The Leavers Tram Party

Of all of the blogs that I write, I hope that this is the one that I get right.  So often I read back through what I have written about a place and been frustrated about how I haven’t been able to convey what it was really like to be there - not just the cliché sights and smells, but the elusive essence of a place that makes travelling so worthwhile.  In addition to describing what it was like to live in Hong Kong, there is also the even more complex goal of describing the changes in my outlook that nine formative months have inspired, so I hope that I can do it some kind of justice.  I took part in the year abroad because it seemed like a bit of an adventure, but it morphed into something far more profound and unexpected - beyond the narrow scope of the third year of a degree to influencing my perception of the world, my position in it and my plans going forward.

The iconic junk in Victoria Harbour

It is now approaching over a month since I left Hong Kong.  That may not seem like a particularly long time, but over the period I have backpacked through China, said my farewells to Hong Kong, briefly visited my family in my home town of Hitchin and started a new job back in Bristol where I have been reunited with friends I haven’t seen for a year.  It has been a whirlwind, but I am now back into the routine of a normal life - a position from which I believe I can best look back and summarise.  In quieter moments I find myself experiencing flashbacks of particular places or moments.  Whether its the sounds - the door closing on the Hong Kong MTR, the gentle ringing of bells on the top of a Burmese pagoda, the roar of the Yangtze River running through Tiger Leaping Gorge, the smells - street food in Taipei, incense in Chinese temples, the streets of Mumbai, or the sights - dawn over Bagan, sunset over Hampi, the lights of Victoria Harbour, they are forever etched vividly in my mind. I wonder whether I have developed some kind of reverse-trauma - having experienced such an abundance of powerfully positive memories, I wonder if will now always find them lurking on the edge of my consciousness.

Eight different nationalities at HK’s largest waterfall

To declare a year as ‘the best of my life’ at the age of 22 seems rather defeatist, but I will state (and I know that this is a big claim) that this was as close to an 'perfect year’ as it may be possible to get.  For one year, anything seemed possible and I wanted for nothing - the company was like-minded, my education appeared successful and, most importantly, adventures were regular.  I find myself totally unable to put how wonderful it was into words, both on here and when speaking to friends and family asking “how was it?”.  I felt a little like I was wrenched away in the middle of having a wonderful time and more than any other period in my life, coming home from Hong Kong has been an exercise in mentally accepting that all good things come to an end - but it has also served as a motivation to develop further happy periods (as I am a firm believer in these things being cyclical) in the near future.

A group from UST and HKU at the top of the Lion Rock

As a place, Hong Kong has usurped Istanbul as my favourite city in the world.  The last few years have exposed me to many of the major urban centres that are often quoted as the 'greatest in the world’ - from New York City to Tokyo, Paris to Shanghai, London to Singapore, but of all of these Hong Kong is the one that sticks out as the pick of the bunch.  None of the others have such a dramatic setting - surrounded by jungles, beaches, mountains and with the most spectacular skyline of them all.  In amidst the slightly overawing skyscrapers is a maze representing a cross section of the human race - markets and street food stalls, designer outlets and banks, schools and hospitals, all in the centre of the vertical city.  Having had time to see the lesser known parts of Hong Kong I was privileged to find secluded beaches, challenging hikes, pleasant seaside towns and much more.  It is much, much more than tall buildings and 'east meets west’ - a month of sightseeing would not be enough time to do it all justice.

Dinner in a Turkish restaurant in Hong Kong with a Russian,an American and an Iranian

The best part of it all, looking forward, is the network of friends that I have developed around the world.  We were all brought, from truly diverse backgrounds, into an environment that was new to all of us and the fact that we were able to bond and thrive is a testament to the human race’s fundamentally shared values.  Against a wider backdrop of global strife and conflict, the friendships I have forged with Americans and Russians, Israelis and Iranians, Japanese and Chinese prove that on a human level, nationalities are nothing more than arbitrary - about as consequential as which football team you support.  As the world gets smaller and smaller I look forward to regular visits to and from international friends and I strongly believe that future generations will be brought up as global citizens.  I am sure that the time is nigh for the Little Englanders who I have followed making such noise on the news back in the UK.

