Hong Kong- Oct. 1-7, 2012

For our weeklong Chuseok holiday, we took a trip to celebrate my BIG birthday coming later in October. ;o)  We left Daegu at 7:30 AM via KTX high-speed rail; a two-hour trip to Seoul where we took a 45 min. connecting train to Incheon Airport.  From there it was just a three-hour flight to Hong Kong airport.

We arrived to the hotel via a short subway and taxi ride, at 5 PM.  We headed down to Victoria Harbor to eat and for the fantastic and amazing fireworks to celebrate National Day- the 63rd anniversary of the Republic of China.  There is a giant  (20') sculpture of a golden Bauhinia flower on the left here in the square- It's the symbol of Hong Kong. The fireworks were the biggest and loudest we've ever seen and went on for over a half hour- they were great!

This is the view from our room at the Cosmopolitan Hotel.  It was very nice, with full breakfast buffet included every day.  We were on the 15th floor but actually only 12 stories up; that's because the numbers 4, 13 and 14 are unlucky here and were not used for our hotel's floors. There are many superstitious beliefs about placements (Feng Shui) and numbers of  the buildings here.  

On our first day we took a double-decker city bus tour which was a great way to see the sights.  First we went through the exclusive Repulse Bay area.  James and Marly started to snooze. 

So we got out at the next stop which was Stanley Beach.  It was nice and warm and tropical everywhere in Hong Kong. 

There's some good shopping and restaurants in Stanley. One of the best things about Hong Kong for us was that everyone speaks English well.  Not surprising since it was part of Great Britain till 1997. Most people are bi- or tri-lingual.

Near the marina in Stanley.  There is a pretty beach there too.

Stanley is a quaint little town, has kind of a Key West feel. 

Back on our tour bus and into the city. Hong Kong is almost the size of New York in population and a little smaller in size.  So they built taller buildings to hold everyone instead.

 

Hong Kong's financial district has some of the tallest buildings in the world .  On the left,  in the back is the  Bank of China, famous for its diagonal design meant to imitate bamboo. It's actually said to have bad Feng Shui because of the angles.  The building on the right is HSBC, nicknamed the "Koala Bear" building because the designs look like bears hugging the building- see?

For our next stop we got off the bus to ride the cable tram to the top of Victoria Peak.  The car climbs the 1,400 ft. to the top at a very steep angle.

At the top, the views of the city took our breath away. See the Bank of China on the right in the back? 

And looking to the left, you can see the peak goes up a bit higher and there are actually houses up there.  With people living in them. The tallest building in Hong Kong (and 4th tallest in the world) is the silvery International Commerce Centre, in the distance to the right, across the harbor here. 

What a fantastic view! 

The Peak tower has touristy stores and restaurants, and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. We saw Jackie Chan, one of Hong Kong's favorite sons outside.

Later we took the ferry to the Kowloon peninsula, a part of Hong Kong. From there we had a great view of the nightly laser show from the skyscrapers, set to music. 

These cool lanterns in the shape of a procession were there too.  The horses are life sized.   The clock tower in the background was built in 1905 and is at the original site of the Canton Railway station.

There are all kinds of fantastic things in the shops, like these intricately carved wooly Mammoth tusks. These are an art form and we saw them in several places. 

Hong Kong money is very colorful and pretty.  We spent lots of it.
The lion is the symbol of the Bank of China.

The next day we rode the Star ferry (which costs 20 cents) back over to Tsim Sha Tsui  on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong; our favorite area. 

Such a peaceful way to start the day. 

Hong Kong is an island and you're never far from the water. Sometimes we'd see a junk go by  in the harbor.   There are just a few in operation and they are all tour boats.

Pulling into the ferry dock with the clock tower and  Museum of Science behind.

Next to the ferry terminal is the Hollywood-style Avenue of  Stars, where we posed with the Bruce Lee statue (he's also from Hong Kong).

