and none of you understand

i have talked to other people about this before
and those who do not know what i'm talking about (have never been to hong kong before) smile and nod, and nod
and those who do know of hong kong are tourists and sleep in hotels and go for the pretty clothes and the night markets and fun
and maybe those who live in hong kong will laugh at me and think that i'm romanticizing their city -- that when you get up close and personal with it that it is not much different from any city in the world
that if one were inclined to love a certain city that it is near impossible not to find things about it to love
but
i am so in love with everything that hong kong represents and every part of it even the mosquitoes
i am in love with the polluted air
i am in love with the hot swelter that presses down on everyone and makes the concentrated humanity in the city even more packed
i am in love with the details -- what makes up hong kong in the tiniest things
i am in love with the prerecorded voice on the MTR trains that say the exact same thing in polite cantonese, mandarin, and english
i am in love with the crowds on the streets bc it feels like you are never alone not even at 3 in the morning
i am in love with the blasting freezing super duper cold air conditioning that overcompensates for the summer humidity
i am in love with the towering apartment buildings
i am in love with the american tv shows that are shown and dubbed in cantonese
i am in love with the shade of red taxis that make up the highways like blood cells in blood vessels
i am in love with the skyline
i am in love with the lights
i am in love with the artificiality of it all
i am in love with everything that makes up what hong kong is
but i am not in love with hong kong
i am in love with the ideal
the image
the beautiful exterior the tourist traps the neon signs
but i am also in love with
the graffiti
the dust the dirt
the sweat
that cements hong kong and its people.
and none of you understand.