On a hot summer month in Hong Kong...

I was missing in action for my journal (blog) in August. We've traveled to Hong Kong for a month, and, boy, ain't I out of touch with it.

I've been back for a few times to Hong Kong since the 1997 handover to China. Although I noticed changes, I hadn't given it as much thought. Afterall, I had relocated from Hong Kong for quite some years now, and I felt kind of detached from it physically and somewhat emotionally. While I know its landscape is ever-changing (except perhaps the Peak and the south side of the Hong Kong island), I even lost my sense of directions more than a few times.

This time round, there's some business to take care of, and I found myself perking up my senses again. It's interesting to find so many things changed and changing, yet others still stay the same.

A walk in Central still saw all the young women and men dressed in the trendy and in-style. That is to be expected. But this boy-sized and outsized watches on slim wrists came across to me as unnecessary and in most cases, unsightly. Do they care if this looks good only for maybe 1% of the people? I don't think so. Regardless, a trend is a trend is a trend.

The city is buzzing again with energy not seen in a few years, at least not in the past few visits since 2000 after the Asia financial crisis in 1997 and the resultant property market crash in Hong Kong. I'm glad that the financial market is getting a boost from China's announcement that it's opening up the Hong Kong Stock Exchange only for mainland investors (from a few "focus" cities).

Most everything and everyone in Hong Kong flow with finances. Just look at the average (even below average) joes and janes parking themselves almost permanently in the retail bank branches everywhere to soak up minutiae changes in the financial news and rates on the TV monitors. Do you know they have a name? They are the crane-by-the-pond, carefully watching for fish and all ready with their beak to attack. Hongkongers have a unique (and often very accurately funny) way of naming things in Cantonese.

People still walk fast. In fact, I found myself always in a hurry that I'm usually walking faster than all fellow pedestrians, albeit being a semi-tourist. This much I have improved, even better myself before I left this beloved city decades ago.

And the tourists. How they have changed in their faces. Of course you should know now, that it gets almost all of its tourists and tourist dollars from mainland China. Those traditional shopper-bargain places like Tsimshatsui seems to have lost its allure. It's sad and pathetic to walk through TST East to find shops either shuttered or relegated to sell hawkers. This was an area that used to be quite vibrant, albeit for a not-so-moral reason of all the big nightclubs being there. These days, as China opens its door more and more, even the prostitutes have to go north, as the saying goes. So, most nightclubs are gone, and at night, it's eerily quiet walking through TST East. I knew all the facts about all these, but to take it in first-hand, is still somewhat sad.

Last few times, I saw a lot of tourists buses from mainland China parked next to department stores, and those tourists were a sorry sight. They were either squatting in front of high-class stores, or spitting at the roadside. I had wondered if I would want these customers, if I were a highend store. Of course, poor men don't have the luxury to choose. It's almost a lucky break for Hong Kong that mainland China had picked up where the Brits left off, and those mainland Chinese dollars helped keep Hong Kong float. These time round, I didn't see any squatting and spitting. I was told that China made those tourists read through leaflets on how to *behave* when they're outside of the country. They do seem to heed the instructions. But you know what, it's all play-acting. To get rid of the squatting and spitting, it has to go deeper, into the kind of civic education, if any, that these people receive. I doubt if they get any. This much I don't expect to change in the coming future, and so it doesn't.

Buildings are always changing hands and shapes. I never never like the new Peak Tower. The new IFC building looks terrible. It's a robotic arm of an evil sticking out from the ground. It doesn't look good. The BOC building and the HSBC headquarters building still holds its own, even the old Hopewell Center still rings. Sometimes, newer doesn't always means better. And, I would miss the Queen's Pier and the old Central's pier that was shaved to make way for the new.

The humid and salty weather can take its toll quickly on building structures. The New World Hotel and the old Regent Hotel buildings in TST are a case in point. With the outer walls changing color and molding, it looks like it's about to fall, although its interior is still pretty pleasant. But that's one thing that distinguishes one developer from another who can manage properly well. Just look at Pacific Place and you'll realize what I meant.

Hong Kong is a changing city, and its populace adapt fast. Just look at how much they have now embraced the north, how much Putonghua there is on the TV (Chinese and English channels alike). I do hope it'll hold its own, and withstand the onslaught from Shanghai and Beijing.

It's funny that I find myself craving for all souvenirs that are old Hongkong. I collect business cards from each restaurants and hotels that I visit. I buy magnets that are meant for silly tourists. My husband even bought souvenirs from the Central's main post office. (Now, THAT is a bit too much for it.) Speaking of which, on our way down the post office, I saw those old canvas HK Post Office mailbags on display. I said, "now THAT is a souvenir that I would definitely buy." I know none of the people from Hong Kong would have fathomed that someone would want the old postman's mailbags, or understood that a bag like THAT has characters in it. All they would think of is cheap plastic piggybanks. And herein lies one of its problems. Hongkongers think they're very cosmopolitan (and they are, in most sense), with westernized forward thinking. But most people there do not really understand what that means or entails.