Surprising facts about Hong Kong

I still remember when I visited Hong Kong back in 2011 for my birthday in November. I spent a few days there with someone who was a friend of mine that time (but not any more) and lovely Monika (I met before in Bangkok and we then traveled to the flooded Cambodia).

I spent just 5 days in Hong Kong after I visited crazy Singapore but sometimes such a short time gives you enough thoughts. I was surprised by so many things I found in Hong Kong. Many of them I did not expect. Ok, I am not going to lie to you. Maybe the only thing I did expect there was A LOT OF PEOPLE. And I was right about this one as well as about Hong Kong being the same great city for night photography as Singapore . If not that fog following me there every day of my visit, I could have took some calming shots!

Beside the obvious, I also found many surprising facts about Hong Kong during my visit:

• overcrowded

crowds at Hong Kong streets

• many hair salons
• many buses
• small funny buses
• double decker trams

double decker tram

• small packed restaurants
• eating dumplings all the time
• many skyscrapers

Hong Kong skyline

• many cosmetics shops
• locals don’t exercise that much comparing to Singapore, I did not see many people running but only walking and slowly jogging
• saw more people smoking than in Thailand or Philippines even though there are many no smoking places around Hong Kong

no smoking

• bathroom cannot be found in the restaurants but in the shopping malls like in Singapore and in many parts of Malaysia too
• wear boots a lot
• almost no locals wear sunglasses, not even when it’s sunny
• locals walk with their older parents/grandparents holding their hands in the parks
• people of different religion go to parks and the whole families eat there, dance and listen to the music

families in parks

• they have a spaghetti house –  I would not expect such a popular and expensive pasta restaurant in Asia 
• people walking in all directions
• rushing
• massages are popular
• black tea with chinese food is famous
• overcrowded trains in the city centre
• both Chinese and English names and signs at the street

signs in Chinese and English

• many signs what not to do
• people with shopping bags are everywhere
• red and white taxis
• taxi stands at the street have a sign and only there you can wait for a taxi. There were long lines of people waiting.
• many bakeries – also less common in Asia
• sliced pork and beef in street stalls

cooking meat in street stalls

• not that posh like Singapore
• many people with glasses
• no old cars
• European prices – yes, forget about SE Asia cheap holidays
• budget accommodation is not easy to find
• sings on the road ”look left, look right”

look left

• I also found surprising that not many people spoke English which was a problem for me in the restaurants to find out what kind of meat was it as I don’t eat anything else but chicken.
• overcrowded