My Hometown: Hong Kong

   Although I am not born in Hong Kong, I spent most of my childhood in this city and I consider Hong Kong as my hometown. If you look in the map, it is difficult to spot. However, my hometown is over populated. Imagine a regular tennis field, and 25 people equally share the tennis field. This is how much space each person has in Hong Kong if the land is equally distributed.

Photo Credits: Google

   Since the land resource is sacred, the government has decided to remove the mountain and landfill the ocean, in order to have extra land. In addition, the buildings are design as tall as possible and typhoon-proofed. When I was 6, I lived on 21^st floor and every time I had a mini heart attack when I stepped into the elevator. Living at high floor could be a nightmare during the typhoon. The room trembles and echoes with the thunder. I am relief when my family decides to move to a 2^nd floor.

Photo Credits: Google

   Hong Kong locates near China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other Southeast Asia countries. As a result, these cultures can be easily found in the city. The fashion and food are heavily influences by these nearby countries. But this does not mean that Hong Kong does not have its own cultural food. Besides the tasty street snacks, dim sum and seafood are one of the famous foods in Hong Kong. If you are interested in what dim sum is, you can review my previous blog and lucky you can find a similar store in Austin.

Photos Credit: Google

   But what is famous about Hong Kong? Well, I will say, Shopping! Since Hong Kong is a small city, its daily demand depends on other countries’ supply. This means Hong Kong has very limited production and supply in agriculture, water, and energy. However, the city is filled up with shopping malls. Local and International brands are located almost everywhere. If you love to shop, Hong Kong has a huge variety and there is no sale tax.

   The general impression of Hong Kong in North America is that we speak a very harsh language and we value money a lot. I think the language, Cantonese, sounds harsh because most of the pronunciation is done at the throat. About the money part, I will say we are good at numbers… yep, let’s keep it this way.

   Next time if you need to travel to somewhere, I recommend that you can stop at Hong Kong as a transit airport. You can find many restaurants and stores in the airport so even if you are not in the city, the airport can give a glimpse how Hong Kong looks like. (Please let me know if there is something you want a detail description).