Living in Hong Kong

The first month of my internship was a bit of a rocky start. I barley knew anyone nor did any of the co-workers want to get to know me. I was introduced to a few other interns and staff members, but never really hit it off with anyone. I felt like an outcast both inside and outside of the office. Simple tasks such as going to lunch was even difficult, due to the language barrier. being American I was stared at constantly in a strange ways simply due to my physical features, not too many tall blondes with blue eyes. I truly felt that I would spend the rest of my time in Hong Kong without friends and feeling reclusive. 

After a few weeks went by, I was introduced to Alexandra at work. Alex is close to my age with such a wonderful personality. We hit it off right away, I knew instantly we were going to become good friends. During lunch she would take me to some wonderful local places that I could never eat at before due to the minimal Mandarin I spoke. Now that Alexandra was with me, she could read me the menu and order it for me in Mandarin. On the weekends, she took me out to a nice restaurants in Tsim Sha Tsui where we enjoyed each others company with a glass of champagne, and an incredible view of the city skyline at night. Alex also escorted me to a local horse race that was extremely popular located in Central Hong Kong. I loved being myself and laughing with my new friend every few minutes. Although the horse we bet on NEVER won it gave us a roaring laugh! It did not matter, knowing that I was making a great friend and life long memories. 

"Alexandra Leung, my new best friend in Hong Kong"

Alexandra and I promised to keep in touch, she even mentioned that she plans on visiting the United States in the near future! I cannot wait to be able to return the favor to her and make her feel at home in the states. I don't know what I would have done without her. 

"Alexandra and I going out to lunch on the weekend in Central."

Amanda Ritter

L&F

One of the first things I noticed about Hong Kong was the laundry hanging outside of nearly every apartment window. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but later on that observation would hold more significance. I had heard about a conveniently located, affordable laundry service in our meetings prior to departure. I looked forward to having someone else wash my clothes and I never expected my laundry would be a problem during my stay in Hong Kong. To my horror, a notoriously rude woman with a brutal dryer ran the laundry service and Grace warned it would rough up our clothes. I could pay extra to have my clothes line dried, but the regular service already takes four days. Four days! I didn’t bring enough clothes to wait four days. 

My clothes are soaking in the tub before
I agitated them by stomping them with my feet.    

To make matters worse, most of my laundry is cold wash delicate that must be laid flat to dry. If I had them dried, I risked my dresses coming back too short and no longer appropriate for work. Despite my best efforts to pack my most conservative dresses, I still feel that mine are much shorter than the norm. I am significantly taller than most women here and consequently, my dresses appear much shorter. Having my clothes dried was out of the question. My second option, hang to dry, was not much better than the first. I feared that my knit sweaters would stretch out, weighed down by water. Many of my dresses are quite heavy when wet, so I usually use an extra spin cycle or put them in the dryer on low heat for a brief time. I couldn’t expect the laundry woman to take the same care as I and since she doesn’t speak English, I couldn’t risk the miscommunication.

I put my clothes anywhere that I could find space:

on the floor, on the tops of doors, and

on the back of the chair, to name a few. 

There is no self-service laundry in our hotel, or anywhere in Hong Kong, for that matter. I was running out of clean clothes to wear and time to make a decision, so I did the only thing I could think of. I went to the grocery store and picked up some Woolite hand wash and literally took matters into my own hands. I wash my large garments in the bathtub and the smaller ones in the sink. Hand washing would not be too much of a problem, except for the limited space in our hotel room to hang garments or lay them out to dry. Melani and I have gotten very creative with places to drape our wet clothes. When we have laundry at the same time, our hotel room resembles a child’s fort. For the future, I would recommend next year’s students avoid packing delicates to save themselves the trouble. If they must hand wash, it helps to place the garment on a towel on the floor and then roll it up like a sleeping bag to soak up excess water.


Angelina DiFrancesco
Ann Taylor Sourcing Far East Ltd.

Hong Kong is a multicultural place. This makes it that there is lots of variety in the food they have. Some aspects of typical Hong Kong delicacies are added to foreign food and a new invention is created. In Macau there is a popular bakery that made the product called “Portuguese Egg Tarts” super popular, but some Hong Kong bakeries also sell these types of egg tarts that look like a burnt version of the typical snack of Hong Kong egg tarts.

When pizza meets traditionally Chinese-style cooked meat: Ho Feng Pizza 

Sushi at a Japanese Restaurant:
Raw Salmon, Egg Roll, Octopus, Clam and Eel

Then there are the old restaurants that boast of original cuisine from different countries so that inhabitants of Hong Kong actually don’t have to go so far to taste a Japanese Okonomiyaki or a Vietnamese Pho. They also vary their menu slightly to meet the tastes of Hong Kong inhabitants. People who are craving Korean could step into a chain of stores called Lee Fa Yuen that’s main attraction is that they are a 45 year traditional authentic Korean food-serving restaurant. They serve traditional Korean cuisines like Samkyupsal, Japchae and Kimchi Jjigae so that folks would merely have to hop on the MTR to Kowloon or Sheung Wan to be able to have a try at Korean food. The corporate office of the place I work is in Sheung Wan and the first day I was introduced to a pretty nice Vietnamese restaurant that gets really busy during the lunch hours. I have tried their Beef Pho and Pork Chop with Pho and with Rice since their Vietnamese-style Pork Chops are really yummy!  

Beef Pho at Sun Chuk Yuen Vietnamese Restaurant

Lastly there are the authentic Hong Kong dishes. If there are a large group of people willing to split the bill not individually, then a dim sum house is a must go. There are a variety of dishes to try in these houses, like the most popular shrimp dumplings and chicken feet. There are many places that still sell noodle soups with a variety of toppings and rice with chicken, pork chop or fried tofu. All in all, there are lots of things to try in Hong Kong as long as you’re willing to walk!


Shirley Cheung, Experience Blog