It’s said that Hong Kong is a good place to be if you’re a millionaire, and New York City never sleeps. These two cities are highly influential not only to their respective hemispheres, but to the world. When it comes to a metropolis, New York and Hong Kong are heavy hitters, but the things that make them tick exemplify the old adage “east meets west.”
People
What’s a city without the individuals who dare to be there? And honestly, I think the biggest difference between Hong Kong and NYC are the people. New York’s 8.2 million residents are not only more diversified, but they have exponential amounts of attitude. Hong Kong’s 7 million are like an army of silent robots compared to it’s western counterpart. Like Ani Defranco’s song lyrics, ” I can’t wait to get back to New York City where at least when I walk down the street nobody ever hesitates to tell me exactly what they think of me.”
For example:
I was on the NYC subway heading away from the Bronx zoo with my three year old daughter. Being 95 degrees, she was wearing an above the knee Chinese bubble skirt that featured built-in shorts. Tossing and turning in her stroller, she was trying to fall asleep.
Suddenly, I was approached by a fat woman who said, “Can you do me a favor and tell your daughter to close her legs?”
Speechless, I gasped and stared at her with an incredulous look. My face said, “Are you seriously talking to me?”
The woman lumbered back to her seat, which was diagonal from us. My head cleared and I realised that she actually was talking to me and that she was serious.
I leaned forward, looking her hard in the eye and reprimanded her, “You need to mind your own business.”
She rattled off something about how rude it was to be subjected to looking up my daughters skirt, which, let me remind you, was furnished with shorts underneath.
I immediately retorted, “Do you know what? She’s THREE years old.”
She huffed and puffed, expecting me to engage in her ridiculous replies to which I wanted no part of.
Ten minutes passed. She exited the train, snuck around to my car, popped her head back into the train and yelled, “You’re such a slut!”
That’s New York City.
Unwritten Hong Kong subway rules:
Don’t speak to anyone. Offer your seat to the elderly, pregnant, and children. Avoid eye contact.
Hong Kong subways are eerily quiet. One amazing feat about Hong Kong is that there are hordes of people everywhere and yet they don’t sound like a hoard. Around the world, it’s pretty normal to experience silence in a crowded elevator. But when you can’t see two feet ahead of you on a crowded street, and yet you can hear traffic from blocks away, you know you’re in Hong Kong.
I have been living in Hong Kong for over a year and strangers have rarely spoken to me. Yet for two days in New York City, I’ve been complimented on my clothes, asked my opinion regarding Hong Kong subway cleanliness, and told that the next city I’ll move to is Seattle. Did I mention that I was called a slut?
Cleanliness
Hong Kong’s population density is paramount compared to The Big Apple. It’s not the densest city in Asia, because India has everyone beat. Of Hong Kong’s 426 square miles, only 25% is developed. The rest is pristine rolling mountains, green and fresh. It makes for a compelling backdrop to the never-ending clusters of skyscrapers. New York City comes in number two for land area with 304 square miles. For every thousand New York residents, only 4.4 acres of public open space is available. Oh yes, that is developed land.
Hong Kong and New York City both have air quality issues, but when it comes to cleanliness, Hong Kong is leagues above New York City. Hong Kong’s subway system, however small in size, is comparable to the conditions of a 4 star hotel lobby. You’d be hard pressed to find litter on the roads or sidewalks. An army of sweet sweepers is a nice feature of Hong Kong.
New York City’s subways are filthy, which adds an element of fear. It’s easy to spot litter most anywhere you go, and it’s also easy to find people publicly urinating. Three weeks before I left Hong Kong, I bought a pair of leather sandals. I wore them all throughout Hong Kong and they remained as clean as the day I bought them. Two days in New York City and these sandals were black and stinking.
Culture
New York City reigns champion for cultural diversity. On a New York City subway, it’s easy to spot Sanskrit newspapers, Muslim veils, Jewish kip-pas adorned on small boys, people singing for money, hookers, kids selling candy in order to “stay off the streets”, and don’t forget the smelly drunks.
What can you see in a Hong Kong subway? Asians of course, because 95% of Hong Kong is Chinese and the other 5% are mostly transplants from somewhere in Asia. Although, Hong Kong is a major financial hub so there’s always a few Caucasians on the city center subway lines.
When I was in New York City, I went to a small Catholic carnival on the side streets of Brooklyn. The quaint, bright-light carnival was contained in a few block radius and yet it wasn’t overly crowded. If something like that went on in Hong Kong, it would be ridiculously crowded. There aren’t a constant string of cultural happenings in Hong Kong. Rather, they are planned out and carefully advertised which usually pack in the people.
Hong Kong surely can’t touch the bigger events, like New York Broadway for example. Few big shows come through Hong Kong and when they do, everyone knows about it because of huge advertising schemes on the sides of skyscrapers and full page adverts in the local newspapers.
Where would I rather live?
Every time I’m in an airplane and can see US soil, I start to get teary and songs like “America the Beautiful” play in my head. I feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. “There’s no place like home.” There is a familiarity in the US, whether it’s New York City or a small town. I’ll never achieve that comfort in Hong Kong, no matter how long I stay.
But I also value green space and cleanliness. New York City is raw, and that’s certainly part of it’s overall charm, but city rawness comes with highly unpleasant smells, sights and sounds. Hong Kong is so wealthy, and it’s so manicured that the raw element is greatly decreased leaving a clean, efficient and tightly run city. Perhaps if I wasn’t so addicted to nature, I’d be more in love with New York City. But for me, I’d choose Hong Kong any day over New York City.
