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1.The Smell
There is a particular smell in crowded districts such as Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Mongkok. It isn’t the sewer-y, fiery, coconut-moistness of Bangkok, nor the polluted, sweaty aroma of Beijing. Distinct and instantly recognizable, it is a flurry of char siu and fresh fish, bus exhaust and garbage collection point, cigarette smoke and fishball steam, welding shops and wasted air-conditioning. It’s the stink of home. And it’s great.
2. Security Guards
Not the most illustrious of professions, security guards nevertheless rank among the city’s unsung heroes. Present in almost every commercial or public building as well as private residences, they are an effective, non-aggressive form of crime deterrent, and play an essential role in our sense of security. So there. And they’re mostly quite friendly, too.
3. Mr. Ho, Metal-container Maker:Freedom |
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4. Marches
No one does a better protest than Hong Kong; although some of those symbolic offerings leave us scratching our heads (a duck in a bowtie?). We love the fact that the yearning for democratic representation manifests itself as the nearest thing Hong Kong gets to a Rio-style carnival: a half-million-strong, arrest-free march from one end of the city to the other on a hot summer’s day. Match that, Lan Kwai Fong.
5. Red, White and Blue Bags
The day these disappear from our streets will mark the beginning of the end of Hong Kong life as we know it. The sight of grandmas trudging up a hill with one of these multipurpose, super-strong carryalls (in the literal sense) on each spindly arm is a staple city experience. We await the age when Louis Vuitton picks up on the trend so the current generation of tai-tais will afford us a similar sight in 30 years.
6. Fishballs
Genius. Who hasn’t rolled one of these little babies around their mouth to cool it down, while giving it the intermittent nibble, lick or suck, on a scorching summer day? And it only costs $5 for four on a stick.
7. Congee
Oats, boiled to a solute, with a swirl of honey and a dash of milk, you say? Nope, that’s porridge, you feudal sadist. Congee is way better. Instead of oats we have rice, a little soy sauce and sliced beef or gingered chicken. Slowly scoop away the viscous membrane-like top layer from the steaming bowl, while smoking half a pack of cigarettes and arguing your way through a conversation like everybody else in the restaurant. And you were worried about Goldilocks.
8. Rooftop TV Antennae
Some may dub them unsightly, but these multi-pronged receivers of days gone by are an integral part of the endearing architectural chaos that characterizes Hong Kong. Birds love ’em. And they make great clotheslines.
9. Octopus Cards
The ubiquitous Octopus card is one of the coolest gadgets ever pioneered in Hong Kong. Its tentacles are suctioned to everything from public transport, to McDonald’s, vending machines, car parks and 7-Eleven. Which is awesome because it means you can use it to buy fishballs. Other world cities are eons behind, so it makes for great “my-city-is-better-than-yours” leverage while abroad.
10. Uncle Ray Cordeiro, RTHK Radio DJ:Problem Solving |
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11. Hong Kong International Airport
In-town check-in, the Airport Express, mini TV screens, onboard uniformed baggage carriers, seriously cool architecture, thumbprint scanners, Burger King, and enough duty-free booze, cigarettes and perfume to satisfy North Korean cadres for a year… Yes, our airport rocks. The flocks of jealous international travelers who breeze through think so too: they’ve voted Chek Lap Kok the world’s best airport for five consecutive years. If only they would rename it Bruce Lee Airport, it would be nearly perfect.
12. Choy So-yuk, Legislative Councilor:Victoria Harbour |
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13. Mainland Tourists
As the mainland seeks to attract a larger slice of global tourism, we seek to attract a larger slice of the mainland Chinese population. And it appears to be working, with more than 560,000 of our bespoke buddies crossing the border during Lunar New Year Golden Week. That means 1,120,000 flesh-colored socks marching on the retail industry, armed to the teeth with manbags, black suits, baseball caps, UV-filtering visors, weird cigarettes, and a lot of money - behind not the national, but the tour group flag.
