We went on a bus tour of Hong Kong island and once again we found ourselves at The Peak but we hadn't noticed this interesting character on our previous visit, so it was worth going up again.


And the tour guide took our photo at the lookout.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year was on 3 February and small shrines suddenly appeared outside lots of businesses, with fruit, vegetables and incense.



We particularly liked this little character.

Stanley

Stanley is a small fishing village on the north of Hong Kong island. We could have taken an express bus trip but, not being in any hurry, we chose the scenic route of the hilly centre of the island - definitely scenic.

At Stanley we headed for the vibrant markets.


We had lunch overlooking the water and this sampan.


Here's John and me on the Stanley waterfront.

Hong Kong by night

What do New York, San Gimignano and Hong Kong all have in common? Distinctive skylines. And in the Chinese New Year period, Hong Kong lights up their buildings. This photo was taken from the ferry crossing from Kowloon to Hong Kong island.


And here's a photo of the skyline, also taken from the ferry.


We loved travelling around Hong Kong in the narrow, double-decker trams. We always headed upstairs for the view of the city along the way. There was a tram stop just outside our hotel with a tram at least every 10 minutes, even on public holidays. And the HK$2 fare worked out at less than 30 cents Australian. So it was a very cheap and efficient way of getting around.

The colours of the rainbow

The cable-car stop at the top of the Peak featured this interesting sculpture. I like it's industrial style, as well as the constantly changing colours - red, blue, yellow, green, purple (not necessarily in that order). Here are two phases:



A few days later, in a shopping centre, I came across these beautiful butterflies, which also changed colours.

The Peak

Hong Kong is a small island with a steep hill, known as The Peak. One of the 'must-do' tourist things in Hong Kong is to go up The Peak, which was fine with me because of the views and the cable-car ride up and down. There was a large queue waiting for the cable-car but we only had to wait about 10 minutes. (We saw the queue again later in the week and it was much, much longer - people must have been waiting hours).

Here's John enjoying the view - he's even smiling.


We were in Hong Kong in mid-winter and there was some haze, so this photo isn't great but it shows the city below.


As with so many tourist spots, there were indicators of the distance to various far-flung cities. Sydney was the closest to home for us, so John did the classic tourist thing of lining his foot up against the footprints in the concrete, although we certainly weren't heading home that early in our stay.


And I lined up for a photo with this cardboard construction, presumably a replica of old Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Art Exhibition

Relying on our Lonely Planet guide to Hong Kong, we made our way to a restaurant in the City Hall. It was like a ballroom, complete with chandeliers, but full of families enjoying a Sunday yum-cha. We enjoyed a small sampling of the many delicacies on offer and then headed back downstairs.

On the floor below, we came across an exhibition of installation art, mostly very humourous. The first display we saw was this array of shoes. As we got closer, we realised they were made out of paper - they were offerings for the dead. The artist dryly noted in her statement that it seems that fashion is important even in death!


John particularly liked this 'computer', made from a disparate array of items. It reminds me of the early computers I worked on.

Hong Kong

It seems so long since our trip to Hong Kong but I returned to a fairly heavy workload and haven't had much time to reflect on the trip.

The strong lines on this building, and the contrast of the blue sky reflected in the windows against the sandy colour of the building, caught my eye.


We didn't go very far on our first day in Hong Kong, just to a nearby shopping centre - I think it was Times Square. These people were from Japan and had been brought across to make a cookie that is very popular for Chinese New Year. They had an amazing assembly line going and were fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, we forgot to buy any of the cookies so I don't know what they tasted like - they smelled delicious.


Here's John standing on a cobbled back street in Hong Kong.


In the lead-up to Chinese New Year, there were many stalls like this one offering seasonal decorations. This is my favourite photo from our trip.


This striking building has hundreds of round, porthole-like windows. I liked the view through the shrubbery below.