Goodbye, Hong Kong

Boats in harbour

Thumbnail: Cell phone message
Thumbnail: Alley walk
Thumbnail: City Hall construction
Thumbnail: Bakery goods
Thumbnail: Abalone
 

Drinking tong sui

Thumbnail: Door shrine
Thumbnail: Barista
Thumbnail: Billboards
Thumbnail: Candy stand in mall
Thumbnail: Chinese checkers stone
 

Street and people

Thumbnail: More City Hall construction
Thumbnail: Dessert booth
Thumbnail: Expensive shoes
Thumbnail: Flower vendor
Thumbnail: Grandmas holding hands
 

Abalone

Thumbnail: Mirror self portrait
Thumbnail: Murray House
Thumbnail: Music listener
Thumbnail: Neon sign
Thumbnail: Open area
 

Street person

Thumbnail: Pacific Coffee Company
Thumbnail: Roadside snack
Thumbnail: Seaside properties
Thumbnail: Smokers
Thumbnail: Soccer against mountain
 

Chestnut stand

Thumbnail: Temple doorway
Thumbnail: Apartment view
Thumbnail: Holding hands
Thumbnail: Water shipper
Thumbnail: Wedding photos
 

Cracked turtle shells

Thumbnail: Stanley Market
Thumbnail: Stanley waterfront
Thumbnail: Sundries stand
Thumbnail: Taking blood pressure
Thumbnail: Tea machines
 

Airport waiting

I’ll miss the way you com­fort me with crowds. I’ll miss the smells of your streets. I’ll miss your alleys and their sto­ries. I’ll miss your mix of clas­si­cal and con­tem­po­rary. I’ll miss the diver­si­ty of your food.

You made me feel com­fort­able, like I belonged some­where, and with all your rich and some­what mys­te­ri­ous cul­ture, renewed my pride in being Chinese.

It’ll be a long time before I see you again.

Goodbye, you beau­ti­ful city. I miss you already.

16 comments

  1. Gasp! And where are the actu­al tur­tles??? (Maybe I don’t real­ly wan­na know, just tell me they are vaca­tion­ing some­where with hap­py elves and fairies).

    • I believe the tur­tles are already eat­en. It’s just the shells that are used. I’m not sure if this fact com­forts you though. :)

      • That is not what I want­ed to hear at all.

  2. I’m glad you had such a great time. Someone I know recent­ly moved to China for work and felt like he recon­nect­ed with his cul­ture and loved it. I don’t feel that way for some rea­son, the only rea­son why I’d go back is to see fam­i­ly. I have no desire to stay longer than I have to. I was­n’t too fond of HK while I was there.

    • Wow…I would have believed that any­one would be fond of HK, but I guess it’s not for every­one. I must be super biased.

  3. btw, have you been adding the vignette to your pho­tos inten­tion­al­ly? They all look great btw. :)

    • Yep, I’ve been adding vignetting to cer­tain pho­tos to bring out the con­tent a lit­tle bit, and give them a nos­tal­gic look.

  4. Hey, the tallest moun­tain in the back­drop of image 30 is the Lion Rock. You can see the shape of the crouch­ing lion at the top.

    • Wow!! I final­ly got a shot of it with­out even real­iz­ing!

  5. ::sigh::.

    I think I would thrive there, except for two things: could­n’t prob­a­bly work except as an English tutor, which isn’t me; and super high HEAT in the summer…But the rest is total nos­tal­gia. Thank you for the many street shots; they are my favorites. I love that they show fam­i­ly and strug­gle and hum­ble plea­sures. I love its scenic views not only for the moun­tains, but the way your eye dances around so many, many things to look at all the time, and ever­p­re­sent, cheery red. Miss it.

    • The sum­mer heat and humid­i­ty is cer­tain­ly a con, but I’m still unde­cid­ed as of yet whether it’s enough for me not to live there. I’ll def­i­nite­ly be look­ing at these shots in the future, and feel­ing wist­ful­ly nos­tal­gic.

  6. A heart city. Welcome home to cul­ture shock.

    (and Nice pho­to lay­out btw.)

  7. I almost cried when I saw the pic­tures of the tur­tle shells :(

    • Oh my god, that’s right…I for­got about your tur­tle love. I should have giv­en warn­ing. :(

  8. I love all of your pic­tures from Hong Kong. It makes me want to vis­it there so bad.

    • Thank you very much. It makes me want to vis­it again too!

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