Something I noticed about the difference between commuting in London and being in Hong Kong…
In London you will hear
“Mind the gap, mind the gap…”
that’s pretty much it. and it only announces it when the platform does have a gigantic gap that you can throw your grandmother in.
Apart from the usual “The next station is… change here for Northern, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City, Circle, District, Central, Waterloo and City, Victoria, Jubilee, DLR, Picadilly, Bakerloo, London Overground, East London line replacement bus services, and National Rail services, and International connection services”
In Hong Kong you will be completely fed up with
“Please mind the platform gap between the train and the platform”,
“Please hold the handrail”,
“Please give up your seat to those less capable to stand”,
“Please be reminded that eating or drinking is not allowed in the MTR trains”,
“Please mind the platform screendoors”
Mind you, they all come in three languages. Of course, it comes with the 12x ear-piercing beep and announcing the closing of the doors in 3 languages before the doors shut. Just shut them and leave already.
In London, we are having the most swine flu cases in Europe. What do Londoners do? They don’t give a shit. It’s just another flu, if I catch it, so be it. The only people I see wearing masks were Asian tourists at Selfridges. I think it looks stupid.
In Hong Kong, if you have swine flu, or even if you don’t, people in bio-hazard gear will crawl all around you and lock you up in a ward while everyone around you wear toxic masks with millions of members of press tailing behind you. If you are an unlucky tourist your entire country will be blacklisted from travelling to Hong Kong. Hope you have enjoyed your stay and we don’t look forward to seeing you again.
In London, when someone looking obviously in need for a seat, a seat will always be automatically emptied for the person in question without the constant battering of announcements.
In Hong Kong, when a pregnant woman enters the carriage, everyone immediately gets their daily shut-eye despite the constant battering of announcements. To be fair however, the MTR is sooo much more spacious than the Tube.
In London buses, especially late at night, at the back of the upper deck there almost always will have a few drunk strangers talking and joking with each other extremely loudly and occasionally lighting up a joint or cigarette. Strangers do tend to chat to one another on buses. They are most talkative when the weather is sunny, cloudy, rainy, or snowy.
On the tube, people pass newspapers to one another. The trains are dirty and smelly and sticky and hot. It’s always rather quiet however. I can’t wait for the air conditioned trains.
In Hong Kong, the trains are always spotless. Always at 25.5°C. Always smells nice. Apart from that tasteless lady with a fake Louis Vutton handbag talking extremely loudly into the phone in broken Chinglish to one of her many servants.
In Hong Kong, if you stand on the left on the escalator you are likely to be a tourist.
In London, if you stand on the left on the escalator you are most definitely a tourist.
In London, it doesn’t matter what colour your skin is, if you have a seat available next to you, it will be taken.
In Hong Kong, even if it is absolutely packed, if you are not Chinese, no one is likely to sit next to you, with the exception of extremely gorgeous white ladies or handsome white gentlemen. Even still that would only happen when all the other seats are taken. They think you smell funny.
In London, if there was a terrorist bomb that went off in the tube somewhere, people will find alternative ways to go to work. If there is a centimetre of snow, London shuts itself down and everyone goes to play snowball fights.
In Hong Kong, if there was a glitch in the system, people will still be waiting at the platform for the next train that would never come. However they would all be on their mobile phones. If there is a typhoon, everyone waits for the signal to turn to number 8, once it does, everyone leaves their perfectly safe workplace and risk themselves out to the wind and storm to go home or party.
In London, everyone is familiar with words like “Signal failure”, “Partially suspended”, “due to electricity problems…”, “due to a person taken ill on a train”, “due to an earlier incident of a person under a train” and plan their journeys accordingly.
In Hong Kong, they just don’t happen. Everything works in pristine order. If anything does happen, expect to see it on the headlines the next day, and some high-up government official’s resignation.
That said, I really do hate the weekend closures.
4 Responses to “The difference btn LDNers and HKers”
Just found your website, Jackie. And I like it. A lot. Your comments on the differences between London and Hong Kong transport users are interesting and enlightening. Particularly for a life-long Londoner. Never been to HK, so I can’t contribute to that discussion.
I have been meaning to put together a blog or develop a website for a long time myself but I’m easily distracted down other exciting avenuesth. And there’s never enough time, plus – in my case – less energy than when I was younger, to tackle the myriad of visual opportunities technology makes possible in 2010. I did register at WordPress though a few weeks ago, and having read your comments (elsewhere) – and liking what you’ve done here – I’ll definitely pursue it now.
How did I come here? To Geckokid.net, that is?
I was at the National Theatre, on the Southbank, last Sunday (Jan 10), to see the Landscapes Photographic Show. I loved your (I’m assuming it’s ‘your’) “Billinghurst” photograph, and voted it my personal favourite of the exhibition. I also made a note of your name to find out a little more about the person behind the camera, if I could. Google brought me here. May I ask about your photo? Sunday was very crowded and I couldn’t read your information well. It was three automatic bracketed exposures wasn’t it? Stitched together to form a vertical panorama? Unusual in itself, if correct. And given high dynamic range treatment? I loved the colours. Positive but restrained. I like enhanced colour saturation, but find that so much HDR photography on display is far too over the top for my taste. You seem to have found exactly the right balance. Congratulations!
I was intrigued that for three exposures the top f the train passing under the bridge was not more blurred (movement blur). I’d appreciate knowing what camera settings you used, if you could let me know.
Must go now. Off to see “Tokyo Story” at the BFI Southbank. Keep well, and hope to hear from you.
Michael Young.
Thank you very much for your comment mate! I’m going back to London soon, so we could have a coffee if you like! I’ll talk in detail about my HDR photography technique. It wasn’t a panorama however. :)
It’s funny how your name is exactly the same as someone I once worked with, but he’s based on Hong Kong.
Hi Jackie,
I was browsing through the usual friends and thought I’d pay a visit to your actual website which is pretty cool – from art to the actual website design.
I’ve been to Hong Kong and I live in London too, everytime I go there I wish the trains were in London, hehe. The people are equally annoying I think, I’ve never seen anyone trade papers in London. And they’re either reading, on the phone or anything that would distract them from the, in my opinion, alright journey through London. It is a fairy story but I wouldn’t mind a conversation on one of the trains.
In Hong Kong the journey was great, as a passenger, cleanliness, space, etc. but I wasn’t born there and the odd time I looked like a tourist cause I still can’t figure out how to wear trousers when it’s 25.5C a few centimeters from the carriage door.
Hong Kong trains in London would be part of my dream city.
Well see you around Jackie and hope your future prospects go well :)
@Jonathan, I disagree with having Hong Kong trains in London, London’s tube trains are part of its rich culture, and I love it the way it is :)
I agree with the extreme heat of 25.5C, I’d have a heat stroke if I stayed in Hong Kong when that law was passed.
Thank you very much for dropping by!