Hong Kong Arrival

A.M.S…
(Written in the Pacific en-route to Japan)
After three very hot nights in Singapore and Bangkok, we flew to Hong Kong on a jet, the well-known British Comet. It was a marvellous flight only taking about 2½ hours to cover the approximate 1,200 miles, skirting the Chinese coast.

Incidentally, the Don Muang airport at Bangkok and the Kai Tak airport at Hong Kong are both excellent and most modern. Both have ample landing strips, well over 8,000 ft. long to accommodate the fastest jets. On account of the Laos situation, several huge U.S. aircraft were in evidence at Bangkok.

Most people think, as we did, that Hong Kong is only a small island and, therefore, any land other than Hong Kong must be in China. Actually the British Crown colony of Hong Kong has a total land area of almost 400 square miles.

Hong Kong is such a many faceted place that it's an entire experience all by itself. If a traveller went from the United States to Hong Kong for only a week he would have more to see and think about and talk about than he probably ever had visiting almost any part of the world for a month.

In Essence, Hong Kong…

1. is a resort with magnificent scenery
2. has marvellous hotels and restaurants
3. has night spots to suit any taste
4. is a teeming piece of China with three million people, almost all Chinese but free
5. has a scale of living standards that run the entire gamut from the very rich to the miserably poor
6. is a city in the midst of a big boom
7. has modern skyscrapers and shacks barely standing up
8. has unbelievably crowded tenements
9. has about every known means of transportation: planes, jets, trains (to China), modern ferries, rickshaws, junks, sampans and freighters
10. is a busy - very busy - Oriental port
11. is the biggest bargain counter in the World
12. is probably the most interesting example of colonisation in the world today
13. is a powder keg with a time fuse

36 years from now Britain's 99 year lease on much of this land runs out. China can take back most of the territory of this colony simply by failing to renew the lease. China could undoubtedly take all of it any hour it decided to do so.

If you are an avid shopper or bargain hunter, you'll find you hate money, or at least you will act like it and try to get rid of it as fast as possible. When you leave, even if you're broke, you will wonder what opportunities you missed and if you will later regret them.

You will probably leave Hong Kong with suits, coats, dresses, sports jackets, and slacks which will all fit beautifully, and look as chic as any get-out. However, you'll also wonder just where they can all be worn or whether in fact you'll live long enough to wear them all out.

Whether you are a shopper, just an average tourist, a camera bug, a blasé traveller who has seen everything, or a first time world traveller, no matter who you are, you will think that Hong Kong is the most fabulous, exciting place you have ever seen.

Almost certainly you'll feel you didn't have enough time to see and experience it, or have enough money. The Caronia visited no other port about which there was so much exuberant unanimity.

Stealing a March on Caronia Passengers

A.M.S…
We arrived in Hong Kong by air on Saturday afternoon, 25 March 1961, and left aboard Caronia on Thursday night, 30 March 1961. It gave us a 3-day head-start on the majority of the Caronia passengers arriving by sea. Even so, we didn't feel we'd had enough time there.

The night after we left, the ship's movie was “The World of Suzie Wong”. A poor plot but a marvellously superb photography of Hong Kong. It was thrilling to see because we recognised so many places. Also we saw some things we could have seen and had missed, as well as some night spots we missed, and should have missed!

Hong Kong Geography

A.M.S…
The Crown colony of Hong Kong is or can be divided into three parts:

1. the island of Victoria on which the city of Hong Kong is located
2. the rapidly growing town of Kowloon which is on the mainland and which is where the airport, steamer docks, and most of the shops and hotels are located
3. the so-called “New Territories” which is the land north of Kowloon and comprises most of the land area, and, I believe, the major portion of the population of the colony

In the afternoon, we were driven by private car through much of the expanse of the “New Territories”. At any rate, we traversed much of the perimeter of this area, going through farming country, passing rice paddies and fishing villages, right to the very border of China at the Sham Chun river.

You get so close that, as our lecturer Mr. Boxell put it, “When you bear a rooster crow, you can't tell whether he is a Capitalist or a Marxist”. It gave us rather an odd and slightly fearful feeling to know that right there in front of us was but a thin line or stream that separated us from the tyranny of China.

Dependency Upon China

A.M.S…
We couldn't help but contemplate how many poor souls on the other side would give everything to stand on the ground where we stood. The expanse of this “New Territories” under lease from China until 1997 amazed us. We were also surprised to learn that Hong Kong has recently had to purchase some of its water supply from China.

About 50% of Hong Kong's food supply is imported from China. In addition, much of Hong Kong's water supply comes from reservoirs in this New Territories. Hong Kong as it is today cannot exist, in our opinion, without the New Territories.

