It was the last day of the Chinese New Year and, like nearly everyone else in Hong Kong, my wife and I were trying to work our way into the Wong Tai Taoist temple.
The atmosphere was gray with smoke from burning joss sticks, which are like the punks we used to use to light firecrackers. People buy them in the shops along Fortune Teller`s Alley, bring them to the temple, light them and pray for good luck.
The smoke, usually sandlewood scented, then ”rises toward the heavens and is pleasing to the gods.” It was a little less so back on the ground, unless you were a heavy smoker.
It was obvious that if the smoke from one joss stick was good, the smoke from 100 or 1,000 just had to be better. So worshipers were buying them by the hundreds or the thousands. Every flat surface on the temple grounds that wasn`t full of people was covered with the smoking offerings.
From the bottom of the stairs a Chinese lady was shouting at me and waving a handful of smoking joss sticks.
”She sure is excited about something,” my wife, Joyce, said.
”But we`ll never know what it is,” I answered, ”unless we learn Chinese.”
Next to me in the crush of celebrants an old man tried to wave some of the smoke away and wiped the tears from his eyes with a handkerchief.
”She is not yelling in Chinese,” he wheezed. ”It just sounds that way because she is hysterical. She says your pants are on fire.”
They were. At the edge of each step there were oranges and apples with smoldering punks sticking out of them. I had been walking through them, and my Levis were smoking in several places. If a temple employee with a watering can hadn`t pushed through the crowd and watered me, I`d probably still be there slapping sparks.
Hot pants in Hong Kong
Finding oneself in Hong Kong, fighting a fire in one`s pants, is something most people think will never happen to them. I certainly never thought it would happen to me.
I had fought the idea for a long time-not of having my pants burn, of going to Hong Kong or China. Don`t know why I fought it, but ”cost” seemed the only valid argument my wife would accept. She really wanted to visit the Far East.
”It can`t be all that expensive,” Joyce said. ”Go talk to Odd; tell him we`d only be going for two weeks.” Odd Reierson, besides having a weird first name, is our travel agent.
He decided that the best ”Far East for Beginners” would be Hong Kong. He said he would book us into Chinese-owned hotels-none of this ”living in a Hilton, eating at a McDonald`s or a Pizza Hut.”
He got us rooms at two first-class Chinese hotels, one uptown and the other downtown so we`d have a little contrast. Out of deference to my ”cost” worries we cut the ”just two weeks” to eight days.
”It`ll be enough,” said Odd. ”And you`re going to love it. You`ll be up to your neck in things to write about. And, my friend, you`re in for some surprises.”
He was right about that. Hong Kong is just so big, so unusual and so exciting it boggles the mind. But, because the city/territory is so full of surprises, if you`re thinking of going it might be nice for you to know what you might expect.
The saying, ”To travel in happy anticipation is better than to arrive,” is not true. The ”traveling” took three meals, five snacks with beverages, 11 catnaps and two movies. (One of the movies was a ”lighthearted” comedy in Japanese. There is no way to prepare for something like that.)
Surprise landing
Final approach to Hong Kong`s Kai-Tak airport is over water and, if you`re not aware that the main runway juts 2 miles into the South China Sea, you may be startled to find yourself looking up at the Hong Kong skyline while seeing ships and water on either side of the aircraft.
There are said to be more great hotels an acre in Hong Kong that anywhere else in the world. The tourist bureau handout lists 79. They range from the Peninsula Hotel, which is traditional, historic and expensive, to the YMCA, which isn`t.
The Peninsula was used in the filming of ”Noble House.” The YMCA was not. Just about every great hotel chain in the world is represented in Hong Kong, and rates are generally comparable to U.S. prices.
Odd had been right about putting us in Chinese-owned hotels. Because we arrived late, the assistant manager of the Excelsior insisted on accompanying us to our room and registering for us. He said his name was Al, so I called him Al. He thought that was pretty funny, and I didn`t know why until he handed me his card just before he left. His name was Christopher Au.
Later he told me to ”just call him Al” and went out of his way to tell us about things he thought we ought to see.
