Saturday, December 25, 2004
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a big city on a relatively small surface. From Macau, just a 90 minute hydrofoil ride across the Pearl river delta.
Hong Kong city is divided in two. One part is on a narrow strip of land on Hong Kong island, the other, referred to as Kowloon, is on the opposite side of the strait on the mainland. Both parts are very well linked by boat and by underground.
We stayed in the latter part, in a small, clean and friendly guesthouse in the Chungking Mansions, an enormous ugly grey building which is a village of its own. The bottom floor is a colourful market packed with small shops and the top floors are crammed with cheap guesthouses, dodgy travel agents and indian, pakistani and african canteens. The place is an intereting ethnic mix: a stronghold for Indians, who run little restaurants and businesses, and a base for West African traders who come to Hong Kong to buy cheap wares. The Chinese mostly rent rooms... The Mansions are so busy that there is always a queue waiting for the lifts.
Not too much changed since the restitution of Hong Kong to P.R.China by the British in 1997. Business goes on as usual. The Christmas decorations in the shopping malls stay through the end of the year and don't decrease in popularity as backgrounds for happy consumers' photos.
Downtown, with the glass and iron skyscapers, is on Hong Kong island. It is the historical, administrative and business centre.
Walking from mall to mall on the footbridges above the street was fun for an afternoon or so...
Just behind downtown, Victoria peak is a popular day trip to get impressive views of the city. We went up, taking the worlds longest escalator to the mid-levels, than continued by foot.
The Edward Youde aviary in Hong Kong Park, where you can walk in a recreated rainforest among rare birds, was particularly interesting. Else, we have not much more to say about Hong Kong. It was quite like we expected it to be.
For a change, we took a bus to the New Territories, a big piece of land behind Kowloon that was leased to the British for 99 years in 1898. Something totally different from Hong-Kong: quite hilly, rural, with some small towns and a couple of hundred kilometres of walking trails. We stopped in Kam Tim to see the Hakka walled quarter, then as the weather was grey and the place unspectacular, we went back.
Hong Kong city is divided in two. One part is on a narrow strip of land on Hong Kong island, the other, referred to as Kowloon, is on the opposite side of the strait on the mainland. Both parts are very well linked by boat and by underground.
We stayed in the latter part, in a small, clean and friendly guesthouse in the Chungking Mansions, an enormous ugly grey building which is a village of its own. The bottom floor is a colourful market packed with small shops and the top floors are crammed with cheap guesthouses, dodgy travel agents and indian, pakistani and african canteens. The place is an intereting ethnic mix: a stronghold for Indians, who run little restaurants and businesses, and a base for West African traders who come to Hong Kong to buy cheap wares. The Chinese mostly rent rooms... The Mansions are so busy that there is always a queue waiting for the lifts.
Not too much changed since the restitution of Hong Kong to P.R.China by the British in 1997. Business goes on as usual. The Christmas decorations in the shopping malls stay through the end of the year and don't decrease in popularity as backgrounds for happy consumers' photos.
Downtown, with the glass and iron skyscapers, is on Hong Kong island. It is the historical, administrative and business centre.
Walking from mall to mall on the footbridges above the street was fun for an afternoon or so...
Just behind downtown, Victoria peak is a popular day trip to get impressive views of the city. We went up, taking the worlds longest escalator to the mid-levels, than continued by foot.
The Edward Youde aviary in Hong Kong Park, where you can walk in a recreated rainforest among rare birds, was particularly interesting. Else, we have not much more to say about Hong Kong. It was quite like we expected it to be.
For a change, we took a bus to the New Territories, a big piece of land behind Kowloon that was leased to the British for 99 years in 1898. Something totally different from Hong-Kong: quite hilly, rural, with some small towns and a couple of hundred kilometres of walking trails. We stopped in Kam Tim to see the Hakka walled quarter, then as the weather was grey and the place unspectacular, we went back.
