Hong Kong #1: Victoria Peak and Trivia

For this vacation, we went to Hong Kong with a day at Macau. But before I go into the details of that, some assorted titbits on the Hong Kong.

 

Hong Kong is an SAR (Special Administrative Region) of China ever since it was handed back from the UK in 1997. It is governed under the “one country, two systems” principle, in line with the 1984 agreement with the British which was made prior to the handover (China guarantees Hong Kong's economic and political systems for 50 years after the handover).

 

As a result, you have this weird situation where Hong Kong has its own currency (Hong Kong dollar). While the Chinese yuan is accepted, it is not the preferred currency. Lastly, Hong Kong drives on the left unlike China (proper) which drives on the right!

 

Hong Kong is the world’s 3rd largest financial hub (after New York and London). The biggest Chinese tech companies, from Alibaba to Baidu to TenCent (WeChat) are all listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

~~

 

I got a taste of the simmering unhappiness (and fear?) of being part of China in Hong Kong as we took the airport express (train) into the city. There had been a major fire recently in an old residential building undergoing renovation. It came up when a local guide was talking to his American clients on the train. One of the contributing factors to the fire spreading was that the scaffolding nets were not fire-resistant, so the fire spread quickly. He then added that while no safety regulations were violated, one cannot criticize the government for the lack of the right regulation. The government, he said snarkily, are the “good guys”. Always.

 

I had expected English to be spoken widely. Sure, the tourist spots and major shopping areas do, but beyond that, not so much. You can get by without too much trouble though, so this is just an observation, not a complaint.

 

The metro is good, though walks to change metro lines could be quite long at times. We never saw any traffic jams, so I assume most people find the metro convenient. The population is homogeneous - mostly Chinese, mostly Buddhist.

 

Hong Kong is the city with the largest number of skyscrapers (with no room to expand horizontally, it can only expand vertically). On the day we landed, we went over to Victoria Harbour for a view of the skyline and hoped for a laser show at night. Sadly, there was no laser show but it was a good view and the food stalls in the area had tasty stuff (all non-veg). It was cold (like Delhi, not like a Western city – so it was bearable, and thankfully, there were no winds).

 

The next day, we went up to Victoria Peak – the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island. It is a popular tourist spot that offers excellent, panoramic views of the city skyline, skyscrapers, and Victoria Harbour (pic off the Internet):



One way to go up/down is via the historic Peak Tram. We took that on the way down. We had tickets for the way up too, but couldn’t find our way to the pickup point (it was our first day going round the city) and so ended up taking the bus up instead. Both modes of transport offer great views, so I think it worked out well.

 

The next day’s itinerary was a day trip to the casino peninsula of Macau.

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