Hong Kong

ABOUT HONG KONG AND MY EXPERIENCES

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HONG KONG BY NIGHT:

ABOUT HONG KONG:

Population: 7 234 000
Country: China (Hong Kong)
Tallest building: International Commerce Center (484m, 108 floors)
Region: HONG KONG (British colony until 1997)
Founded year (occupied by Brits): 1839
Area: 1 104 km² (city)
Year visited: 2015

Hong Kong is situated in the Southern part of China, but is more or less ruled like an own country under the motto "one country, two systems". Hong Kong was a British colony since 1842, but was handed over to China 1997 due to an old agreement. HK was also occupied by the Japanese 1941-45. The name means "fragrant harbour" in old Chinese. It is bordering the city of Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province to the North and Macau to the West, and is part of the so called Pearl River Delta Mega City, a metropolitan area that includes several Chinese mega cities as well. Hong Kong is famous for its impressive skyline, that has a larger collection of skycrapers then any other city in the world, including New York and Shanghai. Hong Kong is also known to be one of the most densely places on earth, it is known for its shopping in local markets and large shopping malls, its large harbour and its ferries that trafficates the many islands, and the signs from the British heritage, like left-hand traffic, double decked buses and trams, British number plates, colonial architecture and several street names and other names in English. You might be surprised though, that a huge majority speaks Chinese only, and there are not so many British inhabitants as you might think.

Hong Kong Island is the island where you will find Central and Wanchai, the two main business districts of Hong Kong, where most of the skyscrapers are (like IFC, Central Plaza and Bank of China), Statue Square that is the "heart of HK", Hong Kong Park and HK Zoo, as well as more residential areas like Sheung Wan (Western district), Causeway Bay, North Point and Victoria Harbour on the North side. On the hilly, wealthy and beautiful South side of the island you will find beach resorts and tranquil fishing villages. Stanley, Causeway Bay and Aberdeen are the most famous beach/harbour towns on the south side. In Aberdeen, you find Ocean Park, a large amusement park. In the middle you will find green mountains, like Victoria Peak, that offers great views of the city, as well as winding roads, very expensive mansions and tall apartments buildings.

To the North of Hong Kong Island, you will find Kowloon. Kowloon is a large district on the southern part of a peninsula. The southermost part of Kowloon is considered central Hong Kong, and is the main entertainment district of HK. This is where you find the famous Nathan Road, "The Golden Mile" with its many de luxe hotels, store, shabby stores, rude salesmen, fancy shopping malls, nightlife, markets and restaurants. Along the shoreline you will find Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade with the Avenue of Stars that offers great views of the skyline, many museums, shopping malls and luxury hotels. Kowloon is divided into the areas of Tsim Sha Tsui (the most central part), Mongkok and Hung Hom. In Kowloon you will since 2010 also find the city's tallest building, the 484m International Commmerce Center. Before that development, Kowloon didn't have many skyscrapers, that were more concentrated to Central. You won't find many old building in Hong Kong, and not many religious buildings. Most churches are situated in modern buildings, but there are some interesting taoist temples that are worth visiting.

Northern Territories is the large district to the North of Kowloon, where you mostly will find residential buildings, highways, shopping malls, green mountains and dull highrises, as well as some parks and poor villages. There are not many sights in Northern Territories. It borders Shenzhen in mainland China to the North.

Lantau Island is a large island to the west of HK Island, that can be reached by bridges or ferry. It is famous for the Great Buddha Statue and the nearby village and buddhist temple, that can be reached with cable cars, and Hong Kong Disneyland. The artificial island where Chep Lap Kok, the new airport is situated, is just next to Lantau Island.

EXPERIENCE:

Hong Kong has been a dream destination of mine, ever since I was little. In 2015 the dream was fulfilled. We travelled with Aeroflot from Copenhagen Airport, transfered in Moscow, and then further to Hong Kong via Latvia, Russia, Mongolia and China. The journey took about 14 hours (including waiting at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport), of which 9:40 hours for the flight from Moscow to HK:s Chep Lap Kok Airport, that replaced Kai Tak in 1998. Kai Tak was placed in the middle of residential buildings at Kowloon. For 6 days (5+1) we tried to covers so many interesting sights and neighbourhoods of Hong Kong as possible. The only big disappointment was that we only got sun for a couple of hours in two weeks for the whole trips, making the photos a bit unclear and foggy (really thankful that we have Photoshop). The foggy weather also prevented us from seeing the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, a real misfortune. You simply have to forget the sunny HK you see on postcards, a constant haze is constantly hanging over HK and other Chinese cities, probably much because of pollution. Sadly enough. We visited skyscraper districts of Central, Kowloon and Wanchai, watched views form Victoria Peak and skyscraprs, took rides by ferries, visited an amusement park where we took a ride by cable car, walked along the famous Nathan Road and Avenue of the Stars, visited markets and shopping mall, wandered the narrow streets, visited beautiful parks, took several rides with the historic trams, the very modern subway and the double decked buses. The Octupus card really makes it easy to get around, in what is probably the world's best public transport. By buying and loading the Octupus card you can travel for a small fare (about 4HK$/ride) travel by the very modern subway, double decked buses, vintage double decked trams and ferries. Cable cars cost a lot extra.
The food is generally good, you can eat at Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Spanish. Everything from street food and fastfood to 5 star restaurants can be found. The prices are pretty high, much higher then in mainland China for example, but cheap restaurants are not hard to find. They are generally clean. If you live in a Western country, I can tell you the Chinese food in China is nothing like at home (for example there are a lof of bones in it and fried food is rare). Fastfood chains like McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks and KFC are found everywhere.

