“Oh God, what if Hong Kong is all large corporate skyscrapers and zero else?” This dawns on me as I’m drifting in for my initial revisit to a Asian city.
What if a silken brochures and transport guides have farfetched and Hong Kong is in fact a gimlet of Asia?
The lady sitting circuitously me on a craft says we can do a city in dual days “max”.
I’ve requisitioned 4 days.
Even yet we am vehement about my initial outing to a former British colony, a woman’s criticism has me worried.
She seems savvy and well-travelled, and she unequivocally emphasised a word “max”.
Although it is usually about an eight-hour moody from Sydney, Hong Kong is simply a stop-over indicate on longer journeys for many Aussies, who mostly disremember it as a holiday destination.
My worries disappear, however, when we travel out of a airfield and onto a unadulterated streets on a amiable winter evening. we am vehement once again.
I realize there is copiousness to see and do during my 4 days, and by a finish of my outing we wish we could have stayed longer.
Here are 9 ways to spend your time in Hong Kong:
THE PEAK
The Peak Tram, one of a world’s oldest funicular railways, is a fun and inexpensive introduction to a city.
Opened for use in May 1888, a tram creates daily journeys joining Hong Kong’s CBD to The Peak.
The tram is found tighten to a executive packet terminal, with a starting indicate on Garden Road, and it can be reached by convey bus.
You can learn all about it during a recently non-stop chronological gallery, afterwards take a outing to a top, where there are extraordinary breathtaking views over Victoria Harbour. On a transparent day we can see Kowloon on a conflicting gulf side and a island of Lantau.
You can also mark architecturally-impressive buildings before streamer to The Peak Tower for a seafood dish during one of a many restaurants.
End your day in loyal Hong Kong style, with a mark of selling during a tower.
AFTERNOON TEA
A tea appreciation category is some-more fun that it sounds. Plus, it’s free.
Classes are hold in many tea houses via Hong Kong and they final about 20 minutes.
During that time, a “tea master” shows we how to decoction and flow opposite Chinese teas a normal way, with inexhaustible palm gestures and artistic flair.
Participants can try all from yellow tea to something called “greenish tea”.
The varieties ambience utterly opposite from those we competence buy during your internal supermarket in Australia. If they fit your tastebuds, we can buy a teas and uncover off your newly acquired tea-pouring ability during home.
The amicable tradition of afternoon tea can also be enjoyed during a lush Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui during a tip of Kowloon.
Rooms in a five-star hotel are costly though afternoon tea is good within a bill of many travellers.
BEACH TIME
Hong Kong boasts some-more than 40 central sandy beaches. The best-known is during Repulse Bay, a former pirates’ hideaway, 20 mins by train or cab from Central.
Colourful shrines dedicated to Taoist deities can be seen on a eastern finish of a beach.
An surprising culinary knowledge can be savoured during a Repulse Bay Arcade: foie gras and lobster ice cream.
There is also Shek O Beach, south of Hong Kong Island. Shek O is a environment of several renouned Chinese song videos and it’s not tough to see why.
The beach is pleasing and even in winter we can mark groups of friends and internal families who have transient a city for a day.
SHOPPING
Some contend selling is Hong Kong’s favourite pastime.
For those who can means it, there are unconstrained engineer stores and boutiques.
In winter, Tiffany’s puts adult an 18-metre Christmas tree and a fairytale-inspired carousel outward a store in a city centre.
But if all we can means to do is demeanour during a tree, conduct to a markets for a bargain.
You can squeeze a feign engineer purse that’s probably matching to a genuine thing during a Ladies Market during Mong Kok.
And gadgets, pleasing scarfs and souvenirs are accessible during Stanley Market.
The night marketplace on Temple Street can be reached by foot, where we can squeeze all from automobile radios to silk underwear.
Tourists should be wakeful that an Asian “XL” is most smaller than an Australian homogeneous and it can be a plea reckoning out either code names are genuine or fake.
The travel markets of Central on Hong Kong Island are another must-see.
It’s here that locals from a circuitously high-rise apartments buy their uninformed produce, including fruit, vegetables, ornithology and seafood.
AVENUE OF STARS
The Avenue of Stars on a quayside of Kowloon honours internal stars such as Bruce Lee.
Visit during night to suffer a fantastic perspective of Hong Kong’s bright skyscrapers.
BUDDHA STATUE
A 5.7km-cable automobile tour (Ngong Ping 360) gives we overwhelming views of a flora and fauna of a pleasing North Lantau Country Park, as we conduct towards a world’s largest seated Buddha statue.
Stroll by a village, that boasts normal Chinese architectural pattern features, before walking adult to a bronze Tian Tan Buddha statue.
Constructed out of 202 bronze pieces, a statue weighs some-more than 250 tonnes and soars 34 metres high.
Nearby we can also wander by a willing Po Lin Monastery, that is some-more than 100 years old.
Finish your day with a tasty yum cha dish during one of a internal restaurants.
STAR FERRY
A hilly outing on a double-decker Star Ferry opposite Victoria Harbour is a ideal approach to start a revisit to Hong Kong.
The Star ferries were creatively used as a vital newcomer tie between Hong Kong Island and a Kowloon Peninsula.
Tickets are cheap, starting during HK$2.50 (about 30 Australian cents) for adults, and a outing offers glorious views of Hong Kong’s considerable skyline.
CHINESE DOCTORS
No outing to Hong Kong would be finish but an dusk wander by a streets of Kowloon, enjoying a neon lights of Nathan Road.
This is a universe of travel traders, taverns and stories about a mythological high-end call lady Suzie Wong, a impression of a 1957 novel by Richard Mason, that was blending into a play, film and ballet.
A revisit to a Chinese alloy during a 400-year-old Beijing Tong Ren Tang sequence on No 6 Cameron Road requires a translator as a alloy usually speaks Cantonese.
FOOD
It is essential to try some low sum, a Cantonese tenure for a break that some-more typically refers to food prepared as tiny bite-sized portions of shrimp, pig or vegetables.
Dim sums are traditionally served in tiny steamer baskets or on tiny plates.
For decades, a Luk Yu Tea House during 24-26 Stanley Street has been a best residence for low sums in Central.
HORSE RACING
Horse racing is renouned in Hong Kong, and there are Wednesday night competition meetings between Sep and Apr in Happy Valley and during a weekend in Sha Tin.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club offers several packages for tourists that can be reserved.
- Author Lema Samandar (AAP) was a guest of a Hong Kong Tourism Board and Virgin Atlantic.