Busy (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

For most of my life, I've lived in a port city. I was born in one (George Town, Penang) and have lived in three others in very different parts of the world (Philadelphia, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar). And, of course, I now reside in Hong Kong.

Although I don't work in the shipping industry, I don't think it's complete coincidence that I look to have been attracted to life in port cities. Rather, my sense is that port cities are places which are more likely to be more multi-cultural and transnational in outlook as well as their business activities than most other places -- and this suits me to a "T" socially and professionally. Furthermore, at their vibrant best, port cities are busy places bustling with life and buzzing in a way that I find very energizing as well as exciting.

For a time, the port of Hong Kong held the title of busiest container port in the world. And although it no longer is the absolute number one in this category, it definitely still is one of the busier container ports in the world. This is something I am able to personally view and verify every time I do such as make a trip to and back from the airport -- since my route there and back passes by the mammoth and seemingly perennially busy Kwai Tsing Container Terminals (parts of which are pictured in the third and fourth photos from the top of this Photo Hunt entry).

Additionally, on ferry trips between the Central Piers and islands like Lamma, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau, one is invariably treated to views of boats and ships galore including ferries plying the Hong Kong-Macau passenger route and bigger vessels heavily laden with containers (like those in the first and second photos from the top of this blog entry) -- and thus given a reminder that even while you are enjoying your leisure time, others continue to be busy working away. (And I don't know about you but this thought often humbles me -- and makes me even more grateful for having more time and opportunity to play than many others!)