Nicely done, I hope you’re enjoying the time with your family and friends there. Your grandmother sounds like such an awesome strong person.. all the best to her :)
I remember how clean the HK subways are. TTC is decades behind and not even comparable
No friends here, only family. And yeah, one of the things that stood out to me about the subways in Hong Kong is that the tracks are protected by glass. Makes a lot of sense when you read about the subway pushings in Toronto last year.
One thing I love about the subway system here is that it’s not a flat rate, so if you’re just traveling one stop, you only get charged for that distance. And the fact that you don’t need to drop coins or bills or tickets anywhere; just a tap of your wallet and you’re off.
There seems to be a lot of travel to Australia from here. I’m wondering if it’s because the air fares are cheap. I know some family friends who emigrated to Australia too.
that tap-your-wallet feature is cool! (i thought you were just resting it on the turnstile while you fiddled with your subway card.)
the main thing i am struck by in your video is that everyone is very lean — or did all the chunkier people stay home that day? ;-) i also wasn’t expecting the casual dress: what looked like lots of jeans, comfortable jackets and practical totes or messenger-type bags. for some reason i imagined hong kong residents would all be fashionistas.
apparently the only expectation i had right was that most everyone would have black hair. lol!
thanks for sharing your trip; i hope it continues to go well for you.
It’s pretty much all lean people here. I’m not positive, but I believe the casual dress is still high-end fashion and brand name. A nice pair of jeans can still cost a few hundred US dollars. It seems like every purse I see is either Luis Vuitton or Coach or Gucci. They’re certainly fashionistas, but it seems to be more about having the brand label somewhere than the actual style of dressing.
Like any US or Canadian city, there are the rich, the middle class, and the grass roots in Hong Kong, and they dress accordingly.
You can find lots of customers in Luis Vuitton or Coach or Gucci stores, but most of them are the nouveauriche visitors from mainland China, they shop in HK for the low tax rate, and for the product authenicity. Some mainland visitors concerned with food safety buy milk powder, food, and yes, even soya sauce.
I had no idea! I’m going to have to keep my eye out for these people in the high-end stores and see if I can distinguish them. How have the nouveriche been getting their money? Is it from a booming mainland economy?
It’s sometimes not easy to distinguish them visually, because some of them dress really well. But in the high-end shopping areas, you’ll hear lots of the shoppers speak in Mandarin. Yep, they get their money from a booming economy in the coastal region.
Nicely done, I hope you’re enjoying the time with your family and friends there. Your grandmother sounds like such an awesome strong person.. all the best to her :)
I remember how clean the HK subways are. TTC is decades behind and not even comparable
No friends here, only family. And yeah, one of the things that stood out to me about the subways in Hong Kong is that the tracks are protected by glass. Makes a lot of sense when you read about the subway pushings in Toronto last year.
i love octopus card. apparently an australian engineer was behind it, yet the system in australia is totally incomparable to MTR’s. sad.
HK is an amazing place, would love to go back some time soon.
best wishes to your family, jeff.
One thing I love about the subway system here is that it’s not a flat rate, so if you’re just traveling one stop, you only get charged for that distance. And the fact that you don’t need to drop coins or bills or tickets anywhere; just a tap of your wallet and you’re off.
There seems to be a lot of travel to Australia from here. I’m wondering if it’s because the air fares are cheap. I know some family friends who emigrated to Australia too.
that tap-your-wallet feature is cool! (i thought you were just resting it on the turnstile while you fiddled with your subway card.)
the main thing i am struck by in your video is that everyone is very lean — or did all the chunkier people stay home that day? ;-) i also wasn’t expecting the casual dress: what looked like lots of jeans, comfortable jackets and practical totes or messenger-type bags. for some reason i imagined hong kong residents would all be fashionistas.
apparently the only expectation i had right was that most everyone would have black hair. lol!
thanks for sharing your trip; i hope it continues to go well for you.
It’s pretty much all lean people here. I’m not positive, but I believe the casual dress is still high-end fashion and brand name. A nice pair of jeans can still cost a few hundred US dollars. It seems like every purse I see is either Luis Vuitton or Coach or Gucci. They’re certainly fashionistas, but it seems to be more about having the brand label somewhere than the actual style of dressing.
Like any US or Canadian city, there are the rich, the middle class, and the grass roots in Hong Kong, and they dress accordingly.
You can find lots of customers in Luis Vuitton or Coach or Gucci stores, but most of them are the nouveauriche visitors from mainland China, they shop in HK for the low tax rate, and for the product authenicity. Some mainland visitors concerned with food safety buy milk powder, food, and yes, even soya sauce.
I had no idea! I’m going to have to keep my eye out for these people in the high-end stores and see if I can distinguish them. How have the nouveriche been getting their money? Is it from a booming mainland economy?
It’s sometimes not easy to distinguish them visually, because some of them dress really well. But in the high-end shopping areas, you’ll hear lots of the shoppers speak in Mandarin. Yep, they get their money from a booming economy in the coastal region.