Ok, let's get this out of the way right off the bat... A not insignificant fraction of people will ask me, "We have two Disneylands here in the US, why would you bother going to Disneyland when you're in an exciting foreign city like Hong Kong?". Well, first off, we don't have two Disneylands, we have Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, but let's not get nit picky! :-) As you most likely know, my family and I are what you might call Dis-aholics, people who delight in all things Disney. I've been to Disney World many times growing up (conveniently, my grandparents had a house in Florida not far away that they used to winter at), and still find Disney to be an exciting place to visit. There's something about such an immersive and creative place that inspires the imagination, and what so many people don't realize is that Disney can be even more fun for an adult than it is for a child. So having been to every Disney park in the US, I was curious to see what Disney was like in Hong Kong, and after spending most of this week (aside from the conference time) exploring exotic corners of a foreign city, it was nice to spend an afternoon just wandering around riding roller coasters, without having to worry about getting lost in a strange country or planning what sight I was going to see next!
Now, just a little background. HK Disneyland is the newest Disney resort (Shanghai Disney is not yet open), opening in 2005. Like all of Disney's international parks, is not actually directly owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company. It is instead owned and operated by a company called Hong Kong International Theme Parks, which is a joint venture co-owned by WDC and the Hong Kong government, the HK having the majority share. In reality, though, I would have never seen a difference if I hadn't already known that, as it's design is as thorough as Disney parks in the US and seems to be run just the same, too.
Also, a brief preface on this post. I didn't exactly consciously go with this intention, but I found myself pretty much comparing every aspect of HK Disneyland to the US parks. Therefore, a lot of what I write here will end up doing the same. But I'll make a concerted effort to not be too critical!
Overall, I'd say my biggest impression of HK Disneyland was that it was so small! Like, really small! Now, I'm used to the grand size of the Walt Disney World Resort, which is huge, so even Disneyland in California seems small to me (I recently visited Disneyland with a friend, who was equally as well versed in the ways of Disney World, and our initial reaction after walking through the gate went something like this: "Aww, look at the little castle, it's so tiny and cute!" This didn't exactly sit to well with a relative of another friend that was with us and who had grown up in California...), but this was even smaller, so as to feel even a little cramped. And it was far from busy, with very few lines more than about 10-15 minutes. Although oddly, the shortest lines were the roller coasters, where I could walk right on. As opposed to 30 minutes for the Tea Cups or 45 for the Autopia! Do Chinese tourists not like roller coasters?
Anyway, on to the details, and more importantly, the pictures!
Getting there was a piece of cake! There's a special line of the MTR that goes straight to Disneyland, dropping off just outside the front gate, and like any good Disney transportation method, is covered in Mickeys!
[Left] The MTR station in front of the park, complete with colorful Mickey train; [Center] The inside of the train can only be described as very Disney; [Right] Mickey hang straps for standees on the train
Arriving at the park entrance, you just feel like you're walking into a miniature model of Disneyland, but you're still greeted by Mickey in the flowers!
The front entrance of Hong Kong Disneyland
Main Street seemed a little odd. First, it was still Main Street, USA, which surprised me given that the park was in Hong Kong. Second, it's clearly Disneyland's Main Street, right down to the diminutive Sleeping Beauty's Castle, but it's wider, like Disney World. This just gives it an even smaller feel, because the buildings just seem so tiny on the overly wide street! And it lacks the forced perspective of Disney World.
Main Street, USA, Hong Kong... Seems odd to see a mountain right behind the castle!
For those of you who don't know what my last sentence means, forced perspective is a technique Disney uses a lot to make things look bigger (or smaller) than they really are! Essentially, it exaggerates the perceived change in size of things that are farther away to trick you into seeing them differently. For example, take Main Street in Disney World. On all of the buildings, the second floor windows are about 75% of the height of a standard window, then the third floor windows are about 50%. In reality, the building is only 2 floors tall, but many of them look 3 to 4. In a similar vein, Main Street in Disney World is wider at the park entrance than at the castle, as this makes it look bigger and longer and more exciting as you're coming into the park, and also makes it look shorter and like less of a walk when you're leaving the park!
Anyway, back to Hong Kong, I just generally found that all the lands were tiny, and had only 2-3 rides each. Whereas you could spend a whole day in Disney World's Magic Kingdom or Disneyland and not do the whole park, I managed to finish everything in about 3-4 hours, and actually had to find things to do to kill time until the fireworks! Oddly enough, too, the rides with the shortest lines were the roller coasters! There was a 45 minute line for the Autopia (race cars), but Space Mountain and the other roller coaster had no lines whatsoever... Seemed strange!
