22nd February 2011 – Hong Kong

22nd February 2011 – Hong Kong

Hong Kong is approximately 422 square miles with a population estimated in 2007 of 6,980,412. Hong Kong means Fragrant Harbour and was acquired by Britain from China in 3 stages; the island was gained in the Treaty of Nanking in 1842;the Kowloon Peninsula by the 1860 convention of Peking and the New Territories, consisting of the mainland area adjoining Kowloon and 235 adjacent islands, under a 99 years lease by the Second Convention of Peking in 1898. Hong Kong has now, of course, returned to China whilst remaining the world's most spectacular shopping free-for-all with more than 50,000 retail outlets crammed with every imaginable untaxed goods, including jewelry, watches, optical goods, carpets, china, porcelain, electronics, cameras, antiques, artifacts and more.

Because the Diamond Princess is too big to dock at the Ocean Terminal which would have meant we simply walked off the ship into a simply huge shopping mall we docked in one of the container terminals and had to be 'bussed' 35 minutes to the point we should have been at. I hope that makes sense, but we are both very tired and I only intend to do a little of this post before going to bed. Hong Kong seems to be a very tiring place as you seem to do an awful lot of walking. At this point I did indeed decide I was to tired to concentrate, but we also wanted to be on deck as we sailed out of Hong Kong.

It is now the 23rd and after a good night's sleep I have brought the computer on deck to finish the typing. The shopping mall we were 'dropped off' at is simply huge. Think Trafford Centre Manchester and multiply by about 6 and you begin to grasp the size. Most of the shops are the high-end of the market, ie Chanel, Prada, Vivienne Westwood, Ralph Lauren and you can understand why we didn't do any more than simply window shop. No prices were showing on any of the goods, which made me think of the saying “If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it”. After we had updated our blog we took the Star Ferry on a short, about 5-10 minutes, journey from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. There we took a bus to the Peak Tram Terminus.

The Tram which first opened in 1888 and replaced people being carried up by sedan chair, is a funicular railway which travels to the top of the Peak, 396 metres above sea level. The gradient varies between 4 - 27 degrees which at its steepest makes the buildings you pass look like they are leaning, a really weird illusion. When we reached the top we saw that the construction that had been going on the last time we were in Hong Kong had finished and a Sky Terrace which Stephan estimated rose another 60 metres was now open. Taking the escalators to the top we were rewarded with a stunning 360 degrees panoramic view across Hong Kong. We then returned to the ground level of the Terrace, fully intending to take one of the nature trails; unfortunately it was rather cold and windy and sadly we were not dressed warmly enough. We returned to street level and took the ferry back to Kowloon where we did even more window shopping before stopping at what is known as 1881 Heritage. Located on Canton Road, this was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from the 1880s to 1996, with certain parts as declared monuments. It now features a shopping mall (naturally!), a heritage hotel and an exhibition hall. At this point we did consider having a very late afternoon tea at The Peninsula but by the time we got there it was finished. Mind you, as they have a very strict dress code they may not have let Stephan in as he was wearing a black and amber Hull City shirt! Getting slightly lost initially, we then made our way to the Avenue of Stars with the intention of watching 'A Symphony of Lights'. Named the world's largest permanent light and sound show by Guinness World Records, this covers more than 40 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour. However, we were cold and tired and as we have seen the show before (nothing fantastic incidentally) we returned to the ship. We did speak to a fair number of people who stayed for the Lights Show and they also agreed with us that they are actually quite disappointing.

I've just had to stop typing as a pod of dolphins have been sighted off the starboard (right)side of the ship. These are the first dolphins we have managed to catch sight of, we are usually too slow to react. One thing that has surprised us is is the lack of sightings of marine animals. One suggestion is that having sensed the problems in Queensland and the cyclone in Darwin they had already fled from the immediate scene.

Anyway, we returned to the ship about 8.30 pm and were surprised how many people had already returned. Hong Kong has certainly taken its toll on most of the people on board.