Coming Clean

I have never been accused of being a tree-hugging environmentalist. But even I have noticed that Hong Kong does not seem to have jumped on the recycling bandwagon. I have yet to see anything resembling a recycling bin around town, nor have I seen any ads in print or on t.v. promoting recycling.

As an ambivalent recycler, I’m not casting aspersions. Hong Kong has a lot on its plate. A comprehensive, city-wide recycling initiative simply hasn’t risen to the top of the priority list. Yet. I'm sure its coming.

But what you do see around town and on t.v. are ads encouraging everyone to Clean Up Hong Kong. Almost every time I’ve turned on the t.v., I’ve seen the same commercial featuring a crew of well-scrubbed, good looking young people pushing brooms in sync with a drum-heavy pop tune. Think Westside Story, but with mops instead of switchblades.

It’s a good start. Now if only we had a place to put all those plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

Maybe I –forsooth- will have to start a recycling club at my school.

Rachel Carson would look down from the Great Rain Forest in the sky and smile at the irony of having a guy who doesn’t believe in global warming in charge of the school’s recycling club.

But stranger things have happened.

-Jack

Seeing Hong Kong

Two young couples from down the hall invited us to join them for shopping and dinner Friday night. When old farts like us get invited to join the hip, thirty-somethings for an evening out in the big city, who are we to say no?

We did a little street shopping and then had a late, oh-so-cosmopolitan dinner at 9:30 p.m.

(Dinner at 9:30? I’m usually in bed by 9:30.)

We were on the southern-most tip of the mainland; we couldn’t go any further south without being in the harbor. After dinner, we all walked down to the water-front promenade. We rounded a corner and there it was:

The city of Hong Kong.

All lit up.

It was breath-taking.

I’ve seen New York at night. I’ve seen Chicago at night. But this was something pretty special. The city was a sheer wall of buildings and lights that seemed to stretch indefinitely in both directions. Immediately behind the buildings was a second wall of steep, dark mountains. Some of the taller buildings rivaled the mountain peaks.

The coolest part of the vista was the giant –and I do mean giant- neon signs that hang from the sides of the buildings: Samsung, Sanyo, Espirit.

All of this –buildings, lights, mountains, neon- was reflected in the water of the harbor. The occasional late-night tug boat cut across the whole scene creating a mosaic of scattered lights on the surface of the water.

I’d seen so many pictures and read so many descriptions of this very scene, but they all failed to capture the power and beauty of what we were looking at.

All-in-all, it made for a pretty spectacular and memorable night out.
I'm looking forward to bringing our girls down here in the near future so that they can experience this.

But can we please go, now?

It’s way past my bed time and I’m really, really sleepy.

I can’t keep up with these energetic thirty-somethings.

-Jack

During our time shopping, we passed a wide variety of stores. My favorite shop name of the evening belonged to the store selling lady's undergarments: the Blah Blah Bra shop.

Welcome to the Shek Mun Neighborhood

The family who lived in our apart-ment last year had to put up with noise and dust from the construction of the two big apartment buildings fifty feet from our balcony. We’ve been lucky. When we moved in, the buildings were done, but no body was living in them yet. We have been enjoying the quiet that comes in the eye of the storm: after construction but before occupancy.

We knew this situation would end sooner or later.

It turns out it's sooner rather than later.

The new neighbors have started to move in.

Every evening at dinner we notice a few more apartments with lights on. We’ve also noticed a distinct increase in foot traffic on the way to the train station.

When full, I’d estimate that the two towers combined will hold well over a thousand residents -half of whom will have a pretty good view of our apartment. I guess we’ll have to start being diligent about closing our curtains at dusk.

The relative peace and quiet was nice while it lasted. But fair’s fair; why should our little corner of Hong Kong be any more serene than the rest of the city.

Gotta run. I’ve got about 1200 Welcome to the Neighborhood gift baskets to put together.

-Jack

bamboo

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

When most people think of Hong Kong, they think of that impressive skyline that is a marvel of modern urbanization. But what most people –including us, until recently- don’t realize is that Hong Kong is actually 90% green space. So much of Hong Kong can’t be developed because it's too mountainous. Therefore, Hong Kong has acres and acres of parks and preserves.

As exciting as the hustle and bustle of city living is, when you get tired of the urban grind –and you will get tired of the urban grind- you are only a train or a bus ride away from some greenery.

