I got back from Hong Kong and China on the weekend. I tried to write my blog from China but I couldn't access it. Either because the internet was too slow, or the People's Republic don't like blogs.

China and Hong Kong don't really fall into the realm of a Euroblog, I know, but they were too amazing not to write about.

Hong Kong is a city sprawling up into the air. Bright lights, noise, hundreds of people on every streetcorner... open markets with live fish (and birds)... Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's crammed in with noodle shops selling Bird's Nest Soup...

I went to Stanley Market on the bus (a double decker, no less) and walked from the old Officer's Mess (which is now a mall - there are malls everywhere in Hong Kong, even Victoria's Peak) along the waterfront to a temple. A dog ran out and tried to bite me on the leg. It was terrifying. I have a horrible fear of rabies jabs. I yelled at the dog and it went away, but I was still shaking even after I was well away.

A great thing, I found, about Hong Kong was the feeling that you're living in the sky. I've never really had the skyscraper experience before (I'm from Europe), and staying in an apartment on the 36th floor was unreal, lying in bed at night looking at the harbour and all the lights.

Hong Kong island, and the islands in the New Territories, are also amazingly verdant and beautiful, and so accessible. I can't imagine how much cooler London would be if you could hop in a taxi / ferry / speedboat on a Saturday morning and be on paradise beach in half an hour, swimming in the sea.