“Running almost the full length of Hong Kong Island in a single day — fifteen miles through neighborhoods I thought I knew, and a few I didn't.”
My second home. I lived here for six months on exchange at HKU, studying international business, in a dorm on Pok Fu Lam Road that looked out over the ocean. The feeling wasn't that I was visiting — it was that I was supposed to be there.
First impression: I felt lost in the city, but somehow comfortable at the same time. Something about the density, the pace, the way everything worked without explaining itself to you. I didn't know where I was going, and it didn't bother me.
Most days had a shape to them. Bus out of Pok Fu Lam, off at HKU station, down into Central for a coffee at whichever shop I felt like that morning, then a long walk along Victoria Harbour. Ten thousand steps before I'd really started the day. The city rewarded walking.
My spot was H. Coffee Shop in Wan Chai — small, cozy, tucked into a quieter block. The kind of place you find once and then return to because it feels like yours.
I spent most of my time with the Lancaster University crowd at HKU. Exchange friendships are a specific kind — fast, deep, unrepeatable. You meet, you live in the same orbit for a few months, you make memories at a compressed pace, and then everyone scatters. That's its own thing entirely.
The changes weren't dramatic. They came in small ways — how I moved through unfamiliar places, how I thought about independence, how I held time. Six months of those small shifts added up to a different person walking back out than the one who flew in.
My last meal was at one of my favorite Shenzhen restaurants with my best friend from the semester. Bittersweet is the only word for it. A chapter closing, a real friendship being left at an ocean's distance, and a quiet hope that our paths cross again somewhere in this life.
I'll be back. Next time as a longer trip through China — with Hong Kong as the first stop, the way it always should be.
