How did Hong Kong get to where it is today?

When you think of Hong Kong, what comes to mind? For me it’s crowded streets and tall buildings. But as I start to expand my understanding of what Hong Kong has to offer, I get more excited and more intrigued for our trip. Did you know Hong Kong has the largest landfill in the world and a crazy amount of protected land in the city boundaries? Who would have thought? Over the two-week course, I am looking forward to finding out more of these gems about Hong Kong—the little tidbits that makes this city unique and thought-provoking.

In the course, we will learn about many sustainability problems of Hong Kong but my group and I will study waste management. To my surprise, I have fallen in love with trash. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like touching it or smelling it. I like the challenge of figuring out how cities and companies can think differently about waste management. Although Hong Kong has some very distinctive problems in this area, many other cities are also producing more trash than they know what to do with. So what is Hong Kong doing differently than other big cities? How did they get into these peculiar situations, either good or bad?

As I stress over the usual pre-travel thoughts of what to pack and how much money to take out, I can’t help but wonder: What will be my biggest take-away from this trip and how will this experience translate to my career?