👉 Italiano Italy Flag

Drops of Hong Kong

Ok, let’s start with the photos that everyone is expecting, about the wonderful, bustling Hong Kong. I’ll share some colorful street art, a sky-bound temple with brilliant lanterns and, of course… How can I not display that? That’s probably the best skyline in the world. Hong Kong skyline here, just for you. Provided with his light show, held in the evening at Victoria Harbour.

Hong Kong Skyline — Skyline di Hong Kong

Are we good, now?

Then I’ll shift to a different Hong Kong, still an iconic one. The one celebrated by movies and videogames, stretching in narrower roads, with many small stores glued together. And the shops’ signs, extending till the half of the street, creating from left to right an intermittent roof. Beyond the spaces other skyscrapers, a joint of small flats claiming their space in the big big city. Above them, shy and frugal, the sky.

And then the bamboo scaffoldings: the ultimate construction technique, still used in a hyperdeveloped galactic fantasy city.

So, I’ve done my tourist report. I can finally start talking about my Hong Kong.

I’ve hugged her in the rain and in the rain I fell in love with her. She has shown me her inner insecurities, she came to me unadorned and cried on my shoulders, my knees, and my shoes. On an early hot summer, which left me completely drenched. My clothes did dry, my heart did not. Hong Kong, this love letter is for you.

I met you on an apparently hot and sunny day, on an early morning of June. You were cheerfully around and busy going everywhere. I started looking at you, stared at you. I smiled and you smiled back. So, you dropped your errands and told me: “Let’s move away from here, let’s leave the noises and stresses for a day.” I took your hand and let it drag mine around.

Lantau Island is a paradise if your eyes are ready to accept it. Nature is still predominant there, roads are not straight and squared anymore, they wind around and turn your neck, making it looking for the sea view like a sunflower is bind to search for the sun.

So, you proposed to me to go up, till there was nothing else but clouds, to disappear together for the escapism I’ve been looking for a long time. I accepted but I didn’t want to rush things. “Let’s take it slowly”, I said, refusing to take the cable car and proposing to go up with a bus. You got my mood, you understood my soul and started to untie yourselves.

The sky started to darken, the sea around you stopped glittering and returned me some gray stripes. That was the first hint Hong Kong had something hidden to tell me.

“I wanted to show you the real me.”, you told me when we finally got close to Ngong Ping, where your Big protector Buddha decided to dwell. “Was it too early?” You asked me. “The real you is what I was staring at from the start.” was my answer.

Then you began to cry. Your tears started moistening temples, trees, floorings and people without distinction. “I have so much to tell you.” you said. And I did listen to your story of changes and suffering and tensions and raising and falling and thriving. You vented it all out in two hours and made me drink it all. I swallowed it, I made it mine.

Then you took me to Tai O, your most well-kept secret. Here you abandon your never-ending struggle to reach for the clouds and plunge your roots inside the sea. “It may be surprising,” you said “but this is another side of me.”

“Don’t worry,” I did reply “I’m going to take the whole bundle.” So, I walked through the small village, astonished like if I was teleported somewhere else. “I’ll need a while to get used to it.” I thought. Then I understood it would still take some time to get to know you.

Then in the evening I had to give you my revelation: “I’ll stay another couple of days, then I have to leave.” You didn’t budge at all and showed me your colorful smile.

Hope to see you again, my shiny and dewy, my dear Hong Kong.

Some additional information:

Not everybody knows that you can easily go around Lantau Island with buses. Close to Tung Chung MTR station, there are two different bus stations. You can get to the mentioned places taking buses departing from there. There are even local buses reaching the airport at very affordable prices.