Hong Kong Part I: Daytime

It was so simple and easy to pass immigration and leave China at Shenzhen and enter the familiar but different Hong Kong. It’s comforting to be able to communicate easily with Hong Kongers that speak good English and in this way it’s a paradise compared to most of mainland China. With names like Queen’s Road and Connaught Road it’s easy to be tricked into thinking like you know what’s going on in the city but Hong Kong has many surprises.

Skyscrapers! Yes Hong Kong has a lot, that’s for sure. This is the view from my hotel room. Not bad

More skyscrapers. Some fantastic city views in HK

The buildings just shoot straight up. Plus they’re built so close together that apparently HK has a higher density of tall buildings than New York

I stayed on the Hollywood Road (we have one of those in Northern Ireland so no big deal)

There was a really nice (and quiet) park next to my hotel (which you can see in the first pick). A good place to escape the chaos of the city

Everywhere you look the skyscrapers surround you. Very impressive

Unlike most of New York for example or other cities in North America, the streets are quite narrow here but the buildings are still tall. You walk downhill but the buildings go up

It’s like being in an urban canyon. Plus a lot of Hong Kong is built on the hill side, making the buildings seem even taller. It’s doubly impressive

Hollywood Road is famous for antiques. Also for ivory. “But isn’t it illegal to sell ivory nowadays?” I hear you ask. Well yes, unless it’s mammoth ivory which is ok because we caused those animals to go extinct thousands of years ago

 

Around the Hollywood Road there are also lots of cool coffee shops

So basically I spent my time in Hong Kong sitting in cafes drinking coffee. I clearly make the most of my travels…

Too cool for me

Definitely too cool for me

But even though Hong Kong is a big city it’s not without nature. Beautiful trees like this one still find space

In fact Hong Kong is mostly not city. There are over 260 islands and some like Cheung Chau have fishing villages and towns

Often people (including me) are very surprised to learn that Hong Kong is great for hiking and has some beautiful beaches. I swam here and the water was so nice and still it was like a swimming pool

Some wildlife too. Spotted this colourful little guy near the beach

Also explored a cave. ‘Cave’ as in the new uber chic cocktail bar in the city? No literally a cave.

It was small and narrow and full of people. It didn’t help that one woman had a panic attack and needed to leave in a hurry

All that beach and cave exploration requires refreshment. I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to taste Hong Kong beer. Some people like travelling to sample the cuisine, me it’s rather the beer 😉

I bet you never ever thought this would be Hong Kong

Boats and ferry rides are a very pleasant feature of Hong Kong (necessary for access to all those islands)

Lots of people and the full hustle and bustle of big city life

I was lucky to see some nice sunsets (and so were lots of other people too)

The two towers. Left: Two International Finance Centre at 416m and right: International Commerce Centre at 484m. These are some of the tallest in the world. I took the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Wan Chai. The Star Ferry is probably one of the most amazing boat trips in the world. Going across the harbour at any time is stunning but I was fortunate to get this sight

 

Next up: Part II: Hong Kong by night. The rare better sequel