After flying in from San Francisco, finding our hotel and checking out the bird market, we wandered down and around Nathan St. back towards our hotel, picking up a large plastic box to ship our new birdcage home in. We passed through the Fa Yuen St. market, which is a large market selling everything from souvenirs to every knockoff Western brand imaginable. We picked up a couple of cushion covers for a $1 each. Nathan St. is packed with mobile phone shops, electronics shops (with electronics of questionable origin), and other higher-end shops. We wandered around some of the large shopping malls – nothing too interesting here for us, compared to the markets. We walked down Hong Kong’s new “Avenue of the Stars”, with handprints from the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The avenue is built on a walkway out on the water, and has stunning views of the Hong Kong skyline (and so it is worth going for the views, if not for the stars). It is certainly one of the best places for the classic night-time shot of the skyline.
We ate a nice dinner at the food court in the Harbor Shopping Center. There are even views of the harbor from there! Later that evening we checked out the Temple St. Night Market. Although it wasn’t that big (it only took us 30 minutes to wander through) there was lots of souvenir shopping, as well as more kitschy knock-off Western brand clothing.
We had planned to go up Victoria Peak for a night time view of the skyline, but the cloud level was very low and we guessed we would see nothing. We contented ourselves instead with wandering back to the Avenue of the Stars.
The next day was our day on Hong Kong Island. After a quick stop at the Post Office (which was incredibly organised and easy to use!) to mail home our bird cage, we took the Star Ferry from Tsi Sha Tsui West Ferry Pier. It takes about 10 minutes to cross the river with nice views along the way. From the ferry terminal on the island, there is a tourist bus service to take you the 600m to the Victoria Peak tram, but we walked it. There are signs every 50 feet directing you to the tram – it is almost impossible to get lost.
At the top of the peak, there is a cafe (with a great blended iced coffee), and a nice walk to see the panorama. When we were there, they were in the middle of building an even nicer building to allow better views.
Mid-Level Escalators
After taking the tram down, we walked to the Central Mid-Level Sscalators, the longest covered escalator in the world. It was about a 20 minute walk, and again, impossible to get lost. The escalators change direction morning and night, and unfortunately we were there at the wrong time so we just took a few pictures. It wasn’t anything that special, either – the escalators in Barcelona are far more impressive!
mid_level_escalators
