Today we were on a tour with a guide named Frank. He did a good job getting us around this city of 7.4 million, and explaining much to us about Hong Kong, which is officially called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. He explained to us that it's China's way of showing Taiwan that it's not so bad to be a part of China. Hmmmmm... Frank described it with the Chinese point of view, "one country, two systems." Supposedly Taiwan could do the same. More about that when I tell you about visiting Taipei.
There was tons of construction going on all throughout this crowded city, crowded as in thousands of high rises, about 8,000 of them, where people both work and live. The thing I couldn't figure out is if the economy is struggling, as Frank told us, who's going to be able to pay to live and work in all these new buildings? Most of the time the housing has to be government subsidized to be affordable. In government housing a 30 square meter (322 square ft) apartment rents for $200 a month, the same for private housing would be $1000 per month. Not sure if that's Hong Kong dollars or U.S., big difference whichever it is.
The seats on our van today were so narrow it was hard to fit two people on them comfortably. Luckily it wasn't full so we could all spread out a bit. While there are many buildings, 40% of the area Hong Kong covers is protected green space, much of it national parks.
My thanks to my Aussie friend, Karen Henville, for this lovely photo of a reservoir we passed. It was on her side of the mini-bus. Hong Kong is currently experiencing a water shortage, which is kind of surprising for a tropical area but not as surprising when you realize there are about seven thousand people per square kilometer living together. They currently buy part of their water from China
One of the oldest areas of the city is in Stanley. Named for the British Secretary of State when Hong Kong became a colony in 1841, this part of the island had been settled by the Chinese much earlier, during the Ming Dynasty of the 16th century. In the past it's been known for its lively market but the Covid Pandemic shut that down for three years and it is just barely beginning to recover.
You don't see a ton of traffic on the streets in Hong Kong, most of the people who live here take the metro to get around.
Rather than go to the market itself Karl and I opted to walk past the market to get to the nearby beach.
The little harbor here had lots of boats. We walked out to the end of the covered jetty, amidst the group doing their morning Tai Chi.
There were two of these lovely decorations along the walkway.
Note to self, this would have been a better photo if one of us had been sitting in one of the chairs!
Scenes of Stanley.
First time I'd seen a sign for Mind the Gap outside the U.K.
Karl heading back towards the market. Not many people out and about.
There were two of these shrines I saw along the walk.
This photo was one of my favorites, mopping the sidewalk to keep it clean. I had to wonder if he did this every morning. It was a clean area.
I just liked the contrast of colors with these bright red flags.
Our next stop was Repulse Bay
We took a group photo here, you may notice that Karl is missing, he had already taken off to look around.
Here on the bay is a shrine with many gods and goddesses of both Daoism and Buddhism. On the right is Kwun Yam, Goddess of Mercy to whom the shrine is dedicated. On the left is the Happy Buddha. He greets you, makes you happy by taking away your sadness and storing it in his belly. That way you are both happy.
This one is the Goddess of Water.
Out on a small peninsula are more, I'll get you over to them.
While there were plenty of tourists around taking photos and posing there were also those who were there worshipping.
Everything was just so colorful I'm adding lots of photos.
These small statues were offerings at the larger shrine above on the right.
More sights from the shrines.
The best way to get to the shrines further out that you saw in the earlier photo is by crossing the "Bridge of Longevity".
Inscribed here are the words, "Each time you cross this bridge your life will be prolonged 3 days.". We each get an extra six days of life now.
See how happy I am about it!
So much eye candy here.
This was the marriage shrine. It says this is the "old man from the moon, a happy god in charge of love and matrimony." The red ribbons there mean that he ties them together to live happily ever after.
Just a last couple of shrines. This was a fun place to explore.
Here's looking the other direction along the beach.
Next stop was Aberdeen for a sampan ride. This area was fairly run down, another casualty of the pandemic.
For many years Jumbo was a major restaurant here, one that floated out in the harbor. Karl remembers eating here once years ago. All that's left of it now is this sign.
Our ride was on a sampan like this one.
It was an interesting contrast here of old and new.
Chuck, LeaAnn and I sat on one side,
Mark, Jane, Karl & Karen sat on the other.
Our driver had these traditional hats for us to wear for a photo op. These weren't exactly comfortable but they would have kept the sun off.
Lots of fishing boats in the harbor, not too many that looked new.
Lots of interesting looking boats, some like this one that looked like it was just storage,
others like this one that actually looked like they were being used.
I liked the color of this houseboat.
This wooden one was cool looking as well, so many varieties.
