Adventures in Hong Kong

By Kevin Rutherford

Saturday was our first day of adventure in Hong Kong as a class. This entailed taking a trip to Lamma Island, to the south of Hong Kong. While there, we hiked an easy two miles in the heat and were able to see what the region used to look like before the rapid growth of the past century. The hike itself ended in a separate village to the southeast where we were treated to an incredible local lunch. As it is monsoon season, we also got to experience a torrential downpour, but were kept dry by the intricate patchwork of metal roofing that the villagers had installed over the main street.

Sunday brought us our first meeting with our Hong Kong counterparts. Originally projected to be a much larger class, we ended up meeting a handful of incredible students. In the end, we ended up enjoying this setup because it meant that we were able to bond more closely with a smaller group of people. This brought the benefit of being able to meet them quicker, which helped when we then took a tour to Hong Kong Island and Victoria Peak. This was also our first experience with school food, which was incredibly well-made and made us realize just how poor quality the food is to students in America, at often twice the cost.

Following this and dinner at a restaurant suggested by a friend, we began our first week of class on Monday. One thing we noticed immediately was that the Hong Kong students would be hesitant to speak when we met in small groups. One of our classmates immediately recognized this issue, because he realized that he was at risk for potentially steamrolling any of their ideas because of cultural differences. In our group, we routinely encouraged our Hong Kong classmate to speak up, as we really valued his input.

Following classes, we spent the next week travelling around the city in the afternoon, often flirting with monsoon rains that seemingly came out of nowhere. This provided an excellent opportunity for our American professors to show us around using the knowledge that they had gathered over previous years in the city. These included a tour in a wetland park, Mapopo Farm, and housing authority buildings. On Thursday, we were also able to view the Dragon Boat Festival, travelling to Aberdeen and waiting almost an hour to see a short race.

The end of the first full week brought with it the opportunity to travel to Macau, as one of our classmates needed to leave the district to renew his visa. Having never been before, I was interested in seeing what Macau had to offer. After choosing the cheaper ferry, we ended up at the island with casinos, and took a bus to the Chinese border. On our walk back, we were able to witness the transition from a heavily Chinese neighborhood, to one with more Portuguese influence. We were also able to visit the main fort, which provided amazing views of the city and surrounding area.