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Published: March 23rd 2009
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View from our hotel
Our hotel room had a wonderful view over high rise buildings and parks When I travel I do a lot of reading before. It is especially important when you go to places where you have no friends whom you can ask for advice. Or even any friends who have travelled there before. When going to China on your own it is a crucial necessity coming from Europe. So this means I always have a sort of mental picture of the places we visit. Sometimes places turn out to be much better than what you expected - sometimes I am disappointed. Hong Kong turned out to be of the latter category. This being our 6th visit to China was part of this. My mental picture of Hong Kong was a mix between Shanghai and London - with all the best of both cities of course. Yes, to all those enthusiastic travelers to Hong Kong, the harbor is beautiful, the forested islands scattered in South China Sea are amazing when seen from the airplane and the Peak Tram is fun. But then what? We don’t particularly like shopping or shopping malls, which seemed to be about 90% of Hong Kong activities. A shopping mall in every corner, if this is the idea of fun, then Hong
Victoria harbour
The harbour in Hong Kong is worth the trip Kong is the place. Another disappointment was the eating. I had read so much about the fantastic eating places in Hong Kong. We didn’t find them - although we did try. We managed to miss out Dim Sum etc. though we did stumble upon a great little sushi bar next to an underground station. Having said all that however I think I want to go back, but with less expectation. We did have a fun but hot and humid day at Ocean World. We did enjoy the Symphony of Lights and 10 minutes the Star ferry was an experience - the harbor is beautiful. And the great bakeries in the shopping mall under our hotel (of course there should be a shopping mall there) was an unexpected pleasant surprise.
To the advantages I should add that it is a traveler friendly city. The airport and its connection to the city through the Kowloon station is the best I have experienced. When we arrived we took the train to Kowloon Station and then there was a free shuttle bus to the hotel - just what a jet lagged traveler needs. And for the return flight we checked in at the Kowloon
Hong Kong from above
A view from Victoria Peak on a cloudy day station leaving our baggage there to pick it up at our final destination 24 hours later - a miracle it seems. The tourist board information office at the Star Ferry pier was most helpful in giving out maps (and brochures for shopping malls!). The mass communication system is just marvelous, clean with frequent services and excellent sign posting, queuing was immaculate even at super rush hour (I guess this is the British spirit living on - I haven’t seen such disciplined commuters even in London!). Connections to China were also excellent - when going we took the bus to Shenzhen airport - it leaves every half hour from a bus station in the Kowloon station. Our only problem here was to find the bus station as it was hidden in the shopping mall! It took less than two hours to the Shenzhen airport, with a very swift border crossing - extremely well organized. The bus parks in a parking lot, we took our luggage and they put little stickers on us. Then we walked into this huge hall where we moved through the Hong Kong customs and passport control, on to Chinese ditto. It was more like shopping at the
Hong Kong at 45 degrees
Amazing view from the Peak tram supermarket then going through customs. I noticed there were ATM like machines where one could do it all electronically. After exiting the hall hostesses brought us back to the right bus - they checked the stickers we were wearing and showed us to the bus, one can’t get lost! On returning to Hong Kong from Guangzhou we took the KCR train. Again, great organization. We boarded the train in Guangzhou East station, the border formalities of China were completed before boarding the train in the special waiting area for the KCR. When arriving in Hong Kong Hua Hom station (the train doesn’t stop anywhere on the way so again one can’t get lost) we passed through customs and passport control after exiting the train at the station, it took around 15 minutes on each side, as it is just for the passengers on the train. The Hong Kong Hua Hom station is also connected to the local rail system so after exiting we just hopped on the train and went to the harbor for another Star ferry ride. I had hoped we should be able to use a ferry to get to the mainland, it turned out to be too
Mongkok
Popular street market in the Mongkok area complicated and there were very few connections to the Shenzhen airport from Hong Kong city and from Guangzhou to Hong Kong one had to go through other ports. Just too difficult although it would probably be an experience to remember.
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