 Culture
Traditional beliefs tend to manifest themselves in curious ways in Hong Kong, especially when it comes to luck. Professionals often consult fortune-tellers, popular since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), before they ask for a promotion or make an investment. When moving into a new home or office, people often bring in feng shui masters to place beds, couches, or desks in positions that bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. The Chinese also believe that numbers carry significance (6=longevity, 8=prosperity, 3=giving birth), and the price for auspicious license plate numbers is astronomical.
More evident to the casual observer in Hong Kong, however, is the value placed on financial success. During the '50s and '60s, mainland China's wealthy merchant class fled to Hong Kong to escape persecution. These entrepreneurs quickly established their own businesses, which fueled massive economic growth. To keep up with rising inflation rates, citizens of Hong Kong required more and more money to survive. This, coupled with the Chinese belief in preserving "face" or self-respect, gave way to conspicuous consumption as proof of wealth. One example is Hong Kong's abundance of Rolls-Royces: There are more of these ultra-luxury cars here per capita than anywhere else in the world. Hong Kong's affluence is a windfall for tourists who, like the people of Hong Kong, enjoy the finer things in life. World-class restaurants, posh hotels, and designer clothing boutiques are never in short supply.
Meet the People
One of the best ways to get a sense for Hong Kong's people and traditional culture is through a unique program offered by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. "Meet the People" gives visitors the opportunity to meet skilled artisans eager to explain their ancient craft. Topics include: a tai chi class with a renowned master; Chinese tea ceremony with a teahouse owner; antique shopping with a well-known collector; traditional Chinese medicine with an accomplished physician; and learning the principles of feng shui with an expert feng shui practitioner. Your visit to Hong Kong will be enlivened with this rare experience. For more information, call the Hong Kong Tourism Board at 1-800-282-4582.
Museums
An array of specially themed museums scattered around Kowloon and Central also give great insight into the history and culture of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Heritage Museum features ancient Chinese bronzes, ceramics, dynastic pottery, and a unique exhibit of costumes and memorabilia of the Cantonese Opera. Also of note is the Hong Kong Museum of History, which outlines the 400 million years of historical development in Hong Kong with the use of ecological settings, panoramic screens, dioramas, and interactive programs.
Seven galleries of oil paintings, drawings, etchings, and lithographs are on display at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, with one gallery devoted to the Xubaizhai collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy. Teaware elevated to art form can be found at the Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware. Housed in the oldest colonial-style building in Hong Kong, the museum displays teaware dating from 1,000 years ago to the present.
Festivals and Events
If you happen to be in Hong Kong during one of its many festivals, you're in for a treat: They're among the most lively and elaborate in the world.
Chinese New Year (February 9, 2005): Though primarily a family affair, Chinese New Year is a time when the city is alive with more neon and glitter than usual. Stores deck out their windows, and the city sets off enough fireworks to frighten away evil spirits for the entire year.
Tin Hau Festival (May 1, 2005): The entire fishing industry owes its fortune to Tin Hau, the goddess of the sea. To honor her, boats in Victoria Harbor are loaded with offerings and adorned with colorful flags.
Bun Festival (May 15, 2005): Since 1777, residents of the island of Cheung Chau have been constructing 52-foot towers covered in lotus bean buns in celebration of Pak Tai, the Taoist God of the Sea. Besides the bun towers, the eight-day festival features a parade in which children are dressed in elaborate costumes, placed on stilts and appear to float above the crowds.
Mid-Autumn Festival (September 18, 2005) The festival commemorates a 14th Century uprising against the Mongols. In a cunning plan, the rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes that they smuggled to compatriots.
Cuisine
In a city where the common greeting is "Sik tzo fan may?" ("Have you eaten?"), it's obvious that food is viewed as more than just sustenance. Eating out is a communal affair in Hong Kong; apartments are too small to entertain guests, so friends and family gather in restaurants to talk over elaborate meals of several courses. And with more than 6,000 restaurants in the city, there's always a new eatery to discover.
Cuisine is also an art form, and few places take food as seriously as Hong Kong. Chefs painstakingly create a balance of flavors and textures in their dishes, combining sweet with sour, sharp with bland, hot with cool, and crunchy with smooth. Naturally, seafood is popular in this island city, and restaurant patrons demand the freshest fish possible. This often means choosing their dinner not from a menu, but from the restaurant's fish tank. The fish is usually steamed whole, topped with ginger and onions, and savored in its entirety.
The dish to end all dishes in Hong Kong is not fish, but Peking Duck. Ordering this dish in a restaurant is a culinary odyssey in three courses. First, the chef roasts the duck over a charcoal fire and bastes it with dark syrup. The chef then creates a big demonstration of bringing the duck to the table and carving it up in front of the patrons. The first course is the skin, which the chef deftly cuts from the bird with a razor-sharp knife. Next, the tender meat is covered in a sweet sauce and presented in a crepe-like wrap. A delicious duck soup with cabbage and mushrooms is the third and final course in this decadent meal.
Going to Hong Kong without trying dim sum should be a punishable offense. Served at around brunch time, dim sum is an adventure in eating that is purely Chinese. As soon as you sit down, a pot of tea is promptly placed on your table. Soon you notice servers walking around with trolleys stacked high with bamboo canisters full of steaming hot food. Simply point at what you want as the carts pass by and it will be delivered to your table. Typical dim sum dishes include spare ribs in black pepper sauce, steamed barbeque pork buns, deep-fried spring rolls, and steamed shrimp dumplings. Be sure to save room for desserts like mango pudding and hot egg tarts.
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