Hong Kong

As I write this I'm sitting in the grounds of the Royal Park Hotel in Chitwan National Park located in Southern Nepal. I was scheduled to take a jungle walk this morning but thanks to my anti-malarial drug I did not sleep a wink last night, and this morning my stomach is not very happy (hopefully, not a sign of more problems!!!), and do not feel mentally or physically up to the walk. I had been warned that the drug could have some psychotropic side effects and thought I had escaped but I guess not. Several of my group, for various reasons, have also decided not to take the walk so we are going to tonight's meeting site by jeep later today. It is disappointing not to be able to go but at least I will get to participate in the evenings activities and tomorrow I have booked an elephant ride to compensate for missing the jungle walk. I've also reached the realization that including the Kathmandu to Dehli trip into my world trip may not have been the best decision as the type of travel here is very different from what I am doing for the rest of the trip. In retrospect, I might have been better off skipping this trip or taken it separately when I could pack more appropriately for the type of travel and the conditions. Still, I intend to make the best of the opportunities that I have and get as much as I can from the trip. But I digress.

In this post I want to give some impressions of Hong Kong before I get to far removed from the experience. It's somewhat appropriate to do a comparison between Singapore and Hong Kong as both share a considerable heritage as a British colonial outpost. But whereas, modern Singapore is the product of many cultures (see the previous post), modern Hong Kong is much a product of Chinese culture. Apparently, there has been, and continues to be, a friendly competition between them as they develop. Both have excellent public transport, featuring subways, buses and ferries (Hong Kong adds trams) which are almost indistinguishable when you travel on them. both have traded on their geographic locations to becomemajor financial and trading centers. Both have serious pollution problems although form different sources.

View from my hotel room of Happy Valley racecourse

Another view-notice the high rise apartment buildings in the distance

Both have used limited land resources to the maximum, building up and down. Here, however, Hong Kong has an advantage because it has more territory in the form of the New Territories and the Outlying Islands. Now, of course, this is kind of moot as Hong Kong is part of mainland China, but as Hong Kong exists as a special zone within China, it continues to develop within the old colonial boundaries. This can be seen in the ongoing urban development taking place in the Outlying Islands, particularly Lantau Island, location of Hong Kong's new airport.

The airport itself was built on reclaimed land is about 25 miles from downtown. To get passengers in to town they run a dedicated express train from the airport to downtown. You can by a return ticket for a very reasonable price which is good for one month, and when you are ready to leave you can check your bags in with your airline a the dedicated airport express station downtown so you don't have to worry about storing luggage or even caring it out to the airport. The system is very efficient  and your bags will arrive at your destination when you do.

I did visit some of the classic tourist sites in Hong Kong including:
1. Victoria Peak (take the peak tram up but take the number 15 bus back to town and sit at the front of the top deck on the left hand side for spectacular views of Happy Valley and downtown Hong Kong). If  you're lucky and the sky is relatively clear you get amazing views of downtown and Kowloon from the Peak. It's also the home of what may be the worlds most expensive house which was recently valued at $US500 million.

The Peak tram

View from inside the tram climbing the Peak. Does not really illustrate how steep the climb is.

On top at the Peak Skyview. Notice the smog-a clear day is very rare.

Looking down into the financial heart of Hong Kong

Pricey real estate with spectacular views from the Peak.

2. The Tung Chung aerial tram the the giant Buddha at Ngong Ping. This is on Lantau Island and to get there you take what is known as the Tung Chung subway line to the end of the line. From the station it's short walk to the beginning of the tramway which takes you on a spectacular ride up over the island to a valley on the other side where on of the largest cast bronze statues of Buddaha has been erected. Stay away from the "village" at the end of the tramway (tourist trap) and head for the nearby monastery. It has a wonderful vegetarian restaurant and if you buy a meal ticket you get entry into a museum located in the base of the Buddha. I can't show you what's inside ( no pictures allowed) but there are examples of micro writing (try to fit 421 words on something smaller than a postage stamp) and paintings depicting events in the life of Buddha drawn in the artist's blood (average size about 2 feet x 3 feet). From here I took a bus to the traditional fishing village of Tai O - hard to describe but the pictures will help when I post them - then to the port town of Mui Wo to catch a ferry back to Hong Kong. a good day.

Climbing to the center of Lantau Island on the cable tramway. It's already made a 90 degree turn at the structure at the foot of the climb

Nearing the highest point on the tramway.

