I did not go to Hong Kong to go sightseeing or to explore places. I went
there to be with people and to celebrate schools and churches. But the place of
Hong Kong continues to be amazing. Now considered a part of China if is classified
as being part of one country-two systems. Hong Kong is no longer a
manufacturing center. All of that is either in the Mainland or in Vietnam and
other Southeastern China countries. Nevertheless it is a bustling never go to
sleep business metropolis of some 7 million energetic, ambitious, success
driven people. Its business is business. All the major finance companies of the
world have offices there. It is a favorite place for shoppers from the Mainland
to come and secure both ordinary and luxury goods. Wherever we went over the
weekend we were engulfed by people from the Mainland carrying suitcases full of
stuff to take home. And they all spoke Mandarin, not the local Cantonese.
When we visited both the Chinese schools and HKIS it was stressed that while
English is an important language there is now an emphasis that everyone also
needs to learn to speak Mandarin
When I lived there 50 years ago it had no bridges or tunnels to connect
the Kowloon peninsula with island-now there are three massive tunnels flowing
with tens of thousands of cars. The underground metro system is inconceivably
efficient, clean and economical. Where rice patties or steep hills formerly lay
we now find high-rise after high-rise.
Hong Kong is expensive It is on par with Manhattan. Housing is
unbelievably costly and people cram into very small spaces and often struggle
to afford that. Even families with more than one wage earner may live in less
than 800 square feet of home space.
The Hong Kong Peak, which Tim visited, has not changed much, but the scenery
is very different. The harbor keeps getting filled in with massive high-rise
structures now standing where we used to catch the ferry. But the faithful Star
Ferry is still there and Tim and I rode it even being lucky enough to be there
on free ferry-ride day”
Nathan Road in Kowloon is not much changed. We went to the old section
of Hung Hom with its bustling clogged streets, looking very much like it did 50
years ago. The Peninsula Hotel with the Bentley and Rolls Royce cars sitting in
front remains unchanged. The Hong Kong Golf Club where I got in 18 holes of
poor golf now allows pull-carts though my host insisted I use a caddy.
Macau is an entirely different world from what I knew. It is the Las
Vegas of the Orient with all the Vegas Gambling Casinos and Hotels reproduced
and even done up more ostentatiously than in Nevada. When we stopped for
cocktails in the Wynn Casino it felt like Vegas.
PEOPLE: It’s the people of Hong Kong generally and those whom I got to
know personally that most inspire me. This time more than ever many of them
grew nostalgic. Over and over and over they recalled the early days, the days
they were newly arrived refugees and my students. They lived in squatter huts.
They lived in stairwells. They slept on the corridors of huge resettlement
estates. They got burned out. They went hungry. They had no shoes. When they
got sick they could not afford medical care. The had T.B. They had skin
diseases. Even teen-agers lost hair due to malnutrition. I heard those stories
over and over. And now they are well fed, they may be crowded in small
apartments but they own them. They are teachers, principals, money managers,
medical doctors, nurses, attorneys, fashion designers, newspaper writers,
pastors, and professors. It was all incredible. And one after another after
another came and told me their story and expressed heartfelt thanks for the
opportunity to go to school and get an education.
One of the most moving moments of my whole trip came on Sunday after
worship. Four different older women came up to me. Each one of them told me
that that their only opportunity to learn to read (they were very poor) was to
come to a special evening school we had started that charged only 50 cents month
tuition. One of them came to me just before I left. She pressed into my hand a
tiny very, very low cost piece of plastic /glass beads. “These are for you, with
my thanks!” she said and quickly stepped away. That is the most wonderful way
for me to celebrate my 90th that I could ever imagine.
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