Hong Kong 2

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It is noon and I've just spent the morning wandering around Kowloon and downtown HK. It's funny how much I feel like a farmer in a big city for the first time. There are so many people and so many skyscrapers. The airport is just massive and the train stations are huge as well.

When I got off the tram in downtown HK I walked in a big circle for 1/2 hour trying to get off this one block. I finally realized that to cross the major streets you need to take an overpass.

I'm surprised at how English friendly HK is. Most signs in both Canotoneese and English and the tram announcements in both languages. Even the streets say 'look left' or 'look right' on the ashpalt for crossing the street. I wonder is this is because of the colonolism of HK, or an outreach for more tourism, or just a cultural difference.

I just walked through Hong Kong Park. It's really nice. Lots of winding, sloping walkways. It has a conservatory and an aviary. The aviary was really neat, lots of exotic (for me anyways) birds and jungle type trees. The path is raised up to the tree tops. It was all free too, super cool.

I took the peak tram to the top of Hong Kong. There is an amazing view of the city and the harbour. It is crazy how steep the island is above downtown Hong Kong. I've never seen so much shotcrete before. It literally covers the whole city where there aren't buildings. It looks so much like a landslide could completly take out downtown HK. I could see really extensive slope management though, so they're probably okay.

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