Days 1 and 3 of our trip were spent visiting the sites and shopping in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is very modern and reminded me of New York City quite a bit (except all the cars are right hand drive). Hong Kong actually consists of 250+ islands (the primary inhabited ones being Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island) and a peninsula. It's a much bigger place that you'd expect and it's also very mountainous and has a lot of good scenery - both industrial and natural.

While Hong Kong transferred back to Chinese governance as a special administration region (SAR) in 1997, it was under the rule of the United Kingdom before that since 1842 and retains several of those traits. In fact, many people from Hong Kong who speak English, do so with a UK accent which always seems a bit odd coming from a Chinese person. The SAR also allows Hong Kong people to avoid many of the more onerous policies of the mainland Chinese government including unrestricted travel and free elections of it's own legislative leaders. This has lead to the famous saying regarding Hong Kong (as well as Macau and Taiwan) and mainland China that they exist by the philosophy of "One country, two systems". Having seen both, I think I'd take the Hong Kong system.

Hong Kong is not very similar to other Chinese cities I have visited except perhaps in that it has air pollution issues - often severe. The most notable difference to visitors after the ease of access (no special visa required) and Hong Kong's own money system (China uses RMB; Hong Kong the Hong Kong dollar), is that Hong Kong is extremely orderly compared to mainland cities. Drivers do not beep their horns constantly, taxi drivers and busses follow the rules of the road, and there are not many motorcycles and scooters racing around (none on the sidewalks - a definitive Asian first for me). The only exceptions really are the subways where crowds are heavy at times and pushing and shoving seem to be the norm. Again, very like New York City.

We had a great time exploring the city starting with a visit to the Central district (Hong Kong Island) where we rode the Victoria's Peak tram, a very steep incline railway, to the top of Mt. Austin (1800 ft) for some unfortunately fog shrouded but still beautiful views of the city. After riding the tram back down we took a double decker bus on a brief tour to the pier, rode the Star Ferry and then explored markets and shops in Kowloon and along the waterfront of Tsim Tsa Tsui on the Peninsula. We ended the night with a relaxing ride once again on the Star Ferry while having drinks and banana pound cake and watching the nightly "Symphony of Lights". This show is a colored light, searchlight and laser show using 44 buildings downtown and coordinated to music played on local radio. It holds the Guinness World Record for a permanent light and sound show. It's a very creative way for Hong Kong to show off all the special lighting effects an unique architecture that abound in the city.

Our final day in Hong Kong involved a long walk in the Central district exploring shops and seeing the antique district as we hunted for a few souvenirs to take back with us. Unfortunately, this last day was a high pollution day in the city and our stay was not very long. Perhaps someday we can come back through and explore some of the more historical sites and manage to time our visit to avoid the fog and pollution. We certainly liked the city enough to warrant another visit some day.
Travels - Indo China Cruise (March 2008)
(Day's 1 and 3 - Visiting Hong Kong, China)
The Victoria Peak Tram whisks you from the Central District of Hong Kong (about 200 ft above sea level) to the top of Mount Arnold (about 1800 ft) in around 5 minutes. It's a very steep railway and the views are great. Unfortunately, our day was on the foggy side and the cameras had a hard time focusing. Although blurry, the lower RH picture gives a good view of the steepness as you can see the angle of the interior vs the flat platform outside somewhere around the midway point of the trip.
At Victoria's Peak is a very nice observation station with many restaurants. Josh enjoyed the unique presentation of his chicken fingers for lunch. Meanwhile, Nancy really liked the Singapore Noodles with chicken kabobs. I had a great meal of assorted chicken, lamb and ostrich tandoori. It was excellent (sorry no pictures) and for the record ostrich tastes just like chicken. Views from the observation deck and restaurant were nice but foggy.
After riding the tram back down, our next journey was from the tram station to the pier via an open top double decker bus. The double decker busses are very common in HK although the open top type is pretty rare. Even so you can get much nicer pictures on the open top variety.
From the pier we caught the Star Ferry to cross from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon on the mainland peninsula. Star Ferry is very famous and has been operating since around 1888 including through the very tough years of Japanese occupation. They are very inexpensive to ride (about 50 cents each way per person) and offer great city views - even great foggy city views. RH lower is a fishing boat seen from the ferry.
After the ferry ride we walked into the Kowloon and Tsim Tsa Tsui districts to check out some of their markets. The 1st market we visited was the flower market. Above left are giant snowball carnations. At the above right are roses each with the bud individually wrapped in plastic mesh to protect it.
Next up was Hong Kong's famous bird market. Literally filled with hundreds and hundreds of birds for sale it's a very interesting place to visit with all the birds singing away. Mockingbirds, parakeets, cockatoos, finches, macaws and many others I have never heard of were all there. Birds are considered good luck for a household in China and the birds are priced according to the beauty of the song the bird sings. As we went to leave we were startled to hear someone nearby shout in English, "Wait don't go!" When we turned we saw that the culprit was a large parrot on his perch by the gate.
Wouldn't be Asia without an open market to go barter in (upper left). We tried our hands at it and Sarah came away with some nice hair clips and Josh bought a great Brick (Chinese Lego company) battle ship which came complete with a helicopter, launch boat and operating guns for about $5 US (bottom left). Upper right shows some of the gilt adorned shop fronts in the antique market. We bargained and bought Nancy a nice Jade necklace here (bottom right).
Finally, with weary feet from all of our exploring, we dragged ourselves back to the Star Ferry dock and set out on a 2 hour harbor cruise to see the Symphony of Lights. Even without special effects the night skyline of HK is eye catching, but for 15 minutes every night 44 of the city buildings ratchet it up a notch and turn on additional lighting effects including digital displays, spotlights and even a few lasers. All choreographed to music, it's a stunning sight. The pictures don't do it justice but even so they give the general idea at least.