Three Days in Hong Kong...During the Protests
Note: This post is simultaneously a trip report, photography display, and commentary on political violence and uprisings. The situation in Hong Kong changes by the day, and I can only speak to what I saw while I was there in early October.
I purposefully use rhetoric that sympathizes with Hong Kongers, as I will always advocate for those who are being or have been colonized and silenced.
For more on the nature of uprisings, political violence, and the way we frame protests, I recommend listening to Citations Needed’s podcast on the double standards people have for protestors vs their oppressors.
Navigation:
The Context, which is always important
Back in June, my friend and I realized we had a four day weekend coming up. As always, I wanted to go somewhere. We decided Hong Kong, a choice that would later give us a lot of grief as we anticipated our journey.
Hong Kong is currently embroiled in many protests and demonstrations. Earlier this year, the government signed an extradition treaty with China, which impeded on Hong Kong’s independence and separate identity from the mainland. Protests have been ongoing for months, showing little signs of stopping, especially as the state and the police inflict more violence on its own people.
And when October rolled around, we realized the timing we had picked could not have been worse. The unrest came to a particular head on October 1, the National Day of the People’s Republic of China. The 70th anniversary, in fact. This day was a celebration in mainland China, but in Hong Kong, the protesting grew even fiercer. One teenager was shot by police (he survived, but was in critical condition, and is currently being charged with rioting and assaulting police).
Many Hong Kongers are angry and devastated to see what’s happening in their home. And many don’t know what comes next.
As for how this affected our trip, my friend and I were anxious. Late at night, we watched the news, staying up way too late to refresh our news feeds and watch live updates. We kept texting each other—should we go? Is it safe? We can’t cancel the tickets, we’d be out $500. But will we be okay? What can we do?
We nervously talked it out, and with much hesitance, left for Hong Kong on October 3rd. And I’m so glad we did.
Day 1: Hong Kong Itself
Our itinerary: summed up
Thursday evening: Chungking mansions, The Delhi Club, Jenny’s cookies, Tsim Sha Tsui, Night markets
Friday: Brick Lane (breakfast) BT21, Causeway Bay, Central, Times Square, Aberdeen floating village, Kau Kee beef noodles, the Peak, the Ferry, Lan Fong Yuen (french toast)
Saturday: Le Pain Quotidien (breakfast), Choi Hung estates, Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Gardens, Yum Cha Dim Sum, Butler Cocktail Bar
Sunday: Left early in the morning
Hong Kong felt oddly familiar to me. Maybe it’s from all the old movies my dad would put on, or maybe many elements from my other destinations blended together.
Bits of it reminded me of Singapore, with its tropical weather and palm-lined roads. There were hawker centers, and the culture of food felt pleasingly similar. A city mixed in with green; huge thick vine trees clinging to walls. It’s a city that doesn’t—maybe can’t—reject the nature around it. Other parts of it reminded me of Seoul; cosmopolitan, vertical, people riding on each other’s coattails.
What I knew pretty much immediately was that I loved it. It’s old and new mashed together, stacked with vertigo-inducing buildings, and coated in pink and green and yellow. Double-layered trams brake downhill, signs flash in neon colors, and sailboats float lazily by.
I’d heard great things about Hong Kong’s transportation, and even with our vague concerns about bus routes shutting down, it was super easy to hop on a bus towards Tsim Sha Tsui, where our airbnb was. We peered out the windows, cautiously looking for signs of unrest, for signs that maybe this was a mistake.
But there wasn’t much of that. People roamed up and down the streets as they do anywhere else. Shops were open. We found our little hotel room, and headed out to explore and grab some dinner.
Our first stop: Chungking Mansions, a large apartment complex stuffed with vendors and restaurants, as featured in the movie Chungking Express. We’d read reviews online about an Indian food restaurant, The Delhi Club. When we walked in, obvious tourists that we were, advertisers rushed toward us, trying to usher us into their shops. One of them was actually advertising the exact restaurant we wanted so we followed him to the elevator.
