Day One – Hong Kong
You can follow Michael Russell’s journey here.
An eleven and half hour plane journey is probably the longest I have ever been on. Fortunately, however, I was able to get some sleep over the Russian steppes. Hong Kong is hazy, humid and high rise. From the first moment of landing, on what appears to be sea (a bit like the approach to Sumburgh!) but reveals itself to be tarmac at the very last minute, through to massive motorway, green mountains, beautiful bridges and more skyscrapers than you will have ever seen.
Most of the apartment blocks shine brightly in the sun though we did pass what our hosts called the vertical slums as we came into the city to remind us that property prices here are amongst the highest in the world and there is a great deal of poverty as well as huge pressure on population from the Chinese mainland.
After a brief pause to freshen up we all went to the British Council offices where our host, Peter Upton Director of the British Council for Hong Kong and South China gave us a comprehensive briefing on education in Hong Kong and the opportunities for Scotland. There are clearly challenges and chances for our institutions.
It was a good start which helped to focus our minds on the relationships we need to build and the priorities we need to set. Over the next 48 hours I hope to encourage a greater focus on meeting the needs of Hong Kong and Scotland in exchanging educational information and opportunity. The education reforms here have great similarities with many of the changes we are undertaking in Scotland.
It was a good start which helped to focus our minds on the relationships we need to build and the priorities we need to set. Over the next 48 hours I hope to encourage a greater focus on meeting the needs of Hong Kong and Scotland in exchanging educational information and opportunity. The education reforms here have great similarities with many of the changes we are undertaking in Scotland.
Having talked through higher education, further education and school education we broke for dinner in a restaurant in a beautiful park where the emerging lights of the skyscrapers around us were breathtaking. But it was nothing compared to the views from the Star Ferry, a much loved service which has been running since 1888 and is described by the National Geographic as one of the top 20 must do’s in the world.
You can have the whole experience for HK$2.20 which is around 20 pence in Scottish money but if you are very strapped for cash you can travel on the lower deck for two pence less!
A quick but very enjoyable wander around Kowloon with the cityscape lit by the most fantastic light show gave us a quick glimpse into the Hong Kong way of life.
This includes having your wedding photos taken before the actual wedding so you can then display your photographs at the reception. I have posted a photo of the bride who was getting her photograph taken on front of the Tiffany store (one of the many designer outlets here).
I couldn’t resist joining in the photo shoot.
Now whilst it is almost 11.00pm in Hong Kong it is still mid afternoon in Scotland and I am reading the weekend’s newspaper headlines thanks to the wonders of modern technology. The headlines on cuts remind me that we need to do the best we can out in the wider world and that is what this trip is all about.
Off to bed now to try and stave off the jet lag and be ready for the seven meetings(!) planned for tomorrow: starting at 8am which (for those reading it in Scotland) is 1am in Edinburgh and Glendaruel.
Michael Russell: Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning, from China