Los Angeles (CA 135) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 77 text:

TrOH As Wf the earth ' s busiest and bust- lingest bazaar, under the shadow of towering Victoria Peak, its harbor teeming with junks, sampans, liners, and tramp steamers rushing about like excited chil- dren, bearing the goods of the world to market. We found Hong Kong a rich mosaic of sights and sounds a city of noise, with honking cabs, shrill cries of vendors and rickshaw boys, a city of packed ten- ements, washing a-flutter, lordly white bank buildings and sleek steel-and-glass apartment houses, sparkling waves and wind-bent sails. Walking Hong Kong streets are Mongol, Indian, Malay, and Eurasian. The babble of a hundred languages is heard in her continental res- taurants, bourses, and mercantile houses. Yet overlay- ing this Oriental opulence is the reserved, unruffled, business-as-usual mood befitting her role as part of the sturdy, stiff-upper-lip British Empire. Across the bay we saw Kowloon, Hong Kong ' s sprawling mainland extension, and beyond it the jag- ged, barren Hills of the Nine Dragons, ringing the city like dragons ' teeth against the vastness of continental Asia to the West. Soon after our arrival we could sense that behind Hong Kong ' s vibrant surface, the threat of the Communist Chinese colossus, only twenty miles away, is never quite forgotten. Thousands of Hong Kong ' s citizens are refugees from China, and they know first-hand the cruelty of the Red regime. For their resolve and courage, the people of the Crown Colony earned the ship ' s deep respect. Hong Kong ' s scenes and pleasures Tiger Balm Gardens, Repulse Bay, Victoria Peak, Aberdeen ' s float- ing restaurants and graveyard of junks, fittings at one ' s favorite tailor were high points of a week that ran out of days too soon. 73