Hong Kong Island
July 7th, 2007 by Zofia
On the second day of our trip to Hong Kong Rachel and I decided to make the most of an afternoon tour by catching up on some much needed sleep and sleeping in late that Saturday morning. The tour began at 1pm with us waiting in the Hotel lobby with stickers on our tops (as we were quickly realising was a popular method of organising large groups of people). We were picked up by a tour bus and then picked up a few more people from other hotels on the way, and then we went to a meeting point with other busses where it was musical chairs until everyone was on the correct bus for their chosen tour. Our tour guide was called Eddie and he was a really funny guy. He told us all sorts of stories about the history of Hong Kong in his broken English and kept us well entertained with his funny stories as well as all sorts of interesting facts about the city. The tour started with a trip through the ‘No Excuses’ tunnel (apparently before the tunnel was built to join Hong Kong Island with Kowloon the only way to get between the two was by ferry, but that doesn’t operate 24-7 and so if business men missed the last ferry back to Kowloon they would be stuck on Hong Kong island and would call home to say “Sorry honey, I won’t be home tonight, see you tomorrow” and then they could get up to all sorts of mischief. But now with the tunnel, which is open to traffic 24-7 there is no excuse not to come home!).
First stop was the Man Mo Temple, which was a beautiful little temple full of amazing burning incense and offerings to the gods Man (literature) and Mo (martial arts). After this we went on a ride on the Peak Tram, the World’s steepest funicular railway, it was like the Cable Car in Wellington only much steeper, you could feel the upwards force pushing you back into your seat as we climbed the mountainside. We ended up at the top of Victoria Peak with amazing views of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon peninsula.
While on Victoria Peak I also bumped into Bruce Lee!!
A bus ride took us down the mountain and out to Aberdeen to the fishing village. This would have to have been one of the highlights for me - we went on Sampans for a ride around the fishing boats, house boats and got to see the famous ‘Jumbo’ floating restaurant (seen in many Bruce Lee as well as in some James Bond films), this was very impressive. I am not sure why I liked this boat ride so much, I just know that I did. After this it was off to a jewellery manufacturer’s (this is Hong Kong’s second biggest industry after tourism) and found out what the process for jewellery making was from beginning to end.
Next we drove further around the island, past all the popular beach spots to Stanley and spent a bit of time wandering around the Stanley Markets. Then we headed to the ferry terminal where we caught the famous Star Ferry from Hong Kong Island over to Kowloon. Our guide took us through the Avenue of Stars (an avenue along the waterfront which celebrates the movie industry in Hong Kong with statues (including one of Bruce Lee) and handprints (like Jackie Chan’s). At this point it was about 7pm and we were taken to one of the restaurants along the waterfront, sitting in the outdoor seating area we had dinner and watched the Symphony of Lights which is a show put on at 8pm every night incorporating interactive lights on 43 key buildings on both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon with musical effects. And as an added bonus there were fireworks as well over the weekend we were there to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Britain handing Hong Kong back to China.
We were then dropped back at our hotel at about 10pm! What a long afternoon but a fantastic one, what a great way to see the city.