I went on a three week trip to China and Hong Kong this year. My wife and I try do one long trip a year, and since we’ve got several friends around China with contracts ending now was the right time. Needless to say, I was excited about the opportunity to try some of the cutting edge fintech products I’ve read so much about.
Flying to Hong Kong today. Gonna check out all those Asian fintech products I’ve heard so much about. Also dumpling, loads and loads of dumplings.— Jon Charles Gore (@therealtwotubs) April 18, 2019
At that point, China and Hong Kong were synonymous in my mind. But that falsehood wasn’t surprising. A big part of why we picked China / Hong Kong was because we knew nothing about it. Part of our selection criteria is to go places we are unfamiliar with. It allows for a clearer perspective, when we don’t have preconceptions.
Our first four days were spent in Hong Kong, where we sampled food from around the streets, walked between skyscrapers and then again tried to eat more Cantonese food. Ther only problem was I couldn’t trial any of the cool fintech apps I had heard about!
I’ve only paid in cash on my first day I’m Hong Kong. Fintech fail.— Jon Charles Gore (@therealtwotubs) April 20, 2019
But, while I was thwarted in my attempts to sign up for mobile fintech products, plenty of people were kind enough to let me watch them interact with their products as they made payments. I was also able to observe random encounters and the infrastructure that existed to support mobile payments. All in all, it was super impressive. I fell in love with Hong Kong as a city, and I hope it maintains its character for the next 1,000 years.