May 21, 2005
I have probably been to HK as much as any city in Asia; I have also stayed here probably longer than any other city. No matter how often, no matter how long, it is not enough. As I’ve said, I think, it has one of the finest locations in the world, with the Peak and the harbor highlighting the city.
Once a harbor for piracy (some things haven’t changed), it became a British possession after the Opium War in the 1840s; with the communist takeover in 1949 of the mainland, HK attracted a lot of entrepreneurial Chinese who have made the city, as the city says “Asia’s World city”. It is 7 million or so, with the main areas as settled and dense as any city in the world.
The fusion of East and West, I think, was captured last night for me when we (some of us anyway) went to a concert. The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra wore the old Chinese gowns and played almost all Chinese instruments—the erhu substituted for the violin, for example. The music honored French/Chinese month, so they played some Ravel, more traditional Chinese pieces, and a few commissioned works, including one based on Bolero. I got the composer’s autograph.
We have toured a few businesses –UPS and Chase Morgan (the latter thanks to a student who went on this trip five years ago) and learned that 
others are as excited about the potential for Asia (especially China) economically as you read about in the paper. The Chase researcher was really harried because he had worked with the revaluation to the dollar peg here for the past few days.
We had a free day yesterday, so some of us went to the World’s largest Buddha (yes, Adam is not!) or at least largest Bronze, which will lead some other Asian country to build a bigger one soon. The rivalry out here is
sometimes like IWU and Millikin, or better , Troop 19 and the world!
We are off to Macao, and I’m eager to spend a day and night there since I haven’t been there since 1997. In 1999, it became part of China, ending four centuries as a Portuguese colony, and closing 500 years of European rule in China.
Believe it or not, and I don’t, I saw a special on the mainland position on the internet in China. While the China Daily, the mouthpiece of the regime, still talks about boys who spend so much time on the internet that they fail their classes (a universal problem) and steal money until their parents and teachers “reeducate” them and they write letters begging the government to ban the internet, in mainland China I expect will be much changed.