Back at home, my typical method of transportation is to drive myself where I need to go. In Missouri, that's normal. In Hong Kong, I've noticed that most people do not own cars, and many don't have licenses because public transportation is so readily available and affordable that it doesn't make sense to. I have ridden above-ground metro lines before while in Chicago, but Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) was my first subway experience, and for the most part I thoroughly enjoyed it!
For most of the students who commute to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), their commute consists of taking a large bus from a stop near their homes to the nearest MTR station. At that point, they funnel into the MTR trains, which come roughly every three minutes. They then take the MTR from whatever stop they get on towards the Hang Hau or Tseung Kwan O stop, where they will resurface and take a minibus to campus. There is a difference between buses and minibuses. What the people of Hong Kong call a bus is similar to the red double-decker buses that are prevalent in London, England, while minibuses are similar to what we think of when it comes to shuttle buses. The use of double-decker buses makes sense, considering that the British colonized Hong Kong long ago.
