Kowloon
Nathan Rd at night, obviously.
On our trips to Kowloon my Mother and I always took the ferry and we always used to use the same rickshaw wallah to get wherever we were going. There are still a half dozen or so hand-pulled rickshaws hanging around the ferry terminal today, but it looks like a tourist thing rather than the ordinary and natural transport choice of the 1960's. I spared them my current weight!
If you fancy a spot of retail therapy Hong Kong is one of the places to go, if you are used to European prices. However, there is now a 24 hour crossing point into China, and shopping in Shenzen is even cheaper. Next time I go, I'm getting a Chinese visa. Since the handover, Hong Kong is slowly merging into China, and that makes Hong Kong expensive. However, the place is still buzzing late at night and the thing I really love is the junk! I bought stuff like binoculars that you could easily spend 100 ukps on in the UK for 10 ukps. A watch that neither I nor anyone else can work out how to operate - 7ukps. Silk shirts? 25 dollars to you sir, that's just over 2 quid (5 USDs) - admittedly in a sale. Need I go on? Go down Nathan Road....
Stanley Market 1960's. Stephan (my Swedish mate),
the Chinese store owner and me. Bet the (v. friendly)
Chinese storekeeper is a millionaire by now!
And into Chungking Mansions - you' are now in one of my favourite places in Asia. Its absolutely wonderful and if you want to see capitalism in its rawest, most naked form, you've got to visit here. Also, if you want a good close view of the local wildlife, its not a bad place to visit (rats, roaches etc.). Courage! Dive past the touts at the entrance, keep your hand firmly on your wallet, and start browsing the wonderful mountains of crap with which you are instantly surrounded. Read about Chungking Mansions and its surroundings here and here. Remember though, this is the East, so the prices on display are merely an invitation to haggle. If you pay anything like the advertised price, you've been ripped off. I love bargaining, maybe that's my childhood trips to Stanley Market showing through. Any market in Hong kong is a good place to go. The sights, sounds and smells, plus the steamy heat are, for me, just so evocative of my childhood. Great shame I can't understand Cantonese anymore though.
If you are desperate, you can stay at Chungking Mansions, but read the warnings at the links above. In particular, never hand over your passport to anybody (your passport, especially if its UK or USA is a valuable document, and there's a long history of forgery at Chungking Mansions). Prostitution; drug taking; illicit gambling; counterfeit goods; pirated software; forgery; desparadoes of every conceivable nationality; roach hotels; restaurants almost guaranteed to give you hep (note that the Shalimar in the photo has a good reputation), Chungking Mansions has it all. In the 70's my Father suggested I join the HK police, as a way to return to Hong Kong. Me? A policeman? I don't think so. Had I done so, however, there would have been a whole career's worth of projects right here, in this one block. Seriously, although I would never avail myself of the "tempting" offers, I find the whole milieu intriguing. Bet I'm the only Old Harrovian who hangs out here as well. (Come to think of it, maybe not). You've got to behave as if everybody here will take all your money if they possibly can, whether legally or illegally - its up to you to turn the tables and squeeze their balls instead. Absolutely brilliant fun, but with a potentially deadly serious side if you mess up. Oh yeah, as an added bonus, the Police raid the place regularly as well. I do not recommend acquainting yourself with Hong Kong's prison system, so keep your nose clean. If you are more of a Harrods person, cross over to HK island and go to Lane Crawfords (yawn). Alternatively walk down any of the side streets off Nathan Rd and just wander. If you are used to UK prices there's a million bargains to be had, but you've got to haggle, preferably until you're blue in the face.
Kids scrambling for cents at the entrance
to the walled city,
(actually the bridge over the moat),
Hong Kong, c. 1946
For instance, I was walking down Nathan Rd and it started to rain. Diving into the nearest shop which had brollies on display, I discovered an argument going on between two Chinese women (in English), one of whom was the proprietor of the shop. The other woman turned on her heel, shouted "Well at least I have ethics", and stormed out. The shop owner turned to me and said,"That woman - all talkie talkie". Anyway, I said I wanted a brolly, and she quoted 30HKDs, even though they were clearly marked as 29HKDs. (The difference is what, 12pence or 20 US cents). Feigning outrage, I said "Whaaaaat"? Pointing to the marked price, and offered her 19. She grinned broadly. We then spent the next 10 minutes arguing and eventually settled for 22 or 23, I can't remember. We were haggling over peanuts, but that is not the point. We were going through the required dance. She was pleased, she'd just charged me the gwailo price, which was undoubtedly more than she'd get from a Chinese, and I was pleased, as I'd bought an umbrella for 10% of the price I'd pay in the UK, and we were both pleased, as we'd had a bloody good haggle. (The brolly still works fine 6 years later). My Father had the great advantage, when cutting deals with Chinese in post war Hong Kong, of knowing the abacus. He could tell what they were thinking as they assumed that, he being an unciviled barbarian, they could do their financial calculations in front of him without him understanding. Ho ho.
The great thing about Hong Kong is that everything just works, and everything looks very familiar if you come from the UK. They drive on the left, the cops look like (militarised) cops, everyone (apart from taxi drivers) speaks English, although I have read reports recently that English is becoming less universal since the 1997 handback - English no longer being compulsory in schools. Its like the UK only cleaner, safer and the natives are (mostly) twice as friendly and polite. It would be wrong to give the idea that it is some sort of paradise however; there is crime. Its a capitalist place and a big city, and there are have-nots as well as haves. A big difference to the UK is that the culture is built on work, food, luck and business rather than drink & the pub.That suits me just fine. (The expats however still cling to English boozy ways).
Anyway, I was browsing in the Swindon Bookshop in Lock Rd (Swindon is a town 10 miles away from me in the UK), wondering if there might be any books about the RAF in Hong Kong, and there was one which contained a photo of a wrecked Sunderland flying boat, an incident which my Father had described to me, a couple of months before he died. They were smashed in the ferocious typhoon of July 1946. Here's the photo, it shows a damaged Sunderland plus 4 Dakotas. As there were about 21 Daks at Kai Tak at that time, there is a 20% chance that one of the Dakotas you can see was flown by my Father.
There are still strangely undeveloped sites in Kowloon - this plot is in a wonderful location between the YMCA and the ferry, right on Salisbury Rd and appears derelict...I dread to think what it would cost to buy and develop it.
To my great delight there was a cybercafe a couple of blocks away in Lock Road called Shadowman - a cybercafé stuffed with iMacs. Great, friendly place. Set up a Hotmail account before you leave and stay in touch - its so easy. This page was written in 2000, when internet access wasn't nearly as common in hotels, and now we all take our laptops with us, but then it was a godsend. It seems to still be around, although this place has appeared in Ashley Rd. as well. I don't know if there was a takeover and a move or not.