I fell in love with Hong Kong on my first visit in 2002. I love condensed megacities that grow into the air as ground to build on is scarce. I was taken by Hong Kong’s scenery. Hong Kong is mountainous; the peaks of Hong Kong Island reach up to 552 metres surpassing even the highest skyscrapers. And it is by no means all city, planning authorities have made sure that a clear distinction between the city and nature is upheld. […]
The airport bus is the most convenient way to get to the Beijing City Central Youth Hostel. As the bus wants to enter the highway, the road is blocked by a policeman. Everyone stops but an expensive SUV swerves right and just drives past him. I am not surprised. In the view many people hold of China the Communist Party hast total control, there is no individuality and the people take everything without questioning and without complaints. This image was destroyed during […]
I had visited China for the first time the previous year. Whereas I was very happy about returning to Hong Kong I felt conflicted about China. On one hand a very interesting place, on the other hand I found it complicated, difficult and annoying. Because of this, I decided to spend little time there and cross quickly to get to Central Asia. I spend six days in Hong Kong and planned to spend the same amount of time to cross China to Kyrgyzstan, a distance, as the crow flies, of more than 4000km. Crazy idea but I was young and inexperienced. […]
On my visit the previous year I was flashed by Hong Kong. I love this place so I planned to spend more time. This lets me explore in more depth, I go to museums, attend a concert, visit temples and old forts. I love this place, for me it is full of energy. […]
I am flashed by Hong Kong. I feel so much more at home here than in mainland China. People speak and understand English and I like these dense cities where everything is compressed in a small space. The bathroom in the hostel has less than one square meter, it is not very convenient but everything you need is there. And the setting is beautiful, it reminds me a bit back to Vladivostok on the same trip but Hong Kong is more dramatic, by far. […]
I’m intrigued by China, a country so big and unknown. I listened to an interesting conversation at the guesthouse in Ulaanbaatar. One guy had worked in China for two years, the other had travelled there for six months. They seemed to complain all the time about it and every sentence seemed to be graced with the word “fu**ing”. After some time, I asked why they spent so much time in this obviously annoying place, the travelling guy was first to answer, “because it’s fu**cking interesting”. I got what he meant. […]