Opinion | When Hong Kong gets a little too much, just look at the view

In Hong Kong, I am often reminded of Anna Quindlen and her encounter with a homeless man on New York’s Coney Island

He told the write-from-the-heart columnist, who lost her mother to cancer when she was in college, to look at the view.

When the box-apartment living, the poke-you-in-every-part-of-your-body-with-umbrellas crowds and the language battles with cab drivers get to me, I follow the sage's advice: I go out and look at the view.

I can leave my breadbox abode and follow the winding, uphill streets to the hiking trails. Within 35 minutes, I do have an incredible vista. On top of the city overlooking Victoria Harbour, I watch the cruise ships, tankers, cargo vessels, yachts and fishermen boats go about their daily business. Commerce and the pulse of life with all its economic disparities from on high.

I also stare at the architectural marvels across the water and the mountains behind them.

At night, to an American, the daily flashing light show that takes place on both sides of the harbour is part Vegas, part San Francisco, part spectacular wonder. It would sparkle the eyes of any of us.

On Sundays, it is the view from the windows of my on-the-street apartment across from Victoria Park that stirs my heart.