When I am going to conclude my forth trip to Hong Kong, let me describe what Hong Kong is in my eyes.

Transportation System

Hong Kong is the super crowded city, but the transportation is so efficient that both taxi and bus run pretty fast. The road system in Hong Kong is well planned, so there are cars running on all the smaller roads, unlike Beijing (with only big bold backbone roads like the rings but not too much working connecting road). Shanghai is a little bit better, but still far behind Hong Kong.

Prosperity

Although standing like a harbor in the sea of financial crisis (many times), you still can feel the prosperity of the city. The pace of the city is so quick – a detail I noticed since my first visit – the staircase elevator is faster in speed than Shanghai and Beijing. Standing at the over-street pedistrain bridge at Central, you just feel the flow or the river of people passing around. It is not like Nanjing Road in Shanghai, where the street is packed with shoppers, and tourists, the Central is packed with office gentlemen and ladies.

International

As the tag line of the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau designed for the city: Asia’s World City. Although people may argue whether it is Hong Kong or Singapore (but definitely not Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai yet), Hong Kong is really international. You can use Chinese (Mandarin) and English alternatively in most places, and people are speaking different languages other than English, Cantonese and Mandarin. It is very international.

Hong Kong? I Love It

If I have to decide the second city I may live in, I have the following candidate so far:

1. Bay Area in US

2. Beijing

3. Hong Kong

I don’t have a particular order for the cities yet. It seems Beijing may be in the no. three position in my mind so far, but still before most other cities.