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Published: September 22nd 2008
Our first glimpse of Hong Kong on our (4 hour delayed) flight from Bangkok was a spectacular swoop over the island before landing. The tall skyscrapers glittered a multitude of colours, lighting up the entire night sky. The size of the buildings is impressive. Even from the air you get a feel for Hong Kong's teeming, congested streets, bustling with life and colour.
We caught a double-decker bus from the airport to our hotel on Hong Kong Island, which was located in an area called Causeway Bay. It was a good location as we were right next to the super-efficient MTR (subway) line which was also very cheap. We could not help but be impressed with Hong Kong's travel infrastructure. Decades of affluence as a harbour city has ensured that successive governments have been able to pour money into the city's infrastructure to make it easy for business and leisure travellers alike to navigate.
The central area of Hong Kong Island is connected by walkways and subways, ensuring minimal traffic disruption and also ensuring that you're never exposed to the full glare of the sun. The MTR line is super-friendly (little neon boards asking you to look out for
Peak Tram
Still going strong after 125 years.one another) cheap, clean and air conditioned, putting London's network to shame. Combine with this the
huge amount of buses and trams and you begin to get a feel for just what a public transport system should be like. New and old forms of transport run alongside each other. The ancient Star Ferry, which crosses the harbour to Kowloon formed the backbone to many a scenic and cheap harbour crossing for us.
The main city has a very British feel from the road signs and markings to traffic lights and bollards. It was the closest to home we've been in quite a while! Outside of the central city there are also a few British pubs which feel very authentic. We spent a very busy 7 full days here and got to know the city very well.
We spent a fair amount of our time on the other side of the water, in an area called Kowloon. This is a grittier side of Hong Kong, with small congested streets all peeling off a large road called Nathan Road. This large through-fare was built in the early 1900's and it was considered a waste to build such a large road
Hong Kong Island at Night
The view from Kowloon during the light show. at the time of few cars. Governor Nathan seemed to have pretty good foresight and as Hong Kong's development accelerated, such roads were essential to its growth. The roads that stretch off Nathan Road are bursting with life and include huge LCD TV's, advertisement boards and an abundance of neon signs stacked on top of one another. Many of the roads are closed to traffic at the weekend as throngs of pedestrian traffic spill onto the roads.
We visited a couple of markets in this area. The first being to the North, towards the New Territories, called Mong Kok. Here is considered the best place to buy electronic equipment and, as it happens, my 26th Birthday present! A whole stretch of road is dedicated to electronic equipment from cameras to TV's, laptops to sim cards - gadget heaven! Most items here are available at great prices and from around 20-30% the price they would be back home. We also visited a market called Ladies Market which sells many souvenir items from stalls in the roadside. As well as selling the usual tourist junk it is also a good place to get copy watches and counterfeit jewelry. The copies are
really impressive and very difficult to tell from the real deal.
As well as the markets in Kowloon we also went to a market in Stanley and North Point, near our hotel. Stanley was on the other side of the island and can only be reached by bus. We were really pleased we decided to go here as it enabled us to experience the quieter side of Hong Kong. This consists of secluded bays, beach side towns and hillside villas. The seaside town of Stanley was at the end of a meandering drive through mountains and over hills. It felt like a very British seaside town, except it was hot and muggy. We wandered round the town, which was quiet due to most of Hong Kong being at work, and also visited the market here which pretty much exclusively sells souvenirs. We couldn't resist the I 'heart' HK t-shirt.
On a nocturnal wander around our hotel we found a great local market saturated in culture. The sights sounds and smells combined to create a unique experience. It was a food market selling fresh meat and fish, which all smelt awful! The meat was hanging from hooks on racks,
dripping fresh blood whilst punters bargained. Fish was plentiful with some swimming around in small tanks. When a deal was struck it was sliced up in front of the customer, still wriggling, with a meat cleaver. There were crabs, prawns, shell fish, chicken feet and even fat toads.
The majority of our time was spent in Central, amongst the skyscrapers. It was here that we rode the Peak Tram up to arguably one of the best city views in the world. The peak tram is a pretty hair-raising experience at first when you sit in a carriage hauled up a mountain-side at a 45 degree angle. It's the worlds longest and oldest funicular tram and was conceived 125 years ago. As we were winched up in the tram, inside which the aesthetics have been altered to appear much older, we began to appreciate how rapidly we were ascending when the leaves and branches gave way to an awesome view of the city. The tram terminates at the top - a viewing platform and shopping centre called The Peak which houses shops, restaurants and a Madame Tussauds.
The sky terrace is the highest viewing platform in The Peak which
we made our way up to. The view here was astonishing. The city is sprawled out below, with the harbour also in full view. Down at street level Hong Kong is busy, bustling, congested, hot and sticky. Up at the breezy Peak the air was cool and clear and it was very peaceful, providing quite a contrasting alternative. The other side of the platform provided views of the opposite side of the island of rolling hillsides and quiet bays. Plus the obligatory Chinese power station eyesore.
