7 Quick Takes: How I love Hong Kong

This time last year, Kev and I were in Hong Kong taking in all the new sights, smells and sounds of a foreign place that was possibly going to be our future home. I remember people regularly asking me, 

‘So, what do you think of Hong Kong?’ 

And I kept finding myself answering the same three words, 

‘It is wild!'. 

I think that answer was confusing. People weren’t exactly sure what I meant. I am not sure I knew either, but it most accurately described how everything felt so wildly different. After moving here, it didn’t take long for us to see another side of the picture and be able to appreciate so much that makes Hong Kong a very unique and vibrant city. Here are seven of the things I love most about Hong Kong:

1/ I love the opportunity we have to live in a global city and gain a bigger perspective of life and the world we live in. My eyes have been opened and my perspective has been broadened in so many ways. The way I have always done things, is surprisingly, not the only way to do things. The way I say things, is apparently, not the way everyone says things. We have had many a laugh trying to explain our South African way of differentiating time (now now/just now/later/now) and explaining what we mean when we say torch, kokies, prestick etc etc. We are constantly learning about different cultures, different possibilities, and how to relate and understand one another. 

I am often quite humbled in the process. It’s tempting to fall into the trap of thinking 'our' way is the best way. I am learning that is not always the case. The world is huge and my life is very small. I am such a small part of the Grande plan and picture. I love that we not only get to learn from a new culture and understand the Hong Kong culture but to live beside others from all around the world too. What an opportunity it is for our girls to grow up in these surroundings and to learn from an early age to relate to different children from around the world. Both Sierra and Shiloh have had their annual cultural day at school in the last few months. The children get to dress in their home cultural dress, bring national artefacts and local foods. It has been our school calender highlight so far! At Sierra's school of 350 (ish) children, 43 different countries were represented! I think that is pretty amazing! 

As much as I love this learning, growing, eye opening exposure to diversity, the best part of it all was at the cultural day when Sierra came out representing South Africa with two of the South African School Staff. I couldn't help but well up with pride (and a lump in my throat).

2/ I love the food and the fresh markets with the endless supply of fruit and vegetables. We definitely eat a far wider variety of fruits and good green veg. It’s such a treat! I love that there are spots to grab a quick, local, cheap lunch or dinner all over the place and most of all, I love that I fit right in, because everyone here loves food too :)

3/ This one I haven’t done as much of recently, but on a few occasions when the week has been too busy and fitting in a run not possible, I can run at night! Something I would never have dreamed of doing in Cape Town.

4/ Talking about fitness. Although the walking and public transport is one of the biggest adjustments to living here, I do love the walking culture. Hong Kong-ers walk the most in the world. In Cape Town, I was so accustomed to getting in my car to go anywhere, even if it was just around the corner.  I love that it’s a healthier lifestyle but also that it’s far more social. We are the newbies here, but I bump into people out and about regularly. When I walk Sierra to school some mornings, and I watch my surroundings, I always get this image of little ants coming out of their cracks and making their way to their desired destinations. As we walk along, on route to school, new friends and not yet friends keep being added to our walking group as we make our way closer to school. Sierra is either waving across the road to a friend she has spotted, or skipping along, side by side, and hand in hand with another. Its awesome!

5/ I love the balance of East meets West. Hong Kong juggles a modernised way of life with more traditional Chinese practices and we get to experience these both together. We are living in a different culture, and experiencing all the benefits of that, like I said above, but there is enough that is familiar too. You taste it in the cuisine where dim sum and hot pot coexist with haute cuisine. You see it in the skyline, where an high rise architectural masterpiece can be neighbours to a dilapidated hole in the wall shopfront. Everywhere you go, is a melting pot of east and west characteristics.

6/ I love that there is so much to explore and discover. I guess that is true of any new place, but it came as a pleasant surprise. Hong Kong is known for its small spaces, dense population and endless high rises and has even been nick named Hong Kongcrete. Although it is one of the world’s metropolises, of over 1100sqkm of land, about three quarters is actually countryside, whether mountains or islands. Our home is planted between the harbour and the peak, and we sometimes feel like it’s not too different to Seapoint in Cape Town, where we lived between the ocean and Signal Hill. There are islands, beaches, markets and new experiences around every corner. Our favourite escape is the Morning Trail, which takes us up to the top of the Peak and begins just a 5min walk from our frontdoor. It’s a serious incline but its the best way to get exercise, a sense of space, beautiful views, and a refreshed mind. It’s become a bit of a friday ritual for Kev and I and it ticks all the boxes for a perfect off day.

7/ I have been struck by the way kids positively interact with one another. I find them more inclusive and less guarded. Whether we are playing in a park, sitting on a bus, or interacting at school, there is an inclusivity and warmth that is just so wonderful. It supersedes age, skin colour, language and gender. It has been fascinating to watch and heart warming to experience as a mother watching my girls be included and accepted from the day we landed here.

In the last few weeks of packing up our belongings in Cape Town, I was sorting through a shoe box of sentimental items. It’s something I had when I was young and somehow I have kept it up. It’s home to letters, birthday cards and little random things that have special memories attached to them. Am I the only one who has one of these boxes still? Anyway. I found a journal that Kev and I were given when we got married and we’d used it on honeymoon to write some of our dreams and hopes for the future. It was a full page of big things and small things, but all things we felt we wanted to give our lives to, prioritize in marriage and live out in the future. One of the points caught my eye and I was overcome by emotion. 

Live somewhere WILD for Jesus. 

And here we are, 10 years later, living the dream we had on honeymoon...