Here are some miscellaneous observations from my trip:
- There are definitely A LOT of people around. The sidewalks were a sea of people, especially in the afternoons and evenings. In the evenings when people were commuting home or whatever, the train cars got so packed, and just when you would think no more people could fit into the car, more people would force their way in. I noticed that there wasn't much of a concept of personal space, anywhere you were. People didn't tend to try to avoid running into others, and there was a lot of pushing in crowds. I don't think people were necessarily being rude, but it's just how they function with so many people everywhere.
- Another thing about the trains: It was funny how people would literally run for the empty seats when they got on the train.
- People are obsessed with brand names, and there were lots of the same stores everywhere. For example, on one main road through the main business area on Hong Kong Island, I saw multiple Rolex stores. There were Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Georgio Armani, and other expensive stores all over.
- Other businesses that are everywhere: 7- Eleven, Circle K, McDonald's, Starbucks
- I noticed that stores selling the same types of items were all grouped together. For example, in a mall you could go down a hallway with jewelry stores all along the hallway next to each other. Another example of this was the goldfish market I went to, where at least a block of a whole street had fish and aquarium supply stores all along both sides of the street.
- Tourist attractions were really, really cheap compared to what admission would be for similar attractions in the US or Canada. An example of this is Ocean Park, which I didn't go to, but the admission price for this amusement park/aquarium is less than $20 US. The Ngong Ping 360 skytrain/tram cost only about $10 US. The Splendid China and Folk Culture Village in Shenzhen was also less than $20 US. Those types of attractions would be at least twice that price in the US and Canada. My cousin Noreen thought maybe it was to attract more tourism from mainland Chinese people. There were definitely lots of other tourists around, and by far, most of them were Asian. It made me feel less weird about taking pictures of everything, because I wasn't the only one!
- It was interesting to see the desire to be more Western. I think the obsession with brand names might be part of this. Another great example is all the clothing with English words on them, which didn't make sense. P.S. I was very amused by English translations of things too, like on signs.
- The streets and sidewalks were really, really clean. Anywhere you walked, even in Tai Po, a more small-town-like area of Hong Kong where my cousin lives, there are people (mostly women) out sweeping the streets/sidewalks with brooms made from what looked like palm leaves or something similar and picking up garbage. They all wore wide brimmed hats with a fringe hanging down all around it, presumably to keep the dust etc off their faces. A lot of them wore masks over their noses and mouths as well. They did a mighty fine job of keeping everything clean!
- The bathrooms were an interesting experience!! Most of the Chinese people use those toilets where you just squat over a hole in the floor. The first experience I had with this type of toilet was in, of all places, a port-a-pot at the start of our hiking trail the first morning. Lovely!!! Noreen's apartment had a toilet like I'm used to, as did a lot of the nice malls. Some public washrooms had one "regular" toilet, and several stalls with squatters. I found that often in a place where there were only regular toilets, the seats were rather wet and gross because I think a lot of the Chinese women are so used to squatting, they just squat over regular toilets too (with minimal precision). At the mall in Shenzhen they had regular toilets with no seats, so you had to squat, which was way harder to do than just squatting over a hole in the floor! Sorry if you readers are totally grossed out, but I found this all quite fascinating! Obviously, things that we think are totally normal are not everywhere. Also, bathrooms didn't necessarily have toilet paper, so you had to make sure you had little packs of Kleenex with you all the time (which most people seemed to have). I noticed that the public washrooms were very tiny with small sinks and not much room if someone else was trying to get in or out too. Oh, and the plumbing didn't seem to be stellar overall, even in Noreen's really nice flat. But enough about bathroom stuff. :)
- I had fun wandering into grocery stores, home stores, electronics stores etc., just to see what they look like compared to at home. It was crazy for me to see Tillamook Cheese and Columbia Crest wine in the grocery store, which are both Pacific NW companies! The grocery stores had random stuff from countries all over the world.
- Even at this time of year, the humidity is high enough that towels had a hard time drying from one day to the next. My cousin Noreen has to keep dry goods in sealed plastic containers so they don't get soggy, or has to freeze stuff or keep things in the fridge so they don't get too moist and then get moldy. She has to keep little packets that absorb moisture with her clothes.
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