Hong Kong, Part II

Being my first visit to Hong Kong, I wanted to write about a couple of things that made impressions on me.
1. Cleanliness: Wow! Hong Kong is the cleanest city I have ever been to! Not only are the roads and streets free of debris, the subway system is immaculate. It is so clean, I may consider eating off the ground (only if there was no other option)--but seriously, it may be cleaned as often as a restaurant table. I was stunned to find that the only graffiti we saw during the trip was in a tourist spot. (Perhaps the tourist did it)?? To keep the city clean, they have rules from no littering to no eating/drinking on the subway to no spitting in public. It also seems that the city also gets a thorough wash down while most people are asleep. Which brings me to my next point....
2. There are always people about. We arrived at the hotel at ~1:00am and I was stunned to see several employees rushing about, including some putting up a HUGE Christmas Tree in the lobby. I found out later that this is when most of the maintenance work gets done. Apparently, this is a very efficient way to do things. No maintenance/cleaning to get in the way of heavy traffic.
3. Speaking of heavy traffic, things don't really get started until ~2:00pm. This is when all of the shops and street fares open. They stay open until about 1:00am. There is not a whole lot to do until the afternoon if you are a tourist. The city was not a crowded as I thought it would be, partially due to efficiency. However, we went to a sale at a mall and we were shoulder to shoulder with people the entire time! I think Ben has a picture of it below.
4. The night is interesting because there are so many people. It is not like New York, where only certain venues are crowded. There are people everywhere in the city! Many people work late into the night, including the prostitutes. Prostitution is legal in Hong Kong. I did not know and accidentally made a lingerie clad woman self-conscious when I stared at her. Although, it was hard not to since she walked into a restaurant we were eating at with a large American man--one of the only Americans that I saw, which doesn't say much for the US. I also found myself starring when we exited the subway one night and found a group of prostitutes standing at a corner. It reminded me very much of a scene out of Pretty Woman--girls dressed in cheap, tight clothes talking and laughing. I was truly intrigued and wished that I could have talked with them and heard their stories. Don't know why.
5. I do see why there is prostitution. There are a lot of hom sups and I found myself uncomfortable with men staring at me all of the time. It got very old toward the end of the trip. I wished for black hair and more conservative clothing.
6. Ben had always told me the Hong Kong has the best food in the world. I had also heard it from a few others and read it on the internet. I thought, "yeah, yeah..." But, that first bite of dumpling...I was sold! BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD!!!! It was a huge disappointment to eat in Seattle on our way back. Cheap food too!!
7. There are an amazing amount of bridges connecting the Hong Kong Islands. They are long an intertwined.
8. The one time we rode a boat, we were headed straight toward a huge tanker. It appeared that one of us would undoubtedly hit the other, but we did not say anything to the sampan's captain. We did not collide or hit huge waves! Amazing and Scary!
9. The way that I thought of the city was--Endless Shopping. You could walk all day and never leave consumerism. There were shopping malls every few blocks and the streets were lined with shops and eateries. Even our hotel was attached to a shopping mall that connected to another mall--I think the entire mall was about a half a mile long on several floors. We went into another that was 13 stories! And, I have NEVER seen more beautiful and expensive clothing and jewelry in my entire life. Gorgeous!!! All corporate type business and living was done above ground level and most transportation was done below. Very cool!

All in all, I really loved Hong Kong! It is probably my favorite place that I have been--after Hawaii, of course. I will definitely be back someday.