Bright lights, Big City

Here's the verdict: I loved Hong Kong. Such an incredibly cool city with tons to see and do. It's vibrant, safe, full of interesting and diverse people, and urban and naturally beautiful at the same time. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I hope to get back there many more times and, like Tokyo, I think it should go on everyone's "to do" list!

On my last night in Hong Kong, Colette and I went over to the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbor to watch the nightly light show along with many other tourists. It's quite unique: most of the buildings on Hong Kong Island are wired with lights that are lit each night starting at 8pm and synchronize with music that is piped over the sound system. It's hard to capture in photos, but as the music plays, various buildings light up and laser beams shoot up into the sky. At the beginning of the show, they actually introduce each building one by one like characters in a play. It's a bit Disneyworld-esque, but really cool at the same time! We were impressed and glad we made the effort to see it. You can tell from this show and from our time in the city that there is a lot of pride in Hong Kong!

Above is a photo of Colette on the Star Ferry. This is the old ferry that takes people back and forth from Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon side.

After dinner, we met up with my friend Liz's cousin, David, for dinner in the SoHo area at a place called Wagyu. He's been living in Hong Kong for almost two years, so it was nice to get the young ex-pat's perspective and also to swap some funny stories of what it's like when you first get over to this part of the world. It was a great Western style meal before I headed back to mainland China.

Above: David, Colette, and me

This morning I took the train back to Guangzhou and got back to work. Things are a bit slow as people get back from their big yearly vacation, but I'm sure it will be picking up very quickly. Colette comes back to meet me in Guangzhou tomorrow, and then we'll be packing again to head up to Beijing this weekend!