Dispatches from Hong Kong

Nichole Kidman got to skip COVID quarantine to shoot this, so there's a bit of resentment about this show. 

Hence...

Room with a view of the sea.

Estate agents would describe that not only as a view of Tung Chung Bay, but as "nearby structures at comfortable distance."  It's a quick ride to the airport, though. I think I'd get the Bends taking the lift to the top floor. 

dave said:

Estate agents would describe that not only as a view of Tung Chung Bay, but as "nearby structures at comfortable distance."  It's a quick ride to the airport, though. I think I'd get the Bends taking the lift to the top floor. 

I’m in awe at the sheer mass of the structures, I guess it’s what makes Hong Kong look so beautiful at night. It’s amazing really. I would avoid the express elevators though…

And only 25% of HK is developed.

On my bucket list of places to visit. Lucky you to be able to live there. 

Dave, I think you met my sister and her husband a few years ago when they lived in Hong Kong. They had to move to Singapore due to travel restrictions and the political climate but they miss HK terribly. They loved it there.

kthnry said:

Dave, I think you met my sister and her husband a few years ago when they lived in Hong Kong. They had to move to Singapore due to travel restrictions and the political climate but they miss HK terribly. They loved it there.

I've met quite a few MOL folks over the years coming thru HK on business. If I recall correctly and it was within the last two years, had they just relocated from a country in Europe? Met her husband: tall guy?

Travel restrictions were definitely onerous here for a while. They'll like Singapore though it's much smaller... and hotter.

Taken from this week's New Yorker.  Looks like Beijing is taking the lead, though there are about a half dozen places in Hong Kong with similar T-day offers (not including the many upscale hotels, which all have something on the menu).

China’s Holiday Buffet

In China, Thanksgiving is regarded as something of a startup in the holiday-industrial complex. Christmas is the market leader, having been zealously embraced as a shopping opportunity and a reason for gathering, and, for a few, a religious occasion. Thanksgiving is treated as part of the extended Christmas buildup. I’m writing this in Beijing, during the week before Thanksgiving, and the city is already betinselled. There is a three-story artificial tree in my hotel lobby, surrounded by gifts in mirrored blue wrapping paper. A plastic snowman with a mirrored blue ribbon around his neck has been installed in the glass center of the revolving door, where he spins languidly, greeting patrons with a zealous smile. When Christmas took hold here, in the late seventies and eighties, it was an easy import, because people were already in the process of accommodating to the lure of consumerism. But Thanksgiving, by contrast, has been slower to gain a following. The origin story of Thanksgiving doesn’t have much resonance outside the United States, and turkey (or huoji, which translates, literally, as “fire chicken”) is not a mainstay of Chinese cuisine. Even today, most home kitchens have stoves but no ovens. So the holiday has taken root mostly as a restaurant-promotion opportunity. Today, I walked by a poster offering a “Thanksgiving Feast” in which patrons can “give thanks and accumulate everlasting memories” (for three hundred and thirty-eight yuan per person). In general, China treats foreign ideas—including Marxism, capitalism, and Christmas—as something of a vast buffet, from which it picks and chooses what it wants and discards the rest. Thanksgiving has promise, but it’s early days yet.

—Evan Osnos

Thanksgiving day sunrise from our place.

dave said:

Nichole Kidman got to skip COVID quarantine to shoot this, so there's a bit of resentment about this show. 

I watched the first two episodes tonight. I'll reserve my comments until more people have watched the show.

Had HK as part of my sales territory for a while, so I visited half a dozen times (back in the late '80s and early '90s).  Still dreaming of the fresh seafood in Aberdeen.