Hong Kong (April 7-10, 2024)

My first impression of Hong Kong was stark and bleak due to the countless grey skyscrapers, but that changed once we toured the city and walked the streets.

Our welcoming host. The only panda we got to see in China.

Our first stop on our guided tour the next day was the GOLDEN BAUHINIA SQUARE named after the giant golden Bauhinia blakeana, the Hong Kong orchid tree, which commemorates the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997.

In front of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

One of the most popular methods of transportation within central Hong Kong is an escalator that covers more than a half mile. It’s the world’s longest outdoor covered escalator, and serves over 85,000 people every day.

Man Mo Temple

The MAN MO TEMPLE (1847) is a Taoist temple for worshipping two Deities: Man Cheong, the God of Civics or Literature; and Kwan Tai, the God of Martial Arts. The interior is wonderfully colorful and elaborately decorated, and also very smoky due to the burning incense coils hanging from the ceiling.

Ancestral Shrine where drawers filled with the ashes of loved ones are kept

People purchase an incense coil and write a wish on a red card. As the incense burns, the smoke carries the wishes to the heavens.

Back to the hotel for a late lunch. Possibly my favorite meal on the whole trip! Shrimp wonton and ramen soup. Absolutely marvelous. The wontons were loaded with shrimp and almost as big as my fist.

The next morning, as we waited to transfer to our ship, we walked the promenade—Avenue of the Stars—in front of the hotel, along Victoria Harbor.

Victoria Harbor

The day after boarding our ship, we went on a guided walking tour.

A banyan tree growing on a stone retaining wall. These walls were constructed between the 19th century and WWII to secure the developments on Hong Kong Island. The banyans sprouted through the open joints between the stones and grew into fully developed trees, which further stabilize the walls.

Li Yuen Market

I love outdoor markets, especially foreign ones, because the offerings are unique to the area. Li Yuen Market vendors were selling fresh and dried fruit, dried fish and mushrooms, teas and herbs, flowers and liquor.

The little round discs in the jars are dried scallops

Hong Kong After Dark

That evening, we went on an excursion to a local restaurant to have an eight-course traditional Peking duck dinner. The staff didn’t speak English, so most of the time we had no idea what we were eating. But it was all very colorful and mostly delicious.

There were tanks on the back wall filled with live sea creatures.

Symphony of Lights

After dinner, we walked to Victoria Harbor to watch the SYMPHONY OF LIGHTS, a multimedia spectacle composed of lights, lasers, holograms and searchlights synced to music.

Temple Street Night Market

TEMPLE STREET MARKET (4 pm to midnight) consists of an eclectic mix of street food stalls and eateries that offer local delicacies, and stalls selling everything from antiques to electronics to souvenir T-shirts. It’s lively and colorful, and intimidating for those who are uncomfortable bargaining for items that start out 10 times what they’re worth.

The end of our short stay in Hong Kong. Next stop Taipei, Taiwan.

One response to “Hong Kong (April 7-10, 2024)”

Daisy

June 2, 2024

For a “short” stay, you packed in a lot! Quite a few memories from my childhood (till age 6) hometown: the harbor & night market. The hotels are new to me, but on a short visit there in the 9ps, I remember the amazingly long escalators when a cousin took me to eat dim-sum. I may have mentioned that I grew up eating those shrimp wonton noodles-YUM! BTW, you can probably find those in Portland and for SURE in LA, SF or any big city Chinatown.
[And thanks for the other interesting blogs of Japan! Luv ’em!]