One day in Hong Kong

We packed our stuff on Saturday and flew to Hong Kong next early morning on flight 007 Air Canada. Upon arrival at Hong Kong's brand new airport, it was supper time so we went to eat Japanese noodles at Ajisen Restaurant at the airport. For those who know how to appreciate good noodles, we found a definite difference in quality between the noodles we have in Canada and the noodles in Hong Kong or Asia. It's amazing how much better a lot of things are in Asia. The electronics and the food are definitely better in Asia. The transportation system in Hong Kong is extremely well organized and advanced. The speed rail got us to Tsing Yi (in the New Territories) from the airport very quickly. The hotel we stayed at in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong was called the Rambler Oasis Hotel. If anyone is looking for a descent quality hotel on a cheap budget, the Rambler Oasis is it.

We went on a half-day tour of the city through Gray Line Tours. We wish we could have stayed longer than one day. I'm glad that we did go on this tour because there would otherwise be no other way we could have seen so much in just 1/2 day. The most interesting part of this tour was definitely the ride on the sampan at the Aberdeen Fishing Village. It was just amazing to see how people lived their lives in this part of Hong Kong. Their house boats were their home. They cooked in it, slept in it, lived a large part of their lives right in their house boats. To my knowledge, I think these house boats are for those who are too poor to buy a condo or rent an apartment. What made this interesting is that this is real life. This was a part of the tour we had to pay for but it was worth it. It's basically a cash business for these sampan drivers. These days, these sampans are no longer used for fishing. They make a living by giving sampan rides to tourists (charge is HK$55 or US$8 each person).

The tram ride up to Victoria Peak gave us a breath-taking view of the city. I have never been in such an extremely populated place before. The skyline is lined with tower after tower, and skyscraper after skyscraper. There doesn't seem like there is much land on which to build a city of 7 million people. It's just amazing they can cram so many people into such a little area.The city is really a cluster of islands with mountainous terrain. They build all these buildings on whereever they can find space. In HK, there is both rich and poor side by side. People like to talk about the rich society of HK but society that lives in poverty is never spoken about. About 40% of Hong Kong's residents live in crammed living quarters, maybe 400 sq.feet apartments. There might be up to 10 family members living inside a single flat. I don't know how they survive. Most of these apartment buildings don't even have a descent window view. The richest people in HK live on Victoria Peak. The priciest house is worth HK$500 million (Cdn$71 million). Another wealthy area is Repulse Bay. Its condo can cost up to HK$10,000/sq.foot (Cdn$1,400/sq.foot). HK has the world's highest number of Rolls Royces located in one place. Only the rich can afford to drive a car, even if it's a humble Toyota Camry.
(photos: 1) Aberdeen Hong Kong junks; 2) taking a ride on a junk in front of the floating Jumbo Restaurant; 3) junks at Aberdeen behind highrise apartments; 4) Alice and I on Victoria Peak; 5) the view behind us showing some of Hong Kong's skyscrapers.)