EP 01 · My Hong Kong

The Hong Kong I Called Home

Six months in Hong Kong. This is the city I lived in, not the one visitors pass through.

Hong Kong's waterfront promenade on a clear day — Hong Kong from the waterfront path. Once I lived here, this was not a sight. It was something I walked past every day.

Opening · At the Table

A lot of my memories of Hong Kong start with a meal. The city gave me more than food.

Recording a moment at a Hong Kong restaurant before dinner — This opening is a clip I shot at the table, after I had ordered, pointed at the camera.

Prologue · The Hong Kong I Lived

People ask me what Hong Kong is actually like. For me it was not the visitor's Hong Kong. It was a home I lived in for half a year. Living there for six months and visiting for three days are two different cities. This episode is the one I lived in.

01 — Fortress Hill

I lived in Fortress Hill. Every day I came out of MTR exit B, and I walked that road for half a year. Fortress Hill is not on a visitor's itinerary, but it is quiet, convenient, and everything you need is downstairs. Stay long enough and you notice that the real feel of daily life in Hong Kong hides in places like this.

02 — North Point

North Point was my everyday. The waterfront promenade: a run in the morning, a walk at night. I covered that line on the map more times than I can count. Water on one side, towers on the other. That routine is on nobody's visitor itinerary, and it is the most real Hong Kong I saw.

The wooden boardwalk along the North Point waterfront

A waterfront map marking North Point and Causeway Bay — The North Point waterfront, and the North Point–Causeway Bay stretch I walked over and over.

03 — What I Actually Ate

What I ate most in Hong Kong was not Michelin. It was the roast-meat shop downstairs. A plate of roast meat, two eggs, and that was a meal. A mixed roast platter, greens, rice — a few dozen Hong Kong dollars, filling and good. Stay a while and you learn it: the good food is not on the lists. It is downstairs.

Roast-meat rice with two eggs from a neighbourhood shop

A mixed roast platter with greens and rice — Not a restaurant from a list. Downstairs. A few dozen dollars. The meal I ate often.

04 — The Harbor

Every time I reached the harbour and saw the red-sail junk, I still stopped. I never got tired of that picture. After half a year I should have. I didn't. Some pictures just do that.

A red-sail junk on Victoria Harbour with the skyline behind it — The harbour, the red sail. Not the first time I had seen it. I stopped anyway.

05 — Small Moments

Some moments were not planned. This egret, for example, just standing there, as if it had been waiting. No itinerary lists that. Half a year later, what you still remember is often those few minutes.

An egret standing alone on stone steps by the water — An egret on the stone steps by the sea. Nothing scheduled, and no rush.

06 — With Family

Later my family came. This huge Shiba, and we sat beside it for an afternoon. The city was the same city. With family there, it wasn't. Living alone is daily life. Family arriving is a memory.

A giant sleeping Shiba sculpture on a lawn — A very large sleeping Shiba, and an afternoon spent sitting down with family.

07 — Hong Kong in Motion

In Hong Kong you are always on the way. MTR, ferry, bus — the whole city moves. It does not wait for you, and you do not have to wait for it. Step on. It will take you somewhere.

Harbour and residential towers passing the car window from a bridge — On the bridge, in the car, harbour and towers sliding past the window.

Half a year is short. Long enough to live in a place until it feels like home.

Next episode: why I kept walking back to the harbour.

Next · EP 02The Harbor I Kept Coming Back To

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All episodes

EP 01The Hong Kong I Called HomeSix months in Hong Kong. This is the city I lived in, not the one visitors pass through.
EP 02The Harbor I Kept Coming Back ToPeople say Hong Kong's soul is in Victoria Harbour. After six months, I believed it. Not a guidebook — why I kept coming back.
EP 03What I Actually Ate in Hong KongNot a top-ten list. Roast meats, double-egg rice, dim sum, and ordinary places.Coming soon
EP 04Hong Kong in MotionMTR, ferries, bridges, and walking — how I actually crossed the city.Coming soon
EP 05Small Moments I Didn't PlanEgrets, mist, weather, and street corners no itinerary would list.Coming soon
EP 06Hong Kong With FamilyWhat a city leaves you with is the people you shared it with.Coming soon
EP 07What I'd Do Again — and DifferentlySix months of judgment: would return, would skip, hidden gems, and lessons.Coming soon
EP 08Your Hong Kong, Not MineMy Hong Kong shouldn't be a copy for yours. Start with your own constraints.Coming soon