Sep 6: Hong Kong by Day

Hong Kong is a city you can smile in. This is a big deal for an American -- especially one who automatically flashes a smile any time she makes eye contact. Here's why smiling doesn't work in most countries: First, it could be the kind of country where smiling marks you at best as a too-emotive American (I.e. Sweden where the natives will only be nice to you if you frown at them and don't say a word) or at worst as mentally slow (I.e. in South America). Second, and far worse, it could be a country where a smile is seen as an invitation to follow you down the street for three miles -- either pressing you to buy a sarong or agree to dinner.

In Hong Kong, you can smile. The whole city is such a Westerner's dream of a travel destination that it almost makes one a little embarrassed to love it so much. It's like Travel Lite. You get comfortably lost, pull out your map, and instantly someone walks over and asks in flawless English if they can help. The streets are dappled with about 40% Caucasian faces -- a different ratio than you're used to at home, but not so's you'd notice. And look! Weird food being sold on the streets -- but it's all written in English on the menus.

And the smiling. It's just like home. People smile back. Or if I was smiling while saying "No thank you" to the guy who wants to sell me a fake Rolex, he smiles too and then walks away.
Different guide books gave us different suggestions on whether to use Hong Kong as your port of entry to China. One said it was best to go after you'd seen mainland China, because only then would you look past the superficial bits and see how Asian the city really was. Another said it was the best way to start, a nice way to segue into the culture. I am going to back the latter view. I know my German backpacking friends would be disappointed in me for not slogging through the back alleys to find the cheapest bowl of shark's fin soup to truly immerse myself in local life. But I cannot tell you how nice it is to get to jump into another culture in half-steps, to be able to see what's similar first, and then slowly open yourself up to what's different.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll be saying it again: Hong Kong rocks.