The title of this blog is taken from Rudyard Kipling’s “If”, a poem that in my opinion sums up all that a person should aim to be.  It concludes as follows:


To all of you who have read as far as this, I thank you for sticking with me.  This blog has become very important to me - as a way of keeping record of what I have done, of informing friends and families of where I am and (hopefully) of providing a little bit of inspiration for would-be travellers.  I hope that you, the reader, are able to travel and I would urge you to seize every half-opportunity you get to see the world.  There is, in my humble opinion, no better way to spend your own unforgiving minutes.

Until next time, my beloved Hong Kong

A last sunrise at HKUST

10000 Buddha's Monastery

Nine months after landing in Hong Kong for my year abroad, May had come around far too quickly.  Aside from the pressure of finals came a certain nagging need to see all of the Hong Kong sights that I had yet to get around to visiting.  First up, right at the start of the month, was a visit to the 10000 Buddha Monastery near to Sha Tin MTR station, a surreal collection of individualised Buddha statues that have been built up over the last sixty-odd years.  While not being an actual temple, it has become something of a religious theme park and tourist site.  The Buddhas range from those in traditional poses through to surreal ones with massive arms, or multiple faces.  Whether there is any underlying religious symbolism I do not know - but it was certainly an interesting half day out.

Happy Valley Racecourse

Next up on the bucket list was Happy Valley racecourse near to Causeway Bay.  Happy Valley is one of several racecourses that make up the Jockey Club - the largest contributor of taxes in Hong Kong and us one of the real ‘Hong Kong institutions’.  Watching the races (and partaking in the associated gambling) is one of the most popular evenings out for locals, expats and tourists and is held on most Wednesdays of the year.  Surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers, the course has to be one of the most dramatic in the world and with live music and a range of food stalls, I only wish that I had been a few more times while I had been in Hong Kong - definitely something to come back to see and a must for anybody who is in the city on a Wednesday.  Having never bet on racing before, it was easy to put down a few Hong Kong dollars to make things a bit more exciting.

Hong Kong History Museum

I had originally intended to spend all of my final month in Hong Kong, but a nagging desire to see the Great Wall of China got the better of me and I squeezed in a five day visit to Beijing (see elsewhere).  After the trip I was plunged into the exam period, which didn’t go as well as last semester, partly as the research project had eaten into my time so much and partly because I was preoccupied with making the most of my remaining time in Hong Kong.  With a big gap between some of my exams I decided to spend an afternoon looking around two of Hong Kong’s most important museums.  The first of these is an absolute must-see for any visitor to Hong Kong - the History Museum, which is perhaps the most impressive such museum I have ever visited.  Hong Kong is blessed with a fascinating but concise history, and it is possible to view this from prehistoric times through to the modern day at the museum in a series of chronological exhibits.  I spent a good four hours there, but it would be possible to get a good overview in a few hours.  The other museum I visited is a very new addition to Hong Kong - the 4th June Museum, which is dedicated to teaching people about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the 25th anniversary of which was imminent.  The museum is very controversial as talk of the protests is still banned on the mainland and Hong Kong is definitely pushing its freedoms by allowing it to open.  It is situated on the fourth floor of an apartment building in Tsim Sha Tsui and is admittedly not very big and is mainly in Chinese, but is worth a look just to see it as an act of defiance by the people of Hong Kong.

The goddess of democracy, 4th June Museum

Myself, Jewel and Sam at the Tram Party

My last exam unfortunately was as the latest possible time slot, which meant that I was thrust immediately into a brief period of leaving celebrations before we all went back to our respective homelands.  The highlight of the farewell gatherings was the tram party, where a group of us hired one of Hong Kong’s iconic trams for the evening and travelled up and down the island on it.  There can be few better ways of rounding off a year in Hong Kong, and as I hope to allude to in my concluding blog (watch this space), there definitely couldn’t have been better people to be joined with.  May wasn’t as hard as the slog of March and April (mainly due to the conclusion of the research project) and it was great to be able to get out into the city again for a range of last hurrahs.  A few days after the tram party it was all over.  A group of us rose to watch the sunrise over the campus as myself and Sergei made our way to the airport to fly to Yunnan province for our last major trip - a most wonderful send off to a most wonderful year.

