March 27, 2016 – Hong Kong

Welcome to Hong Kong! We’re docked on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, at the Ocean Terminal – one of the best docking locations in the world, not only for the view, but especially for its location. We’re adjacent to the Star Ferry Terminal, where the ubiquitous Star Ferry boats run across the Harbor between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island every few minutes, 18 hours a day. We’re also mere blocks from world-famous hotels, restaurants, and more high-end shopping than you can possibly imagine.

We had a perfect view from our cabin’s balcony of the skyline of Hong Kong Island, across the harbor. Here's a photo of what we see. 

Star ferries have been crossing Victoria Harbor since 1888 and are a floating piece of Hong Kong heritage. As we understand it, today’s boats are not that old, but they are from the 1950s. It’s interesting to just sit on our balcony and watch these ferries coming and going. They seem to be leaving every two minutes or so, going both directions.

We last visited Hong Kong three years ago, and we were here for three days then. We’ve already done most of the items on everyone’s “must see” list – the funicular tram ride to the top of Victoria Peak, lunch at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Repulse Bay, Stanley Market, as well as the “Hop-on-Hop-off” bus tours of both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island

Saturday, March 26, 2016
We docked at 9:15, as scheduled, and Jim departed with a group of 10 other passengers on a ship’s excursion called “Dragon’s Back Hilltop Hike.” Our small mini-bus headed from Kowloon, via a tunnel under Victoria Harbor, to Hong Kong Island. There are no bridges across the harbor, and it’s expensive to drive through the tunnel. However, the tour guide wanted to keep the tour on schedule.

The name of the excursion wasn’t that accurate, as it implied a hilltop hike; in fact, the hike began by going uphill and kept going uphill to the peak of Diamond Back Ridge. The trail surface was quite rocky, so we had to be careful of our footing while climbing. Adding to the challenge was the very large number of local people climbing the trail today. Our guide told us that the weather had been rainy and windy lately. Today was the first nice day for Hong Kong in a long time, and it was also a holiday (and a Saturday). So, lots of local people had the same “get outdoors and hike” idea we did.

Our guide told us that over 70 percent of Hong Kong is mountains and parks. That’s why there are so many high-rise apartments to squeeze in as much housing as possible for 7 million people in such a small space.

Dragon Back Ridge cuts across the southeast end of Hong Kong Island and is a section of the 30-mile long Hong Kong Trail. A few years ago, the Dragon Back Ridge was named in one list as the “best urban hike in Asia.” It didn’t really feel urban, even though we weren’t that far out of the city. We started in a wooded area and went up to the winding “spine” of the dragon, leaving the hustle and bustle of the city behind.

There were several overlooks along the way, with picturesque views of reservoirs, beaches, and other hillside terrain. About a third of our people quit before reaching the top, but Jim kept on going and was proud to have made it. It was windy and a little cool at the top. 

That was only half of the hike, as we then had to make it back down. As many of you know, going downhill on relatively steep, rocky terrain can be more difficult than going uphill. Half way down, we stopped and ate a picnic lunch that the tour guide had brought along with him. Total time for this half of the adventure was three hours.

Upon boarding our minibus, we returned to the city. But, shortly thereafter, the hiking group hopped off the bus in the central city part of Hong Kong Island. This was two more hours of walking; first visit was to a 3-block-long Chinese natural medicine area. There was small store after small store of various strange herbs and (expensive) dried animal body parts that Chinese people eat, because they think it’s good for their health. The guide explained a lot of this to us, but he said he didn’t have enough money to buy these things. We then headed into a forest of soaring glass and steel skyscraper towers. The old colonial British buildings in the Central part of Hong Kong Island have almost all been leveled and replaced by an excess of modernity.

As the group walked, some of the more notable structures we passed included HSBC bank headquarters, International Finance Center (IFC) mall, which includes two huge towers (88-story and 39-story), and Exchange Square (home to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange). We also admired the “Mid-Level Escalators” – claimed to be the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. They cover a half mile of moving stairs, walkways and passageways from the business hub to the residential areas above (called Mid-Levels). We then enjoyed walking on a network of overhead pedestrian walkways, weaving between modern buildings, that eventually led us to the upper level of the Star Ferry Terminal for our ride across the harbor from Hong Kong Island back to Kowloon and a short walk to the Serenity.

After dinner Saturday evening, we had excellent seats on our cabin’s balcony for the lights and laser show called “Victoria Harbor’s Symphony of Lights,” which occurs every evening at 8:00 pm. We thought the view of bright lights on the skyscrapers was spectacular but the multi-media laser show wasn’t as good as we remembered it from three years ago. Here are some photos from last night:

Sunday, March 27, 2016

We spent Easter Sunday 2016 in Hong Kong. At breakfast, we had Easter Baskets at our tables, and there was a low-key contest between about 15 crewmembers who had decorated large ostrich eggs for Easter. Passengers were asked to vote on their favorites.

Jim went out for a walk in the morning, visiting some of the sights in this portion of Kowloon. Of course, not much was open for business this early on Sunday morning. He was looking for the large Chinese Arts & Crafts store where we bought a few things three years ago; unfortunately, it’s no longer there and was replaced by a gigantic bookstore. He did visit the Peninsula Hotel and the YMCA Hotel (where he bought a magnet to add to our collection), and then discovered a huge system of underground tunnels to avoid intersections and traffic. They eventually led to the Star Ferry Terminal, so it was easy to find his way back to the ship from there.

After lunch the two of us headed off the ship together and went directly into one of the largest shopping malls in Hong Kong, called Harbour City. Ocean Terminal, where we’re docked, is actually part of the shopping mall. The amazing thing is that Harbour City has a total of 700 stores, including large offerings from practically all upscale retail stores from everywhere around the world! Physically, the mall is very classy and attractive – multiple buildings and four levels all interconnected; everything is bright, cheerful, and very clean.

Interestingly, the portion of the mall closest to our ship has various corridors of stores in different specialties – one long section of very expensive watch stores, one section of very expensive children’s clothes stores, one section of sporting goods stores, one section of computers and electronics, etc. We were happy to find our favorite Belgian chocolate store – Leonidas – and bought a small box (100g) of their products. We covered as much of Harbour City as our feet could tolerate and then returned to the ship.

We know there are untold numbers of stores lining streets in the city in Hong Kong, as well as many megamalls, but we were happy to just explore the stores right here where we’re docked.

Hong Kong is a city of great contrasts – soaring skyscrapers, Asian traditions and tastes, part of China but still a Special Administrative Region with a strong capitalist economy, a deep water port – truly one of the crossroads of the world. In a few days, one can only scratch the surface, and we leave wishing we could have stayed longer. There’s so much to see and do.

We’re scheduled to depart from Hong Kong at 5:00 pm this evening and will head for Xiamen on the coast of southeast China. We should arrive there tomorrow morning at 11:00 am.

Jim & Ginny