By: Stephanie Kachur
The essays for today have talked a lot about business, with presentations, tours, and business observations, but we would be remiss if we went all the way to Hong Kong and failed to mention some of the cultural differences we have noticed. Our first big cultural observation (other than the fact that people in Hong Kong drive on the left side of the road) happened in the elevator. Many buildings in Hong Kong do not have a 13th or a 14th floor. As many of us know, 13 is considered an unlucky number to the English, and since Hong Kong was a British territory for so long it makes sense that buildings would avoid including a 13th floor. We had to talk to our instructor, Nancy, to find out why the 14th floor is avoided, and it turns out that while 13 is an unlucky number to the English, 14 is an unlucky number to the Chinese. This is because the Chinese for the number sounds very similar to the Chinese for "sure death."
An elevator panel missing a 13th and 14th floor.
Another cultural observation we made, which probably will not surprise anyone, is that people drink tea anywhere and anytime in Hong Kong. Tea is served with every meal and even in between meals, like at business meetings and presentations. What did surprise us is how tea is sometimes served. We had tea at the Four Seas Restaurant on the PolyU campus and the tea was served in glasses. I think many of us came to China with preconceived notions about some cultural aspects, such as serving tea, and then seeing tea in a glass cup challenged our preconceptions and made us look at the culture in a more realistic and dynamic way.
Lunch at the Four
Seasons. That's tea
in our glasses.
The above picture also highlights another cultural observation: the lazy susan. The family-style meals we were served in Hong Kong (like at the Four Seasons) are very different from a family meal in the United States. In Hong Kong, instead of ordering individually or passing plates, a family meal is ordered and then food is either placed on your plate by the server or placed on the lazy susan. Food on the lazy susan becomes communal dishes and everyone spins the lazy susan to get to the food in the middle. Even condiments are placed on the lazy susan, so you never have to ask anyone to pass the salt in the middle of a meal.
A final observation to leave you with involves the scenery around Hong Kong. I have been in cities where there has been some nice landscaping around buildings and in parks, but nothing compares to the landscaping you see in Hong Kong just on street corners. There is green almost everywhere you look, from potted plants alongside highways to trees living inside shopping centers, and everything in between. This landscaping is just one of the reasons Hong Kong is such a beautiful city, but it is definitely a major contributing factor.
Beautiful Hong Kong landscaping by the bus depot.
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