Two Worlds - Hong Kong

The terminal was packed tight and many people – their dark heads bent in a familiar pose – were texting. I could look over shoulders and watch the flying thumbs swipe pages of Chinese characters into view and, because I couldn’t understand any of it, I didn’t feel too guilty.

It was crowded because the one day we had in Hong Kong was a public holiday and, judging by the sheer numbers queuing for the ferry, Cheung Chau was a good place to spend it.

We’d walked from our hotel in Kowloon to the Star Ferry terminal and caught an open-air ride across the harbour to Hong Kong Island. A short walk from that wharf was the ferry to Cheung Chau.

One of the many brilliant things about Hong Kong is the ease with which visitors can get around. There is plenty of English signage, and transport systems are logical.

After half an hour’s boat ride, we pulled into the busy Cheung Chau fishing harbour. Families with picnic baskets, friends with cameras, couples with babies, and tended elders stepped ashore ahead of us. It was instantly fun to be part of a crowd in happy holiday mode.

There are no cars on the island – many bicycles, including for hire – but no need to watch for traffic as we wandered the cobbled streets to a temple with swirling incense, sculptured dragons and circular gateways. We walked on – past specialist retailers of dried fish, vegetables, plastic ware, bathroom supplies, electric fans, handbags – to the other side of the island, where a small sandy beach hosted swimming children.

Hungry day trippers wandered the streets as we were doing, snacking on the move. Food stall owners, doing a roaring trade, tolerated our language deficiencies and responded to our guessing and pointing and shrugging. We ate well at a table by the harbour, which bristled with brightly painted boats shifting in the tide.

Back at Kowloon, the tight streets buzzed with a different kind of busy-ness. From high-end fashion to trashy nonsense, shop after shop beckoned. Past Tiffany’s, past Louis Vuitton, past air-conditioned malls loaded with everything imaginable, we slipped into a colourful side street of smaller retailers. One was dedicated to watches, another to sports shoes, another to cell phones. The paths between were high-energy and extreme.

Despite experiencing both on the same day, Cheung Chau, caught in some magical mood, seemed a hundred years away.