My oversea Travel experience

Recently, due to the instability of the political environment in HK and the widespread of Corona-virus, my family decided to fly to London to settle for a month. I have a subtle culture difference compared with Hong Kong which reshapes my own identity as a global citizen. We have moved the apartment from time to time, we most of the time stay in Colindale and Kilburn. Although there are numerous places worth visiting in London, we have only visited Brent Cross, Wembley and Camden Town due to self-quarantined. Because we stayed in London for a month we experience a taste of the local life. There are many big supermarkets, like Sainsbury’s, Morrison, Asda, Aldi, Tesco, you name it. It is great to know the taste for shopping and a good way to save money when buying things during travels. While there are grocery stores in London, which is a small shop just like 7-Eleven in Hong Kong. The meals in London are generally expensive, so most Brits do not have dining outside. In steads, they purchase delicacy in supermarkets that allows us to stock up on various brands and categories of snacks, drink, and fresh food items, baked goods that we can consume while exploring the city. There are vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free option at supermarket and restaurants which cater to the diversity of eating styles. However, most of the necessities can only be found in supermarkets while they may be very distant from my living places, I have been accustomed to make a weekly purchase plan and take uber very often to carry the food. The weather in London in winter is cold, windy, cloudy and humid compared to Hong Kong. The sunset there is as early as 5 p.m... We felt quite depressed during the self-quarantined period. Most of the shops closed in the evening that people need to go shopping during working hours. The population of ethnicity in London is quite diverse that 44% of London is Black and ethnic minorities, that I unexpected developed British-Indian Accents after travelling from the UK. What I found there is a similarity with Hong Kong culture is the logistic system of railway and the lookout of the double-layered bus since Hong Kong was colonial to the United Kingdom in the past.

I travelled to Taiwan twice, one in 2014 and one in 2017. Taiwanese are knowledgeable and friendly. They actively attend exhibition and seminar. I have attended an exhibition themed for French impressionism painting. There is numerous Chinese heritage and cultural legacies can be found in the National Palace Museum. Besides, I have visited the house of the First Prime Minister in Taiwan, which is called Shilin Official Residence. It depicted the life of the Chinese during and after the Civil War in China, and how now the political status of Taiwan and RPC been established. I received a different perspective in viewing Modern Chinese History after visiting these places.

I travelled to Tokyo Shinjuku and Shibuya in Japan in 2016. I found several interesting phenomena in Japan which is very different from that in Hong Kong. There is a women-only passenger car that is intended for women only. The policy was introduced for protection of women from sexual harassment by men, as a grouping in crowded trains has been a problem in Japan, especially during rush hour. All the things are in order, people follow the rules. But more importantly, they care about one another. Although there is no seat specialised for the elderly or needy, Japanese are all considerate and welcome to give the seats to others. It is very inconvenient to find a rubbish bin on the street in Japan, it is to advocate reduction waste at source for creating an environmentally-friendly urban. During shopping, I observe that robotics and High-Tech Japanese toilet can be widely purchased in the market. Not only does Japanese cutting edge technology concern the quality of human life,

Japanese medicine, fashion and anime enrich human well being that many foreigners come to Japan to buy these products and give rise to the GDP of Japan.