Hong Kong Day 1 (香港 第一天)

So after sixteen hours of airplane movies (yes, I literally started watching Bourne Identity after take-off and didn't stop until Friends turned off at landing), I arrived safely and with relatively few mishaps in Hong Kong. I'm staying with my dad's brother's family in Kowloon, which is the peninsula right across from Hong Kong Island. Almost all of my dad's family live in the same area of Hong Kong, which makes for very convenient family gathering. Below is a compilation of my first impressions.

Random thoughts about HK:
- It's like an Asian NYC. Except more colorful, commercial, modern, and clean. And of course everyone's Chinese and all the signs are in Chinese (traditional form so my limited literacy is even more limited).
- They drive on the wrong side of the road! That's not new info but it definitely weirds me out... I hyperventilate every time my uncle turns left because we don't go into the right lane.
- It's REALLY humid. Probably not much hotter than NY temperature-wise but it feels worse because of all the moisture.
- Cantonese is really hard to understand, let alone speak. I figured if I was exposed enough I would start to get the gist of things since I know Mandarin, but it's been 24 hours and I'm still clueless 99% of the time during conversation =(
- Service is pretty awesome, or at least all at all the restaurants/cafes/shops I've been to. You don't have to clean up after yourself at all and someone's always changing your plate at the right time.

Anyway, here's brief recap of my first full day:

After dim sum lunch with my aunts and uncles, we went to Victoria's Peak for a bird's eye view of Hong Kong Island. Unfortunately between pollution and fog, the visibility was pretty lousy so all we could see were some of the skyscrapers in Central, but still a pretty nice view.


After walking around the Peak, we went to IFC (International Finance Center) for some shopping before I went to the UBS office to visit two of my cousins who work in Equities. Then we went to a reunion dinner with all my cousins who live in Hong Kong (eight in total) and their spouses/fiances.

This dinner was a big deal for the family because it was the first time all the “Hui Ming 许明" cousins - the nine children of my dad and his brothers - had all been together for the first time. Since I'm the only one who lives in America and I had never been to Hong Kong before, I'm usually the one who's MIA lol. It was also a good time to share happy news with everyone - one of my cousins just found out he's expecting twin boys and another one just got engaged.

So all-in-all it's been a really interesting trip so far just for the sake of connecting with roots. I've never met some of my family or hadn't seen them for so long I couldn't remember what they look like. I still feel kind of removed from the rest because I'm the youngest and thus always a step behind the rest in terms of stages of life, and I don't know Cantonese so it's hard to understand conversation unless they speak directly to me in English. But everyone's been extraordinarily kind and generous and supportive, so even though I'm such an outsider I have no trouble feeling at home.