Hong Kong, March 16, 1992

香港深井麗都花园 1992年3月16日
St Patrick's day tomorrow

In American large cities, the automobile is king. While motorcars are important here [Hong Kong], most people don't have them. Nor is there much cycle traffic. Therefore most people walk and ride busses. Despite this, the roads are very busy and there are therefore many overhead walkways [across roads] and underground subways [way for pedestrians to cross under a major road] to accommodate pedestrians.

The preponderance of busses has meant that many busses are two-tier ("double-deckers"), in particular those of Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB), the main bus company [note: in my part of HK at least, in March 1992, I hadn't seen much of HK Island which has other bus companies]. This in turn dictates that the minimum clearance on roadways be larger than in the uS, where it is, I believe 14 ft, not enough for a double-decker KMB vehicle. This makes even the simplest motorway (superhighway) interchange an imposing sight.

Topographically, I suppose HK might be compared to Monte Carlo. The populated areas are mostly along the coast (Kowloon peninsula the main exception) with steep mountains not far inland.

This creates incredible challenges when it comes to building roads and apartment buildings [housing estates, as they're called here]. For example, a monster development is going on just NW of me, right on a rock face it seems, and Tuen Mun Road [an elevated superhighway] clings to mountain sides most of the way from Tsuen Wan to Tuen Mun The apartment development here has a shuttle to the MTR (Mass Transit Railway, i.e. metro/subway train) station which happens to be next to the Nan Fung Centre (南豐中心) where I work. The [shuttle] bus travels the Tuen Mun motorway and I behold man's audacity and power for creating this road. I can't help remembering the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland [As I remembered it then, California route 17, an old low-quality freeway, but now greatly improved since the earthquake and now called Interstate 880]


002+ International dialling

In Australia, HK, and other places there is a special fax long distance service [there is no toll on any call within HK, so all "long distance" calls are IDD]
In HK you dial 002 + number instead of 001 + number. My hypothesis [theory] is that this guarantees undersea cable routing [editor's note: later, HSBC got a court ruling against HK Telecom that it was just an excuse to charge more money]

Right this minute I can't call out at all because my telephone has stopped working in the 90% humidity. Later tonight, when the temperature [and humidity] falls, the phone will work.

About 4 years ago, telephone numbers here were re-organized. There used to be a 1 digit area code + 6 or 7 digits, but now all numbers have 7 digits [Editor's note: this was later changed to 8 digits for all numbers, by adding a prefix 2 to all 7-digit numbers. The effect of this is that you can sometimes tell the location of a 2008 HK phone number from the SECOND digit: 24xx xxxx = New Territories, 23xx xxxx = Kowloon, but number portability could mean the phone is now located on Lantau Island]

--
Hong Kong, Sham Tseng, Lido Garden Block 5 20/F Unit A, March 16 1992

Midnight masses -- cancelled!

Here in Vancouver, midnight masses all over the city were cancelled Christmas Eve. And last year I was worrying if I'd have the strength to do it.

And later I was planning to resume my career as church organist.

Whereas I can hardly get up before noon.

This cannot continue.

New Year's resolution time .....

Hong Kong Diary entry for Feb 15, 1992

This is my diary entry from my Hong Kong diary for Feb 16, 1992, after less than 2 weeks in HK, but after being in my new apartment in Sham Tseng. The previous week I spent in 竹園 (Chuk Yuen) housing estate.

Diary entry:
I seem to have a cold

Went to the Macau ferry ticket office at Shun Tak Centre. Actually there are several services to Macau. Two leave from there, one leaves from Central and the fourth leaves from Kowloon.

I went to the Macau Tourist office at Shun Tak [Note added March 18, 1992: Met a nice Macanese (Chinese) young lady there]

HK Diaries

I am starting to post some diary entries, with annotations about my earlier days in Hong Kong in 1992.

At the time I had no computer, only a cheap notebook I bought at a cheap store in Hong Kong.

Points of reference:

I arrived in Hong Kong approx Feb 4, 1992 (Chinese New Year)  Gung Hei Fat Choy! --- A phrase I never heard until it was shown on the plan monitors just before landing.

At first I stayed with a friend (and boss) in his parents' council flat in northern Kowloon. After about a week of that I moved to a flat in Sham Tseng, in New Territories West, a few miles west of Tsuen Wan, the HK suburb where I would be working.

I was fleeing joblessness in Canada. My friend offered me a start in life -- in effect he got me started in life.