Life in Hong Kong
I thought that rather than this blog being solely about my jewellery business and creative craft type things I would also talk a bit about our life here in Hong Kong. I hope that this helps you get to know more about me and my interests, passions and work in and through Carolyn Waweru Jewellery.
The short story of how I came to Hong Kong and started my jewellery making is in the about page here. I'll be adding some monthly updates about how we are getting on and what sort of things we do and see in this amazing city.
Hong Kong often conjures up big city images, the waterfront skyline that dominates the harbour and the ever upward journey of the glass and concrete skyscrapers. Yes, that's all here and I often catch glimpses of those glistening towers as I go about daily life. But now we live in the New Territories which is a quite different experience to the hustle and bustle of the main island and city centre.
Hong Kong has a surprising amount of green, more than 60% of the total land area is country park! The city feels cramped really because the land available to build on is relatively small, look at an aerial photo of the island and the buildings cling to the shore and lower slopes, others seem perched on the edge of impossible hills and look as if they could slide down at any minutes (they haven't yet).
We live out in the West of Kong Kong, most of the area around us is made up of villages so while we live in a tower block (40+floors high) the sky is open above us and we have fantastic views across the valley and over to China in the North. This is the view from our bedroom to the north, the built up city below us and then the wet lands, mangroves and marshes beyond and across the water, Shenzhen in China and more skyscrapers catching the light. It looks a pretty industrial outlook in the photo but it's not in reality, it's often very beautiful depending on the light and we can see the weather changing around us.
Our little boy is active and loves investigating trees and sticks and grass (or mud from time to time) so we usually visit the parks around us at the weekend. He doesn't really mind if we go to the same place every Saturday as long as he can have a stick and run around. Last week we took a bus (his favorite transportation) back to Mei Foo where we lived for 7 years. There's a great park there, when I was a local resident I visited regularly to jog in the mornings or just to walk round after dinner, sometimes to take some tea and a book to read in the shade.
So that's a quick glimpse of where we live and our environment, if you live in HK or are visiting I'd love to hear from you, what are your recommendations for entertaining small children in a multi-cultural city?