By ANDREW KUECH, 7/16/2015. Hong Kong is hot! After a grueling 31 hour journey I finally made it to the Hong Kong and my room at CUHK. Turns out I have an awesome view and an air conditioner that works really well—what a relief. When I arrived last night around 11pm, it was 90 degrees with about 90% humidity. The cab driver and locals Ive talked to so far have all said everyone takes refuge in air conditioned buildings for the months of July and August. Looks like I’ll need to brave the heat to see more of Hong Kong outside of the libraries.
Ive had a chance to roam around what is largely an empty summer-time campus here at CUHK. Its really beautiful, built steeply up the side of a mountain on the far outskirts of Hong Kong. It’s a little strange to hang out and wander through a campus that seems to have almost no students or faculty inside—they’re all recently off for summer break. Interestingly, there are various trace remnants of the huge Umbrella Student Movement from early last year (where students occupied downtown Hong Kong to oppose recent changes to the democratic election system). A few tattered banners and fading posters seem to be all that remain from what must have been a really exciting and frenetic time on this campus a year ago.
Heading over to the archive today for the first time. I’ll be spending a lot of time there so Im just looking forward to understanding how the library works and meeting the people who work there. Maybe the most important part of working in an archive—making friends with the archivists!