There were newer boats in the harbor as well, most near the tall buildings. These skyscrapers with the keyhole in the middle were interesting.
Just a view from the back of the boat.
One of the fun things we had noticed during the day around Hong Kong were these pet signs. I'd seen the Paws United Dog Adoption and Cat Adoption Center next to each other earlier in the day. The two circular signs were actually on a restroom, one was dog friendly, another was not. Then Jane found the User's Guide to Pet Owners and the Dog Parking signs in other spots.
I also found these instructional signs in the restroom interesting. :)
Our final stop on the tour was Victoria Peak which looms over the high rises on Hong Kong island. During the British Colony days this spot was the getaway when the temperatures got to warm and humid below.
There's a mall here at the top and this wedge building is visible from the river down below.
One of the locales at the top is Monopoly Dreams, where you can feel like you've walked into a Monopoly game and where they sell every version of the game that you can imagine.
The azaleas at the top were glorious.
I never tire of taking flower pictures, just look at these colors.
Views from atop the peak were lovely. It was a bit hazy, which wasn't great for the photos but I felt like we could see quite a way.
Far down below we could see Serenade awaiting our return.
I didn't know it at the time but this is the route that we would take out of Hong Kong that evening with the bright lights of the city surrounding us.
So many tall building crowded in together are reminiscent of New York but with the pretty green hills surrounding it.
One more closeup of downtown and Victoria Harbor.
In order to get down from Victoria peak we took the famous tram.
You can see from the crowd on the right that it's kind of a crush. He who hesitates is lost here, doors open, you get in as quickly as you can. You can also see that the tracks down are fairly steep.
Only view I got of the tram car itself from the outside.
Crazy thing is that the seats only face one way, forward as you ride up, riding down your are going backwards.
The roof is clear so you can see the buildings above you as you travel. It was a nice ride and fairly quick.
Frank and our driver, Mr. Ho, were kind enough to drop some of us off at APM Mall after our tour so we could find some good Chinese food before going back to Serenade.
This place was seven stories of shopping bliss, if that is blissful for you anyway. We just wanted good Chinese food.
We thought it was cool there was an express escalator that skipped a floor.
After looking around, and with the help of a friendly local who spoke a little English, Karl and Mark found this restaurant, Heyday Cuisine, on the eighth floor of a building attached to the mall. Every floor on that building was a different Chinese restaurant.
No one could read the Chinese menu and the water's English was minimal but he managed to help order food for the six of us. Man oh man did we luck out because these dishes were delicious!
We had some dim sum, (photo above) which Hong Kong is famous for, the green ones were a dumpling filled with pork, the ones on the right were rice paper spring rolls.
The crispy spring rolls were super delicious and filled with shrimp.
For dessert we had a mango pudding. You were supposed to put a little bit of condensed milk on the top. There were small chunks of mango in the pudding along with little juicy boba balls. It was just the right amount of sweet to end a fabulous meal.
It was back to Serenade to wait for the sail away after sunset.
The interesting thing about the cruise terminal is that it's located at the former site of the Hong Kong airport. The building itself is looooong, as you can see.
This is an area of Kowloon that is being revamped.
All of these building will be some sort of housing, up it goes!
The lights began to come on as I waited on Deck 12. The sun's reflection on the water was interesting.
The ropes came off the dock and we were ready to set sail.
Before we made our way through Victoria Harbor Captain Kjell (pronounced Shell) made sure we knew that this was an unusual treat. In the many times that he had sailed in and out of Hong Kong he'd never taken the route through the heart of the city.
All the lights made for a fabulous journey. If you want to watch it all in about a minute you can go to Karl's YouTube channel to watch my time-lapse videos.
ICC is the tallest building in Hong Kong. The light patterns on it change throughout the night.
I wish the photos could really show you how magical this journey through the city was.
Last sight leaving Hong Kong was the bridge that we'd gone over the day before to get to Lantau Island. We'd had an excellent two days in Hong Kong and were safely on our way. Safely at least until we had a dredger suddenly cross our path about 20 minutes later and the captain had to make a hard left turn to avoid it. Karl was on the balcony watching the world go by and suddenly saw the ship's spotlight go on, which it never does, right before we turned. I was in the bathroom wondering what in the heck was happening as we started seriously listing to the right. Thanks to the quick reactions of those in charge of maneuvering the ship the only casualties were a few bottles of wine, some dishes, and some silverware on the floor, plus some pool water that went flying over the side. Oh, and I heard that some of the next morning's breakfast had to be prepared again. I'm grateful for good people who know how to do their job!
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