The people on the whole are rude, particularly when walking down the streets. When two people are heading in the opposite direction, there is no “I will wait a second and let you pass” attitude, it is always very pushy and more of a “I will go first“. Even wait staff in restaurants are never polite and never smile. I have never encountered such level of rudeness anywhere else in the world. Walking on the street often ended up being one of us behind the other.
English was very poorly spoken, even in restaurants (including American chain restaurants). Often only one or two people would speak English, and they would be sought out to help translate, or you would be required to point at what you want. We did not even try to ask for directions anywhere, even at the hotel, as there was no chance that we would be understood.
Restaurants are generally quite expensive (including the street restaurants) compared to what we expected, with prices being similar to at home. We only managed to find a couple of places that offered good value.
The city was very clean. There were cleaners everywhere constantly sweeping, emptying bins, and cleaning anything people touch (ie. door handles, escalator handrails etc). Generally there were not any offensive odours, and the toilets for the most part were well looked after - we only saw one in-ground toilet at the market).
The city had a very safe feel about it. Even though there are masses of people constantly walking into each other and strange people approaching you constantly to try and sell their wares, we never once felt unsafe, even walking through the less well-lit areas late at night.
Shopping on the whole was not as cheap as people will have you believe. If you can bargain well, you can get some good priced items at the markets, but this is mainly fake clothes, wallets, sunglasses and souvenirs. The remainder of items sold in shops (including electronics) generally only seem to be about 10-20% cheaper than in New Zealand. If you come to Hong Kong for shopping, you would be well advised to check out Shenzhen, particularly for electronic items.
All in all a great place to visit. Would strongly recommend Macau for a day trip to anyone staying in Hong Kong.
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