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Hong Kong - Day 3
Friday, January 23, 2004
Except for the Harbor Cruise Fireworks show tonight, we are on our own for the next four days. What to do, what to do? Breakfast, of course, for starters. We are now officially into a routine, meal wise. We have a really good breakfast, a light lunch, and a good supper.
Today, we decide to take some of the walking tours that are in our guidebook. Did we mention the guidebook yet? Our neighbours gave it to J for his birthday. It's the "National Geographic Traveller guide to Hong Kong" and it's really excellent. We both read through most of it before the trip so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to see. It covers other areas such as neighboring Macao and some of the outlying islands that we knew we would never get time to see so we skipped over those. On the areas we did want to see, however, the book gives excellent coverage, including maps and directions for one or two hour walking tours.
We take the Star Ferry across to the Central District on Hong Kong Island, that's the main business center of Hong Kong. A one-way ride on the upper, enclosed and warmer, deck of the ferry costs 2.20 HK$ which translates to about 30 cents US.
Central District from the Ferry
We had exchanged some money at the airport while waiting for our baggage. The rate there had been about 7.50 HK$ per 1.00 US$. Most of the money exchange kiosks that we saw around the Hotel were offering only 7.09 HK$. One place offered 7.90 HK$ but, judging from the surrounding neighborhood, we weren't too sure about it. The Western Union offices at the Ferry stations offered 7.45 HK$ and that is where we usually went to exchange money during our stay.
This being the first day of the New Year, all offices and most major stores are closed. In fact, they will remain closed for the next two days. Also, the crowds are very thin compared to normal Hong Kong standards though there were still plenty of people out and about by our standards.
One of the first things we notice downtown is what seem to be picnickers. Small groups of people, almost exclusively young women, were sitting on blankets on the ground and eating or playing cards. There were numerous groups of them outside the Central Ferry Terminal and we kept bumping into other groups in odd places (like at the top of the steps to a skywalk across the road, or in small, out of the way corners of some of the plazas we walked through).
Our first stop is Exchange Square, a plaza surrounded by large office towers (that gets redundant real fast here since there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a small office tower). This is the home of the Hang Seng, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The plaza, called The Forum, has a number of outdoor cafes, all closed, and a large open area with statues and fountains. This is all above street level. There is an extensive set of skywalks in this part of town that help you get across the busy major streets below and that connect most of the newer office towers in this part of downtown.
J and a Tai Chi statue in The Forum
We eventually get back down to street level at Des Voeux Road Central and soon locate Li Yuen Street East and Li Yuen Street West. These two narrow streets run side by side from Des Voeux Road Central to Queen's Road Central and are filled with small booths selling all manner of goods, everything from cigarette lighters to underwear, all at very low prices. Ralph Lauren polo shirts were selling for a couple of dollars (US) each and everyone was offering genuine fake Rolex's. It's interesting to see something like this in the heart of downtown, only a couple of blocks from The Landmark, a shopping mall that puts Dallas' Galleria to shame. Again, most of the stores are closed, but we take a picture of the lobby and continue on our walk.
Li Yuen Street East, The Landmark Lobby
At this point, we switch walking tours and head towards Statue Square. On the way, we stop off at the Hong Kong Bank and take pictures of each other in front of the two lion statues that have stood out front of all three incarnations of the bank. The ground floor of the bank is completely open to the elements and there are two escalators that take you up to the first floor (in true British fashion, the first floor is above the ground floor. J has had many an argument about this with a British co-worker when he worked overseas and neither of them ever did managed to win one). The escalators, by the way, are not positioned where you would expect them; they are, in fact, at rather odd angles to the outline of the building. Apparently, a Feng Shei master was consulted and he said that these locations would be the best for channeling chi up into the banking floor.
Hong Kong Bank, L and Stitt, J (see the Guide Book?) and Stephen
The ground floor pavement, by the way, is almost completely covered in blankets and "picnickers". As we cross the street to Statue Square and find much the same thing there, our tour book finally provided a clue to what is going on. Every Sunday (or in this case, Holiday), thousands of nannies gather in and around Statue Square to spend their day off together. Apparently, these girls all come from the Philippines and work for relatively low wages. They are all "live-in" nannies and get only Sundays and a very few Holidays off. On those days, they all get together downtown to visit with each other. There, mystery solved.
Old Supreme Court Building, Hillside between two Buildings
We head down to the harbor front but we can't see much because of all the construction fences. Looks like they are reclaiming more land to build more skyscrapers. Maybe Stella wasn't kidding about being able to jump across the harbor some day. For now, however, we take pictures where we can and then take the Star Ferry back to Kowloon. One clump of buildings reminds J of the New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas. Having spent more than five hours on our little walking tour, we figure it's time to refresh ourselves and find some food.
Admiralty Center, Clump of Buildings
Outside the Ferry Terminal on the Kowloon side, there are a number of street vendors now set up. One guy is selling these neat little wind-up robots for about $1.50 US each. J picks up a couple to take to the office. You wind them up and turn them to face each other and it looks like they are fighting. Standing by themselves they are dancing (sort of).