Hong Kong is one of the most exciting cities I have ever visited, if not the most. It is exactly like in the movies, with its gritty streets with odd stores and restaurants and wellplanned urban blocks with modern skyscrapers. Hong Kong's motto could be "chaos in order". The central parts of the city is generally very clean, though the area Sheun Wan where we stayed were both dirty and smelling, the first impressions of HK. It was also strange the first day, since we arrived on a Sunday, after 14 hours of travelling with almost no sleep! On Sundays the streets of Central district are occupied by underpaid Phillippine and Indonesian homemaids! So it is really a pain to get through anywhere, or find a table at a restaurant, in Central on Sundays. Just don't forget that much of Hong Kong's economy is built on cheap labour from foreign countries.
In Central there are not many restaurants, and the weather was foggy, so the first impressions of HK was not that good. Another thing that made us disappointed was that you really have to struggle to find old and historic buildings, and the ones that are left are often hidden underneath highway bridges and dull highrises. So don't go to HK for the history! But I loved the streets, the water, the diversity, the surrounding nature and the skyline and the exciting architecture of the city. Just keep in mind that the majority of the population are Chinese immigrants and might not speak English at all, and the ones who speak English don't speak as good as you might expect, considering HK:s past as a British colony. Hong Kong is multicultural with significant Indonesian, Australian, British, American, Japanese, Taiwanese and Phillippine inhabitants.

Hong Kong is not the 24 hour city that never sleep that you might think it is; except for Nathan Road, most of the streets -including the ones in Central and SoHo- start to get more and more empty already around 11.We walked through SoHo around that time in the evening, and very few people were out. At least when it is not tourist season, we visited in March.

We spent most of the time on Hong Kong Island's North part and Kowloon's South part, where our hotels were. These areas are also the most central parts.

The journey included a daytrip to gaming city and former Portugese colony Macau, that is only 1.5 hour away from HK, an extended trip to Guangdong province in mainland China; Shenzhen, a modern metropolis with many skyscrapers, large shopping malls and great theme parks, that is a actually bordering HK and is almost twice as big as HK, and Guangzhou (about 2 hours from HK by train), a famous city, that was formerly known as Canton in the west, with a a rich history and a great skyline that is twice as big as HK.
To visit mainland China you will need a visa, but that is not needed for Hong Kong and Macau (you only have to fill in an arrival card before entering). After 5 days in China we came back one day to HK to visit the last sights. It is interesting to note, that when we first arrived to Hong Kong by our flight from Copenhagen via Moscow, we got the idea that the city felt just like a Chinese city, much more then a former British colony with its own parliament. But when we returned to HK after our week in China, HK felt more like a western country, not at all like China; the much better toilets, many more people that could speak English, much less policemen and militaries on the streets (less of a "control feeling"), much more westerners on the streets, and much less chaotic traffic. It is really interesting to have seen the difference though, especially since it is only 1-2 hour by train to about nine Chinese mega cities with 1-8 million inhabitans each (Shenzhen, Gunagzhou, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing), and a very complicated application for a visa of course before our journey.

We stayed at the Best Western Harbour View in Sai Ying Pun at the border to Sheung Wan (Western district), only a short bus or tram ride from Central, but a bit far from nearest metro station. Best Western was a 38-storey 4 star hotel, but the rooms felt more like 3 stars. Breakfast was included every day. The staff was friendly, and the prices were really good for being in central HK. Our room was very, very small with the washstand in the room because of lack of space in the toilet, but the views were amazing over the harbour and part of Kowloon (though the haze limited it).

The biggest minus was the really slow elevators, 3 elevators on 38 floors are way too less, especially since the lobby was situated on the 5th floor. The rooftop pool and viewing deck was also closed, a bit sad. The hotel is very new, it was built in 2012, but the interior feels very 70s with brown earth colours, cheap chandeliers and faked golden panels everywhere. Everything in the hotel, especially the lobby, seems to be built to make the impression of an expensive hotel, but it makes it look like a fake luxury hotel. Pretty nice anyway. The free breakfast was ok but not very special, a mix of Asian and Western food. The restaurant is situated on the 3rd floor with views of the busy Queens Road West. Sheung Wan is actually a bit more of Hong Kong then Central, since it is much more gritty, is dirtier then central HK, it smells fish everywhere, and there are small local stores with dried food everywhere. Opposite the hotel there is a 7 Eleven, a Taiwanese store and several Asian restaurants.

The last day, after the trip to China, we switched to 4-star the Empire Hotel Kowloon in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, just to get another experience. It is situated on Kimberley Road, that is nicknamed Koreatown because of its many Korean restaurants. It is just a short promenade to the Tsim Sha Tsui metro station, Kowloon Park and the busy Nathan Road. There we got a suite for the price of a room, situated on the 25th floors with great views of Kowloon and ICC (the tallest building in HK). There were two flatscreen TVs in the suite and the bathroom was really large, included a separate shower and even a phone. The AC was way too cold, and it didn't worked even if we tried to change it, and we were too tired to call the staff so we caught a cold! Empire felt modern and fresh, though the staff was a bit snobbish, wanting us to pay breakfast for one person, despite it was included in the room. But they changed their mind. The lobby and the public area were in typical modern international style. There is a narrow, tall atrium in the middle of the building.