Sanitation

There is a stereotype out there that assumes developing countries, like China, are very dirty and unsanitary. Hong Kong has shown no sign of that yet. It is probably the cleanest city I have ever been too. They have strict littler (and spitting) laws which makes the streets clean to begin with. Apparently spitting is a common Cantonese habit (I hear my local flat mates clearing their throats ever evening) so the government had to crack down to keep the street walkable. There are armies of people that go around a clean everything and anything. Yesterday, while in Central, I watched a group of about five go down the street to clean things. They washed the street signs and even the metal guard rail that was between the sidewalk and road from the base up. On campus there are always people washing windows and sweeping. There is a lady that mops my flat and cleans the bathrooms several times a week. It is also not uncommon to see public hand sanitizers or plastic covering the buttons on the elevator (they change those out). Everyone keeps their cars super clean as well. I haven't seen a really dirty car yet (trucks excluded). I even saw someone get a bucket of water to wash their car while parked on campus. One positive side affect of eating pigeons is that there are few in the city. I have really only noticed one flock and by flock I mean less then five. There is not bird poop on anything. It is common to see posters about sanitation (wash your hands frequently and wear a mask if you are sick). A lot of that is left over from SARS and avian flu. They even have an avian flu alert levels similar to our terror alert levels.