The main languages spoken in Hong Kong are Cantonese and English, and I used English most of the time. I also traveled to Guangzhou and Zhuhai, where people primarily spoke Cantonese and Mandarin, so English was less commonly used.
In Hong Kong, we use the Hong Kong dollar or an Octopus card for most purchases. The Octopus card is a card that you can use for transportation like subways and buses, as well as at most restaurants and stores.
In mainland China, the currency is the Chinese yuan. However, people there rarely use cash; instead, they use phone-based payment apps like Alipay and WeChat Pay.
A bottle of water costs about 13 Hong Kong dollars, which is roughly $1.67 USD. In China, a bottle of water costs about 4 Chinese yuan, which is approximately $0.56 USD.
My best meal this week was Chinese hotpot. Chinese hotpot is a shared meal where everyone cooks their own food in a pot of soup at the table.
