Okay, I am sure many of us have been on a subway. Heck if you have not you either live in a part of the World where most people are too poor to afford Internet access, let alone mass underground transit systems, or you are a pathetic SUV driving suburban waste of natural resources pig who is the cause of my wife's asthma and scares the shit of bike riding, walk or subway to work city folk such as myself. Seriously though, if you do not take the subway, as far as I am concerned it better be because the bus or commuter train is good enough, if you drive to work then fuck off, thank you.
Now as far as I am concerned when it comes to public transit the prevailing attitude on this content is a very unhealthy, public transit is great and everyone should take it, except me. Well when I do not roller-blade to the office, snow and rain are bad for the bearings, I take the subway. Sad to say though, Toronto's subway system is not nearly big enough. Far as I am concerned everyone should take it, or roller-blade. But then I also try to keep the lights off when I leave home.
Anyway back to my topic, so I am in Hong Kong with my wife, she's a HK/Shanghai native, her dad is from Gongdong and her mom is from Shanghai. Anyway we are in Hong Kong riding the marvel of British Engineering, a cross between The Tube in London and the Shanghai Metro. Here is a map:
Okay I just wanted to point out, you gotta love former British Colonies that managed to retain the local language after the onslaught that comprises the English deluge. I mean, in India, they speak English but look at Hong Kong. Their system is a Doctor Jekyll meets Mister Hyde.
My wife and I were staying at a Hotel near Jordon Station, in Kowloon and I had to crack up every time we took the train North. I mean, what name is more English than Jordan? (Yes I know, Smith, or Barkley or some such, but you have to admit Jordan is a pretty regular English name.) Anyway what gets me is the first station North of Jordan, what the hell kind of name is Yau Ma Tei? (Pronounced Yow - sort of like ouch, without the ch sound and a leading soft y like yes - Ma - like Mama - Die - pronounced like die as in dead in English.) Of course you are not going to pronounce it properly, getting the intonation correct is near impossible. Better yet, take the train across the river to Hong Kong Island. Suppose you get off at Central, next stop would be Admiralty, so far so English, then suddenly Wan Chai, then Causeway Bay, but are you in England? You might think so with the face of Queen Elizabeth on the $0.50 pieces, but after Causeway Bay there is Tin Hau then Fortress Hill... where are Earth am I?
I guess at the end of the day what gets me about Hong Kong is not that it is foreign, Shanghai is foreign. But its not Western either, its sort of a mish-mash of Chinese and Western all in one easy to swallow, but very crowded, package.