Have I noted this already? Maybe I have. How it seems to be hard to become a victim, in this town. A victim of crime, or assault.

It’s almost as if it’s something you really have to work at.

For example, a little walk we took last night.

We are living in Wan Chai, again. Which is anything but an upscale neighborhood. People aren’t poor, seemingly, and they aren’t desperate … but they certainly don’t seem wealthy.

And they also seem to be completely harmless. And fully expect that everyone around them is harmless, too. Young and old, male and female.

So, it was 12:30 a.m.  It’s a crowded neighborhood by day, but it shuts down pretty tight by 10 p.m.  Hong Kong is not exactly Paris or New York in the sense of a 24/7 existence.

So, an empty street, pretty much, dark … and at the end of it is the subway entrance, with a walkaway above it that creates a sort of bridge underneath that is/would be perfect for derelicts and homeless people to hang out.

And to make things a bit more interesting, on the other side of the bridge (which our path is going to take us under) … is a methadone clinic.

Methadone, you may recall, is the substance given to heroin addicts. It apparently kills the cravings without causing as much physical damage.

So, let’s review:

Sketchy neighborhood, in terms of where it stands on the local economic ladder.

Nearly empty street. And a dark one.

No police presence, at all. (Same as usual.)

A methadone clinic — which means addicts and former addicts are hanging around.

And, by HK standards, middle of the night.

In any American city, including the one in which I live, Long Beach … I would think twice about making that walk, at 12:30 a.m.

In HK, no problem. None. Not for one second was I worried that anything unpleasant could possibly happen.

And it didn’t.

We walked down the empty street, took a right at the methadone clinic, noted a few guys nodded out … and went another 40 yards and into the 24-hour McDonald’s.

We walked back. No problem.

And it struck us, again, that we live on an island with 1.2 million people … existing in cramped conditions and many with modest means … and we have zero fear of crime. None.

Why is that? I can just make some suggestions.

A great sense of social responsibility. An attack on one is an attack on all. Perhaps a sense of politeness so bred-in that the idea of forcing yourself on someone else is just something that never occurs. Maybe a feeling that your social network (family, friends) will label you an outcast if you do something so patently anti-social as mug someone. Perhaps a fear of punishment? Of exile?

Whatever it is, Hong Kong is remarkably safe. I have yet to encounter a neighborhood that I would suggest a kid or a woman could NOT walk alone, in the middle of the night.

It will be a little odd, when we get back, to see if that sensible concern about walking down a dark street late at night … returns. Living here for almost three months now, we’re losing our fear of the outdoors.

It’s as if we have no predators here. And it may hurt us when we get back to our native environment.