There are many trails throughout the island including this one that crosses the island following the tramway route.

The giant Buddha of Ngong Ping

A steep climb up this stairway takes you to the top and the foot of the Buddha.

The statue is an imposing sight from a distance and up close.

Looking down the stairway from about the 3/4 point.

This is the Buddhist monastery that is associated with and responsible for the giant Buddha. They have a vegetarian restaurant that serves great food at very reasonable prices-get the deluxe meal!!!

The harbor at Tai O fishing village.

Houses are built on stilts along the edge of the rivers around which the village is built.

More stilt houses. many are clad in aluminum sheeting that is riveted to the side of the house. Many remain unpainted, some not.

The fish market of Tai O. Most of the fish is dried but some critters are sold live from colander-like arrangements fitted with aquarium bubblers.

Another view of the market.

And yet another view.

 
3. One of the signature features of Hong Kong has been the Star ferries that cross the harbor between Hong Kong and Kowloon. Ridiculously priced at only $HK2.90 (about 40 cents) one way,  this is a must do. Sit on the top deck (there's a separate entrance for this so follow the signs carefully) And you'll get great views of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the harbor.

The Star ferry returning to Hong Kong from Kowloon.

 4. The Kowloon waterfront-this has been turned into a walkway and and gives nice views across the water to downtown Hong Kong. There's a short "walk of stars" as a tribute to the Hong Kong film industry but it's definitely not Hollywood.

Hong Kong skyline from Kowloon.

Another view from Kowloon

Kowloon from the Lantau Island ferry

Hong Kong from the Lantau Ferry

One other thing that Hong Kong shares with Singapore is the presence of lots of shopping opportunities. In the downtown area every office building and mall complex is filled with expensive high-end stores from Europe and the US. Elsewhere, most of the high rise buildings have stalls and markets of various descriptions on the ground floor, with the residential floors above. But if you get off the main streets and walk the back streets you enter another world altogether, with the classic open markets selling meat, produce and bread. But the expensive and tourist-oriented (?) shopping seems to be the center of attention. There is quite a contrast in appearance between the various shopping districts and the nature of the buildings and shops can change very suddenly, in as little as one side of the street to the other.

The inner sanctum of the Times Square Super Mall - a temple to the religion of consumerism. This complex stretches up seven stories and down two levels, each filled with expensive designer stores. It does have a nice supermarket, however.

A typical street market where local Chinese buy many of their staples including, fruit, veggies and fresh meat, poultry and fish. No evidence of refrigeration can be found!!

 Here are some other scenes from around Hong Kong that I thought you might find interesting:

Bamboo being used as scaffolding (diagonally braced by standard scaffold pipe). I tell my students about this in class (the strength of cellulose vs steel) but now I can illustrate its' use.

A "ding ding" tram. A ride on one of these is a must-do in Hong Kong and quite an experience. I have video taken from the the front of the top deck of one of these and you can hear the reason why they are so named.

The famous "Noon day gun" (from Noel Coward's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"), still fired by a uniformed Jardines employee every day to mark noon.

The worlds longest escalator/moving walkway (1.5 km in total) climbs the lower levels of the Peak to reach the "Mids" where many employees of the financial district live. During the morning rush the escalator complex runs down the peak to carry workers to the financial hubs but from 10:00am until 6:00am in runs up.

Your reward for taking the ride to the Mids-climbing down the worlds longest staircase, here paralleling the escalator.

Another view of the staircase which provides access the residential, market and shopping areas that the escalator passes through.

Space is a premium in Hong Kong. This little park was created by forming a cantilever porch adjacent to the escalator as it winds up to the Mids.

The old Kowloon harbor clock tower.

The Peninsular Hotel-like the Raffles in Singapore, it is one of the iconic hotels of British colonial times. It used to be right on the water but is now inland to to reclamation. High tea is served every afternoon.

On the south side of Hong Kong island is the original colonial capital of Stanley. You can reach it by taking one of several buses but the N0.6 is the most scenic as it goes up over the gap in the center of the island

Coastal residential development is moving rapidly along the south side.

One of the most famous is Repulse Bay which has a very attractive beach.

Just east of Stanley is this secluded beach, about 20 minutes walk along the coast. There was hardly any one there.

Looking across the small bay towards Stanley

Development along the coast near Stanley.

The old Stanley Post Office-the oldest continuously operating post office in Hong Kong still in its' original building.

Anyway, more to come and the next post will talk about Nepal.

Doc