Hong Kong, China
I arrived in Hong Kong from Australia on a hot, humid Friday evening. Trudy, Michael’s PA, had booked me a luxurious hotel room on Hong Kong Island. As I stepped outside to explore my surroundings, slightly unsteady from the heat and humidity, it struck me that from the skyscrapers to the street vendors, enterprise was crammed in, vibrantly, everywhere.
And yet, as I discovered the next day, it is still possible to step back from all that enterprise and observe it from a peaceful distance by taking the tram to the top of the Peak, which is the highest point on the Island. There, first thing on Saturday morning, I found myself in calm, wooded surroundings with people out running, walking, doing Tai Chi, or simply sitting quietly. There were low-level clouds hanging over the city below, so all I could see of it were the unmoving tops of the taller buildings. I could hear the city, and its enterprising people, more than I could see it, but those sounds seem to emphasize...