Sunday afternoon, the four of us traveled to Kadoori Farm about an hour away. Kadoori Farm was a functioning farm from 1951 to 1972. It was a cooperative started by two British brothers to help the Chinese refugees pouring into Hong Kong after World War II.

Today, it is one part demonstration farm, one part zoo, and one part public park. The most noteworthy thing about Kadoori Farm is that it is built on the side of a mountain so that the land had to all be terraced.

After four weeks of trying to negotiate life in go-go Hong Kong, it was refreshing to hike in the shade of trees and follow the man-made paths as they zig-zagged back and forth across the mountain stream. The hike was replete with multiple waterfalls and numerous inglenooks for intrepid travelers to rest their weary feet.

We were not being ambition in our hike up the mountainside. We were simply wandering and exploring as the spirit lead, so we only saw a portion of the park/farm. But it was good to be back among nature and away from the trains and buses and crowds for a few hours. It was a good way to recharge before the busy work week ahead.

We left enough of the park unexplored that we will have to plan another trip back to the farm –perhaps when you’re here visiting.

The trip was also noteworthy for another reason. Up to this point, we have been content to accept invitations from more seasoned Hong Kong dwellers and follow them to the beach or into the city. Sunday afternoon at Kadoori Farms was the first time our family made a day-trip in Hong Kong completely on our own.

And we lived to blog about it.

-Jack

In the Japanese Homegoods store

We’re all Keynesians Now

As many of you know, I’m a small-government, libertarian-leaning kind of guy. (If you didn’t know, could I have fifteen minutes of your time, I have a small diamond chart I’d like to share with you . . . )

But these days my non-interventionist leanings are being tested. So many of the things I like about Hong Kong are -deep breath here- the result of some mandate, some rule, some law.

There. I said it.

For example, Hong Kong regulations separate cell phones from cell phone service. Buy the phone you want. Sign up for the service you want. Very nice. Very consumer-friendly.

Getting around by train rocks. They’re efficient. They’re clean. And they’re one giant public/private collaboration. And they’re subsidized. A ride will cost you about US$0.85; maybe US$1.25 if you’re going all the way to the main island.

In Hong Kong, mortgages are structured so that you begin paying down the principle immediately. No paying interest only for the first five years.

Our colleagues constantly rave about life with a Filipino helper. The entire helper industry is heavily regulated. Hong Kong law mandates their wages, their hours, and their days off. Hong Kong laws stipulate that helpers reside with the family that employs them.

The government owns much of the undeveloped land in Hong Kong and makes a tidy sum selling it off. Unless, you’re a school. Then, fill out a ton of paper work, cross your fingers, and maybe you will be given a land grant and sold the property at a fraction of its market value. It was a government grant that made ICS’s brand new building possible.

Hong Kong today is the result of 150 years of Britain’s laissez faire attitude and their desire for unbridled commerce, and the Chinese penchant for bureaucracy. It’s a system I call bureaucratic capitalism. It seems to work.

Milton Friedman –may you rest in peace- you are still The Man. I just want you to know, Uncle Milty, that I still have my shrine to you set up in the corner of my living room.

But I sure do like riding those trains.

Now, dear reader, about that diamond chart. Have you got a pencil I can borrow? Why don’t you pull up a chair, this is going to take a few minutes . . . .

-Jack

A&E riding the train

Boy's Head on Dad's Knee

Time to Don the Blue Face Masks?

A couple of schools in Hong Kong were required to close last week because of an outbreak of swine flu. They’ve had to resort to remote e-schooling.

We have had inspectors from the China Health Department visit us to check on our wellness status.

The cleaning staff was told to double the amount of bleach in their cleaning solution, so now the school smells like a swimming pool.

We have been told to leave ajar all of our classroom windows to allow fresh air to circulate into the building. When kids enter my classroom, I have been instructed to give each one of them a squirt of hand sanitizer.

In addition to getting their temperature checked as they enter the building each day, every student is supposed to get his or her temperature taken at home every morning. Then, they are required to bring in their signed temperature sheets once a week. If they fail to do so, the school levies fines against them.

All this has all made for a busy week for Julie. The reporting requirements from the government are keeping her very busy and she has been going in early and staying late every day. Every time she sits down to compile data, a second grader comes in wanting a Band-Aid. Tuesday, she saw fourteen students in two hours.

Please pray we don’t get shut down.

Please pray for the health of the staff and students.

-Jack