A Few Differences Between Hong Kong and Kaohsiung

I lived in Hong Kong for almost ten years. To some expats, that makes me an expert. I disagree. I think it takes a lifetime to fully understand a place like Hong Kong. Maybe after 30 or 40 years, I could claim to know something about the city.

I have lived in Kaohsiung for four months. That means I know almost nothing about the place. I know how to find my apartment and how to get to the places I need to go. I know where to get food and how to pay bills. I know where the best parking lots are and on which streets it is impossible to park. I can look like I live here, mostly because I do, but I cannot tell you about the heart and soul of Kaohsiung.

But I can recognize some of the differences between Hong Kong and Kaohsiung. I realize that this kind of thing would be better after I have been here for a few years and know more about Kaohsiung, but I also realize that after a few years in Kaohsiung, I will find it less exotic and I will probably talk more about other places. When I first moved to Hong Kong, every blog post was about Hong Kong. Everything was new and different. In the end, I rarely mentioned Hong Kong. When you live anywhere long enough, it is simply where you live.

The weather in Hong Kong and Kaohsiung is pretty much the same. They are practically at the same latitude and both in humid tropical zones. It rains more in Hong Kong and is hotter in Kaohsiung. The biggest difference is that Kaohsiung is more prone to typhoons. Both cities face the South China Sea, which receives every Pacific typhoon that does not swing north and crash into Japan. But Hong Kong is largely protected by the Philippines and Taiwan. A typhoon has to fit through a narrow corridor to hit Hong Kong directly. Most storms hit the Philippines, Taiwan and/or Fujian, bringing only rain and wind to Hong Kong. Taiwan is only protected to the south by the Philippines, and is wide open to the east. Kaohsiung is on the southwest coast, which is directly in the path of every storm that hits Fujian or turns north from the Philippines, but the overwhelming majority of typhoons hit Taiwan's central east coast, which is one of the reasons that area is sparsely populated. Since I moved during typhoon season, I have seen more rain in Kaohsiung than sun, but I am told that most of the year, Kaohsiung is far sunnier than Hong Kong.

The language is the same, more or less. Legally, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English. Realistically, most of the people who claim to speak English do not know it as well as they think. And Chinese is a jumble of a hundred different dialects, most of which are well represented in Hong Kong. When Hong Kong was occupied by the British, most of the Chinese population was from Guangdong. Since then, people have flooded in from all parts of China, bringing their dialects with them. You can easily find university classes taught in Cantonese, Wu, Min, Hakka, and more often than not, Putonghua. Cantonese might be the most popular dialect on the street, but Putonghua is the language of academia.

The official language of Taiwan is Chinese. Most people do not even pretend to understand English, though it is one of the most popular foreign languages taught in schools. As an island that was never really important to China, Taiwan developed its own aboriginal languages. Japan had a major impact during their occupation, but only the oldest generation remembers being forced to learn Japanese. According to the government, everyone speaks Chinese and/or Taiwanese. In Taiwan, Chinese is Putonghua, which is terribly convenient for me. But Taiwanese includes several different languages and/or dialects. Pretty much like Chinese. On paper, the overwhelming majority of people in Taiwan speak one or two languages, but you could easily fill a room with people all speaking different dialects.

In my limited experience in this country, Chinese works pretty well. I have yet to run into anyone who could not understand me, though I speak in a heavy accent to them and they speak in an unfamiliar accent to me. Several people have told me that I have a Shanghai accent, which I find odd since I have spent almost no time in Shanghai. If someone speaks Hokkien, Hakka or any other Taiwanese to me, I have no idea what they are saying. Fortunately, they are all the same in writing. There are some differences in grammar and syntax, but if you can read one dialect of Chinese, or Taiwanese, you can read them all. It is pretty much the same with English. Two people from Alabama and Australia might not understand each other in conversation, but they can read the same printed words.

China and Taiwan use a different system of measurements, other than volume, which is something to get used to since the words are the same. One 尺 is one foot in both China and Taiwan, but 1 Taiwan 尺 is 30.3cm, while 1 China 尺 is 33.3cm. One US foot is 30.48cm. Taiwan's 斤 is 600 grams, while China's 斤 is 500 grams, and 605 grams in Hong Kong. Moving from China to Taiwan means adjusting to different lengths and weights, but if you move from Japan to Taiwan, everything is the same since the Japanese converted Taiwan to their measurements during the occupation. You simply have to say the words in Chinese rather than Japanese.

The cultures of Hong Kong and Kaohsiung are the same if you go back far enough. Everyone came from China originally. But as an island that was never really important to China, Taiwan has a long history of foreign invasion and occupation, with each occupier trying to force the population to do everything their way. There is also a lot of island culture that you do not find in most of China. Hong Kong was always Chinese, until the British wanted to turn the Chinese into opium addicts. Today, any major city in Taiwan looks almost the same as any major city in China, except that China has more money and Taiwan is more relaxed.

The food in Hong Kong and Kaohsiung are night and day. Guangdong is one of the four compass points of traditional Chinese cuisine. As a British territory for almost the entire 20th century, and a more open city than most of China, Hong Kong became the modern center of Guangdong, or Yue, cuisine. When people in North America and Europe think of Chinese food, they are mostly thinking of Yue style Chinese, which is usually called Cantonese in English since Canton is the English name for Guangdong. Most American Chinese food is nothing like Chinese food in China, but the cooking style, spices and sauces that Americans know about are all Guangdong.

Taiwanese cuisine comes from Hokkien, Hakka, Japanese and a mix of southern Chinese. The ingredients are more or less the same as Hong Kong, but come from different places. Hong Kong imports a great deal of whatever it does not pull out of the ocean, while Taiwan grows almost all of its own food. The basic staples of rice and noodles are the same, but I see a wider variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices in Taiwan.

Since Hong Kong is a single city, you can get the same food anywhere you go within its borders. Taiwan has different specialties in different counties. Street food is similar in that they are both cheap and fast. Hong Kong is the better place to get dim sum. Taiwan is better for dumplings. Hong Kong desserts often have a western influence, especially from France, for some reason. Taiwan desserts are far less sweet.

Hong Kong's MTR goes almost everywhere, from Aberdeen to Shenzhen, the airport to Starfish Bay. If the MTR does not reach some place, a bus or boat probably does. My transportation was 90% MTR, 8% bus, 1% boat and the rare taxi. A car in Hong Kong is both unnecessary and difficult to park.

Kaohsiung's MRT red line covers 25km north to south in a city that is 120km long. The orange line covers a 12km stretch from east to west downtown. Both lines make sense in where they go. The problem is in all the places they do not go. Hong Kong has 23 lines and over 160 stations. Kaohsiung has 2 lines and 38 stations. They are planning additional lines, but no one knows if or when they will exist.

Hong Kong has 7.5 million people crammed into 2755 square kilometers. Kaohsiung has less than 3 million in almost 3000 km2. You could say that Kong Kong is more crowded.

In Hong Kong, I mostly shopped at CitySuper and ParknShop. Wellcome is kind of a dump. Kaohsiung has Carrefour and Jasons. I never liked Jasons as much as CitySuper, but Kaohsiung Jasons is different from Hong Kong Jasons. That makes sense since Taipei CitySuper is almost nothing like Hong Kong CitySuper. My main store now is Carrefour, which does not exist in Hong Kong. I went into a Kaohsiung Wellcome to compare. It was kind of a dump.