To say that Hong Kong is a great city is misleading. Hong Kong Island and Kowloon on the mainland-the two areas that make up the ”city”-occupy only 35 of the 413 square miles that make up the the British Crown Colony. The rest of Hong Kong includes 235 other islands and the New Territories beyond Kowloon on the mainland.
In the metropolitan area of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, the unemployment rate is so low (around 1 percent) that many of the domestic and hotel workers are recruited from as far away as the Philippines. A policeman told me the high employment helps account for the crime rate which, according to the policeman, is so low ”they just about have to send out for trouble.” ”It`s time we got it right,” the policeman said. ”This civilization`s been here for more than 6,000 years. It was old before the Pyramids were begun. That`s old.”
It`s a little odd that Hong Kong doesn`t feel old; it feels new and somehow, kind of young.
Joyce says there`s a definite feeling about Kowloon too, something about it that just makes you want to shop. She`s very sensitive about such things. I was tempted myself on Nathan Road; in the course of an afternoon I was offered a bargain in a suit and in ”some young ladies” (for sale and rent, respectively, I believe).
Where worlds collide
A friend, who lived in Paris, said when he was looking for excitement he`d just walk to the Etoile, the point at which 12 busy streets converge in one horrendous roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe.
Victoria Harbor, off Causeway Bay, is the same kind of incredible place. Ferries, freighters and other commercial shipping, hydrofoils, police boats, navy ships, water taxies, small private boats all seem to be going somewhere at the same time. And they all seem to get there.
There is an excellent subway system, and the surface streets are rich with all kinds of public transportation. There are taxis, maxicabs and mini-buses (mostly cream-colored), big double-decker buses, electric street cars and rickshaws. (It`s wise to negotiate a price before getting into rickshaws, which are more for posing for pictures than traveling anyway.)
There just might not be a better city in the world for those who like to walk. There are broad sidewalks, elevated walkways and lots to see, and the buildings interconnect so you can walk for blocks without ever going outside. There is a social order in Hong Kong. You experience a certain reserve at first meetings. A taxi driver explained it. He said the Chinese people never have really forgiven the Japanese for occupying the city during World War II. Nor have they really forgiven the British who`ve occupied Hong Kong all the rest of the time since 1842. To ”make adjustments,” the driver said,
”say something in `American.` Let them know you`re not British and watch the reserve melt away.”
Betty Yeoung, at the Hong Kong Tourist Bureau, gave us a list of things
”we just had to see” and directions on how to get to them. We took the tram ride to Victoria Peak, went to the Flagstaff House Teaware Museum, the Jade Market and several other open-air markets.
We went to Aberdeen on the south side of the island and had tea and a sampan tour with some boat people. And there was the excursion to the Wong Tai Taoist Temple, to make an offering and set my pants on fire.
Another day we took a District Ferry to Cheung Chau for a walk through an ancient village. Then, in the afternoon, we took another ferry to Lantau Island to see the monastery and the giant Buddha.
Wherever we went the people were friendly, responsive, very likable and invariably traveling with family. Always there were the sounds of children and laughter.
Eating around
The admonition ”Never sleep in a restaurant or eat in a hotel” doesn`t apply here. Most of the big hotels have excellent kitchens. Some of the less reputable restaurants do not.
Many of the merchants keep their seafood fresh by keeping it alive in tanks. Because some of the tanks are filled directly from the harbor, ordering seafood anywhere except in the best restaurants can be chancy.
Joyce and I tried Mandarin, Cantonese, Szechwan and Hunan. There was only one thing that was literally ”not our cup of tea.” At a restaurant called The Blue Ocean, the tea had a vaguely familiar but most unusual flavor.
When we glanced in the pot something that looked like a small octopus was waving at us from just below the surface. I was trying to decide whether it would be proper to scream when a waiter explained it was a ”delicacy some of the better restaurants liked to add,” a fresh chrysanthemum. At all subsequent meals when we ordered tea it was with ”Hold the chrysanthemum, please.”
(In 1898 at the Convention of Peking, British jurisdiction was extended for 99 years. The extension ends June 30, 1997. At that time Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories will revert to Chinese sovereignty, to be governed by mainland China. No one knows what changes will take place.) –
