13/1/18

A little late on this one – I know I say every day is a marathon, but yesterday was the longest of them all! We got up early to make it to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Kowloon by 8:30, and got a guided tour of their “Hong Kong Story” exhibit, which traced the country’s history from prehistoric times to the present. They also had a temporary exhibit on the Silk Road, which was fascinating to look at from a Chinese perspective (as opposed to the European one that I’m used to) – while much of the basic information was the same, the focus, details, and general orientation of the exhibit differed greatly from anything else I’ve read or seen on the Silk Road, and I found it really interesting to see how a simple shift in perspective could change the story. Lunch was delicious wanton soup, followed by some wandering around Mong Kok, until we met up with a Lingnan Sociology graduate student for a guided walking tour of Kowloon. At first, I felt a little tired to be trekking across the whole city on a three hour walking tour, but it actually turned out to be fascinating. The tour made real many of the social issues that we’ve been learning about in the classroom, and seeing some of the more problematic aspects of Hong Kong with our own eyes gave very real context to our otherwise academic studies. After another delicious Dim Sum dinner, we climbed a nearby hill and watched the city light up as the sun came down. By the end, I was thoroughly exhausted, but, as I’ve been after so many days in the last week, thoroughly satisfied.