My trip to Asia

I am incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to spend the next three-and-a-half months in Asia as part of a job rotation program for work. During that time I’ll be based in our office in Hong Kong, a city of nearly seven million people crammed into a space that’s about half the size of Rhode Island. Hong Kong is, in fact, one of the most densely populated areas in the world -- about four times as dense as New York City. With some 7,687 high-rise buildings (defined as over 13 stories) extending up into its sky, it has the most sky scrapers of any city in the world.

Although I’m traveling to Hong Kong under the guise of my job, work is only one component of what this trip is all about. What’s truly driving me and what will define the the next 113 days for me is the desire to take full advantage of this opportunity to see and experience as much of Asia as I possibly can. And so, by day I’ll be a suit-wearing business monkey working in one of the world’s most important financial hubs. But at night and on the weekends, I’ll be an explorer, set on discovering Hong Kong, Mainland China, Southeast Asia and whatever else comes my way.

This blog is my primary vehicle for recording and sharing my observations about living and working in Asia. And that’s exactly what they are: my observations. I make no claim to have any expertise on Asia or to have all of the facts straight, and I certainly have no desire to hide behind a wall of political correctness or cultural sensitivity at the cost of tempering the candidness of my impressions. All that I can do is report back on what I see, hear, touch taste and smell, and offer up my inferences about what it all means. Hopefully I’ll do so in a way that’s both informative and entertaining. 

Happy reading.