Hong Kong and China
So after I arrived in my luxourious hotel room and had a good sleep, I ventured out into Hong Kong to make good use of the three days I had before my dad arrived in China.
I did indeed take the funicular railway up to the “Peak” which, I might add, wasn’t really the peak at all. Then I climbed the actual peak via the trails until I reached the radio towers.
I also rode the Hong Kong trams around the town just for the sake of doing it. These trams run along what used to be the coastline of the island. Due to reclamation, the lines are now a few blocks back but still feature the thin double-decker trams of death that have been around for quite a while.
I also took the ferry between Kowloon (the peninsula) and Central (the island) and visited some of the parks.
The people of Hong Kong have some quirky things in their city, and I love them all.
The first was a foot massage path that had a bunch of little stones designed to poke into your feet as you walked over it. The path was excrutiatingly painful, which did make your feet feel much better afterwards (if only because they were numb from the assault).
The second was a pedestrian escalator. Yes, I am serious. The people of the city had to travel to work at the bottom of the mountain, and return home at the side of the mountain every day. So, to ease their labors, they built an escalator right up the side of the mountain. It is preposterous. Its actually a series of quite a few escalators and you can get off at every block, but I still rode it from start to finish just because it was there.
When my dad finally arrived, I took the subway and train over to the border and to his hotel in Shenzhen. From that point, we spent a few days visiting Shenzhen and then Guangzhou (Canton) and then made our way back to Hong Kong.
Shenzhen has this amazing little theme park called “Window of the World” which consists of every major landmark — miniturized. There were the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, The Statue of Liberty, the Hermatige, Mount Rushmore, and even Venezuelan mudslides. It was just so delightfully tacky that I had to go and take pictures. Most of the minitures were quite well done, and now I feel like I made it to all of those places that I never got a chance to travel to… albeit as a giant.
Also, since I had internet access in my dad’s hotels, I was able to put up my photos. I haven’t organized them other than putting them in categories as to where they were from, and I haven’t manipulated them other than making them small enough to upload. (They currently fill up several GB on my computer) But for all of you who have been complaining, they are there now.
As my brother tells me, I haven’t taken any pictures of myself or other people. This is true. You should remember that I am travelling alone, and can’t exactly take many pictures of myself standing next to things. Similarly, in many of the places I have been, if you hand someone your camera, they will either steal it or ask for money to take the picture. So, what you see is what I saw…
Here’s the link, and it will also be accessible in the links list to the right. It looks as if I will only be able to finish my travelogue and completely organize my photos after I finish the trip, but I will try to get as much stuff up for people to see.
May 8th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
Hong Kong and China
In a as-you-will sort of way:…