. Tse Yuen-man, shown above.



We ended the outing with a dim sum lunch in an old-style Chinese restaurant, totally packed, wonderfully chaotic, and remarkably inexpensive (HK$120 which is about US$15 for a full lunch for the three of us).