22 Jul 2010 Hong Kong: An adventure for the mind, body and spirit

Let’s just say that 22 hours of air time and several lengthy layovers at the airports severely strains one’s body – especially the lower back and gluteal regions of the anatomy. My strategy was to walk as much as possible during the airport layovers, and this included stairwells, which I eagerly sought as I tried to stretch out the glutes, hamstrings and calf muscles.

The most daunting leg of this arduous trip was the Los Angeles to Seoul flight, which was about 13 hours. One of my first major demographic and cultural discoveries occurred while seated on an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 from LA to Seoul, South Korea. What I quickly noticed was that seat 29D and all other coach/economy seats were significantly narrower and had less depth (front to back) as compared to the Delta Boeing 767 that took us from Atlanta to LA. The seats were definitely designed for travelers with small Body Mass Index values. The airplane seat was almost a sign of what Hong Kong was going to be like – small, cramped and congested.

My angst on Flight 3287 was suddenly magnified when one of our mission team members arrived to squeeze into seat 29E. This particular teammate weighs around 250 pounds. Seat 29E was simply not manufactured for a traveler sporting a portly 250-pound frame. My mission teammate’s girth resulted into a quasi-fusion of his seat and mine as his endomorphic frame spilled over into my 150-pound frame seat space. Just imagine John Madden, Meatloaf (for you old timers) or John Candy sitting next to Barney Fife, and you will understand the situation more clearly. Or envision the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Our team finally arrived in Hong Kong after almost two days of time travel that was stressful on the mind, body and spirit. We counted our blessings every day, and we were especially thankful on the first day in Hong Kong that everyone’s luggage arrived!

After a 45-minute bus ride, we arrived in the Yuen Long portion of Hong Kong’s New Territory district. Our team was based at Gertrude Simon Lutheran College, which is what we would call a high school. This school provides education to 1,000 students who are from lower-to-middle income families. Our team’s mission was to build relationships with these students by teaching religion, visual arts, physical education, music and English.

My individual fitness goal was to try to keep up my running workouts and to observe the fitness world in this area. Due to the busy schedule that we had, there was no way that I could exercise except in the early morning hours.

I was very excited when I found a nice park right behind our school that had plenty of hilly routes or pathways to the top. My running/training mind immediately thought “hill work.” I was just as excited that a stadium featuring an eight-lane track was located just across the street from the school.

I discovered a few interesting things after running in the Yuen Long neighborhoods:

The heat and humidity at 5:30 a.m. was oppressive. The air was thick and moisture-laden every day and forced you to carry water.

Men wore shirts while running, no matter how bad the conditions. I made sure I complied with this habit.

When encountering a runner or walker that is coming toward you, you move to the left instead of the right as we typically do. I think that has something to do with driving on the opposite side of the road. We also observed this in the airports and crowded markets.

As in America, runners in Hong Kong share a universal, non-verbal language that consists of a simple nodding of the head that simply says something to the effect of,  “Way to go – you are a runner too!” This happened quite a bit during my morning workouts.

The local Hong Kong exercise devotees embrace the early mornings. It was BUSY both at the park and at the track at 5:30 a.m. In fact, on a Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m, I counted almost 50 people using the stadium track, and the ages of these folks ranged between 8 and 80.

Tai Chi is very popular in Hong Kong. I saw many small groups and individuals performing this martial art in the park during the quiet early morning times. Some groups even brought their own music.

Running shoes: You name it, they wore it. I saw individuals sporting Nike, Adidas and some Mizuno styles, but I also saw Birkenstocks, flip-flops, dress shoes and hiking boots. The trendiest shoes worn by the students were Chuck Taylor/Converse (now owned by Nike), Puma and Adidas. Some of the Adidas styles reminded me of some shoes from the mid to late 70s.

Body frames: Most of the folks I saw in Hong Kong were small and wiry. Unlike the USA, where 60 percent of the population is overweight or obese, only 5 percent of their population may have a weight issue. Smoking, however, is still quite popular in Hong Kong.

Body image: Similar to America, boys at the school never mentioned their body fatness or a concern to be thinner, but quite a few of the girls, despite being tiny and petite, expressed a concern that they were fat.

Food: Challenging, different, strange and questionable are a few adjectives that apply. I can say that just as God provided manna to the Israelites when they were in the wilderness, God provided Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut to us on several occasions. Oh, the joy that a greasy piece of pizza and chicken can bring to a palate. 

Students and school: The students either walked to school (up to 30 minutes for some kids), or took the light rail, bus or a taxi. I would have loved to hook up my pedometer to one of them to see how many steps they averaged per day. There were no sightings of school buses or mommies or daddies dropping them off at the school. The Hong Kong public transportation system was awesome. All of the students wore uniforms.

Basketball is very popular in Hong Kong. If you mention Kobe or Lebron, they know exactly who you are talking about. Dodgeball is also a very popular sport. We learned the Asian version of this sport, and we all agreed it is better than the American version because you are never really “out,” and there is actually teamwork and strategies involved.

Population density: 16,500 people per square mile. In comparison, Arkansas has only 52 people per square mile.

Running in Hong Kong was an adventure in itself, and I am fortunate that I was able to accomplish my fitness goal while serving on this mission team. Besides providing me with some insights into the fitness world in this district, it also was a great way for me to share my running adventures with the students that I met every day.

Our mission team built many strong relationships over the course of one week, and we continue to pray that these students that we worked with develop a better understanding of what Christianity is all about and develop their own relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen!