The one I sit in right now, New Town Plaza, is pictured above. It is seven stories high. Just to confuse the unaware visitor, there are actually eight malls on this property, which are connected by walkways. I would prefer to think of all eight as just one, for this makes my time easier. I sit on floor one at--you guessed it--the Starbucks. Starbucks are everywhere that I look here in HK, I've seen three in this mall already. They serve interesting things such as Green Tea Sesame Lattes. I'll let you know how that is quite soon. Here is another mall called Langham Place:
The malls are sleek, clean, and beautiful. Most every large western brand has its own store here, in fact, I would say that most of the stores in the malls are western. Needless to say, it is a very western-friendly culture in general. In the parts of Hong Kong that I have seen, money flows freely. I would say that 90% of people are on some kind of portable electronic device (mostly Iphones actually). It is strange to observe the culture because I see such a mirror image of back home, only with a majority of Chinese faces and a different language.
People in Hong Kong work long and hard and they do so quite a lot. They work, they buy, they go from point A to B and they do all of this with a high degree of efficiency. There is much to learn from the culture in this respect, much practical functionality to observe. But I am left wanting to get to the heart of the matter, to know the people who are pushing the buttons and pulling the levers of this machine of a society. There are no simple mechanics among us, all have a story and all have innate, deep desires.
I thank Him for the beauty of this culture and my opportunity to get immersed in it.
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