The Stone Forest

Tourists, tourists everywhere

Our last major outing from our time in Yunnan Province was to the town of Shilin, a two hour bus journey south west of Kunming.  One of the most accessible and interesting day trips from the provincial capital, Shilin is home to the so-called ‘Stone Forest’ an impressive area of limestone karst landscape that has been entirely overrun by domestic tourists and is now something of a Geological Amusement Park.  The buses depart Kunming’s Eastern Bus Station whenever they are full (costing around 60 Yuan one way) and allowed us to arrive at about 11 in the morning - we had heard that the afternoon period is truly unbearable in terms of tourists so went for an early slot.  The park covers a vast area, with stones ranging in size from small boulders to towering obelisks.  Formed by the weathering of limestone over time, the landscape is named 'Karst’ after a region in Slovenia where the phenomenon was first documented - with similar regions found across the world from Yorkshire to China.

One of the more secluded areas

Luckily it was pretty easy to get away from the tour groups (which stick to a very set and uninspired path) and we were able to find some more peaceful and secluded sections.  Unfortunately the rain cut short our time in the Stone Forest and we weren’t able to explore TOO far, but it was definitely worth a trip and the more adventurous (and perhaps the less tired) would be able to spend a full day rather than a half day like we did.  While not on the grand scale of some of the other natural wonders in China, it was certainly a memorable experience, despite the hoards of tourists.

Black Dragon Pool Park

Lijang’s garish Old Town

We arrived on our sleeper train (the K9610) from Kunming at 7am and got a taxi to our hotel - the Panba Lakeside Hostel, on the northern edge of the town.  Lijiang was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status in 1997 as the cultural home of the Naxi people.  Since then, it has become a major domestic tourist attraction and some would argue, lost a lot of its charm as it sought to cater for the influx of visitors.  Sitting in the shadow of the enormous 5600m tall Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Lijang sits in a valley along with a tapestry of small, picturesque villages which have done a better job of escaping the tourist hordes and remain a little truer to their roots.  As a result of this we decided to head to these villages first, hiring pedal bikes from our hostel and making our way about 15km north to the villages of Baisha and Shuhe.

The road north from Lijang towards Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

10000 Camellia Blossom Temple

The whole area around Lijiang appears to be undergoing quite a transformation and the skyline is dotted with tower cranes.  The rate of change is so fast that maps that were published a few years ago are often now hopelessly out of date, with vast new highways slicing across the valleys and facilitating a tourist industry that is set to keep on expanding.  The advantage of this for cyclists is that these highways are smooth, have dedicated cycle lanes and are relatively quiet.  Our first stop, beyond the village of Baisha would be the “10000 Camellia Blossom Temple”, home to an ancient tree that survived the cultural revolution (thanks to a brave monk).  The temple itself was not PARTICULARLY impressive, it must be said, but the journey was worthwhile as we cycled up the valley sides and got great views back towards the city.  The way up had been extremely hard work, but the way back down was very straight forward, downhill back to Baisha itself.  It was clear on arrival in the village that tourist commercialism was beginning to creep in, but it seemed nice and genuine enough for a brief stroll and lunch at a very authentic seeming restaurant.  This was soon followed by a visit to Shuhe, essentially a suburb of Lijiang itself which had retained the essential characteristics of the city (picturesque traditional streets etc) without absorbing quite so many tourists.

Shuhe Village

The food court in Lijiang

After returning from the outlying villages we made our way into the city centre via the Black Dragon Pool Park, a pleasant Chinese garden that was included in the price of a ticket we had bought earlier in the day.  The old town of Lijiang has been heavily renovated and, while probably being the liveliest place we would visit in Yunnan, felt like it had lost a bit of its character.  While retaining traditional architecture and narrow pedestrianised streets, the buildings were full of brightly lit shops and restaurants - as well as a few bars and clubs with loud music blaring.  It was still worth seeing however and there were a few gems - quiet temples, traditional shops and a large food court full of some of the best food I had tasted in all of my travels in China.  Lijiang is an excellent base to the surrounding villages and mountains and is also more comfortable and exciting than your average Chinese town - well worth a visit.