Okay Belinda, time to lead! On Thursday we met founder of Project Partner and author, Donna Thomas and her friend, Mary Mandel from Colorado at the YMCA Salisbury around 11 a.m.
We were rested, sorta, but they had just arrived at 6:00 a.m. and had not had any sleep yet. So after chatting they headed back to the room for some rest before taking on Hong Kong! However, we were ready to venture out so we went for it!
Harry and Marilyn Smothers are jewels! Veteran international travelers they know that the best way to deal with jet lag is to walk it out and get adjusted as quickly as possible. They were interested in learning as much about Hong Kong as possible in the short time we would be here so they selected a tour that gave us a taste of four sites: the most popular, Victoria Peak; the Stanley Market, a bargainer and souvenior seekers' haven; the historic Aberdeen Fishing Village on the channel which once housed a quarter of a million fisherman but now is home to a mere 100; and last but not least, a tour of a local but world renown jewelry factory!
Nestled in the village is the world's largest floating restaurant-Jumbo which can seat 2,000 customers at once!
Ivy was our very informative and delightful guide and the tour bus was quite comfortable seating about 30 of us. Ivy answered questions that I hadn't known who to ask.
For instance Hong Kong consists of over 230 islands! However only 30+ are inhabitated. With only 11,000 square Kilometers and 7.1 MILLION people that is over 6, 000 people per square kilometer! No wonder people in Hong Kong live vertically!
In 1949 the Communist took over China so the businessmen moved to Hong Kong. The largest industry is textiles! No wonder that are so many fashion stores in Hong Kong! However when Hong Kong went back to British control, the businesses moved back to China because labor was cheaper. Hong Kong's second most important industry is tourism with over 100,000 visitors per month, 90+% of which are from Mainland China! In 1997 Hong Kong was back China's control but since the culture had been steeped in the British way of life, China is trying to change Hong Kong progressively so Hong Kong still maintains many processes on their own. However China has much influence and will continue to until Hong Kong becomes dependent upon them again in 36 years.
Truly a strategic time to be involved in China and Hong Kong! Although Hong Kong is considered a part of China there is still a border that is maintained between the two and it requires a passport to travel from one to the other! Why? Two reasons: one reason is to control the population of Hong Kong since it is well beyond saturated now and second is because currently Hong Kong enjoys a fair amount of independence from China and the culture is quite different. Ivy concluded part of her talk stating that who knows maybe in the next 36 years Hong Kong will have changed China!
Currently, Chinese come to Hong Kong to purchase authentic brandname items which they produce imitations of in China while Hong Kong residents flock to China to purchase cheap copies of the real expensive brands more affordably! Crazy! Did you know that there are more Rolls Royces per capita in Hong Kong than anywhere else in the world?
What a fascinating and insightful tour of Hong Kong, pleasant smelling city!
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