Hong Kong I

On April 21 we took the fast train from Guangzhou to Kowloon. The maximum train speed was just upgraded to 200 km/hr. The trip took one hour and forty-five minutes. Add a half-hour for customs, a half-hour queuing for a taxi and a half-hour to get to the tunnel to Hong Kong Island. In all, it does not matter that the train gets there 15 minutes sooner than before.

The train ride was up to European standards. Our first class soft seats were equivalent to first class seats. Service included complimentary tea/coffee and peanuts. For sale they have beer, soft drinks and dinner. Both English and Chinese is spoken by all serving people.

Hong Kong is treated like a separate country. You have to go through customs. The first step is a health screening. In reality unless your look sick, this just means going through a bug bomb to make certain you are not bringing Avian Flu into Hong Kong. Then a perfunctory immigration step where you get a visitors visa.

Our hotel was in the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong. Wan Chai is about equivalent to the South Loop in relation to downtown, e.g. a dozen blocks from the Ritz and Hilton. Prices are around 50% higher than Chicago. The hotel room was nice but nothing special.

The first afternoon we took the local bus from the hotel to near the Victoria Peak tram. Along the way our bus was delayed by a demonstration. At first we thought it was a parade as it had marching bands in full uniform but towards the front of the parade were the protest signs. Around 1,000 people were demonstrating. The demonstration did not make the evening news or the next days' newspaper.

1. Note they had police protection and the women at the lower right has her small child with her.
   
   
   The tram to Victoria Peak is a tourist scam (Marsha: I disagree, it obviously is for tourists, but scam is to strong a term: maybe tourist trap). Later on, we found a city bus which would have been 1/10 the price. But, it gives a good feeling of how Hong Kong Island is basically a small mountain or large hill. Nothing in the Central area of the city is flat. The pitch is greater than the streets of San Francisco. At the Peak there is an observation area on top of a shopping mall. On each floor the escalator for the next floor is on the other side of the mall. They make sure you see every store. Besides gift shops, antique stores and local restaurants there is a MacDonald's and a Bubba Gump restaurant.
   
   On the other side of the Peak is the older shopping mall. They have the same types of stores plus: Haagen-Dazs, Burger King, Starbucks and the local supermarket chain, Park and Shop.
   The view is worth the trip. Looking down the cascading skyscrapers to Hong Kong Bayis a fantastic sight. Because of fog, we only got occasional views of Kowloon and the New Territory across the Bay.
   Here are some views:

Clockwise: north view, normal size apartment building and east view.

Looking south, there is a lot of park land.

After riding the Tram back to the higher end of Central area, we hiked down to the Bay. The roads and walkways are horrendous. To get across most major streets, you have to walk on an overpass or down under a subway. Good for the leg muscles and cardio-vascular system. After a while you get smart, and start looking for an escalator in a hotel, office building or shopping center which will lead to the overpass. You usually can't jaywalk because they have fences in the middle of many streets.

To end the day, we ate in a local Chinese restaurant. It’s food tasted closer to the Cantonese food we get in Chicago and New York.

Finally, the view from our hotel window at night.