Bright Lights Big City

Mt Fuji behind Tokyo shortly after take off for Hong Kong

We were reminded early on Sunday morning, as we walked through Soho towards the Peak Tram, that there is still very much an Anglo-Saxon presence here in Hong Kong. The rubbish, broken beer bottles and vomit could readily be transplanted to downtown Andover or Manly.

Having arrived on Saturday afternoon after a 4.5 hour flight from Tokyo, we were whisked here to Hong Kong Island on a modern and clean train that puts what we have in the UK and Australia to shame. The first big difference with Tokyo is the cosmopolitan nature of the inhabitants. Sure there are more tourists here no doubt because it is s cheaper and HK does a great New Years' Eve party. But there are also lots of Brits, Aussies, Indians and East Asians driving cars and serving in stores. Having transited through HK airport on a few occasions over the years en route to Sydney or London, we have finally got the chance to stop and have a look around.

Penthouse apartment from the peak tram



Your blogger at the top of the Peak



Tallest building on HK Island : 88 floors

Hong Kong Island tram



Kowloon across the bay from the Island



Star Ferry



Nathan Road, Kowloon by day



Shi Lin Nunnery : a Buddhist sisterhood temple

The skyscrapers are extraordinary. I type sitting in bed at the Mercer Hotel located to the west of Central on Hong Kong island which is 30 storeys high yet no more than about 10 metres wide. We have one of just three rooms on the 7th floor (having turned down the option of a special rate upgrade to a higher floor suite where there are just 2 suites per floor). Despite its narrowness, The Mercer finds space for an outdoor pool (a touch to cold for us or seemingly any guest here in mid winter where the sun shines and the temperature hovers around 17 degrees Celsius). Not only are the designs of the skyscrapers ingenious in places and sometimes beautiful too, a number look very precarious as they clamber up the peak here on the island and move up the hills behind Kowloon.



Shi Lin Nunnery

Our hotel is located in an area called Sheung Wan. It is slowly becoming yuppie-fied but where the traditional still survives as the modern muscles in. Speaking of muscles, our hotel has a small gym on the 3rd floor, looking directly across to an old building housing a shop on the ground floor and flats above. While I rode on the bike and Tess did her crunches, the locals sat down for their evening meal less than 10 metres across the alleyway.



Nan Lian gardens

Yesterday afternoon as we returned to the hotel, in one of the few open areas near Central, we came across a small market which effectively was a health campaign being run by the government for the elderly Chinese locals. They were lining up to have their BP tested etc while a large group of over 100 seniors were seated doing what I think you could describe as "sitting aerobics". A cheery lady in her 50s was taking "the class" by shouting out the routines in Mandarin. The overriding smell in this part of Hong Kong is dried fish. Shop after shop sells bits of fish and other animal parts for both culinary and medicinal reasons.



Nan Lian Gardens

On an action packed Sunday we rode on the tram to the Peak, caught the Star Ferry to Kowloon, walked up Nathan Road, visited the beautiful Chi Lin Nunnery and gardens, haggled in the night market, watch the nightly laser show across the harbour and ate dim sum in a large restaurant where we stood out as the only non-locals and I clearly offended an elderly Chinese lady at the next table by not using the correct chopsticks when getting spinach out of a large bowl. If looks could kill.....






Kowloon is a blaze of lights and wonderful smells coming from street stalls and out of restaurants at night while back on the island, the lights on the skyscrapers are both garish and beautiful and a testament to everything that is new.



Portland Street at night

It is a noisy, chaotic, smelly, crowded and hazy place. I can understand why it is loved by ex-pats and tourists. It is a modern Manhattan, indeed it is Bright Lights Big City.



Hong Kong island from Kowloon