The food was incredible. I mean, I love Indian food so of course I left with a smile. We started with chai and a rose lassi. I ordered the aloo gobi, while Karine got…I think the chicken karai? It was creamy comfort-food.
We also ordered pulao rice and a huge basket of garlic naan. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back. Eating only dim sum or pork chops in Hong Kong would be a mistake–there’s a ton of options, and Indian food is an excellent one here.
After our dinner, we felt more relaxed. We saw families, even tourist families, walking around. We ran by Jenny Bakery so I could grab a tin of shortbread cookies for my coworkers, and then we stopped to browse the night markets (and take pics).
Day 2: Friday and Fry-Ups
The next day, my friend wanted to stop by the BT21 store for HK exclusive merch, and there was a full English breakfast place, Brick Lane, we wanted to try. My friend is Scottish, and HK was full of British food and snacks she missed. (I mean…colonialism… :/)
I ordered the Eggs Benedict, and Karine, of course, had the full English fry-up. How did compare to back home’s? The corned beef was different, she remarked, but the black pudding was a welcome taste.
We headed to Aberdeen, where we tried to find the floating restaurant but got kind of sidetracked and went around a hiking trail.
Taking a bus back to Central, we wandered around government buildings and fancy skyscrapers. We walked into one particular perfumed reception area looking for a bathroom, and I realized a month later that this was a setting in The Dark Knight!
This was when I think I really started to fall in love with Hong Kong. Up and down the streets, there were murals, greenery, bamboo propping up construction; a city unabashedly afraid of colors. People ate outside, children ran around, old men stood chatting in groups.
It was overbearingly hot, so we stopped to get iced sea salt milk tea from Teakha, and enjoyed the sun. When I think of Hong Kong, my mind goes back to this area.
From there, we headed to Man Mo temple. Full of hanging incense and little red wishes. We walked around quietly, watching little specks of ash lick off from the rafters and float down. It was empty for a worker cleaning ash off giant golden bowls.
After, we plodded down not far to a beef noodle shop I was dying to try–Kau Kee Beef Noodles. There was a line out front, but we didn’t wait long. The service is fast fast fast. You sit down, order quick, eat quick, pay quick.
We hurried to decide–there were a lot of variations of beef and noodle. We both settled for the house specialty, and I got an iced coffee as a pick-me-up.
As I write this out, I realize how much we did in this one day because this day is STILL NOT DONE. We took a tram up to the Peak (which I wholeheartedly recommend; one of the best skylines I’ve ever seen).
This is when things got tense–both Karine and I were tired and started bickering. Plus, after we got down from the Peak, dusk was setting in. We started to see groups of riot police filling up buses. Transportation started shutting down, too. We took the ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui.
My friend and I tried in vain to find egg tarts, but instead stopped to get french toast at Lan Fong Yuen, and then headed back to our room.
Day 3: Get Thee to a nunnery
The next day, we started off with brunch at Le Pain Quotidien. It was SO GOOD. I had a latte the size of my head. Karine got a basket of bread, slathering on their in-house orange jam. I recommend fully.
By noon, we were off to Choi Hung estates, the rainbow apartment complex that’s famous on instagram.
Cause it was the middle of the day, no residents were there. Instead, only a few tourists milling around in the heat. We set our stuff down and took a couple of photos.
As we did, a local kid showed up and an impromptu basketball started.
I have many more photos of Choi Hung, particularly with my film. Here’s all my shots in one post.
The rest of the day saw us going to the Nan Lian Nunnery, which was a peaceful respite in the middle of this baking hot city, then back to our hotel for a nap. After our little break, we grabbed cheese tarts (still no egg tarts to be found, due to protests, as we had learned).
From there, we got dim sum at Yum Cha, which had a deal for all-you-can eat. And yes, we did eat our asses off. You name it, dumplings, spring rolls, pork and puddings and chili beef soups.
yum cha
And finally, we get to my absolute favorite part of the trip: Butler Cocktail Bar.