Last night, we passed a number of restaurants on Nathan Road so we decide to pick one of those for our afternoon meal today. A few blocks up, we see a sign for a Dim Sum restaurant with pictures of interesting dishes. The sign is positioned outside a narrow gap between two stores that goes in about 10 feet and ends at an elevator door. The sign says to take the elevator to the third floor. There is also a restaurant on the second floor but we want Dim Sum so we head to three.
In this restaurant, Dim Sum is ordered from the menu. They don't have people pushing trays around between the tables like we are used to in North America. We order four dishes that all turn out to be very good. The food is chopped up a little differently than we are used to and, with one dish, we find ourselves slurping up squid tentacles like spaghetti.
Now, on our various walks up and down Nathan Road, we keep passing a video store that offers DVD's and VCD's for as little as $10 HK ($1.50 US). A VCD is a video that is recorded on a standard CD rather than on the much higher density DVD. It doesn't have the high resolution of a DVD but it looks okay on a regular TV. You can only get one hour of video on a single disc so most movies require two disks. These VCD's are pretty much guaranteed to be rip-offs, especially considering they are offering movies that are still in the theaters (such as The Cat In The Hat). What really keeps grabbing our attention, though, is the music coming from the video playing on the TV at the front of the store. The music is a mix of oriental and classical and is being played, on traditional Chinese instruments, by a group called The 12 Girl Band.
This afternoon, we finally decide to stop in and buy a couple items (in hind sight, we should have bought a lot of VCD's but we just weren't certain that they would play properly at home or, for that matter, if we wouldn't have trouble with customs coming back with a suitcase full of movies). We also pick up a copy of the "12 Girl Band" video that is playing out front. That one, however, is only available as a legitimate DVD at normal DVD price. The group is hugely popular right now in China so the store probably doesn't dare sell bootlegs of their stuff.
Closer to our hotel, we see an opening that leads to some small shops and decide to explore it. We enter what turns out to be a huge rabbit warren of hallways all lined with little shops and food kiosks. Most of the food kiosks are selling curries and some even have samosa's. J is sorely tempted to buy a samosa but, having just eaten, he manages to restrain himself. Just as well. The whole place has a rather seedy look to it. We find out later that we are in the infamous Chungking Mansions. Our guide book only says that the Hong Kong authorities would really like to shut this place down but it doesn't go into very much detail. A little Googling after we got home turned up this paragraph on travel.yahoo.com:
This infamous ghetto-like structure, once a haven for gold smuggling, has some of the cheapest rates in town, making it a legendary haunt for backpackers and budget travellers in search of adventure. Although not the place for families or comfort seekers, this place offers excitement for those seeking Hong Kong's underground. The higher up you go in the building the higher the rates. Night can be a bit interesting as you might run into everything from rowdy youth and raiding police to persistent street peddlers at the outside shopping arcade. Cheap curry restaurants also line the lower floors. The MTR train station is almost right outside, providing a quick escape to other parts of the city (from the web site http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-568842-chungking_mansions_hong_kong_hotels-I , accessed Feb. 11, 2004).
We also found a really good article on Chungking Mansions at http://www.etaiwannews.com/Travel/2001/06/10/992142697.htm . Having read all this after the fact, we are sorry we didn't take pictures of the place, but it was making L feel uneasy and we had to leave.
Anyway, back to our hotel to drop off our purchases and then meet the bus that will take us to the dock where our harbor cruise junk awaits us. It had started to rain gently around 2:00 pm so we are a little concerned that the weather may not be at its best for the fireworks. The bus takes us across the harbor to Wan Chai where we will be boarding the junk. Unfortunately, we are way too early. The dock is very busy and our boat will only have one chance to dock and board passengers, so we have to wait until everyone else arrives from the other hotels.
The time to board finally arrives and our boat docks. It is the prettiest boat in the harbor, although the one with the dragon on top runs a close second.
Our Boat, Boat with Dragon on Top
We are an intimate party of about 200. There is a lovely buffet supper and an open bar. We cruise around the harbor for an hour or two, eating and drinking and chatting with the people around us, till the fireworks start at 8 PM. Most of the people go out on deck despite the cool temperature and the light rain. The fireworks are BIG , pretty, & LOUD. You can actually see some of the shells going up, watch the explosion, & feel the concussion. A few seconds later you get the echo and secondary concussion wave from all round the harbor as the sound bounces back from all the hi-rises. It's like you're in a canyon and the sound is bouncing off the walls.
Fireworks, More Fireworks, Did we mention Fireworks?
Hong Kong Skyline, Lots of Skyline
The show only lasts about a half-hour but it is continuous, with no breaks. Once the show is over all the boats make a mad dash for the shore. Harbor police are there in small boats with red and blue flashing police lights, directing the traffic. Once our boat is able to get go the dock it is a quick & easy walk home to bed. We hear, the next morning, that there had been about 400,000 people on both sides of the harbor watching the show.