Hong Kong!!!

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i'm in hong kong now!!! i'm so excited.. it's a bit strange, b.c everything has changed since I last came here, 3 years ago..




I did some fab things since I've been here.. i always make a point to stop at The Peak; b.c it never ceases to fascinate me.. The Peak is an observation deck where you can see most of the city skyline, atop 1 of the highest mountains (on HK island) It's a popular tourist spot, and it's where the madam tussaud's of HK is located. i've always loved looking @ cityscape..




in kowloon, at the pier, there's a viewing dock where you can see the skyline of hong island in all its glory. (the above panoramic pic) it's quite beautiful on during the day when it's not smoggy, and even more beautiful at night, for every evening at 8pm they put on a light show called the "symphony of lights". it's a coordinated light show in sync to music. it's quite amazing when u see it for the 1st time.




i also made the point of going to museums in hong kong. i went to the hong kong museum of history, which is a really fascinating place. it documents the history of hong kong all the way back to the neolithic & bronze ages. i think that HK has had a colorful existence, once being chinese, then being british, and then chinese once again; but yet somehow still manages to remain 'hong kong'. b.c of the fact that HK lived outside China for so long, it's been able to 'stay chinese' and enjoy freedoms that people in the mainland still dont have. (during the cultural revolution, thousands of works of art were destroyed and most traditional customs abandoned) in this museum you can see a preserved old style "junk" (chinese fishermen's boat) as well as a recreation of a colonial street. You'll also see pictures of of old hong kong, and how drastic the change has been over the years.




i also went on the ngong ping cable car ride, which is a cable car ride to see the giant buddha of hong kong. it is 1 of the largest outdoor buddhas in the world. the cable car ride is interesting, for it goes over the sea and mountains, and the view is really beautiful.




1 thing that i did in HK that i loved was going to 'Revolving 66', a rotating restaurant. Many years ago there was another rotating restaurant, that gave you a 360 degree view of the city from above. The 1 that i had originally gone to, has been shut down. I quite love to sit and eat and take in the view.




I also managed to go the Kowloon walled city park, which I think even most HK citizens nowadays aren't even aware of. Before HK was a colony, it was a chinese fortress set up in kowloon bay, to keep an eye out for pirates. After HK was turned over to the british, the chinese insisted on keeping the fortress, but as chinese territory; to keep an eye on the land lent to the english. during the 20th century as china went through political turmoils; (the last dynasty fell, as well as civil war, invading japanese, before becoming communist) the kowloon walled city was forgotten by china. it was in a strange position of being neither officially english or chinese territory, and neither party wanted responsibility; it eventually fell into decay and evolved into a slum populated by squatters. Supposedly the residents lived together peacefully, but at the same time it was rife with prostitution, drug dealers, opium dens, as well as unlicensed dentists. At some point the situation became intolerable and the city was finally torn down in the 90s, its residents resettled and it was converted into a park. A chinese garden is made in its place. Remnants of the old gate were found, from the original fortress, and are on display as a historical landmark.

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