Hong Kong

China Post 1: Hong Kong


Arrival in Hong Kong!  This morning I pulled into Hong Kong Harbor!  I was surprised to learn that the port exit was literally THROUGH a mall. In order to get off the ship and onto the land we were routed through a mall. 24 hours a day we could exit and entrance the ship, but had to walk past all the stores (only open during business hours).  Once we got out of the mall we found Christmas decorations galore! It was such a treat to see. There were great big purple Christmas trees and lights and wreaths, it was all so pretty. The first day in Hong Kong I had an organized tour arranged to see the most of Hong Kong possible in just one day.  We met up on the buses (after getting terribly lost) and started our day of touring. It was a great warm day so I was wearing shorts and a tank top (which is interesting once I tell you about Beijing!).  We started our day at a lookout point over the harbor, in the distance we could see our ship docked against the skyscrapers of Hong Kong.  We also went to Victoria Peak, which was awesome! It is the highest point in Hong Kong and we had to take a tram in order to get to the peak. The tram went up the hill much steeper than I would have expected, so parts of the ride really felt like a roller coaster. We were leaning so far back on an angle that it felt like we were on a roller coaster climbing to the top of the first peak. It was pretty cool!  The view from the top over the skyscrapers was so cool! I got some great pictures and we tried to get a little shopping done quickly before we left the peak.    After our stop at Victoria Peak we headed to a part of Hong Kong that used to be a fishing village. It has been greatly modernized since its time as a fishing village, but now it is the launching point for fishing trips out to sea. The area is used as a makeshift safe haven for the fishing boats to stay while they are in port. Many of the fishing boats are also houseboats for the fishermen and their families, so they area is also a type of neighborhood and home for those people. 

For our lunch we had Chinese appetizers. We had pork dumplings, fried crab, slimy soup, spring rolls, fried rice, pork, and a really weird ooey-gooey desert. Some of it was pretty good, but a lot of it was such a weird texture that I could barely do it!

In the afternoon we made more tour stops including the beach and a shopping market!  After our shopping we returned to the port area and had dinner at a great place in the mall area.

After dinner we returned to the ship because our ship was docked with front roe seats to the light show!  The light show is a 14-minute show that the skyscrapers put on. It involves lasers and changes in lights up and down the skyscrapers. I set up my tripod on the 7th deck outside on the ship and LOVED the view. I got awesome pictures of the light show. 

I really really enjoyed Hong Kong, but we were only in Hong Kong for one day. I think that it would be great to go back and visit and see a little more of Hong Kong. 




I am going to add a VERY quick version of the rest of my time in China below. Unfortunately, the time at sea went so fast again that I am behind on my blog!!!

During our second day in Hong Kong we went to the airport and flew to Beijing. Our first day in Beijing was not planned out for us, so after we checked into the hotel we wandered around a little bit and ended up getting hot chocolate at a little restaurant not far from our hotel.  The second day we visited a market because it was much colder in Beijing than any of us had prepared for. At the market we all stocked up on souvenirs as well as warm winter jackets, boots, hats, mittens, and snow-pants!  Our plans for Beijing involved quite the Great Wall adventure, and we knew that we had to get warm gear in order to survive the wall. The other sites we visited in Beijing were  the Olympic Stadiums, the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, the Summer Palace, and more.  For our Great Wall adventure we drove about 2.5 hours to a very remote section of the Great Wall. We had a sunset hike followed by dinner to warm up at a restaurant and then we hiked up the great wall to our place to camp for the night. It was so cold that some people chickened and stayed in a hotel, but my friends and I decided to stick it out. We each were allotted 2 down sleeping bags and we all slept in our winter gear inside the down sleeping bags. The stars were amazing, and it was so cool to sleep under the stars in a watchtower on the Great Wall of China. In the morning the water bottle that had been by my head was entirely frozen solid! When we woke up though we could see where we had hiked to the night before in the pitch black and were pleased to watch the sunrise over the wall.  We had a long hike on the great wall and even that was an adventure. We were hiking in a remote un retouched section of the wall that did not have guardrails so there were parts that were a little dangerous. In addition, the snow and ice on the wall created an interesting mix of hiking, sliding and slipping. Overall it was one of the best experiences of my life!!!!  At the end of the hike we ziplined over a river to the bottom of the wall. How cool!  I wish that I had time to say more, but I have to prepare for Japan tomorrow. Sorry it was so brief!!!