Hong Kong, Exciting and Endless! (Winter Break - Part 3)
We arrived in Hong Kong after a short flight from Beijing at about 11 pm. By the time we made it to our hostel at around 1 am, we were exhausted and passed out immediately to regain our energy for the long day ahead of us.
To start our day we met up with my mom's boss' niece, who is currently living and teaching English in Hong Kong. She took us to "Tim Ho Wan" a famous Chinese dim sum chain restuarant that originated in Hong Kong. The food was amazing, but also ridiculously cheap! We were stuffed by the time we left and only spent about $18 (for three people!). The restaurant has been dubbed "the world's cheapest Michelin-stared restaurant."
Our hostel was in an area called Mong Kok, which is filled with famous markets and great shopping. Including: the ladies market, the flower market, the bird market, and the goldfish market. There's also the Temple Street night market a couple subway stops south. The streets are filled with vendors and all sorts of merchandise. Many of them have a lot of the same things, so its very easy to haggle them down to a dirt cheap price.
After an afternoon spend hunting the ladies market for souvenirs, we took the subway under the bay to the island of Hong Kong. The central subway station emerges in a beautiful garden square surrounded by skyscrapers. From there, it was about a 5 minute walk through the weaving walk ways above the busy streets to our next destination: The Peak Tram.
Victoria Peak is the highest mountain on the island at 552 meters (1,811 feet), and is the best location from which to get a great view of the city. Though a popular tourist spot, the mountain has a ridiculously steep and difficult slope to climb. In the olden days (during the early British occupation), it was popular for the rich to ascend to the top carried in sedan chairs.
Soon enough, to make the transportation easier and cheaper, a tram railway was built. In the above picture is one of the old tram cars from 1956. Now, the tram is the most popular and still a fairly cheap way to ascend to the peak of the mountain for a great view.
Atop Victoria peak is the Peak Tower: a building with a 360 degree viewing platform on top to allow for a complete view of the island and city. It was a bit of a cloudy, foggy day during our trip, but thankfully we were still able to get a decent view of the city below.
In addition to the tower and viewing platform, there is a mall full of restaurants and shops. We purposefully got to the top of the mountain nearing the time for the sunset so we could wait around after a day time view of the city for night to fall.
In addition to the many restaurants, of which we chose from for our dinner, the tower had an exhibition for the changing of the new year. 2016 takes us back to the year of the monkey, which is my zodiac year! I hope this means it will be a great year for me. :)
After dinner, we returned to the viewing platform for one last look at the city during the nighttime, all lit up. It was hard to capture on camera because it was still pretty cloudy, but it was still a nice view overall.
To start our day we met up with my mom's boss' niece, who is currently living and teaching English in Hong Kong. She took us to "Tim Ho Wan" a famous Chinese dim sum chain restuarant that originated in Hong Kong. The food was amazing, but also ridiculously cheap! We were stuffed by the time we left and only spent about $18 (for three people!). The restaurant has been dubbed "the world's cheapest Michelin-stared restaurant."
Our hostel was in an area called Mong Kok, which is filled with famous markets and great shopping. Including: the ladies market, the flower market, the bird market, and the goldfish market. There's also the Temple Street night market a couple subway stops south. The streets are filled with vendors and all sorts of merchandise. Many of them have a lot of the same things, so its very easy to haggle them down to a dirt cheap price.
After an afternoon spend hunting the ladies market for souvenirs, we took the subway under the bay to the island of Hong Kong. The central subway station emerges in a beautiful garden square surrounded by skyscrapers. From there, it was about a 5 minute walk through the weaving walk ways above the busy streets to our next destination: The Peak Tram.
Victoria Peak is the highest mountain on the island at 552 meters (1,811 feet), and is the best location from which to get a great view of the city. Though a popular tourist spot, the mountain has a ridiculously steep and difficult slope to climb. In the olden days (during the early British occupation), it was popular for the rich to ascend to the top carried in sedan chairs.
Soon enough, to make the transportation easier and cheaper, a tram railway was built. In the above picture is one of the old tram cars from 1956. Now, the tram is the most popular and still a fairly cheap way to ascend to the peak of the mountain for a great view.
In addition to the tower and viewing platform, there is a mall full of restaurants and shops. We purposefully got to the top of the mountain nearing the time for the sunset so we could wait around after a day time view of the city for night to fall.
In addition to the many restaurants, of which we chose from for our dinner, the tower had an exhibition for the changing of the new year. 2016 takes us back to the year of the monkey, which is my zodiac year! I hope this means it will be a great year for me. :)
After dinner, we returned to the viewing platform for one last look at the city during the nighttime, all lit up. It was hard to capture on camera because it was still pretty cloudy, but it was still a nice view overall.
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