The Rich City -hong Kong

By Author: pangsiyan
Total Articles: 130
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Even a quick glance reveals the fast-paced city of luxurious hotels, custom suits and endless jewelry shops, whose 5.9 million residents own the highest number of Rolls Royces per capita and drink the most cognac per capita of any culture in the world. The traditional side is more subtle, and clearly fading since T first visited eight years ago. But it still can be seen by visitors who know where to look or who simply take the time to wander.

My own strolls through the city have led past shops selling such herbal cures as deer's tail tonic tea and into narrow markets where one can pick out a live chicken to take home for dinner. To outlying islands where families live on bright wooden boats. To a tropical garden, just a quick walk from the business district, where elderly Chinese practice their silent exercises.

These two worlds collide even in the city's centre, Victoria harbor, buzzing with hydrofoils and fishing boats, tugs and Chinese junks-turned-tourist boats. The harbour is, quite simply, a thrill — especially at night, when the water glitters with the reflections of colorful lights of skyscrapers. ...
... Though one can transfer swiftly from the business district Hong Kong Island to the shopping of Kowloon on the clean, sale MTR underground system, the seven-minute ride on the Star Ferry is infinitely more charmer Boats cross incessantly and cost only a few per ride.

Generally, the closer one is to Victoria harbour, the more urban the setting.

Surely that is true in the area of Kowloon called Tsimshatsui, with its Culture Centre for performing arts, museums, neon that rivals Las Vegas, a profusion of tour hotels and the recently opened Planet Hollywood. Tsimshatsui is also the centre of ( shopper's world. Indoor shopping centers abound, devoted to state-of-the-art compilers, exquisite jewelry, custom tailors and the latest in European haute couture. T streets are lined with electronics shops, jewelers, young swells hawking designer wall fakes and countless clothing stores. Here, it seems, everything is for sale.

The cheap deals for which Hong Kong was once known are now tough to fir You can now buy camera goods as cheaply in New York, computers for about t same price in a good discount centre and leather goods more cheaply just about where else. But the choice of items here is truly mind-boggling, and some are excels value.

I found jewelry to be a better buy here than in the States though it is riskier, sin one can't easily run back to the jeweler if the stones aren't as valuable as promise Custom-tailored men's suits and shirts cost about the same as good quality reach made suits and shirts at home. Though designer styles cost as much or more than in t U.S., casual clothes, factory seconds and unknown brands found in smaller shops c be a bargain.

Kowloon is also home to two of the world's most luxurious hotels. The Pen; sulfa is the Grande dame of the East, where tea is served in its ornate lobby each after noon at 3. Just across the street is the Hong Kong Regent, a modern marvel and granite with splendid views of the harbour and equally superb service.

When I first visited Hong Kong eight years ago, Tsimshatsui was also grace with pockets of traditional Chinese life. Today, typical markets still exist, though that are further from the centre. In the district called Yaumatei, you can find narrow Unfilled with fruits and vegetables, dried meats and roasted ducks, live chickens a metal shops. At the Jade Market, you can bargain for cheap rings or beads or expensive carved antique pieces. A street market thrives at Temple Street, where each event shoppers can look for bargains on clothing and munch on shrimp just off the Night Market. Most tourists stay in Kowloon, as I did on my first trip years ago. ( my last visit, however, I stayed on Hong Kong Island and found myself in a differs world, where surprising quiet and the green smell of lush foliage is just steps aw from the business district. Above it all hovers Victoria Peak, its I 785 feet of he covered with the odd mixture of jungle like vegetation and residential towers.