It’s the summer of 2010, you have some free time and you are in the city of Guangzhou, in the Province of Guangdong, China. So, what do you do? Where do you go? Well, given that Guangzhou is so close to Hong Kong, maybe your first choice would be to go there. At least that’s what I did.

Hong Kong is OK… if you’ve got lots of money. That city is not cheap in the least. What you spend there in one frugal day is probably enough to live one whole week in Guangzhou or Nanning, in mainland China. Not kidding.

Still, it feels different to walk down the streets of such global, worldly city. You can sense fortune and financial power in the air in some districts. With a population slightly over seven million, Hong Kong is ranked #5 in the world for its information exchange, political engagement, the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered there, its number of political organizations, think tanks, embassies and museums and the size of its capital market.

Not that any of that matters to me in a personal way, but still, those are things worth taking into consideration.

And what is there to do in such global city? Well, if you don’t like going to Disneyland, you'd better go shopping. The parts of the city that are not dedicated to financial matters are dedicated to selling stuff of all kinds. Mostly expensive stuff.

Fortunately there are exceptions to most rules and I managed to find a nice Casio watch guaranteed to run for ten years on the same battery. The price? USD$25.00. Not bad for a Hong Kong souvenir.

Hong Kong is OK, but it's not for everybody. I’m one of those everybodies.

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