Hong Kong: Footprints handbook
Spiritual and traditional
Despite the obvious love of shopping and eating, the perpetually crowded streets, glitzy neon lights and hard-core work ethic, it can all be put into context when you consider that the most expensive houses and powerful banks could not be planned without close consultation with the feng shui master. Look at the elegant sharp angles of the Bank of China building, or the high-tech iconic HSBC in Central, then realize that their exact location was plotted with due consideration to keeping the spirits and dragons happy. Somehow this spiritual side of Hong Kong neutralizes some of its commercial excesses and is a great leveller. Even stepping inside any temple a few feet away from a traffic jam reveals the respect that many Chinese people always have for their religious and cultural traditions, whether burning paper money for loved ones to enjoy “on the other side” or eating mooncakes to celebrate mid-Autumn festival.
© copyright 2004 Footprint travel guides
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Writing and photographing for this handbook to Hong Kong was a wonderful excuse to revisit the city. Since leaving in late 1996, after living there for four years, I had rarely returned. The trip in 2003 meant seeing the city as a tourist, but with an invaluable resident’s insight. While pounding the streets to do the research, I was able to devour my favourite eggplant and tofu hotpot; lose HK$10 at the Happy Valley Races (again) and get my fortune told at the incense-filled temples.