Dateline: South China Sea. We sailed out of Hong Kong harbor, taking the ‘backdoor’ route less traveled. This took us around the less-commercial side of HK Island that is mostly high rise residential apartment towers. There have got to be hundreds of them. Hong Kong is pretty much a human anthill, 7+ million people jammed into a small space. A typical apartment is on the order of 4-500 square feet and a family of 4 or more will live there. Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated entity on the planet, right after Macau, Monaco, and Singapore. It is no place for a claustrophobe to live.
Many of these apartment blocks have a hole right through the middle that cost the developer something like 12 apartments. The hole is there because a feng shui master said it should be there for ‘balance.’ We didn’t see this interest in feng shui in Shanghai. Our friend Alan the architect says feng shui is mostly a concern in the southern, Canton region of which Hong Kong is part. He didn’t find much interest in feng shui when building in Shanghai.
Star Ferries runs a Harbor Tour ship that loops around the harbor between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The narration is well done and the views are great. We took this tour, it cost us maybe $20 U.S. This is one of the true bargains in an otherwise expensive city. We also spent some time in the onshore mall collecting email and surfing the web. We can do this on shipboard but it isn’t free; our crew is very knowledgeable about where the free wi fi can be found ashore. They are staying in touch with relatives back home in 40+ countries and internet isn’t free for them on the ship, although they do pay less than we passengers pay.
