Our hostel is located in Causeway Bay, also the heartland of shopping for all of Hong Kong. Hong Kong has shopping everywhere. Shopping is entertainment, relaxation, necessity, socialising, envy and basically what there is to do in Hong Kong. Eating is the break between shopping and the fuel to continue. I read through a tourist guide; in the Heritage section was a listing for a "new" heritage site. The site of some old building, but now when you go there is a shopping mall! You can view all of Hong Kong from the "Peak" shopping mall included, and I discovered this evening that City University of Hong Kong has a shopping mall attached to it. Imagine - you're shopping for new shoes, wander into the next room and are stuck in the middle of a history class!
The stores are amazing. Most of them are the expensive western stores. There is Swarovski, Banana Republic, Longchamps and then Asian stores scattered amongst. I have a few new favorites like Giordano and Bossini which sell very cool clothes. Happiness is all the rage, with brands like smileyworld and slogans like Cheer You Up on the clothes. As one explanatory brochure put it; with the global financial crisis, and H1N1 virus "You're down and you can't take it anymore? Don't be... cheery designs... to really pump up the volume of positive energy." Love it - you're depressed? Come shop!
Today we had a meeting with Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. The woman we met was quite impressive, she had a very clear passion for youth and a great understanding of the struggles and opportunities for Hong Kong youth. We had an inkling that she was impressive and discovered later on some of her many accomplishments. I look forward to working with her, and she was excited to work with us.
We then met with two youth for supper who will be flying to the Philippines for the Asia Pacific Decade of Dignity and Development Conference in a week. They also were quite interesting and we were able to learn about their culture and will continue the discussion in Tagaytay. We trusted them to order for us and enjoyed some delicious authentic Chinese food as a result - so good... mmm, I could go back right now and eat it all over again! We had fried race cakes, chicken and flour skin (with sesame sauce and tasted SO much better than it sounds) Szichuan style noodles (with peanut sauce), dim sum, and drunken chicken (soaked in Chinese wine), with bean curd puffs for dessert.
No comments:
Post a Comment