Weekends in Hong Kong

Shopping, shopping and more shopping. That is what thousands upon thousands of Hong Kong Chinese seem to do every weekend. Good luck walking around any one of the many malls, given the weekend crowds (actually it really is busy every day of the week!). And in each of these malls, it’s amazing how many diamond, jewelry and high-end fashion stores you’ll pass. As for the ex-pats (probably most being British & Australian), they all seem to crowd into the bars and pubs to watch rugby or soccer.

Typical Saturday night in Lan Kwai Fong

 
Saturday nights are crazy in Hong Kong - especially in Lan Kwai Fong (aka LKF), which is where everyone seems to be. This area is packed with restaurants, bars and nightclubs, which stay open until the wee hours of the morning.  My first weekend here in Hong Kong, I thought that there must have been some sort of street party or festival going on that Saturday night, as hundreds of people packed the streets with drinks in hand. But no, I later learned that this is how Lan Kwai Fong is every weekend!

The girls out in LKF

 

Sundays in Hong Kong are interesting, as this is the day that all of the Filipino and Indonesian housemaids are off. Most of them live in tiny rooms in apartments with the families they serve – one of my professors, for example, has two Filipino helpers who live in bunk beds in a small room in his family’s apartment. Where do these migrant workers go on their day off?  Having nowhere else to go, they spend their day sitting along several major streets and walkways in Hong Kong – which become almost entirely filled with Filippino and Indonesian women. 

They bring their flattened cardboard boxes to sit on and their food and playing cards. Even when it is dreadfully hot outside, or windy and rainy, there they are – group after group after group. Many seem to make the most of their situations by creating their own joy – talking, laughing, singing and sometimes even dancing.

There is another segment of migrant domestic workers – usually women in their 20s and 30s - who head to Wan Chai on Sundays (Wan Chai is a bustling area of the city where all of the seedy nightclubs are located). They go to clubs to party the day away, meeting plenty of old, sketchy British men who go to Wan Chai knowing exactly what they’ll find.  

According to one of my Filipino friends here: “everyone just wants to get out of the Philippines.” I knew the Philippines was poor, but I had never had any idea about just how many Filipinos leave their country in search of a better life.