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Published: June 30th 2009
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This weekend, I travelled down to Hong Kong, which is in the southern province of Guangdong. Although officially under Chinese control since 1997, Hong Kong’s political and socioeconomic system is still completely different from the rest of the mainland. My first impressions were of how much clearer and more livable it was than the other cities I’ve visited. Unlike the rest of China, which thrives on manufacturing and construction, Hong Kong’s economy is service-based, and it is definitely noticeable. Virtually everyone here speaks English, even clerks in the smallest convenience stores. The city looks and acts like a European city, and remnants of the British rule are still present in the double-decker buses and some of the old architecture. Visually, Hong Kong probably has one of the nicest ocean settings of any city in the world. The coast is made up of steep sloping hills, somewhat like the coast of northern California, except that Hong Kong is spread out on a few islands. The heart of the city is split between the northern district of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island to the south across Victoria Harbor.
I left Thursday night with my friend, Brandon, for the three-day weekend. Apparently, Brandon’s
grandfather has a relationship with a very successful business man in Hong Kong, named Mr. James Blake. We met him at the HK airport, and he turned out to be the CEO of Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, a major company with over $10 billion in assets. Mr. Blake had us driven to our hostel in a sparkling new Mercedes, and then paid for our room. His type is not too unusual though; there is some serious money floating around this place. Almost every car on the road in Hong Kong is a new Mercedes or Porsche. I even saw some Lamborghinis and Ferraris during the weekend. Anyway, we arrived at our hostel in Kowloon around midnight, and we only had time to walk down to the harbor and get a look at the Hong Kong skyline before going to bed.
On Friday morning, we woke up and walked down to Victoria Harbor where we rode the star ferry across the bay to Hong Kong Island. The star ferry has been an institution in Hong Kong for many decades, and it remains the cheapest and most popular form of transportation in the city. The boat ride only takes about ten minutes,
and it gives passengers a great view of the harbor. It was raining on Friday morning, so we walked around the Central Statue Square area for a while. One unique feature of Central is the half-mile stretch of continuously linked escalators used to transport people to and from work. Since it was raining, we rode the giant people mover all the way to the end of the line. By late morning, the sky had cleared up, and we decided to take a taxi down to Stanley, an undeveloped beach resort area on the southern side of the island. I was surprised at how little time it takes to get from the heart of the city out to a natural scenic area. The road from the city out to Stanley winds up and down the hills along the coastline, and some of the views are pretty amazing. We spent most of the afternoon walking along the waterfront at Stanley. There are several isolated beaches where we saw people swimming, kayaking, and windsurfing. I wished I had brought my bathing suit. After lunch, we took a double-decker bus back to Central. The views along the winding road from the top of the
bus were pretty spectacular. Once back in Central, we took the star ferry across the harbor to Kowloon and rested in our hostel for a while. Mr. Blake picked us up around six o’clock and took us up to his office at the top of the Bank of China building, where we got a great view of the city as the sun was setting. After eating dinner at Mr. Blake’s English club, we rode his Mercedes up to Victoria Peak, the best lookout spot in Hong Kong. Luckily it was a very clear night, and the panorama of the shining city from this lofty perch was unlike any view I’ve seen before. The illuminated skyscrapers combined with the mountainous contour of the land and the ocean setting made for an awesome sight. We took the famous Peak tram to the bottom once we were done looking. It was pretty late by that time, so we rode the star ferry back across the harbor and retreated to our hostel.
On Saturday, we decided to take a day trip to Macau, about an hour by boat south of Hong Kong. Macau is known as the Las Vegas of Asia, and it
is still the only place in China that allows gambling. We boarded a yacht and arrived in mid-morning, where we changed into our nice clothes that we had brought so we could get into the casinos. We took a bus from the ferry terminal to the main part of the city. The Portuguese settled here in the 1600’s, and their style was apparent to me from the bus window. Our first stop was the Hotel Lisboa. I sat down at a blackjack table and won $300 Macau in about ten minutes. To afraid that I would lose it all, I walked away from the table after that. Three-hundred Macau dollars is only about $40 US, but it was enough to cover my round trip ticket from Hong Kong to Macau. There was a Wynn hotel nearby, so we went there next. It was much more high end, and the minimum bets were $500 at most of the tables. I was satisfied with my draw, so I mostly just watched people playing craps. Brandon ended up losing quite a bit of money, so I had to buy us lunch. In our hurry to get back to the ferry terminal, we got
on the wrong bus and ended up on the opposite side of the city. We realized our mistake and found the express bus to the ferry port, but we arrived five minutes too late. Our yacht had already departed. Fortunately though, the next boat leaving for Hong Kong had some empty seats, so we were able to get on that one. We rested for a while in our hostel before meeting up with Mr. Blake for dinner. He picked us up in a different Mercedes and took us to his country club to eat, where his wife joined us. Afterwards, he drove us up to one of his apartments on the hillside. All the residences that overlook the city from the surrounding hills are easily multi-million dollar establishments. There are also some pretty impressive mansions scattered throughout the city.
Sunday was a half-day for us, and we decided to go up to the Peak again to see what it looks like during the day. The tram unloaded us onto the main viewing platform that overlooks the harbor. It wasn’t quite as clear as it had been on the night we were up there, but the views were still plenty
impressive. My pictures don’t quite capture the moment. Hong Kong is the type of city that you just have to visit in order to fully appreciate. After awhile, we left the main viewing area and hiked up to the actual tip of Victoria Peak. The trek up the mile long road to the top was tiring, but the views were worth the effort. From the top, we could look out to the south side of Hong Kong and see the more natural parts of the island. The view of the harbor to the north was mainly blocked by trees, but we were able to get a few glances. We walked back down to the main lookout area and had lunch at the top of the Peak Tower. Our table was right next to the window, so we got another perspective of the city before leaving. Finally, we took the tram down and went back to our hostel in Kowloon to pick up our luggage before taking the metro to the airport.
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