Hong Kong on the Mountain
Just a few minutes' drive from Hong Kong Customs to Shenzhen Customs, but once you enter Hong Kong Customs, you enter another world. First, your mobile phone immediately loses its signal, making you instantly aware of the "one country, two systems" policy. Then, the roads, landscapes, and even people's faces are different from those in mainland China. Everything is both luxurious and quiet. I originally thought Hong Kong was a metropolis, but it turns out that there are mountains everywhere, giving me a sense of mountain tourism. Buildings are scattered here and there, all located halfway up the mountains, not at all crowded. The mountains and valleys are covered with trees, and it's rare to see any place without greenery. I can't help but marvel at how living in a place with both urban charm and natural beauty feels like being a celestial being. However, this feeling only lasts when you first enter Hong Kong. Once you start consuming within this society, it's a different story. Here, a bottle of mineral water costs 15 yuan, and a small bowl of beef noodles costs 48 yuan. The high prices and wealth create a lot of pressure.
Our tour guide in Hong Kong was surnamed Cai, a woman in her forties who was very materialistic. Her social philosophy and worldly experience could be summed up in one sentence: having money is good, enjoying life is good, and consumption is good; if you have money, you're the boss, and if you don't, you're a loser. Although I didn't like this kind of person, I believe she represents a large portion of Hong Kong citizens. With great survival pressure and many temptations, people easily become obsessed with money. Hong Kong is a society that mocks poverty but not prostitution, and compared to other places, the commodity economy and capitalist philosophy here are more typical. This is a place where Chinese and Western cultures converge and blend most intimately. Long-term British colonial rule has left deep marks here, as evidenced by the numerous incomprehensible and Westernized place names such as Sha Tin, Hung Hom, Hollywood Road, and Victoria.
However, despite these Western influences, temples thrive here with abundant incense offerings, and belief in feng shui is strong. It seems that traditional culture here is more authentic than on the mainland. Not only do they consult the Yellow Calendar for weddings and funerals, but also for real estate and business, often consulting feng shui masters before doing anything significant. Every matter seems to have a feng shui explanation, even something as simple as buying a necklace might involve timing for good fortune.
Despite their superstition, the sex industry is highly developed and can openly advertise in newspapers. Here, I finally understood why mainland China refers to the public telephone directory as the "Yellow Pages." I originally thought it was because the paper was yellow, but here, the Yellow Pages is a thick book, half of which is the telephone directory and the other half is advertisements for the sex industry. These ads include text and illustrations, some subtle, others explicit, offering male or female services. No wonder there are Japanese sex tourism groups coming here. The word "tourism," which seems so pure, actually contains such rich and dark content. In this place where finance, trade, and tourism are pillar industries, I suddenly realized: above the rivers, there are green trees and blue skies, but beneath the rivers flows another world. Good and evil coexist and are shared. The world is not all truth, goodness, and beauty, but neither is it entirely falsehood, evil, and ugliness.
Everyone says this is a shopper's paradise. Indeed, jewelry, watches, and electronic products are cheaper here than on the mainland. But other goods are different. A bottle of mineral water costs 15 yuan, and a small bowl of beef noodles costs 48 yuan. Here, McDonald's is the cheapest option, costing twenty多元 (yuan) with both liquid and solid food, enough to eat until you're half full. During my days in Hong Kong, I ate just enough to be eight-tenths full every day. When I reached Macau, I ate until my stomach burst. Despite being so close geographically, Macau is yet another world, vastly different from the impressions and propaganda I had before.