A short bus ride to the ferry terminal, through customs & immigration (again) and we were off for the last stop on our tour of China - Hong Kong. In 1842, following the First Opium War, China ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain as a result of the Treaty of Nanking. In 1898 Britain expanded its holdings to include Kowloon and the New Territories, connected to mainland China, and signed a 99 year lease. The lease expired in 1997 and China regained control of Hong Kong and the New Territories. To avoid total economic turmoil, the Chinese government declared Hong Kong a free economic zone allowing for the continuation of capitalism and basic freedoms. To prevent a "polluting" of the rest of China with western idealism, Hong Kong remained isolated diplomatically, requiring passports and visas to move between the island and the rest of China.
From Macau, it is a 40 minute ferry ride on a turbojet that was fast and remarkably smooth, costing 141 HKD per person ($20 USD).
The Hong Kong leg of the tour was designed as an "on your own" with an optional (aka additional) tour of the highlights organized by Sinorama. About half the group took the option. Lucie, Jean, Danielle and I went for the DIY version. I was unanimously selected as the tour guide for this portion of the trip given that I had done some research prior to leaving for the trip. Even though I had never been in Hong Kong myself, I was very happy to take the challenge given that everyone went along with an open and flexible mind and not expect the smooth and efficient flow we came to appreciate in the last three weeks.
From the dock, the bus took us directly to our hotel, the Hotel Nina and Convention Center, located in the New Territories. Our room was on the corner of the building on the seventeenth floor affording incredible views of the harbor from two sides.
After a short freshen up, we met in the lobby to find something for lunch (the DIY visit included DIY meals as well). Jean had a craving for McDonald's and we all agreed a burger and fries would make for a nice change of pace from the Chinese food we had eaten over the last 3 weeks. Don't get me wrong, the Chinese food was almost always very good and varied in many ways as we moved from region to region, its just that we're used to a variety of cuisine at home so Chinese food for lunch and dinner for three weeks straight did leave us wanting for something completely different (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).
Not surprisingly, the McDonald's meal was exactly the same as you can get on any street in America, right down to the ketchup. What was cute was the fact that a quarter-pounder was advertised on the posters for $16, Hong Kong dollars that is!
After lunch it was back to the hotel where we agreed to meet in the lobby later to begin our adventurous tour. Nathalie and Edith, from our tour group, caught wind of our itinerary for the evening and asked if they could tag along to which we offered enthusiastic agreement - the more the merrier.
To get from our hotel in the New Territories to where the action was, Hong Kong Island, I opted for the subway system. Unfortunately, finding the entrance to the subway was quite a challenge, they weren't well marked and sometimes you had to go up to get in. Eventually with some local people providing directions, we found our way to our station, Tsuen Wan West, and once inside finding our way to the correct train was much easier with very clear signs in both English and Chinese. We had to change trains once but managed to easily find our way to our stop - Central.
This view of Hong Kong Island met us coming out of the station.
We made our way up, which is the only way you can go! My first objective was to find the Escalator, a 2,598 ft outside system linking Queen's Road to Conduit Road at its peak. It is the longest in the world, taking 2 1/2 years to build at a cost of over $205 million HK. On our way there we made our way along Queen's Road which was crammed with people and all sorts of shopping and restaurants, similar to what you might find in any major US city.
This shot shows the Keg, across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe.
This is view up Queen's Road.
Since Hong Kong was a member of the British Empire for over 100 years they learned to drive on the left. To help pedestrians from the mainland they had these helpful signs painted on the road just off the curb.
As we made our way along our walking tour of Hong Kong you could turn up any side street and be met with a scene like this one.
After some window shopping we eventually found the Escalator. Seen here behind the Fantastic Four.
This is a shot looking down the escalator. Unless your moving up the steps, stay on the left or risk getting trampled!
We rode the Escalator all the way to the top and feeling a bit peckish, decided it was time for our guide to find a restaurant. We all had a craving for Italian food so I took the challenge to find us a nice restaurant. On the ride up the Escalator there were literally dozens of restaurants along its edges featuring every sort of cuisine but at the top, the commercial district had quite dried up. Since, for obvious reasons, the Escalator only goes UP, I took us on a walk to get back down to find a place to eat. My tour accidentally took us through a "don't miss" highlight of Hong Kong, the Zoological and Botanical Gardens (sometimes its good to be lucky!). The gardens were an amazing display of a tropical rain forest in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.
Coming out of the gardens we practically stumbled onto an Italian restaurant called Cenacolo II, what did I say about being Lucky? The restaurant is located in an area of Hong Kong known as the mid-levels for its relative location along the Escalators.
Coincidentally we arrived during happy hour affording us the opportunity to raise many toasts to our experiences in Hong Kong and China. The meal was a welcome change, very good and with excellent service.
From dinner, my next stop on the tour was the Peak Tram for a ride up the funicular tram to the top of Victoria Peak for the best views of the metropolis at night. 65 HKD ($9.30 USD each).
The views truly were incredible from the top! At one point we even witnessed a moon-rise over the sky-scrappers.
It was getting late, after 11, so we decided to bring the evening's tour to an end and head back down the tram to Central and a simple subway ride back to our hotel. Tomorrow, we will have our last day of the Tour of China, can't believe three weeks is over already!
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