Shanghai - Hong Kong

View from The Bund

 

 

 

 

 

After a few good days (and nights) in Shanghai, it was time to move on and start our journey to our last destination “Hong Kong”.

 

 

Whirlpool, Vue Bar

Get Together

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just after breakfast our bus was already waiting to take us to Pudong Airport. We had a smooth trip, which also gave us a welcomed opportunity to catch up with some sleep after exhausting days in Shanghai and a get together at the Vue bar, where we enjoyed a great view of Shanghai financial district at night.

 

Busshuttle to Pudong Airport

 

After a short trip we arrived there on time and passed through the security check, so that we still had some time to explore the airport and spend our last Yuan. 

"Boarding"

 

 

 

Pudong International Airport

 

With some delay our plane finally took off for a turbulent flight to Hong Kong – during our trip turbulence seemed to be usual…

 

 

Hong Kong Saturday April, 11th 2015

 

Having completed the routine of transfer to the hotel and checking in, we decided to explore Hong Kong in the evening. Unfortunately, it rained – rain on the arrival day also seemed to be a constant during our trip ;-) The investment of some of us into an umbrella early during our trip paid off…

 

We headed to the ladies market to do some shopping and soon realized that there are no huge differences to Shanghai. However, space for living seemed to be even more scarce and high rise apartment buildings more common. Additionally, we also soon realized that we now had a chance to communicate in English and Chinese was not mandatory any longer.

 

Dumplings allover

After successful bargaining for souvenirs, we ended up in a maccha restaurant – offering special dishes with green tea flavor. We had a delicious  dinner, which was awarded as the best dinner of the trip by some of us, and returned to the hotel to recharge our batteries  for our sightseeing Sunday. 

 

 

Tip of Kowloon Peninslas

On the Sunday we woke up early to take advantage of the sunny weather in Hong Kong, which wasn't available throughout the trip. We decided to go Tsim Sha Tsui, a cape on the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula and a famous tourist destination. 

 

 

 

Ferry Boats

With a short ride, we were there in about 30 min. We took a walk along the promenade enjoying the sun, watching the ferries in Victoria harbour and the view of Hong Kong.

 

Hong Kong

 

Hong Kong

 

Hong Kong

 

Hong Kong

 

Hong Kong Harbour

 

Hong Kong by Ferry Boat

 

We spent a couple of hours there and then took the  famous Star ferry from Kowloon to Central, Hong Kong. When we reached Central, it was around noon and some of us were starting to feel hungry. Since we really wanted to try the famous Dim sum's, a speciality in Hong Kong, we started looking for a restaurant in a nearby shopping mall. After a short search we found a good restaurant, but no free tables. We had to wait 45min to find a place to sit, therefore we decided to look for something else. Looking for food in China was a tiring process throughout the trip and Hong Kong was no different. We finally found a place selling freshly made sandwiches and we decided to grab a sandwich each to enjoy with a view of the sea.

 

Hong Kong by Ferry Boat

Kowloon by Ferry Boat

Cable Car

After lunch, we decided to split into two groups as some of us wanted to visit Tian Tan Buddha and others wanted to explore the old area of the city. I was in the former group and we started a long trip to see the Buddha statue. We took a metro to the Tung Chung station and then a 25 min cable car ride to reach Ngong Ping Village.

 

A further 15 mins walk took us to the foot of the famous Buddha Statue. After travelling for 90 mins we reached our destination. The journey on the cable car was breathtaking and the Buddha statue was even more thrilling. Moreover, after 10 days of seeing high rise buildings it was a good break to come to the mountains and breathe in the nature. The journey was a bit tiring so we took some rest and experienced the peace of the nearby monastery. Some of us were thrilled to see a cow, unfortunately I didn't share the same enthusiasm. We spent a good 1hr at the peak before returning to the city.

 

Trip to see Buddha Statue

 

Famous Buddha Statue

Footpath

 

The two groups decided to meet at the same shopping mall in the evening. We were a bit late but we managed. We crossed the harbour to go to the Kowloon promenade, where we wanted to see the laser show at 8 p.m. We were aghast to see the number of people gathered there to watch the show. We squeezed through the crowd to find a good spot to watch the show. After a tiring wait, the show started a little later than 8 p.m. and was over quickly. We looked at each other and we were all disappointed. We had huge expectations and the show was clearly below our expectations.

 

View from Kowloon, Laser Show

View from Kowloon, Laser Show

View from Kowloon Promenade

 

Kong Kong Laser Show

 

We had had a long day and we all wanted to sit and eat a decent meal. As I mentioned earlier, looking for food (which you can eat) in China is not an easy thing, but this time around we were happy to find a restaurant quickly. A good variety of food, with some dim sums which arrived at the end. Chopsticks were fun as usual, we spilled more than we ate. All in all it was a good meal.

 

We took the metro to the our stop Mong Kok and started to walk towards the hotel. Some of us had initially planned to visit the ladies market, but were dead tired. So we took the shortest route to the hotel to hit our beds.

 

Another part of our group watched the light show at the harbor which was quite nice but nothing really outstanding.