The British arrived in the
17th Century and in 1841 the colony was
ceded to Britain. Hong Kong was occupied
by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.
In 1997 there was a transfer of sovereignty from London to Beijing - one
country 2 systems. But the harbour is
still called Victoria Harbour - after
Queen Victoria and the city still has iconic British shops like Harvey Nicks and Marks and Sparks
Weather
You need to be prepared for the weather
to affect your plans – we experienced intense and prolonged thunderstorms in
the afternoon. It is a sub-tropical
climate so it is always hot – the only difference is whether it is also rainy
as well.
Shopping
Hong Kong is known for its
shopping. But I found the large shopping
centres a bit soulless (other than the food shops) and most of the shops seemed
to be stuffed with expensive designer label things. If you can afford that you will have a lot of
choice in Hong Kong.
Chinese traditional medicine
shops were much in evidence - cheek by jowl with shops of international brands –
there must be money in those medicines!
You will find people accost
you on the street to try and encourage you to go into their shops – but on this
trip they just spoke to you. Years ago
when I was there on my own I was disconcerted to find people trying to drag you
into their shops bodily!
MTR
We used the MTR – underground railway. It is cheap and easy to figure out. You just get your tickets from the machines
and then put them through the turnstiles on the way into the platforms and out
on arrival. There are discounts for
older people.
Museum
of History
We are not big museum people but we did visit the
Museum of History. We had a bit of a look at an exhibit of things found in
archaeological excavations in Guandong, Hong Kong and Macao – the exhibit was free
and there were English descriptions. But I can't say that it really floated my
boat.
Airport
and Taxis
In 1998 the new airport
opened - Chek Lap Kok - built mainly on reclaimed land – the Airport Express train
takes 23 mins but it is only a bit more time by taxi. The airport is the size of Heathrow and JFK airports
combined.
The old Kai Tak airport was
much closer in and exciting - but the huge suspension bridges you now go over
pretty much make up for that - Tsing Ma and Ting Kao - over 7000 ft - longest
integrated road and rail span in the world.
On arrival have to
walk until down long escalator and then catch a train to building where
immigration and customs are. Trains
arrive every 3 minutes.
We caught a taxi
from the airport to our hotel in Kowloon – 252HKD (including a 50 HKD surcharge
for the toll road). (That's just over
$30 US)
The people managing
the taxi rank gave us a card with details about how to complain about
taxis. They strapped our luggage into
the trunk – sticking out – we discovered that this is how it's done in Hong
Kong – never mind the pelting rain!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments are most welcome. I have currently disabled anonymous comments due to unwanted spam. Cheers