Overall, I had a great time. It is Disney, after all! But between the US parks and Hong Kong Disneyland, there's just no comparison! Now I leave you with a bunch of pictures... :-)
A tiny Space Mountain in Tomorrowland
The queue line for Space Mountain
Compare to the queue line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, which is similar to the one in Disneyland, where the laser guns are handhel
Almost made it to Galactic Hero! ;-)
They had a fun parade called Fantasy Takes Flight! I enjoyed it, because it was full of flying things!
The castle in the background of Fantasyland, which had all the typical rides like the tea cups, carousel, and Dumbo
Toy Story Land! It was tiny, but very cool! It did have an odd, cheap theme park feel to it, like you were at Six Flags or something, but it was as well themed as any Disney land. I think it's just the lack of buildings that gave it that feel.
Perhaps my new favorite Disney ride! Mystic Manor (the building on the left) in Mystic Point. It's the only ride in the land, and is Hong Kong's replacement for the Haunted Mansion, which they deemed inappropriate for cultural reasons, but it's very cool! The cars all move independently, and the whole ride is very animated and colorful. The premise is that it's a collection of ancient artifacts that's brought to life by a magical music box, and it's a ton of fun.
Not sure if the video does it justice, but I tried! Sorry for the lack of focus in the first room, but my camera's autofocus fails in complete darkness...
Grizzly Gulch, which replaced Fronteirland
Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, which is basically what you'd get if you put Big Thunder Mountain together with Expedition Everest. It's a very fun coaster!
Adventureland basically consisted of Tarzan's Treehouse and the Jungle Cruise, which was similar to, but laid out very differently than, its American counterparts
When you get in line for Jungle Cruise, you choose your language. Though choosing "English" really means choosing "Heavily accented English-like". I'm pretty sure if I didn't already know most of the Jungle Cruise jokes by heart, I'd have had no idea what she was saying. And they're a lot less punny in Hong Kong, but just some kind of amusing jokes and general information...
The fanciest Disney counter service meal I've ever seen! And not actually expensive, either! It was very delicious!
Ended the night with fireworks over the castle, of course! A little bit smaller of a show than Disney World, but still on par for Disney fireworks! Only problem was there was little to no wind to clear the smoke, so it got hard to see the fireworks through the smoke by the end of it.
Of my time in Hong Kong, that is! It's been a fun and amazing week, between seeing all the exciting cutting edge work going on in the field of Robotics at ICRA, exploring a city as unique as Hong Kong, and just getting the opportunity to travel! I've taken a ton of pictures, and am excited to share them and my experiences! But first, I have to get the pictures off my camera and the ideas out of my head. It just so happens I have about 24 hours of traveling in front of me! So while I sit on a plane to San Francisco for 15 hours and then catch my connection back to DC, I'm going to attempt to do as much of that as possible. So check back here all week next week, and I'll try and post a bunch more about my trip!
In the mean time, I have a prize for the best guess (Price Is Right style, no going over!) of how many pictures I took on this trip! For some reference, I've been here 7 days. I took about 7,000 in my almost 3 weeks in Peru, and close to 10,000 in just over two weeks in Australia and New Zealand...
I must sound like a walking cliche, here... But that's really the first thing that struck me about today's excursion across the harbor to the markets of Kowloon! Well, really, I was only in the Mong Kok section of Kowloon, which is known for its street markets where you can find anything and everything you need, and quite a bit more things you don't need (and when I say anything and everything, I mean it...). Picture Chinatown (In New York or San Francisco, not the "China"town of DC that's really just a district for trendy restaurants now), then add many, many more neon lights and signs and make it about 5 times bigger. That's the Mong Kok district of Kowloon, where this afternoon I walked through 1.5 miles worth of street markets!
A view of Tung Choi St in Mong Kok, commonly known as the Ladies Market due to the preponderance of womens' clothing stalls and shops
Mong Kok is very different than Central Hong Kong and the Wan Chai area where my hotel and the conference center are. These areas are very modern, full of glass skyscrapers, and clearly cater to an international crowd of visitors, with restaurants from all over the US and Europe. You can tell how Western it really is when you see this sign pointing visitors to the "Chinese Restaurant" at the convention center...
Oh look, a Chinese Restaurant! I would have never expected to find one of them here!
And yet, they're both so very different from the Tsim Sha Tsui section I visited this afternoon before Mong Kok, with it's nice promanade along the harbor and museums of art, science, and history! Basically, Hong Kong is one giant mixing of Eastern and Western cultures into an entirely unique kind of city.
