We started the day in Hong Kong with a walk along the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade in Kowloon which has wonderful views over the skyline of Hong Kong island. The weather was slightly cool with a misty haze over the island but ideal for walking. We passed the Avenue of the Stars where Chinese film stars are remembered. Then we were stopped by a teacher with a small group of school children who was keen to allow them to practice their English on us; this seemed to be quite commonplace around Hong Kong. On then to the famous Star Ferry which plies between Kowloon and Hong Kong island. Fabulous views in all directions as we crossed the short distance between the two.
We walked all around the main financial district viewing some amazing architecture including the HSBC building and the Bank of China (photo below). On the way through the CBD we stopped at a huge very upmarket food hall which seemed to sell everything from the most expensive wines to live lobster specially flown in from Boston - its a strange world!
Our next plan was to take the 15 bus up to the lower station of the Peak tram and take in the views from the summit. We headed in to Central Metro station to purchase our Octopus cards and yes they do exactly the same as Oyster in London. The underground concourse at Central is huge and we seemed to walk miles before finding the bus terminus where we duly boarded the 15. So focused were we upon the sites that we did not notice the bus pass the Peak Tram station so we enjoyed (?) a bus trip up to the top - a very hair raising ride on a double decker bus (all HK buses are double deckers). The views from the summit were wonderful and well worth the ride. After a quick lunch and beer at a very nice restaurant at the top we did manage to get the tram for the ride down. The architecture of the tower blocks all the way up and down the mountain is quite extraordinary and sometimes it is difficult to understand how they remain standing.
By now we had walked many miles and it was time to get back to the hotel for a short rest before heading out for the evening. We set off to visit the Temple Street Night Markets before dinner. Quite literally everything seemed to be on sale there and it was really buzzy and busy. Along one side of the market were huge numbers of small restaurants with their owners touting for business on the pavement. However, we decided to give these a miss and find a restaurant closer to our hotel for a meal. We ended up at a fairly upmarket Cantonese restaurant and had a good meal including the most enormous plate of scallops.
Walking back to the hotel we experienced the HK skyline at night for the first time and as you can see it is quite something. HK is clearly still a very successful city and lots of wealth was on display wherever one looked. One thing that did surprise us was that there seemed to be very few tourists from Europe or the USA and by far the majority (I guess more than 90%) appeared to be from mainland China.
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