Last Saturday morning in Hong Kong, I went to brunch with friends at a restaurant called The Square.
The Square serves dim sum, a type of breakfast food oriented around pastries with meats in them and sweet rice confections.
Then I walked back to my hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in the Western district.
It was a long, meandering walk.
During my walk, I saw a bright green Lamborghini, stood on an escalator that took me across the city, and walked past a flattened pig face hanging from a storefront.
There were also million-dollar antiques and some squid.
I'll never forget any of it.
My day started with brunch in this city, Hong Kong.
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See the twin towers next to the really tall tower? My restaurant was in one of those.
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Then I walked back to my hotel, the Courtyard Marriott.
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Here's where I had brunch. It's called The Square. It has a Michelin star and it's cheap.
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The Square serves Dim Sum, and we put a small dent in the amount we ordered.
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After we left, we walked out of the tower and onto Hong Kong's famous outdoor escalator system
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Up we went. To the left, we floated by windows into stores.
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There's a plastic reindeer behind that window.
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There were restaurants looking onto the escalator.
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55,000 people use them every day, so it's probably good for people-watching.
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That's 110,000 eyeballs so the place was covered in ads, too.
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The system is 2,600 feet long.
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It's called the "Central-Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system."
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It's being watched.
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It goes around corners, wrapping around the sides of buildings above the traffic below.
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There are stations on major roads, just like a subway.
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You can either step off or keeping heading up. Standers move to the right.
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As you get higher, you see fewer stores and more restaurants
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That's because the escalator is going through more residential areas.
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Some apartment buildings open right onto it. It feels a little like "Star Wars."
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The locals eat organic.
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I got off at this stop.
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The stop was an intersection with this bar on one corner. One of my friends said it's a good bar for "day drinking."
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On the other side of the street there was this pub …
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… a pub with a whale on it.
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Onward. I turned right, walking past the day-drinking bar.
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I was walking toward Hollywood Road, a famous street in Hong Kong known for its galleries.
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I saw these giant stones — construction material.
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I saw shops again, but this time they were high-end, designer stores.
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The street was full of open cafes.
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Is this sign supposed to be a play on "Well Well Well"?
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I dropped off the last of my friends by this cafe. They had work to do.
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This sign pointed me down a bunch of stairs.
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This is Hollywood Road.
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I turned left onto it. I was about halfway home by the map.
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Looking up, I saw a tower covered in bamboo scaffolding
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In the storefronts, there were antiques.
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I had to stop at this store when I saw these guys.
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Most of the stuff in this place was at least a thousand years old.
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I asked, and the items cost between thousands and millions of dollars.
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I love this horse's expression. Looks like a Muppet.
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So does this guy, from the Ming Dynasty.
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And how about this dog?
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He's from 1,300 years ago.
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This vase is even older.
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It's from 5,000 years ago.
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Old.
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The one on the right looks like Ursula from "The Little Mermaid," right?
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C'mon.
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He totally does.
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This could be a Loony Tunes character or a Geico duck.
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Love it.
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This is how to contact the store.
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I saw this carving in another window.
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Don't worry, I didn't go in. But look at that detail.
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Different areas had different themes and scenes.
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It reminded me of Rodin's Gates of Hell.
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I walked on. Amid the antiques, signs for Facebook and Instagram
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An older man slept, hunched over. There's not much poverty visible on the streets of Hong Kong.
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But there is conspicuous consumption.
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The driver of this car slowed down so I could get a photo.
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There were modern art galleries along with the antique shops. No photos in them.
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Hollywood Road ended, and I turned down this narrower street.
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This street and a few winding paths after it would open onto Des Voeux road.
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It's a busy street near the harbor.
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All along my left, there were open stalls selling goods strange to my eye, like this dried octopus.
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Snake skins, I think.
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Dried pig face.
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Poultry.
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In America, we've become so used to never seeing the dead bodies of animals we eat.
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There were a few stores selling goods the way I'm used to seeing them.
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Shark fin, I think.
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I have no idea what these are.
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A stack of fish.
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An open butcher's shop.
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Thing is, if you're not familiar with raw food, it can look disgusting. Imagine if you'd never seen walnuts before?
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These fruits were gorgeous, though.
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Amid all the food, there was this clothes store.
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There were also a couple Circle Ks and 7-Elevens.
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7-Eleven and Circle K are both Texas companies, and they are everywhere in Hong Kong
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One of the last things I saw was this guard tower at the top of a barracks. Hong Kong does not feel militarized at all.
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Finally, I arrived at my hotel. The Courtyard.
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Now for the story of how I barely got to China.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/walking-through-hong-kong-2013-11?op=1#ixzz2m8Ki5yvk
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