Now, I’d been dying to go to this place after hearing reviews, but it took so long finding it we started to doubt it even existed anymore. But we did find it, and upon walking in realized we (more like I) were underdressed…and they required reservations.
But no worries! The bartenders were ridiculously kind to us, ushering us in and assuring us we didn’t have to obey the two-drink-minimum requirement. I started off with a Scarlett O’Hara, and for Karine, a Japanese Peach wine.
They were incredible cocktails, and all the while our bartenders chatted with us and offered funky things to try like ghost pepper hot sauce (I teared up from the pain, and believe you me I love spicy food). I ordered a Bloody Mary, my first ever, and it came with prosciutto wrapped on a breadstick. I felt so fancy lol.
I can’t emphasize enough how warm and welcoming the bartenders were, and the cocktails were phenomenal.
The Boogeyman
So, with the recap out of the way, let’s talk about safety and the protests.
Sometimes, it felt like the only proof that anything was different was the graffiti. All up and down the roads, the barriers had messages in both Traditional Chinese and English, scrawled out in black spray paint: 5 demands, not one less. Resist Beijing. F*** the police. Drawings of pigs. Winnie the Pooh.
I remember turning to my friend after a day sightseeing and saying, “It feels like the protests are a boogeyman. You know about it, you can sense it, you see signs of it everywhere…but it’s not here.”
And that was by our own design, which I’ll get to. But I couldn’t tell whether our sense of unease was due to our knowledge of the protests or whether it was truly tangible, an energy in the air. Could I, hypothetically, go to Hong Kong without knowing an ounce about the political situation and leave knowing little more? I think not quite.
Besides the graffiti, the police presence was absolutely noticeable on Friday night. Full on riot gear. And at one point, we were walking near Aberdeen and heard people chanting and singing out in one voice. But we couldn’t see it, and we left quickly. On the streets, you could see pushed over barricades, broken glass. But that was it.
We supported the movement happening. I feel, in a way, honored to have been there and seen the remarkable resolve of Hong Kongers. I’m happy we visited because truly, Hong Kong is still safe.
But our way of supporting Hong Kong would not be through joining in the protests. So we did our very best to avoid anything remotely resembling a gathering, and we did.
Scheduling with safety in mind
There were two major facets in our planning of this trip: first, we kept up to date with live updates via instagram (primarily @peoplevsbeijing) or with the protests map. This told us when and where protests were happening, and we knew to avoid certain areas. We were on our last day when the government passed a mask ban in the city, so these tools became invaluable when protests sprouted up with increased fervor.
The second major facet was planning around the weekend. The areas with the most protests were and, I believe still are, Central and Causeway Bay, which are on the island. So, we figured, we’ll head to the island early Friday morning. That worked out in our favor.
Wrap-up: Should you go?
I can’t recommend to you whether you should go to Hong Kong right now, if given the opportunity. That’s a choice you’d have to make on your own.
As of the time of this writing, early November, things seem relatively calm, but demonstrations continue. I cannot emphasize enough, Hong Kongers are still fighting for their rights. These protests are more important than a vacation, so while I’m expressing some inconvenience on my part, literally none of that matters more than people’s rights or lives.
This trip made me rethink how social media portrays unrest. I did not feel unsafe in Hong Kong. After my trip, I posted about my experience in a travel facebook group and received tons of messages from Hong Kongers who thanked me for not canceling and assured everyone that Hong Kong is still safe.
Do not get me wrong, there are very real threats Hong Kongers are facing. People have been and continue to be beaten and harassed by police. Hong Kongers are showing remarkable bravery in their fight, to the willingness of pain, injury and even death.
But I would not trust certain corners of the internet that see violence as titillating, especially protest movements. It’s not real to them, and so is portrayed cinematically as vicarious entertainment. I recommend finding Hong Konger voices, starting with the resources I listed above.
In the end, Karine and I kept saying to each other: life goes on. Hong Kong is pushing towards a brighter future.
I’ll leave you with the rest of my favorite photos. This blog post is long enough. Thanks for reading!
