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Published: October 27th 2014
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Hong Kong: Victoria Peak Tram, Jackie Chan and Bamboo As we wandered though Hong Kong Park again, we decided to take advantage of the Victoria Peak Tram ride as part of the Big Red Bus package we bought. The Big Bus woman in her red and yellow shirt told us we should go RIGHT now because there was no line. Well, her definition of “no line” was a 30 minute wait;-) . The big red tram which was built in the early 1900’s would take us up the 1200 meter high Victoria Peak, named after Queen Victoria. About 50 people packed onto 2 cars for the 20 minute ride to the top. As we approached the observation tower, we were expecting incredible views, which we got, but amazingly we also found a huge shopping center/mall awaiting us with hundreds of tourists from all over the world. Some shops were touristy junk, but there was also legitimate merchandise. We made our way up 4 levels of escalators to the outdoor observation tower with incredible views over Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong. Everyone was taking each others pictures. I took pictures of a French family and they Tram Time
Selfie on the Victoria Peak Tram took pictures of us. There were huge posters of Jackie Chan so Cope quickly moved over to one and took Jackie on with a few well placed karate chops ;-)
We could see both sides of Hong Kong Island- Victoria Harbor to Repulse Bay. Hundreds of islands including Kowloon across the harbor make up the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). Words can’t really express the magnificent views of this incredible city with all of the high rise apartments and office buildings. The British founded an incredible city and the growth in the last 20 years has been phenomenal, just like Shanghai. Once again, there are cranes everywhere, roads being torn up and re-newed and construction of skyscrapers going on in virtually every block of the city. Only on Sundays does the noise of construction abate. After taking the escalators back down through what is really an observation shopping mall complex we stopped in a little restaurant for some local fare of fried rice and ham with a fried egg. Back to the cable car line, we headed down and were just in time to catch the Big Red Bus for a tour of the center of Hong Kong-the financial and business district on the Red Line. Again, we found ourselves craning our necks, looking up at the apartments and office buildings reaching to the sky all around us. Since available land for expansion is limited in Hong Kong proper, they are reclaiming land from the harbor but most of the growth is vertical-if you are looking for a place to eat or a store, you probably need to look up to find what you are looking for. A sign may be at street level for a hairdresser but the actual shop might be on the 23
rd floor ;-)
This is true of walking around the city too. Look up. There are elevated sidewalks and escalators everywhere to carry pedestrians over intersections and even freeways in order to improve traffic flow and provide access for pedestrians to all of the shops and office building. Some of these elevated walkways are supported by a single tower in the middle of the street with walkways supported in a 360 degree sidewalk area above the streets. Elevated walkways between buildings are also everywhere making it easier Victoria Peak and Hong Kong
Trading Pic French Ladies to the Left for people to get around this bustling city.
One of the most interesting totally visible signs of modern progress mixed with the old is the use of bamboo for scaffolding-everywhere you look where high rise buildings are being constructed, repaired, and renovated, you see bamboo holding up construction platforms and netting to catch falling debris from the work. Bamboo is light weight, yet as strong as iron so using it for scaffolding makes sense, but to see bamboo scaffolding tied together by hand up to 50 stories high is an unbelievable sight. The Big Bus took us the Central Ferry Terminal. This is where the ferries leave for Macau, Kowloon, the New Territories, Lantau islands and mainland China. We’ll “do” ferries tomorrow ;-)
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