We repeated this trip at night and even though the view was the same, the experience was quite different. It was a similar look as we had from the air but were able to spend much more time to linger and soak it up. We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp and watched as the daylight hours dwindled and dusk gave way to night. The towers began the twinkle of thousands of office lights and neon. The scene was bursting with colour like skittles scattered onto a large black sheet.
Another great flirtation with vertigo that we experienced was climbing up a couple of the tallest buildings in Hong Kong. These were
IFC 2 and the Bank of China Building. The Bank of China building is a very futuristic looking building and consists of a square base, which is reduced by a 1/4 as the tower ascends so that all you finally see on top is a prism looking tower. This has the Chinese a little upset as it's not meant to be a favorable shape in terms of generating wealth! This tower has a public viewing platform on the 43rd floor. We swooshed up to that floor in an express elevator to take in the view over Statue Square watching people and cars buzz around like ants far below us.
We also made our way up IFC 2, which is the tallest building in Hong Kong. It's also the one that Batman jumps off in the 'Dark Knight'. He jumps to the smaller version of this building which is imaginatively called IFC 1. There are no real public viewing galleries but the Hong Kong Monetary Authority does have an open exhibition on the 55th floor, should anyone be interested in seeing how money is made created and circulated in the city. We feigned interest in this and made our way
up the ear-popping elevator and were surprised by actually how interesting the exhibition was. The view was spectacular. From here we could even look down upon our previous vantage point in the BOC building. IFC 2 also enjoys the unique position of being on the waterfront affording awesome views over one of the busiest waterways in the world, Victoria Harbour and out into the distance in the South China Sea. There were hundreds of boats, tugs, tankers and liners all steaming up and down the harbour on the deep blue aquamarine flanked either side by teeming commerce. Viewing it from above felt incredible.
We also rode on the longest escalator in the world in Hong Kong. Many of Hong Kong's wealthier inhabitants live further up in the hills and mountainsides surrounding Hong Kong, these areas are called the Mid-Levels. Some of Hong Kong's commuters' journeys to work involves standing on an escalator which takes you from the Mid-Levels all the way down to Central and then the reverse at the end of the day. This passes over the Lang Kwai Fong, Soho and Hollywood Road areas of Hong Kong. When we reached the Mid-Levels, we celebrated with a drink
in a pub before making our descent, which was considerably harder as we had to walk it all.
Lang Kwai Fong is also the area where we ensured we had a night out. Set around a square area, Lang Kwai Fong consists of a row of uber-trendy bars and restaurants. It was a great night out with a really good atmosphere, culminating in an obligatory kebab at Ebeneezer's. They made the most divine lamb kebabs with some sort of mint sauce on top which was just incredible. Probably in the same way a doner kebab is after a few beers though.
On our other multiple wanders around the Central area we also took time to visit the Zoological Gardens, Statue Square, the old Governor's residence and the Legislative Council Buildings. The Zoological gardens, combined with Kowloon Park both provide tranquil respite to the surrounding traffic. The Governors residence and Legislative council buildings are both unique in the sense they are older buildings in a city of modern skyscrapers. Hong Kong has a reputation for bulldozing older buildings, despite their age to make way for the big guns so to see a few still standing is pleasing.
On
our final night in Hong Kong we enjoyed the dazzling light show from the Eastern Promenade. The light show is an impressive symphony of lights and music beamed from many of the buildings on Hong Kong island. The show begins at 8pm every evening and is impressive to watch. The buildings flash and pulse in situ to the music in a variety colours for about 15-20 minutes. The choreography is excellent and the show really brings the whole island to life. During the day this walk - named the Avenue of Stars - provides wonderful views of Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side. The strip showcases statues of stars of Chinese cinema such as Bruce Lee, and immortalises many of them with hand prints in the floor. The walk allowed us to appreciate the vastness of Hong Kong Island and just how packed with sky scrapers - literally from one end to the other - it really is.
Hong Kong is clearly thriving under Chinese rule and benefitting from being a major business hub for one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Chinese are allowed to
change the way it is ruled. Part of the deal in the hand over was that things are kept relatively similar in terms of the liberalism that exists. That was only an agreement for the first 50 years. Watch this space I guess.
We both had a sublime week in Hong Kong and it's safe to say it has met our expectations as a melting pot of culture and commerce. It also felt incredibly safe - not a Triad in sight! It's been an expensive and exhausting experience and so probably a perfect time for some relaxation time on Southern Thailand's islands and beaches.
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Michelle&Gaz
non-member comment
I 'heart' HK
This blog has brought back lots of memories of our time there in March 08. Looks like you really enjoyed it and fitted in lots. Fantastic photos, especially of the night shots - is that your new camera?