Colorful Hong Kong!

After shopping at a some of the big centers, we ate at a great Shanghai cuisine place.  We loved the boneless duck and assorted Dim Sum.  Actually we all loved everything there, it was that good. 

The next day, we took a walk to go shopping.  This dragon  was around the corner from our hotel. 

Some of our favorite things to do were shopping and eating.  Marly has a bag of chocolate coins.  I  shopped at two Esprit stores 'cause I love their clothes and the prices were good compared to US- there is also no sales tax in Hong Kong.  The salespeople were all  excellent; they were very helpful about finding things and making suggestions, and were just nice. 

Times Square shopping area was a block from our hotel. 

All of the scaffolding for building repairs in Hong Kong is made of Bamboo strapped together with nylon cords.  Very strong and flexible, and of course it has good Feng Shui properties.

We went for a ride on the Duk Ling, a Chinese Junk style tour boat.

A view in Victoria Harbor from Duk Ling.  The blue boat is a sampan, a traditional type of  transportation or fishing boat.

A very relaxing way to tour the harbor.

The kids enjoyed the hour-long ride.

Another view of Victoria Harbor  from the Duk Ling, with some fishing boats.

Back in Tsim Sha Tsui where we rode a city bus and walked through a park...

To get to Bird Market Street. 

There were all kinds of birds for sale in many stalls.

Even talking ones!

Next to Bird Market street is Flower Market Street, my favorite market. So many vendors with so many kinds of flowers and plants!

James enjoyed all the bromeliads.

A shop window at Flower Market Street.  :)

The kids had a lot of fun in all the markets.

The next street was Goldfish Market Street, where all kinds of beautiful tropical fish are sold in stalls, in bags like this.  Those are Discus in the back. 

On to another good restaurant, this one a Fusion type place with good Dim Sum, hot and sour soup, and some huge French toast slices for the kids.

Hong Kong is colorful and unique, and often crowded. 

The next day we went to Ocean Park, a theme park in Hong Kong.  There  were a lot of interactive aquariums.

The Jellyfish house had many different kind of Jelly tanks.

This was the Chambered Nautilis tank, they were swimming all  around- so cool!

The view underneath the big tank was amazing!

The Giant Spider Crabs even came out to play.

Ocean Park is home to An-An and three other Giant Pandas.  They are very well-loved as they are a symbol of China.  An-An is eating some bamboo here. 

An-An striking his Kung Fu Panda pose.

It's also home to several Red Pandas,another adorable endangered species.

Ling-Ling taking a snooze.

The Chinese River Otters were cute too.

The kids enjoyed the many different types of goldfish in tanks on display in the Goldfish house. 

The bird show was pretty cool too.

The flowers and plantings at Ocean Park were beautiful. 

We rode a cable car over the mountain in the center of the park.  I am afraid of heights so this did not thrill me. We were in a tiny car like you see in the background.  Oh, the things I do for my family. 

I managed to unclench my hands long enough to take a few pictures.  James and the kids loved the cable car ride.   That's Repulse Bay in the background. 

The view looking out from our seats in Dolphin Stadium, at Ocean Park, towards some of the rides and the South China Sea.

The sea lions performing.

The dolphin and sea lion show was great!

We went over to the Thrill Mountain section of Ocean Park...

Where we rode a few of the rides as the sun was setting.

Stay away from that seal, kids.

The penguin house was chilly. 

The next day we headed into Tsim Sha Tsui once more..

We went to the Museum of History to see  "The Hong Kong Story" exhibit.  There were some Terracotta Warriors next door.

Here's Mar on a 3-D sidewalk painting outside. 

There were many great interactive displays in the Hong Kong Story; like the Chinese Dragon dance and Chinese Opera.

What the harbor looked like in the past..

On Oct. 7 we flew from Hong Kong airport (shown here) back to Seoul and took the train home to Daegu.  It was a GREAT trip, we love Hong Kong and will be back.