Marcy and I went to Hong Kong in February 2009. At that point, Hong Kong was one of the cities in the world that I most badly wanted to visit, because of what I had heard about its extreme urban character in a beautiful physical setting. I wasn't disappointed, the city is a collection of extreme highrises jammed into crannies between forested mountains. The streets are lively with people, lights and activity. The subway is easy to understand and quite beautiful, in a low key way. I found the mixture of Chinese names and British names found in the city to be charming (a typical series of subway stops is Sheung Wan, Central, Admiralty, Wan Chai). Unfortunately, I had longed for a brief spell of sunshine on our week there, and it was not to be. The week before had been sunny, but I hadn't realized the extent to which the city lies in the middle of a rainforest - it was cloudy and humid all the time during our visit. I couldn't live there, but I am very happy to have been able to visit.
Photo List (Total 577 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Hong Kong Island (210 photos) - Central is the "downtown" of Hong Kong, and where we chose to begin exploring the city. The most prominent skyscrapers are arrayed around the lovely Statue Square, and we went from there in an expanding circle, up the Mid-Levels, and then down again to a market. These photos capture this long walk, and several other smaller visits to this part of town, including one starting in Causeway Bay, just east of Central.
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Views of Central Hong Kong from Kowloon and ferries (27 photos) - The central portion of Hong Kong Island is surely one of the superlative urban views on the planet, and one simply cannot stop taking photos of it. One of the best views is from Kowloon, where our hotel was, or on the ferries crossing the harbour. Some of these are panoramas, some are at night, but none are sunny, unfortunately.
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Views of Central Hong Kong and other photos from The Peak (48 photos) - Tourists take a tram to one of the mountaintop that overlooks the central city, where there is a centre called The Peak offering wonderful views. These photos show those views, as well as our walk around the small lanes at the Peak and our exploration of the grounds of an abandoned house there.
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Kowloon (76 photos) - Kowloon is on the mainland, just across the water from Hong Kong Island. Our hotel was in Kowloon, which although our street had a lot of high-end retail, is a lot rougher around the edges than is Hong Kong Island. Many of these photos are at night, since we had trouble adjusting to the time and were often out at strange hours.
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Aberdeen (60 photos) - Marcy was keen to go to Aberdeen, which is on the south side of Hong Kong island, on an inlet from the ocean. It's known for the different kinds of fishing boats and sampans in the harbour, known as the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter. I was skeptical, thinking it might be like Tai O (which we had already seen) but it was intensely urban (if ugly) and ended up being very interesting. We ended up walking through an industrial area where they repaired the boats, and visited the large and hilly Aberdeen Chinese Permanent Cemetery that I thought look more or less like an open pit mine of the dead.
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Sha Tin (44 photos) - The main reason we went to this little settlement in the New Territories (north of Kowloon, on the mainland) was to go to the Monastery of the The Thousand Buddhas. No one told us they were fibreglass, but we did see an interesting set of hillside huts linked by pathways, and groups of monkeys frolicking at the monastery and on the houses.
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Tai O (68 photos) - This small fishing village on Lantau Island is notable mostly for the stilt buildings over the water, from which the locals ply their trade. Reached by taking the subway to the very last stop, and then a bus for a half hour further through small hamlets tucked into the hills, the village is a strange mix of touristy places and impoverished and grubby dwellings. Like other places we visited somewhat at a remove from the centre of Hong Kong, it was quite filthy, dirtier by far than the central city.
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Lantau Island and the airport (28 photos) - Lantau island is quite a distance from the centre of Hong Kong, and is where the new airport is. We travelled between Lantau and the central city four times in total, to go to and from the airport, and additionally on our way to Tai O, a small fishing village on the island. Some of these photos are from the trips there and back, a few are of the area called
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Transit shots (16 photos) - Shots of the subway and ferries.
