In Hong Kong: A Room With a ViewMy Secret Viceby Marguerite Jordan
Each day, in Hong Kong harbor, hundreds of ships of all sizes are loading up with thousands of tons of goods. Every month these boats leave the port of Hong Kong, crammed full of Chinese-made goods—pj’s and bathrobes, slippers, curtains and spreads, toys, gadgets, kitchen utensils, running shoes, basketball jerseys, baseball caps—heading east, heading west, north and south, to countries around the world. As the leading port of the Far East, it’s a fact that Hong Kong is a very important place for the Chinese. For the watchful visitor, it becomes as well a fascinating experience.
Two reasons: one, I was staying at the Ritz Carlton and they spoiled me rotten from the moment I arrived until I went home, with round-the-clock room service, quick pressing of my clothes, luxurious toiletries. I grew to really love the pampering this small (216 rooms) classic hotel provides. And, two: from my upper story window, I looked out directly onto Hong Kong Harbor, the busiest in the world. Hong Kong, formerly a British colony, is comprised of 235 islands, including the largest one, Hong Kong Island, offshore from the mainland region known as the New Territories. Some of the islands are connected by bridges, others are reachable only by boat.
Jetfoils, some which seat 500 passengers, zip around the harbor and out to Discovery Bay City, one of the city’s bedroom communities. Triple-decked ferries, yachts, "wallah-wallah" harbor taxis, catamarans, and cargo vessels all compete for the right to cross (invisible) sea-lanes.
Like a person compelled to watch firecrackers or lightning or a crackling fire in the fireplace, I became a woman obsessed. Unable to stop my ‘harbor vigil’, I got up at dawn to stand by the large picture window in my beautifully decorated room, and watched and watched.
If I tired of standing, I would pull up a handsome armchair, its seat and back covered with a pale paisley silk. I’d occasionally glance around the room, with its lovely Chinese brush paintings, mahogany side tables, and tasteful, elegant bed furnishings, fluffy and beautiful. Yet I was always drawn back to the view below.
In the early afternoon, my friends and I would meet at some of the city’s finest restaurants for gourmet meals of every type: Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, even German. Hong Kong, long an international and connecting city, knows to offer something for everyone. Still, I couldn’t wait for the dessert course. Everyone else was full of plans to visit the sights of the city—the markets, Repulse Bay, Kowloon, the shores of the islands—but I would make a beeline back to my room, as if there were a clandestine meeting in store.
At last, I decided to descend to street level to try out the Star. I was immediately caught up in the daily shuffle of the people. Even as I neared the ferry terminal, the surging crowds pulled me up the rough planks that led the boat. Onboard, I had a new view of the harbor.
For many who visit the region, Hong Kong is seen merely as a metropolis of commerce and shopping and huge buildings. It’s fun to discover the other Hong Kong, that of the water and even woodlands. Surprisingly, there are 21 country parks, with woodland and marine reserves, great places for bird watching and hiking. Hong Kong Tourist Board can even arrange a guided Sports & Recreation tour, and help you discover the 80% of Hong Kong’s 1000 square kilometer land mass that is rural, everywhere surrounded by water. Come, and be amazed. Photographs by Marguerite Jordan Hong Kong Tourist Board |
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TM
Although there are more than ten cities in China with populations greater than New York’s, Hong Kong is this great mega-nation’s New York City. Which is to say, among other things, it beats as the pulse of the economic heart of China. Observers are right to claim that the solution—or at least outcome—to the recent political standoff is related to what goes on here, as well as other economic portals of this huge country. 
Which is the reason, on a recent visit to this attractive city, I could barely be persuaded to leave my hotel room. "Why," my companions asked, "with all the glitzy offerings available—fabulous restaurants, great fabric and dress shops, larger than life cultural and religious shrines, well-groomed public parks, curious and friendly people—would you choose to stay in?" 
Beneath me the scene in the broad harbor was riveting, and each time I blinked, everything changed. At any given moment, hundreds of boats dashed across and over and through the broad waterways, all on zigzaggy paths, seemingly on a collision course. The Nascar fan in me was waiting for a giant smash-up!
Some of the boats, like the Star Ferries, were trudgers; others, possibly government coast guard craft, darted in and out; tiny family-owned junks barely managed to remain upright as they dodged the powerful wakes of the giant freighters that plowed through the waters.
Room service would arrive with a meal that was half-breakfast, half-lunch: a special kind of Chinese oatmeal and dried fruits and spicy vegetables, whole pineapples, caviar and bits of pork and sweets. I would nibble mindlessly. From time to time I would get out my camera and take pictures, trying to capture the frantic scene below.
Friends would call after breakfast and ask me to join them on shopping forays, for of course it is de rigueur to go to the tailors of Hong Kong and have a few suits made up, at far less than what it would cost at home. "Did I want to shop for jade, stone carvings, lovely bamboo baskets, woven silk fabrics, a bracelet or two? There were such good buys to be had." 
But I would beg off and make plans to meet them later. Back to my room and my secret vice. So great was the speed and the number of the craft, I couldn’t turn away. I’d order up chocolate chip cookies and milk to keep up my strength.
One constant in the watery scene was the Star Ferry, famous as the cross-waterway connector, which runs every five minutes and carries millions of people a year.
The boat captains, daring, bold, experienced, seemed to know when to speed up and when to swerve, and when to do both. The views of Hong Kong Harbor, whether from my room or the deck of the ferry, scared me and satisfied me at the same time. It’s like a giant game of "Chicken."
Throughout the year, Hong Kong hosts countless festivals, many of which either celebrate or take place on water, such as this month’s Tin Hau Festival. This deity is a goddess of the water and is much adored by people who owe their livelihood to the sea.