No one who ever landed at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport in the heart of Kowloon ever forgot the experience. There are tons of photos from planes landing that captured clothes hanging outside windows and on balconies of Kowloon high rises and some passengers claimed they could watch TV shows through the doors open behind the balconies. There was only one short runway built on “reclaimed land” in Victoria Harbour just south of Kwun Tung. Some say that the reason there were never any serious mishaps were that pilots were just too scared coming in.
June is a muggy month in Hong Kong. Coming off a 15 hour flight from Los Angeles, we stepped into a steam bath of exhaustion and energy. A part of all of us just wanted a shower and a bed, but another part wanted to drop our stuff off and explore. Air conditioning wasn’t as ubiquitous then as it is now in Hong Kong so heat and jet-lag won out and it was on to the New World Hotel. For many of our kids, jet lag was a new experience. After all, it was sixteen hours earlier in Tulsa than it was in Hong Kong and none of our bodies or minds knew quite what to make of that.
In the early 1980’s, Hong Kong harbour was wider. Kellett Island, home of the Hong Kong Yacht Club, was not yet a part of Hong Kong Island. There was no peninsula where the Hong Kong Convention Center now resides. The first cross harbor tunnel had only opened 10 years earlier. The Fleet Club at Fenwick Pier had a McDonalds sitting right on the harbour where American sailors passing by could stop off and have a draft beer. The Star Ferry terminal sat next door to the main post office in Central. And one could have tea on the first floor of the Peninsula Hotel with and unobstructed view of Hong Kong harbour. They call what’s happened in Hong Kong harbour “land reclammation,” but I always wondered how land that was never land before could have been reclaimed.
Those were the days of really cheap public transportation. Double decker trams cost 10 cents for an hour long ride from Shaukeiwan to Western District. The Peak Tram was still going strong ever since opening up in the 1890’s. Taxi’s dropped their flags at $2. The Star Ferry cost 10 cents for the lower deck and 20 cents for the upper and there were always rickshaw drivers standing right outside to run you in, around, and through Central. For some reason, Morning Star was the ferry every kid wanted to ride. Anybody smoked whenever and wherever they wanted, and that included on all forms of transportation.
Hong Kong has always had the best Dim Sum in the world and it didn’t disappoint. Our kids from Tulsa had their first taste of Cha Shao Bao 叉烧包, Siu Mai 燒賣, Har Gao 蝦餃, Chicken Feet 鳯爪, Spring Rolls 春捲, Turnip Cakes 蘿蔔糕, Spareribs with Black Beans 豉汁蒸排骨 – which were just the tip of the iceberg. And all washed down with Jasmine 茉莉花茶 or Pu-Erh aka Polay 普洱 tea. And they did it the old fashioned way. Food carts weaving among tables, stopping whenever anyone asked, placing the saucer sized plates and mini-bamboo baskets filled with Ma Lai Gao 馬來糕 or the steel plates with covers heaped with Changfen 腸粉 (shrimp, beef, or barbeque pork). At the end of the meal, the cost was tabulated by the number of plates on the table (most plates costing less than one US dollar). The literal translation of “dim sum” is “a little bit of heart”. Whenever and wherever I eat dim sum today it always takes me back to Hong Kong. Maybe it really is a little bit of heart.
Chinese Odyssey 26
Thirty-one hours later,
touched down in Hong Kong
stepped into a steam bath
but moved right along.
We rode the Star Ferry
looked dapper and chic
ate dim sum, drank Po-lay
and trammed to the Peak.
The Panda in the Room PD 