Hong Kong has a lot of natural beauty, not to mention being an important historical center – if you’re a lover of HK film, it’s hard not to feel that a blood-bath is about to erupt at times….

The food is incredible – but buyer beware – there is a lot of stuff catering to xenophobic colonialists, and this is not where HK’s better qualities shine… Eat in markets, watch for large groups of locals flowing in & out of small doorways, and you will typically find amazing interior food-courts teeming with delicious local food…

HK has, possibly, the most superlatives of any city in the world, but its true beauty lies in the social fabric that through sheer abandonment by authorities is warm and decent, or so it was when I was there.

I expect that Chinese rule has not changed this too much, because the city was dense and recondite, and so the daily lives of its inhabitants completely outside the radar or interest of officialdom. But it is precisely this quality that makes it a beautiful place to visit – HK has a spiritually restorative quality in that the feeling of the people there is inherently decent, even warm, absent the firm hand of “the man”…