The harbor-front promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui region of Kowloon with its historic clock tower
Perhaps a brief history lesson, courtesy of the Hong Kong Museum of History, which I perused this afternoon (made even better by the fact that they offer free admission on Wednesdays!), might help explain this:
Hong Kong as the city we know today didn't exist before the 1840's. During much of China's history, there was actually nothing here but a few small fishing villages, and later some small naval garrisons. But by and large, the Chinese didn't settle Hong Kong and its islands all that much. That changed when the Portuguese showed up! We all know the Portuguese liked to explore and trade, and they were the first to find their way around the Cape of Good Hope and discover a sea route from Europe to India and Asia. Now, being such a long trip, naturally the Portuguese wanted a place to dock their ships after voyage for repairs and to let the sailors off for some leave. China, being China, was fairly reluctant to have a sudden influx of foreigners into their cities, and so generally limited where the traders could go. The Portuguese weren't thrilled about this, but being diplomatic, they somehow convinced the Chinese to lease them a small island named Macau near the Chinese port of Gangzhou on which they could build their own port to facilitate trade. That settlement because a major center for European countries wanting to trade with China.
Of course, no good colonial era maritime story is complete without the British Empire showing up! After a while, they were growing discontent with being pigeon holed into a tiny Portuguese city and not really being allowed to freely come and go from Chinese ports like they wanted. In addition, while British citizens were eager to buy goods and wares from China, the Chinese had significantly less interest in the goods the British were trying to sell. So there was a huge trade imbalance that favored the Chinese. Until, that is, the 1800's, when the British realized they could export Opium from nearby India to China, and Opium has that pesky addictive quality...
China, for some reason, was very unhappy with the British getting all of the local population addicted to Opium, and outlawed it, seizing cargo from trade ships and destroying it, then levying heavy fines. In retaliation, Great Britain did was Great Britain did best in the 1700's and 1800's, invade! The Chinese were caught by surprise, and couldn't put up much of a fight. The British marched almost all the way to Beijing before a peace treaty was signed in 1841, in which the Chinese ceded the island of Hong Kong, finally giving Great Britain the trade port it wanted all along. But of course, one war was never enough, so after the First Opium War came, naturally, the Second Opium War, which ended with China ceding Kowloon to the British. And in one last move, in 1897, Britain signed a treaty to lease the rest of the Islands and a large piece of land north of Kowloon for 100 years.
So Hong Kong as a city was founded under British rule, and was wholly British for many years. During World War II, the Japanese attacked and occupied Hong Kong while trying to invade China. After it returned to the British at the end of the war, the cultures began to gradually mix as more and more immigrants from Mainland China arrived, continuing further as China became the socialist country it is today. Then, in the 1970's, with the British lease of much of the colony's territory set to expire, the UK and China reached an agreement, where in 1997, Hong Kong would return to being under Chinese sovereignty, under the condition that for at least 50 years, Hong Kong be allowed to continue its style of democratic, capitalistic government free from interference from the Chinese socialist party. And so, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was created, and the city pretty much rules itself independently of the Chinese government. In fact, it's actually harder to cross the border form China to Hong Kong than it is to fly to Hong Kong from the US (I didn't need a visa to come to this conference).
At the end of the night, I headed back to the promenade to catch the famous Star Ferry back across the harbor from Kownloon, which at night provides spectacular views of the city all lit up by the LCD's, LED's, and neon lights that adorn every shiny glass building Hong Kong has! So I leave you with this amazing view...
Panorama from Wan Chai (left) to Central Hong Kong (right), as seen from the Kowloon Star Ferry terminal
Seems obvious, I guess, but I have to say I'm impressed! I tend to be fairly picky, and Chinese food has never been my favorite. I don't dislike it, but it's also not what I'd usually pick when asked what I want to eat. But since I'm here, I figured I should give it a try, though before coming I was admittedly nervous about the local cuisine! (I preface this with the disclaimer that I've been here all of a day and have not ventured much beyond the convention center hosting the conference, so pretty much everything I've seen caters to tourists and business travelers...)
Last night after the conference, I ventured up to Victoria Peak, which overlooks central Hong Kong and Victoria Harbor, which the city surrounds. From the top, there are spectacular views of the city below. I went about sunset, so got to see the city lights come to light as it got dark, which was cool. While I was there, I decided to grab dinner. After wandering around the large shopping mall at the top (the route from the funicular up the mountain to the lookout is carefully crafted so you pass practically every store in the mall along the way, most of which are not different than any mall in the US or Europe), my choices were among the following: Bubba Gump, a Japanese restaurant, Burger King, and a few other places clearly not serving local cuisine... Hong Kong's very much the same as any western city, with all the major restaurants and stores (including 7-11's all over the place)!
