Here I Am in Hong Kong

The entrance to our apartment building.

     Terry met me at the Hong Kong airport just before midnight on Jan. 23.  A few days earlier the airport had set a new daily record for the number of flights in and out, but fortunately for me the lines were short and the crowds were sparse because I was arriving on Chinese New Year's Day.  It almost felt a little sacrilegious to be traveling on the most special holiday of the year for Chinese people.  Almost. I dislike wading through human thickets (what in the world am I doing in Hong Kong??) and I really dislike waiting in lines.  So arriving on a light traffic day seemed an auspicious beginning to my stay here.
     After a 25-minute Airport Express train ride and then a 5-minute taxi ride, we arrived at our apartment building in Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island. Terry moved here in mid-December from the apartment where Leah and I had lived with him in Shenzhen, which is right across the border in mainland China from Hong Kong.  If he's not traveling in China, most of Terry's work is in Hong Kong these days.  He's able to walk to his office in about 45 minutes from the apartment.  Now while the weather is cool that's preferable to jockeying for a spot on a crowded bus, besides being great exercise.

     This furnished apartment is a 5th-floor walk-up.  I had been told that there are 125+ steps to get up here, but there are merely102.  The climb is not as arduous as I'd imagined.  The apartment is considerably smaller than the one in Shenzhen:  it has 550 square feet, and about 50 of that is a hallway between the living room and kitchen.  At left is our living room, which measures a cozy 8x11'.  The white space heater on the floor is our only source of heat, much appreciated especially the last couple mornings when the outside temperature has been around 40ºF.

     Our Shenzhen apartment had beautiful views of landscaped grounds and the bay.  At right is the nicest view from our new apartment, looking out the kitchen window more or less north/northwest over Sandy Bay, where you can just barely make out a few boats.  At right is a park.  I took this photo midday today.  Traffic continues to be light even though the Chinese New Year 3-day public holiday officially ended yesterday.  Many people take a week or even 2 weeks off for Chinese New Year.
  

     At left is the view across the street from our bedroom windows.  If you kept walking up the hill in this direction you'd come to Hong Kong University.

     This is the view looking down from our bedroom windows.  Note the double decker tram, which begins running between 4 and 5 a.m. and goes until 1 or 1:30 a.m.  See the bicyclist just ahead of the red taxis?  You don't see many of them here on hilly Hong Kong Island, where streets and sidewalks are narrow and congested and often have blind curves.
     Our apartment may be small and the views rather unremarkable, but it feels like home after just a few days.  And it's fun to be living with Terry again for awhile.