Hong Kong

We have been in the beautiful city of Hong Kong for almost a month now, and we have seen so many amazing sights! After almost thirty hours of traveling and arriving to a foreign country, it's safe to say that we had a little bit of culture shock. There are so many little details about Hong Kong that are so different from home. From the fresh fruit, meat, and live fish being sold on street corners, to all of the skyscrapers that line the waterfront, this city is so unique and bursting with culture!

We have had the chance to have not just one “clinical site” but also multiple areas in the city to observe. In all of the areas that we have visited, one common health problem that we have noticed is a large amount of people smoking. It is mostly just seen as people are walking down the street, for it is prohibited to smoke in restaurants and many other public places, like at home. There are an abundance of "No Smoking" signs posted in various areas. We also noticed yesterday while in the MTR subway station that cigarettes being sold had health advisories and pictures of lung cancer on and x-ray and other various consequences of smoking. I thought this was really cool, for it made me even more disgusted in smoking. This should certainly be used at home!

While working with a professor at the University of Hong Kong, Kim and I were able to attend an event with ethnic minorities and Chinese children that he had been working with. In Hong Kong, there is a large amount of immigrants from other nearby Asian countries. There seems to be a lack of social harmony between locals and immigrants, which is especially tough for the school-aged children. We had the chance to observe, interact, and interview the children at this event. We noticed that the children only played with others of their own cultural background. When discussing this with some of the Pakistani children, we learned that some of them are in classes that only have one or two other students of their cultural background, which leaves them feeling uncomfortable and unwilling to make friends with the Chinese children. It was really interesting to hear this, because a good amount of the ethic minorities that we interviewed were in fact born in Hong Kong. This provides question to where this ethnic divide stems from.

We have so much more to learn about this social problem in children. There are so many opportunities to observe this problem and the other health problems that are common in Hong Kong. It has been such an amazing experience here thus far; so more updates are to come!