Lockhart Purses

After more than two and a half off consecutive years in mainland China, but it was both anticipation and apprehension that I recently crossed the southern border in the richest city in Asia .

Despite its popularity one-stop shopping with mainland expatriates need new clothes and a new visa, I really had no idea what to expect in the former crown colony that supposedly makes even the wealthy feel poor. Rather afraid to demand the reverse culture shock, I then saved the English-language Hong Kong and its "one country, two systems" self for the tail of my journey in 32 Chinese provinces.

And here I point out that all my preconceptions and fears about Hong Kong have been ... true. To quote underestimates the American writer Thomas A. Carter (me!) On his brief stay in the legendary Chinese city, "I've never felt more poor than when I was in Hong Kong ... I've never felt more ugly when I was in Hong Kong. "

DAY 1: Cross the border at Shenzhen and Hong Kong Louhu and take immaculate KCR railway, immediately impressed that nobody was watching, shoving or spitting. Arrival in the Kowloon Peninsula and the south out of hiding in the land of lights - Tsim Sha Tsui. Blinded by emotion, I must ask a resplendent group of Indian women draped in saris where the Mirador White House. They faulted banded gold upwards. A large, concrete block stained with rust, and Hong Kong does affordable housing. I check into a dorm claustrophobic (three times the price of a Mainland dorm and three times smaller), then press on Nathan Road. Peering up in neon lights, tripping in the crush of the crowd, I feel like a migrant worker back in Beijing.

DAY 2: Woke up at 6am by one of my bunkmates contention after a long night. His name is Pat, a young American backpacker with long red hair whose introduction is immediately followed by a lengthy story on its antics of two weeks in Hong Kong, including scoring with the mythical "daughters of who love Asian guys aliens. " When I cons I've never had any luck, the fast-talking but likeable Pat proffers of off-the-cuff advisor ("Dude, lose the beard") before launching into more useful information. " It's Sunday, right, and it will be, like, 120,000 Filipino nannies and maids of their only day off - and looking for boyfriends! " I am a bit dubious generalizations Pat, but sure enough of his cell phone rings constantly calls from adoring cleaning ladies he met the previous Sunday. An afternoon walk around Statue Square indeed reveals a blanket literally thousands Picnic South Asian Women (Hong Kong's largest migrant communities) whose collective chatter sounds like a large flock of seagulls. When I try to photograph frankly attractive young Filipino, she shouts: "Hey! I Klick JOR ass! "That's for a date.

DAY 3: Excursion to Shek O beach on Hong Kong side South Island, enjoying the soft sand and splashing in the subtropical regions of the South China Sea. Supposedly this place is packed on weekends, but what are the days of the week, right? It's one of those moments where I enjoy being unemployed. Chase my fun in the sun with a trip by tram to Victoria Peak for stunning views of the skyscrapers at night, which seem to be constructed entirely of lights. Dafni, an Israeli girl clearly in awe of Hong Kong skyline, remarks, "We have no tall buildings in Israel. Oh, wait ... we have one! "

DAY 4: Spend the day through Kowloon, the fashion billboards of TST becomes a seedy massage parlor signs that I go into the streets of the northwestern side of Nathan Road, the sun lost behind precipices of the signs neon, which extends horizontally above the streets. The markets of Mong Kok are stormed with u.