We took a one hour ferry ride from Shenzhen to Hong Kong (Hawaii, take note). After dropping off our bags at our hostel, we ran to a restaurant to meet my cousin and her boyfriend (Judy and Ricci, respectively) for lunch (see previous post). We caught up on the past 17 years and they told us a little bit about Hong Kong. Of particular concern to me was what language I should speak. Hong Kong speaks Cantonese. Mainland China, for the most part, speaks Mandarin.

After the handover in 1997, mainland Chinese started coming to Hong Kong in the form of tourists and property hawks. Many Hong Kongers became upset about feeling overrun in their own land and the rising cost of property. Recent political circumstances related to political representation and vetting candidates had contributed to the tension. Thus, the language that an Chinese-looking person speaks is more important and loaded than one might initially expect.

Staff at the hostel believed that it would be rude to speak Mandarin. Judy and Ricci thought that it wouldn’t matter. To be safe, I just left all the talking to Cindy, in English, while I did my best mime impression. The rest of our day was pretty much planned by Judy and Ricci. They sent us to a nearby hill where we took a cable car up to a monastery and a big Buddha statue. We bought a round trip ticket for the cable car, but came back too late to ride the car back down. Drat.

After busing back into the city, we took a taxi up to Victoria’s Peak, famous for views of the city (see title pic). Until after World War 2, Chinese were prohibited from entering Victoria’s Peak, though now we’re there in droves. All pics below.

Riding the cable car

Buddha from afar

Climbing towards the Buddha

Big Buddha

Cindy with view

Another view

Cindy with Buddha

Monastery

Monastery courtyard

Side of monastery

Buddha at sunset