This is my third visit to Hong Kong and I love the place. It's as simple as that. It's not just because I have very good friends here; each time I visit, it feels like visiting the future. It feels like an escape from a knackered old Britain of yesterday into a shiny tomorrow.
Of course Hong Kong has its faults - any place does. It's noisy, chaotic, occasionally inequitable. It's not a great place to be if you're poor, I would imagine. But I love it anyway, like those New Yorkers of the 1970s who recognised that their city was filthy, unfriendly and more dangerous than some war zones but loved it anyway because, hey - it's New York. I feel the same about Hong Kong.
Say you live in Banbury and people look at you blankly. Say you live in Hong Kong and everybody knows where that is; everyone has an impression of what it's like. Yes, it's insanely crowded but there's an energy and a vibrancy here that's very hard to describe. I'm being too poetic, I'm sure, but Hong Kong - like New York - has a personality. In the evening, you don't go out in Hong Kong, you go out with Hong Kong - the city is there with you, another guest in your party. An irascible, pushy, occasionally rude and frequently mercenary guest, to be sure, but also a wild, exotic and somehow honest guest.
Of course, such prolixity and bad six-form imagery is most likely the result of being hugely sleep deprived (I got maybe 90 minutes last night) and I'll look back on this entry and cringe after a good night's sleep (whenever that might happen). One thing won't change, though: I'll still love Hong Kong.
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