*Warning! This is a really loooong post!*
Being in a new environment which does not have English as its primary language can be rather intimidating. I do not speak a word of Cantonese but thanks to the educational system in Singapore, I'm fluent in Mandarin. The general citizen of Hong Kong is also able to understand Mandarin, even though that it is not their primary language. The Cantonese do not have a writing system of their own. They use the traditional form of Chinese writing so I was able to understand the signs along the way pretty well, but that is besides the point. While I was in HK, I was very impressed at how they are able to allow tourists find their way around easily. I have to say that the transportation system— at least the ones I took— extremely very tourist friendly. During the duration of my stay, I took buses, the MTR (the subway of Hong Kong), as well as a tram up to the Peak Mountain (I think this is what it is called). But this post aims to show you that it is still possible to get by without knowing a word of Mandarin or Cantonese. I am going to comment on the items in the order that I took these public transportation. My mum and I left the airport by bus to our hotel.
As everyone would expect, the signs at the airport have English on them to facilitate visitors from overseas in finding their way around. There are staff standing around to help if directions are needed. This is a picture of a mini subway from the gate to the arrival hall. As you can see, there are running lines with both Chinese and English instructions on the display.
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| Boarding the Train at the Airport to collect our luggages |
If you are traveling by bus into town, after walking out of the airport, you will be able to see a huge sign with the bus numbers on it. Tourists could tell clearly from the signs in English which buses to take. (Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the signboard) There are also counters within the airport as well as at the bus terminal at the exit of the airport with people to assist you on which buses to take. As to the best of my knowledge at the moment, only CityBus offered bus services to the city area. We took Bus A21 to get to our hotel.
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| Bus we took transiting to and from the Airport |
The interior of the bus looked similar to what I remembered a few years ago. The buses which travels to and from the airport have a special section of the bus specifically for the storage of luggage. I believe this is to increase the comfort level of the passengers and enable them to move to the upper deck of the bus with ease. Here's a picture of the place to stow your luggage on the bus. If I remember correctly, the MTR that travels to and from the Airport also has these racks for luggage storing.
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| Luggage Racks |
What I did not notice a few years back was the sign showing the names of the next stop in both Chinese and English. On top of that, there were announcements in 3 different languages through the bus speakers before reaching the stops. At first I thought it was just announcing the names of the next stop according to the displays but on more attentive listening, I realised that it also offered tourist descriptions of certain scenic locations /attractions that we were passing by on the bus. The speakers were not extremely easy to listen to but I was rather impressed by the effort of putting on this mini description. I cannot imagine Singapore having that... Although I'm pretty sure that it will be quite redundant because we have stops every 2 minutes with very little change in scenery.
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| Display on the Bus |
I'm not sure if the audio can be heard but here is a recording of the audio of the bus announcing the stop on another CityBus ride. It was quite difficult stabilizing the video in the bus. Sorry for the shaky video! It says "Next stop is Tung Chung Railway Bus Terminal, [Mandarin]"
By chance when my mum and I were walking around on the streets, I was pleasantly surprised to see a marking on the ground to remind pedestrians of checking the direction of traffic before crossing. I'm not sure if these road markings are only for one-way roads but I was very impressed when I saw these markings as a tourist because different countries have different traffic directions. These are very useful as reminders for tourists to be aware of oncoming traffic when crossing the roads.
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| Markings on the Road |
When I took the MTR, there were also very prominent signs indicating the directions we should be going in order to reach our destinations. Similar to the ones in Singapore, there were indicator lights on the display map showing the stop we were at, the direction we were heading towards, and which door would open at the next stop. The announcements on the MTR were also in 3 languages— Cantonese, Mandarin, and English.
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| Display on the MTR |
Signs are readily available within the MTR station directing the passenger to his desired destination. This photo was taken when we were on our way to the science museum! The signs are pretty similar to the ones in Singapore too! These signs are also in both languages so another plus one for tourism friendliness!
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| Signs at MTR Exits |
At tourist attractions such as the Peak Tram Station that carries visitors up to visit the wax museum, the descriptions of the package pricing for the tram ride and the entrance fee for the museum!
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| Description for the Combo Package |
While I was very impressed with the tourism friendliness in HK, as with all other countries, there are certain limitations of not knowing their language in the country. Although you will be able to communicate with the other party of your thoughts, it is difficult to establish rapport with a vendor without using their primary language of communication. This means if you want better service or discounts, it might be slightly more difficult to convey this intention across. That being said, for the basics, I can safely say that one does not need to know Cantonese to survive in Hong Kong!
All pictures taken by my Xperia Z phone.
