Hong Kong: It Has Changed, It Hasn’t

Original link: https://macin.org/2023/05/08/hongkong51/

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Hong Kong is very similar to Chongqing. Many years ago, I slept until midnight, and when I woke up, I saw the night scene across the street and thought I was still in my hometown.

But maybe it’s because of the language. For me, Hong Kong is a considerate and thoughtful partner, with a solid professionalism and a face-saving courtesy.

But this place is indeed full of familiarity for me, so that after getting off the bus from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, there is a feeling of “I’m back”.

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The gaudy bus stop signs, the minibuses that are afraid of passing the stop, the salty sea breeze, and the quiet subway cars, I know so little about it. And before that, before 1997, Hong Kong’s Jianghu atmosphere should have been more prosperous: the future of several islands was uncertain, their fate was in the lottery of the Wong Tai Sin Temple, and the consciousness of rules was like the smoke of incense candles lingering around the statue of Guan Erye.

During the hundreds of days I stayed in Hong Kong, I didn’t participate much in the excitement of the city. Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Victoria Harbor… These places are also only visited when receiving friends who are visiting Hong Kong. The high cost and my poor consumption level are destined to make me more familiar with the markets, housing estates and walled villages.

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In the Hong Kong I am familiar with, the tall buildings and the feasting are far away. What I have come into contact with is this ordinary Hong Kong. There are a large number of stalls selling beef offal, wonton noodles and mandarin duck milk tea, retail stalls selling socks and cheap clothes, and entertainment is just playing billiards.

From school to society, I seem to have never experienced the process of going from cloud to mud, but walking close to the ground. Fortunately, the wind resistance is so small that the wind and waves known to people in the future seem to have little to do with me. Passing through such a complicated weather in Hong Kong, I feel as light as if I have never visited.

This time I originally made a list to go to many places I hadn’t been to before, but there were too many people making appointments, and I didn’t make an appointment half a month in advance. Only the Palace Museum in Hong Kong is the only place I have an appointment with.

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Later, when I arrived at the place at 10:00 in the morning, I found out that tickets can be purchased on the spot without making an appointment, so those who have not bought tickets online should not be discouraged and try their luck on the spot.

Unlike the Beijing Forbidden City, Shenyang Forbidden City, and Taipei Forbidden City, the Forbidden City in Hong Kong is more like an art museum, and the West Kowloon Culture and Art Center itself specifically explained that it is a cooperative relationship with the Beijing Palace Museum rather than an affiliation relationship.

The way the exhibition hall is displayed is very story-telling. It can be seen that Hong Kong is an “old curator” and is very friendly to the introduction of history. There are a total of eight pavilions, including “Concrete as a Vessel”, “The Forbidden Vientiane”, and “Together Appreciate and Enjoy Together”, each of which sums up exactly to my heart.

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In the museum “A Day in the Forbidden City”, all the people who talked about work day and night were all Yongzheng who showed his own words, and attached the seal of “It is difficult for the king” as evidence; Under the hot pot exhibits, the fact that Qianlong ate more than 200 hot pot meals in one year in 1789 was disclosed.

In terms of aesthetics, Qianlong’s painting style even reminded me of washing, cutting and blowing rotating lights, colorful and colorful. It can only be said that after all, the old man Shiquan has been in power for so long, and he will always fall in love with different people at different stages. Style, no surprise.

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After visiting the exhibition, watching the sea breeze blowing on the terrace, I finally experienced the perspective of a rich man with a sea view. The Star Ferry shuttled back and forth, which reminded me of the excitement of going to Tai O by boat when I first came to Hong Kong. The records of the itinerary between Chongqing and Hong Kong in those days overlapped so much that it was so many years ago. story.

When I lived in Hong Kong, I used Octopus every day. At that time, online payment was not promoted much in mainland China, so I didn’t feel any inconvenience. This time, even in Macau, there are many places where online payment can be used. Online payment tools are installed on transportation and some buses, but other places are still very inconvenient.

If you go to a tea restaurant for morning tea, you can only spend 100+HKD with Octopus or cash; you can buy siu mai at the subway entrance and spend 30+HKD, but you are told that you cannot pay in cash and you can only pay with Octopus. Even for buses, some of them cannot be paid online, and if you don’t inquire about the route, you can’t know whether online payment can be made in advance, and you have to prepare steel coins yourself.

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Before returning to Hong Kong this time, I accidentally saw that the undergraduate school has also started to link up with the Hong Kong judicial system. I feel that everything is moving forward, but I am moving faster and dare not stop.

In Hong Kong, everyone is very busy, so it is difficult to look up and smile. Many people in Hong Kong, for several generations, have only one purpose – to survive and make money. The government of Hong Kong, whether it was the colonial government or now, has only one concept – to develop and make money.

Rather than saying that Hong Kong is a city, it is better to say that it is a company, and the people employed gather together not for social ideals, but for personal livelihood. “Under the Lion Rock” was born from the glorious start of Hong Kong, and has been accompanying the people of Hong Kong through the peak and loneliness.

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When I set foot on this land again, when I saw the densely packed old houses and high-rise buildings like pigeon cages, I suddenly felt that it was no different from Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Wuhan in the mainland. Has the person changed, or has the city changed?

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On the high-speed rail from West Kowloon back to Chongqing that just opened, I encountered a beautiful sunset. From Guilin to Guiyang, from Guiyang to Zunyi, the round and fluffy ball of Huang Chengcheng, from the distant mountain top to the building of the steel forest in the city, from the karst landform to the hills of Guizhou, the windows of the high-speed train are like electronic photo frames , recorded for me every frame of the spring sunset heading for summer. I hope that I will become more and more kind, the kindness brought about by being smarter.

This article is transferred from: https://macin.org/2023/05/08/hongkong51/
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