Goodness Gracious Great Wall of China

Yep, I went ahead and made that pun. I'm allowed to because, in yet another feat of personal human stupidity, I decided that running a 10k 'adventure race' up a crumbling section of the Great Wall of China was a good idea.

Out with a bang was the gist of it.

So with less than five weeks left in China, I trekked up to Beijing via train to do the Conquer the Wall Marathon. Well, others did a marathon. What ensued was the most disorganised race I've ever run; think twice before you consider it.

But despite the 2am wakeup to meet at the hotel venue for 3am to hop on a 4am bus ride to get to the line for a 6am start, the views were spectacular: like I always thought the Chinese were a little bit crazy but then you see the wall and that sentiment takes on a new meaning. With views like this

you hardly have a moment to catch your breath before your propel yourself up, over and back down sections of one of the seven great wonders of the world.

3 hours, 396 flights of stairs and 14.1k on my Fitbit later, I crossed the line having taken a gently sloping trail through the woods, up to a vertical crumbling section of wall that willing victims had to scramble up and then slide down, onto a new section of the wall, over, back, across, through, up, down, back.

 

 

It felt like winning. 

Correction: I didn't die, thus I won. And, really, one can hardly live in China and not go to the Great Wall. Lifetime bucket list: tick.

Dim Sum Beachy Joy

One of our greatest finds of the week was just around the corner from our hotel. Reasonably priced Dim Sum Square was a haven of small steamed parcels. A steady stream of locals, tourists and expats alike filtered through this no nonsense family business and queues often extended around the door. It was so good, we went back several times including on our culinary tour with Hong Kong Foodie. 

 Dawn swore by the local special BBQ pork buns:

The steamed delights are meant to compliment the hot, humid weather that Hong Kong experiences. Whilst that might be true, we didn't care. We just kept on returning at any and all available opportunities.

Midway through the week, Petra arrived from Shanghai, Dawn left back for London and Rosa came to join me from Vietnam. Having lived in HK for several years, Petra introduced us to destinations further afield--an free-access elevator that gave us panoramic city views, Causeway Bay, the many city beaches. We crisscrossed the city to join Petra and her eclectic group of friends at various local haunts.

Call me naive but I had no idea that beaches existed anywhere in China. Hong Kong's beaches were plentiful, accessible and quite charming. A 30-minute bus ride separated us from a string of beaches past Causeway Bay. Most of them were blissfully empty and we made our way past the golden sands of Repulse Bay to Stanley for a couple hours of pastoral respite:

Then wandering and walking a mile or so up the road, we found another secluded beach:

The weather was less than perfect but it didn't matter; good company abounded and we eventually made our way to Petra's friends' house in Shek O, a decent taxi ride away from the city centre. Their home was a marvel of architecture--it was built into the rocks on a settlement of houses the government hadn't officially recognised. The views from their roof were spectacular:

And a short walk away, two beaches, Shek O and Big Wave Bay, and a secluded bar filled with locals greeted us:

After a day on the beach, our adventure was nearly at its end. And still we hadn't hiked any of Hong Kong's award winning trails through places like Dragon's Back or past the Tian Tan Buddha. Miles and miles of trail still await a return visit, as if I needed a reason.

Hong Kong

Considering I was convinced that Hong Kong was meant to be my first Asian home, I was surprised it took me so long to get there. With the clock rapidly counting down until the end of the school year, I started to see those short flight hop opportunities dwindle. As such, Dawn and I packed our bags to make the three-hour journey to one of China's SARs (not to be confused with the respiratory infection, but rather the Special Economic Region).

Like Taiwan, Hong Kong holds a tricky status on the world's stage. To sum up a rather long period in history in not enough words, Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842, was then occupied by Japan during WWII, and then handed back to the UK in 1945. In 1997, the UK 'gave' Hong Kong back to the People's Republic of China and the Communist government promised to grant it a high degree of autonomy as one of its two SARs (the other is Macau). Hong Kong has its own economic and political system with lots of nods to their once-British landlords.

Of recent however, the PRC is sinking its teeth in by trying to change the electoral system and 'influence' the politicians who get voted into power. The first time my TV was blacked out by media censors in Shanghai was when the BBC broadcast the Umbrella Movement protests in September 2014. The pro-democracy movement saw thousands of students take to the streets of Hong Kong demanding an unbiased voice. By December, the protest groups had caused considerable annoyance to commuters and the government; protestors' camps were quickly cleared and shut down. As was the argument.

Time will tell on how it will all pan out but Hong Kongers are fiercely proud of their sprawling metropolis. And, really, it's got it all: financial powerhouse of Asia; cosmopolitan China that's nothing like the mainland; beaches to boot; a city teeming with expats, electronics; Michelin starred restaurants standing side-by-side family dim sum diners.  All crammed into a series of islands and connected by ferry boat, taxi or very British double decker bus.

The mass of Hong Kong island from our hotel window:

View from The Peak on a brief moment of cloudy sunshine: 

Ferry to Kowloon:

 Kowloon looms:

 Trolleys across the city:

 

 Streetview Hong Kong island:

 

 It's all very civilised, very manageable. A friend who lived there for years called it 'expat lite' and I totally get it. Not that I can say much because Shanghai is very much 'China lite'. But there's lots of little niceties that make Hong Kong completely livable. Take the mid-level escalator, for example. Sounds unimpressive until you note that it's the longest outdoor covered escalator in the world. The World. 800 metres of unadulterated electric stairs that take a person up 135 metres of elevation. And like some kind of Jetson-esque view of the future there's a million pick up and drop off points with shops, restaurants and bars along the way.

And along the escalator you might see food stalls:

 

Sadly, the city is trying to get rid of them and has found a convenient loophole. The government will not grant new permits to new vendors and won't let families change the name on the permits. As such, they're waiting out old people to die and then getting rid of the street stall: 

In other places, wet markets are being edged out by new building projects (note the green awnings). And so it seems that the pace of progress in China extends as far as HK:

The price of progress is not always great. But there's still some time for tradition:

A family run sugar cane juice shop. Not exactly to my taste but it's been going strong for over 100 years:

 And progress also means some cool graffiti:

 

 

I suppose I'm glad that I didn't end up living here partly because I think it would have been harder to leave. In other ways, mainland China has proven a bigger challenge, possibly a crazier adventure, in no ways undiscovered but still that much edgier. But that shouldn't overshadow Hong Kong's special something, unspoken but definitely not unfelt.