After a week of living the easy life in Thailand, we have now arrived in Hong Kong (November 22). Of course, our easy life never really ended. We are staying at The Hyatt, a really nice hotel in Sha Tin, on the mainland. The reason the Global Program stays in the Hyatt is its favorable proximity to the University, where the students take most of their classes. We're staying on the seventeenth floor of the hotel where the view of the skyline is fabulous. While the college students are taking a course on Chinese art history, Julia and I continue with homeschooling classes. I did take the first class with the students, an ancient world history class in Greece and Turkey, but now only take in occasional lectures.
If you've never been to Hong Kong, let me describe it for you. It's very westarnized as far as technological development goes, and the skyscrapers in downtown Hong Kong look very similar to the ones in the US, some even more advanced and sleek in design. Another aspect of the city with which I was pleasantly suprised is how clean it is. There are laws in place that prohibit littering and spitting in the city with substantial fines as punishment. This was a huge improvement from India, where trash piled up everywhere and made for some depressing sights. Something else that probably won't suprise anyone is the fact that EVERONE is constantly on their smartphones. Riding on the train, walking down, the street, it's really ridiculous! Even smaller children are always walking around with their faces burried in their iphones.
Although Hong Kong is truly a gigantic city, it's also, supposedly, very safe. This is also in contrast to India, and I no longer feel the need to be so alert all the time. The public train system is very useful and well-integrated into the city. We actually have used it many times already, as there is a station only 200 meters from the hotel. It can get extremely packed, but not as bad as the train systems in Tokyo, according to my father who has been there.
Anyway, as I find myself looking at this trip as a whole, it stuns me to consider the fact that we are already more than half-way through with our global adventure. In the remaining months, we'll see a lot more of Asia. I'm very excited!
-Christoph Hodel
If you've never been to Hong Kong, let me describe it for you. It's very westarnized as far as technological development goes, and the skyscrapers in downtown Hong Kong look very similar to the ones in the US, some even more advanced and sleek in design. Another aspect of the city with which I was pleasantly suprised is how clean it is. There are laws in place that prohibit littering and spitting in the city with substantial fines as punishment. This was a huge improvement from India, where trash piled up everywhere and made for some depressing sights. Something else that probably won't suprise anyone is the fact that EVERONE is constantly on their smartphones. Riding on the train, walking down, the street, it's really ridiculous! Even smaller children are always walking around with their faces burried in their iphones.
Although Hong Kong is truly a gigantic city, it's also, supposedly, very safe. This is also in contrast to India, and I no longer feel the need to be so alert all the time. The public train system is very useful and well-integrated into the city. We actually have used it many times already, as there is a station only 200 meters from the hotel. It can get extremely packed, but not as bad as the train systems in Tokyo, according to my father who has been there.
Anyway, as I find myself looking at this trip as a whole, it stuns me to consider the fact that we are already more than half-way through with our global adventure. In the remaining months, we'll see a lot more of Asia. I'm very excited!
-Christoph Hodel
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