The Bruner Family Journey: Getting To Know Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the world's great cities. We know this well from in-depth personal experience, as we spent quite a lot of time there. We arrived on March 26 from Bali and we stayed until May 12, when we left for Paris. We initially had intended to spend only a few days in Hong Kong, to eat dim sum and gander at the grand waterfront skyline. But when Talia was diagnosed with epilepsy (see our last post), we changed our plans. We decided to base ourselves in Hong Kong for a while, under the care of an excellent pediatric neurologist, to get Talia settled on her epilepsy medication regime. We didn't spend the entire time in Hong Kong - Jeremy and I went to Taiwan and South Korea for about three weeks, and then all of us traveled to Malaysia for eight days. But we did get to know the city fairly well from our tiny, but enormously friendly guesthouse in Kowloon (the mainland part of the city).

When Eden and I traveled to Hong Kong in 1999, we came mainly to eat. Likewise, Talia and Jeremy were eagerly anticipating our arrival in Hong Kong, so that they could feast on dim sum, wanton soup, fried noodles, and roast duck. The city is indeed a food lover's paradise - dumplings and noodles of every imaginable variety, more meat on stick than you could shake a stick at, exceptional regional fare from all over China, plenty of cheap street food options, the highest of haute cuisine, and even Western standards like bagels, cream cheese and lox, topped off with a double macchiato and a ginger snap cookie. The sheer number of eateries in Hong Kong is staggering, and many restaurants are so large that they have amplified PA systems, making you feel like you're in an airport or bus terminal. It's amazing to think there are so many people who dine out.

Which leads to my next point: Hong Kong is one of most densely populated places in the world. The crush of humanity is exhilarating at times, exhausting at others. But it's never boring. And while it's one of the most vertically built environments on earth, there are also plenty of places to escape the thick urban jungle of steel and glass - just head to the green hills of Lantau Island, or the quaint fishing harbor of Cheung Chau Island, or the beach at Shek-O Big Wave Bay surrounded by steep forested hills, where it's difficult to believe you're still in a city of 7 million people.

There's also plenty of tradition among all the neon lights. Chinese medicine shops sell a dizzying variety of traditional remedies, from all kinds of roots and plants, to fossilized bones and sea shells, to animal horns and teeth. Dried seafood shops offer a huge line of exotic culinary products you'll rarely see in the West, like dried abalone, fish maw, and black moss. Atmospheric Chinese temples, replete with fortune tellers and burning coils of incense, stand next to concrete apartment blocs, modern hotels, and Western-style storefronts. One day, Jeremy and I were walking by a large bank and we happened on a traditional lion dance, which is meant to scare off evil spirits and summon fortune and good luck. It was a fascinating juxtaposition - bank executives in suits and ties, with a giant costumed lion performing an exuberant dance to traditional Chinese musical instrumentation. We also enjoyed strolling along Hollywood Road to window shop for Tang Dynasty ceramic horses and Qing Dynasty porcelain.

Incense coils at a Chinese temple

In addition to seeing the sights of the city (traditional and modern), we got to know Hong Kong by hanging out in our favorite coffee shop, hopping from one English bookstore to another to scour the children's section, ordering from the menu with pictures at the kids' favorite neighborhood dim sum restaurant (no English spoken), and playing monkey in the middle with my SF Giants cap in a little park near our guesthouse. We also had the fortune of hooking up with our good friend David from Oakland and his colleague DeWitt, who were traveling in Asia on business.

We have to give a big thank you to Eden's friend Lori, who used to live in Hong Kong and introduced us to a number of good people living there. We got a little taste of expat life, arranged some play dates for both Talia and Jeremy, and made some new friends. We'd also like to thank Erika, a new friend in Hong Kong whom we met through a former colleague of mine - she made us feel at home and convinced Jeremy and me to go to Taiwan, which turned out to be one of our favorite destinations in Asia. The circumstances of our visit to Hong Kong weren't ideal, but we certainly made the most of it and I'm sure we'll back to this great city one day soon.