My Hong Kong diary

I am just back from an official tour to Hong Kong (well its been almost a month now!) .. a second one but a little different. Firstly, this was the first time I noted down my experiences in a dairy and second, I happened to visit Hong Kong at a time when, probably it was at its happiest mood - the Chinese New Year, reminding me of the festive atmosphere in India at the time of Diwali/Dasehra except that crackers are not allowed here. All the places in Hong Kong were decorated with festoons, lanterns, special plants and elaborate decorations at various places. Also, I was fortunate enough to visit Hong Kong during a warmer interval in an otherwise rather cold weather, with temperature dropping as low as 8 degrees!

I was treated, a couple of times, to some genuine chinese cuisine (nowhere close to the chinese stuff that you get in India!) in a chinese joint. I had a chance to try my chopsticks skills too (could'nt carry on for too long and had to resort to the good old fork & spoon). I was fortunate enough to have the company of some very kind people who contributed to making my visit a memorable one. They enlightened me on some of the various customs/traditions/beliefs that they follow during the Chinese New Year ..

1. All the office colleagues of a particular department/section along with the head, go for a meal together on the last day of the year. More often then not its a treat from the head.

2. It is believed that if you leave some left-over in your last meal of the year, you have assured yourself of a square meal in the new year ... almost like the concept of carry-forward brought-forward!

3. People who are not married are supposed to gift the married ones some money and that too in brand new notes. Some organisations actually arrange for new notes.

4. People buy some sweets and keep in their house to give it to people who visit their houses during the new year.

The Chinese stay connected to their roots and in the Chinese culture, family takes precedence over friends and anything else and nowhere is it more apparent than in the Chinese New Year.

My visit was different this time also because I did a lot of shopping (I did not buy a single thing on my last visit!). There was the Night Market, Temple Street, Ladies Market, Toy Shop, Flower Market which was part of the Annual Fair (they have it around the Chinese New Year time). I used to shop, laden with the laptop at my back, for hours together on those long streets and get really exhausted at the end of it all. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and guess it was really worth the trouble.

Of course there were other aspects for which Hong Kong is well-known - the convenient and safe infrastructure, the wonderful lights that lit the city in the night ... all of which left me gaping for more. Before long, it was time for me to go, taking along some wonderful memories.