14. Elderly Shirtless Men
15. Crowds
You’ll never walk alone. Which possibly explains the seemingly illogical but consistent local support for an underachieving Liverpool Football Club. On Sundays in Mongkok or Times Square, Saturday nights in Lan Kwai Fong or any given rush hour on the MTR, if you haven’t had your precious exfoliated face rammed headlong into some sweaty-backed suit or bushy-armed secretary, then you haven’t been here long enough. Kids, on the other hand, have hours of fun trying to weave through a crowd at top speed without bowling over some granny (our northern neighbors should note that this is more suited to children). And one suspects that fielding a few experienced suits from Central would prove a positive boost to the local rugby team.
16. Liam Fitzpatrick, Senior Writer, Time Magazine:Eurasians |
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17. Concrete Football Courts
18. Balconies and Rooftops
The wet dreams of property agents, the prosperous, and perverts alike, these rare spaces of open-air living deserve the prices they command. Use them to have a barbecue, sunbathe, dry fish, create a garden, as a launching pad for various household items, do your laundry, or be a voyeur. Conversely you could have a risqué quickie surrounded by a valley of infinitely taller buildings, under a thousand pairs of eyes and maybe two twinkling stars. See, urban life really is fun.
19. Vitasoy
20. Occasional Natural Deluges
With the exceptions of landslides, flooding and Typhoon Signal 10s, rainstorms in Hong Kong tend to be pretty tame compared with those of our less fortunate neighbors. The sound of torrential rain soothes, its droplets cool, the mini-streams on sloping streets clean, and the lower than normal pH means we can justify knocking down buildings every 15 years. The workings of the heavens also mean that for two or three days a year, we can all bunk off work and stay home to enjoy the spectacle.
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21. Lambert Lui, Promoter for Music Company Hierophat:
Chinglish
“I’m still trying to master it.”
22. Occasional Manmade Deluges
Appropriately for a city forever in transition, this phenomenon ended almost as quickly as it began as the territory’s favorite pastime. For a few days this summer, some deluded people – perhaps feeling Mother Nature had been too kind to Hong Kong, or because their rubbish bins were overflowing – decided to shower the local populace with the contents of their tool cupboards. This is cool because it occupied the news for at least four days while far worse projectiles were being hurled in other parts of the globe, making us feel relatively safe despite the panic the media tried to generate.
23. Tiny Living Spaces
The average Hong Kong home measures 450 square feet. But living like a hamster has its perks, because you can justify decking out your trendy SoHo cubicle with half a catalog of funky Ikea and G.O.D. furniture that neatly folds, slides and twists into crevices and corners you never knew existed. Perhaps yoga’s surge in popularity is an attempt to pre-empt a lowering of that average in a couple of years.
24. Shouting Middle-aged Women
25. Longhair Leung Kwok-hung, Legislative Councilor:People Power |
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26. Victoria Park on Sundays
27. 7-Eleven
There are more than 600 7-Elevens in Hong Kong, which is a lot considering there are “only” 150 seemingly ubiquitous McDonald’s outlets. It is difficult to imagine anywhere else in the world where you could nonchalantly amble down to the local convenience store at 4am in your pajamas and fluffy slippers for a six-pack and some assorted dim sum in the near-certainty that you won’t get accosted.
28. Barney Cheng, fashion Designer:Haggling |
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29. Victoria Park Flower Market
The Lunar New Year flower market in Victoria Park is a stampede of colors, shapes, aromas, odors, and above all, people. Chrysanthemums, peonies, peach-blossom, kumquat trees, lilies, and those twirly bits of bamboo all jostle for space in stalls owned by enterprising types, young and old. And if you think the stalls are packed, try the aisles. Then contemplate the true meaning of population density in a dually Zen and festive environment.
30. Late-night Shopping
The whole point of shops is to sell things that people want. Most people work, however, which means most of us can’t buy anything until after about 5pm. So it makes sense that shops stay open for at least a few hours after that. While this may seem logical, it is astounding that staying open late is so common here and yet so rare elsewhere in the world. But it is, and we’re glad.
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31. Full Mobile Phone Reception
OK, so your street cred is blown every time that horseracing theme blasts out of your hipper-than-thou Blackberry on the MTR, announcing the latest results from Happy Valley. But before you throw the wretched thing away, consider this: People in most cities don’t know the results until they get home.