Panorama of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbor at night as seen from Victoria Peak
I found a place outside the mall that looked somewhat like a slightly fancier diner type place, with a menu ranging from French or Italian to American burgers or BBQ to some actual authentic Asian (including a Chinese dish or two). It wasn't actually all local food, but it worked. I got Hainan Chicken, which was delicious! First, being used to Chinese food coming in small paper cartons and Styrofoam, it was impressive to see it served so ncie. It came with three different sauces, one of which was a citrusy sauce, one of which was soy sauce, and the last one was probably the best duck sauce I've ever had (It was more than just a sweet sauce, it had a little bit of spice to it). Also, I was very proud of myself, because I managed to eat the whole meal with chopsticks! Real chopsticks are so much easier to use than the cheap wooden ones. And I even ate the soup, which I never eat at Chinese restaurants back home. This may all seem like things one would expect when eating local food, but for somebody who's a generally picky eater, it's always exciting to discover new things!
It's been close to two weeks since the last post, and they've been a busy two weeks, and I've got lots of exciting things to say! But for now, they'll have to wait. Right now, I'm exhausted, and it's definitely bed time... Yes, I know for most of you it's only 11 am (at the latest), but I happen to be in Hong Kong right now, where it's 11 pm, and after 24 hours of traveling, I'm very excited about my hotel room's bed! But before I do, I felt moved to throw a few thoughts out there, because this place is quite a city! For those who are confused, asking "Why are you on the other side of the world?", I'm here for a robotics conference I'm presenting at. ICRA to be specific
So, I left the east coast on a 7 am flight yesterday (Saturday) morning. A quick 5 hours later, I was in San Francisco, where I had a close to 4 hour layover (this was on purpose, as the Hong Kong flight leaves SFO once a day, and I didn't want to miss it just because my connecting flight way late). I got on a Untied 747 at 12:30 pm San Francisco time, and got off of it at 7:00 pm on Sunday in Hong Kong! Fully 24 hours of traveling, but the time was 36 hours later... Surprisingly my internal clock is actually not that far off, despite the day changing without the sun having ever set. I'm used to red eye flights at least at some point flying through night time, but that never happened on this flight. 15.5 hours in the air, and the sun was up the whole time. I did get some sleep on the plane, but I never sleep well on planes, so I feel appropriately tired now that it's essentially bed time!
The sun reflecting off of one of Hong Kong's tallest buildings as my place came in shortly before sunset
But before I go to bed, just some thoughts on this city from my few hours here so far (in no particular order). Hong Kong strikes me as what you would get if you merged New York City and Los Angeles into one city, and then placed it in Miami... Oh, and throw in a splash of London or Sydney for flavor.
They've outdone Times Square as far as the LCD's and LED's go. Most of the buildings don't just have the name at the top in lights, but it's on a giant LCD panel that animates and moves. All of the biggest buildings take that a step further with dancing light accents across the entire building, with several going so far as to make the entire side of the building a screen
Like LA, the city is built to the contour of the land it's on, with every piece of flat (or flat-ish) land containing a building. But more extreme than LA, in that none of these buildings seem to be less than 40 floors! There are 7 million people in the city, and while its area is actually quite large, the islands its built on are fairly highly and mountainous, so the city squeezes into small niches wherever it can.
When I checked the weather before I came, I basically just packed as if I was going to Florida. It's supposed to be 80's to 90's, with a 60+ % chance of showers every afternoon! And it sure is muggy tonight...
Being a former British colony, they don't drive on the right side of the road. And the waterfront is quite spectacular looking, as the city lines the harbor on both sides with modern, glassy, colorfully lit buildings!
Hong Kong is the financial capital of Asia, and as such is definitely not a cheap city. I considered the $7-8 beers in DC to be on the pricey side, but the cheapest one on the menu at the place I went for dinner tonight was 70 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD), which is about $9, with some as high as $12-13 for a normal bottle. Also, probably for similar reasons, there is quite a mix of world foods available, many of which are much fancier than I'd expect. For dinner tonight, I wanted three things: a) close to my hotel, b) quick, c) inexpensive. I was tired, just wanted a quick bite before bed. I ended up getting 1 out of 3... and that was close. I picked what looked like a nice bar that would probably have sandwiches. Cheapest thing on the menu was a $20 hamburger... And next door was a very nationality confused place call Chez Patrick's Deli that looked way t0o fancy for its name! I'll have to explore a bit more as the week goes on to find some good food places, because clearly the places close to my hotel (and therefore close to the convention center) cater to tourists and business travelers.
French? Irish? Jewish Deli? No idea!
Lastly, I'm so far finding my limited navigation around the city challenging... The train from the airport was a piece of cake, with an easy to catch bus from the train station right to my hotel. But on foot, this city is a maze, and a multi-level one at that. There seem to be at least two levels of city, some places have more, with elevated walkways and escalators going between buildings above the street level. Makes following Google Maps just a little bit harder!
Well, those are just my first impressions. It looks like an amazing city, and I can't wait to explore it more! I'll report on my adventures here, so don't worry! In the mean time, enjoy your Sunday, I'm going to sleep!
