One Busy Saturday: iPhone 7 Plus and National Day's Fireworks!
By Helene Lydia - October 11, 2016
It's a common understanding that Hong Kong people are CRAZY for Apple's products. To satisfy the market, there are 5 Apple stores in 5 different districts in Hong Kong. At first, when I heard that HK got 5 Apple stores, I was like "meh" 😶, my hometown in Indonesia also has many stores that exclusively sell Apple's products. What's so special with 5 Apple stores?
BUT. I. WAS. WRONG.
I feel so bad for comparing the Apple store in Hong Kong and the store that sells Apple's product in my hometown, because it's a totally different concept (and size). Apple store in HK is exceptionally BIG. It ranges from 1 storey and 3 storeys. They got dozens of unit display for all products that can be played freely by the customers.
My first time going to Apple store was to the Apple store in Festival Walk mall which is located near my campus. I went there on weekday and I was amused to see sooo many people inside the store. It was really crowded! On weekday! Wow! A rare view if you go to mall in my hometown during weekday. After several visits to the Apple store in different times, I realized that Apple stores in HK always have many customers coming to the store every time and everyday.
Aaand Helene, why are you lecturing us about Apple related information to start this post?
It's because in this post I'm gonna share with you my experience competing with Hong Kong (and Mainland China) people to get our hand over the newest Apple's product, iPhone 7 Plus!
My mom has been eyeing for iPhone 7th series since the launch of iPhone 4 (lol) because she likes number 7. She persistently insists to stay with her old phone until the launch of 7th series iPhone. Long story short, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were launched for website reservation on September 9 in Hong Kong. As I'm staying in HK, of course I should join the crowd to get one for my mum. Game on!
However, I never actually being involved the game...
The reservation started at 3PM, so I stand by the computer since like 2:30PM starring at Apple HK website. When the clock struck three, I directly refresh the page to access their reservation page BUT what I got on the screen was a writing: ERROR. Whaattt..??? It seems like toooo manyyyy people were accessing the website it became error. I kept on refreshing the page with nervous and anxiety feeling, and even opened the web with my phone, but the result was nil. I finally could reach the reservation page through my phone, BUT: (wow this post got so many caps-locked but!)
To sum up, I fail to reserve the phone on the first day of launch. On September 17, I also couldn't secure any phone for me...
It's because in this post I'm gonna share with you my experience competing with Hong Kong (and Mainland China) people to get our hand over the newest Apple's product, iPhone 7 Plus!
My mom has been eyeing for iPhone 7th series since the launch of iPhone 4 (lol) because she likes number 7. She persistently insists to stay with her old phone until the launch of 7th series iPhone. Long story short, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were launched for website reservation on September 9 in Hong Kong. As I'm staying in HK, of course I should join the crowd to get one for my mum. Game on!
However, I never actually being involved the game...
The reservation started at 3PM, so I stand by the computer since like 2:30PM starring at Apple HK website. When the clock struck three, I directly refresh the page to access their reservation page BUT what I got on the screen was a writing: ERROR. Whaattt..??? It seems like toooo manyyyy people were accessing the website it became error. I kept on refreshing the page with nervous and anxiety feeling, and even opened the web with my phone, but the result was nil. I finally could reach the reservation page through my phone, BUT: (wow this post got so many caps-locked but!)
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| Notice the time! Refreshing page for 50 minutes! |
It turns out that after September 17, there will always be a reservation opened at 8AM every day. The struggle continued. I woke up at 7:45AM every day and opened my laptop to access their website. From my experience and observation, the website only available to be accessed at 8:01. Mostly, what's available on the website only the iPhone 7. It was hard to reserve the 7 Plus model, especially the bigger capacity. If there's iPhone 7 Plus, the available size is the 32GB. I don't want that. I want the 128GB.
I started to queue outside at 11:47, moved inside at 12:06 and got my item at 12:27. Yash!😎
Until Saturday, October 1.
I woke up again at 7:45AM and started my morning routine for the past 2 weeks😂 At 8:01 I refreshed the page and... THIS TIME THE IPHONE 7 PLUS WAS AVAILABLE! HOOORAY! The available size were the 32GB and 256GB. No 128GB that I want. I remember I was thinking to text my mom first to ask whether 256GB is OK for her, BUT WHO CARES. My finger directly clicked the reserve button for the 256GB and fill out the necessary information. Aaaaaand taraaaa!!
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| So proud of myself😂 |
I need to pick the phone at the Apple store during the time slot that I chose. My choice was to take at Festival Walk before lunch time with, so I could eat my lunch there afterward. In the afternoon when I arrived at the Apple store to pick the phone, I thank myself for letting me to sleep again that morning. Because I need more energy to join the line and queue to pick my phone, and also to hold my hunger😩
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| The queue started outside the store... |
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| And continued inside... |
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| Proof that now I'm one of HK people who crazy about Apple! |
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| Another line if you need helps to activate the phone |
Done with iPhone, now it's time for lunch! I was very hungryyyy and I decided to go with McDonalds for fast rescue. Once I arrived at McDonalds, now I think Hong Kong people also crazy about McDonalds because there were lots of people too.
Then I realized why it was so crowded everywhere. Because it was October 1! October 1 is the National Day of the People's Republic of China and it's a public holiday for people in Hong Kong as well as Mainland China. I guess people in Mainland China came to visit Hong Kong to spend their holiday time and doubled the number of people here. The National Day is also celebrated in Hong Kong with fireworks and I got appointment with my friends to watch it together in the evening,
Fun fact: Hong Kong people (probably the youngsters) don't really go to see the fireworks live.
When I asked my classmates and local HK friends whether they will go to watch the fireworks or not, their answer is better to watch from TV😂 They said that it will be too crowded, especially in the common viewing point known by people which is Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui. Then my classmate suggested me to watch it from other place: Tamar Park in Admiralty. He said that it is less crowded and the view is nice too.
Thus in the evening, I went to Tamar Park as advised by my classmate. We arrived there at 7PM even though the show will start at 9PM. The place was not too crowded at that time and we managed to get spot at the second row of upper deck. Perfect view here we come! After talking here and there with my friends for almost two hours, finally it was the time for the fireworks. People who came later than us started to move forward to get the to the front row, so my friends and I stood up to defend our position😌
At 9PM, the fireworks started after a 10-seconds countdown. It supposed to last for 23 minutes and was fired up from three different boats. It was very beautiful from the start till the end, they got some variations of the fireworks' shapes. My 2 hours of waiting was paid off with the breathtaking fireworks decorated with beautiful lights of Hong Kong's skyscrapers.
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| Cotton candy galaxy fireworks💞 |
However, in my opinion, the best part for photo taking was only the first one minute. Why only 1 minute? Because after the first 1 minute of enchanting fireworks, the sky started to be covered with the smoke. The smoke was a lot and it distracted the firework. Thus even though I kept on taking picture throughout the show, the best shots were the ones that I took during the first minute. Below are the smokey fireworks pictures. Not bad, but not the best either.
After 23 minutes standing and being impressed by the massive fireworks, people started to turn around and go home. Most of the people headed to the same destination, the MTR station. The police kept on reminding the visitors to walk slowly and not pushing anyone. Salute to the good cooperation of visitors and the polices!
Overall it was another memorable experience for me to witness National Day's celebration in HK. This 23-minutes of fireworks will indeed be the standard that I used to compare with other fireworks that I'll see in the future😉 I believe that's all for this post. Hope you guys enjoy this writing and I'll see you on my next post! xx
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| My companions for the night. Thanks Peggy and Juventius! |
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