How amazing it is to see the feverish building of hotels, apartment houses, skyscrapers at least twenty or more stories high, and many new factories despite the fact that the lease might run out in 36 years!

Atop the peak, a breathtaking view of most of the Crown colony greeted us. From here we could see all of the city of Hong Kong, all of Kowloon, much of Victoria Harbour, as well as many adjacent islands. A beautiful sight indeed!

The view encompassed a vast array of ships in the harbour. Among them the “Asia” of the Lloyd Triestino Lines, the “President Wilson” of the President Lines, the “Oxfordshire” a British troop ship, and our beloved “Green Goddess”, the Caronia.

The list above omits mention of freighters from the U.S. and Sweden and many whose nationality we didn't recognise; also sampans, junks, ferries and tugs. Really, New York harbour never seemed as busy. I rate myself a fair judge having viewed that harbour and supervise it from 29th floor office in the McGraw-Hill building for a quarter of a century.

…After Another

A.M.S…
Descending from the peak, we then circled Victoria Island passing, among many other things and places, Repulse Bay and the unbelievable sight of thousands of sampans at Aberdeen. Here an entire population of people live in myriads of “floating homes” one jammed against the next as far as the eye can sea.

We had tea at the colonial-style Repulse Bay Hotel (1920-1982). Upon our return to Kowloon, our private car deposited us at the Hong Kong ferry pier just in time for the five o'clock rush. We ferried back to Kowloon on spotlessly clean boats which handled the evening's traffic far more efficiently than any in New York.

…After Another

A.M.S…
We could learn so much from many foreign countries, and yet we think we are so almighty superior. That evening we met our good friends from Ardsley, Jo and Woody Meyer who were on a flying trip to Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan. They invited us for dinner at the Ambassador, a fine new hotel, where we not only immensely enjoyed seeing them but the food and view as well.

From the dining room, high up, we saw the harbour and distant Hong Kong just as the shadows fell and the thousands of lights, gleaming like jewels, came on one after another. It was one of those evenings we will always remember.

Some Lasting Impressions

A.M.S…
How we wish we had the time or energy to write reams and reams more about Hong Kong, but it just isn't in the cards, at least not now. Maybe after we leave Japan we may try to elaborate more. Here are a few impressions we don't want to forget:

• We shopped in a number of places, paid our money, and trusted them to get the stuff on the ship and to later send that so important “certificate of origin” to us at Hawaii, so we could get the goods into the U.S.
• You need to have that certificate, approved by the government, to show that the goods didn't come from China or you don't get it into the U.S.
• Somehow, we never doubted the purchases would get on the ship. “Honest John Chinaman” they call them, and even a double-checker like me accepted their integrity without question.
• Maybe that's why American tourists bought over seventy million dollars worth of merchandise in Hong Kong last year. That might not be a big figure for commercial export, but it's a whale of a lot of money for tourists to spend and, for the most part, carry out the goods themselves.
• A word about the refugees…
  99% of the three million population of Hong Kong are Chinese. Most of them are refugees from Chinese communism. The British have done a tremendous job of trying to house them. Huge concrete “apartment” buildings have been erected for them with at least a semblance of sanitary facilities.
• Each of these “E” shaped structures occupies a block and is about six stories high. Each block or building houses from 1,000 to 2,000 people. One room to a family, and that “family” comprises five to ten people.
• The room costs US$2.00 rental per month. They are so much better off here than in China that three to four hundred people somehow manage to cross the border every week. However, many cannot get into these apartments so live in shacks in the hills or in sampans in the river.

You Scratch My Back…

A.M.S…
We were fortunate to have lunch one day with Mr. Leonard Chan (Manager of Pfizer Co.) and his charming daughter, Annette, at the Foreign Correspondents Press Club. From him we learned much about Hong Kong and also more about South East Asia, since he travels widely over this region.

Apparently, he doesn't worry about that 36 year lease expiration. “How do we know that a communist government will be in power then?” he asked; and added, “there's a great deal of unrest in China over the communes”.

Further he explained, as we had bean told before, Hong Kong is a mutually profitable arrangement for both China and the West. China has a large bank (17 stories high) in Hong Kong and through its food and other exports, it manages to get badly needed dollars or whatever currency they want.

For the West, it is a tremendously important listening post and source of information. In fact the chief job of the U.S. consulate here in Hong Kong is to get information.

Haste Ye Back!

A.M.S…
Every Caronia passenger wants to come back to Hong Kong! It was the trip's most fascinating, exciting, enjoyable port-of-call. Hong Kong, unlike India for example, presents no crucial World problem.

The cold war, except maybe prestige-wise, probably wouldn't be altered much by what happens to Hong Kong. For American tourists, the loss of Hong Kong would be a sheer, stark tragedy. We hope we'll see it again.