Hong KongTravel Information

Guided China Tour Hong Kong Travel Information In 2012 we have decided to add Hong Kong as our 3 night stopover after our long China tour before we head back home. Day 1 – we arrived Hong Kong International Airport from Shanghai in mid day and realised that this airport is huge, biggest I have ever seen with over 500 terminals, monorail from various terminals with escalators & lifts from floor to floor. They are spotlessly clean and well organised with clear announcements and well mannered airport assistants. Although it was a busy day but we managed to clear our immigration and collected our baggage within 30 minutes from stepping out of our plane. Facilities for the airport transfers are plentiful. Plenty of choices by bus, train / underground, taxi or organised coach transfers by just walk to any hotel airport representative desks. Average cost to any part of the city for taxi HKD250 per car, organised coach transfers HKD100 per person. Local bus and train / underground are considerably cheaper especially if you purchase one of the local ‘Octopus’ card for all Hong Kong local transports. The Hong Kong International Airport is built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation. Hong Kong Disney Park Resort also in the island. We travelled cross the 2.2 kilometres long, the magnificent Tsing Ma Bridge connected from the island to Hong Kong via North Lantau Highway. It took approx. 20 minutes taxi journey from the airport to the city of Hong Kong. We stay at the Causeway Bay area and our hotel is overlooking the Causeway Bay and Victoria harbour with breathtaking view since we stayed on the high floor. After we refreshed ourselves, we went to the Chinese restaurant in the local Causeway Bay area go for dim sum, small bite size portions of shrimp dumplings or pork buns, served in steaming bamboo baskets for our brunch. The area is one of the popular shopping and eating hotspot surrounding by shops, restaurants and bars. Unlike the west, Hong Kong is a small island, space is a commodity. Saying by the local ‘one inch of land worth one yard of gold’, therefore most bars and restaurants are situated within all high raise commercial buildings surrounding by the retails shops. Therefore, we have to follow the local customs by reading the bars and restaurants display from the building’s ground floor area to choose which type of food and drinking places we want to try. We took the local ‘tram’ only operate in the city of Hong Kong Island cost less than 20p (HKD2.30) per person and you can hop on and hop off from east to west of the city. It was a fun trip and seeing the city life and landscapes during our journey to the central district area. We went onboard the ‘Star Ferry’ one of the top 10 must see attraction in Hong Kong a ferry crossing the Victoria Harbour between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula. Ferry crossing cost approx 22p (HKD2.50) per person take approx. 10 minutes for the crossing. There is a great photo opportunity to both side of the harbour during the crossing with fantastic view and landscape of Hong Kong waterfront. We arrived at the Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon side from the Central Pier of Hong Kong Island, and took 10 minutes walk to the nearby ‘Avenue of Stars’ on the quayside of Kowloon, honouring local stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jack Li, with the view of the harbour’s traditional Chinese junk boats and Hong Kong Island spectacular view. We hang around the area until dinner time and we took 10 minutes walk to the nearby underground station and took the underground train to our hotel area in Causeway Bay. The Hong Kong underground system (MTR) are well organised and all mapped out simply for the convenient to all foreign tourists. The trains are all spotlessly clean and air conditioned. All routes are colour coded and so easy to understand our journey cost approx. 90p (HKD11) per person and took only 15 minutes. Day 2 – We took the tram again from Causeway Bay to the Central District area after our breakfast in our hotel, and walk approx. 5 minutes to the Hong Kong Peak Tram Station to embark our excursion to the famous ‘Victoria Peak’, 15 minutes ride up to the peak at maximum steepness reach 48% during the journey to the Peak. Cost approx. £2.50 (HKD30) per person with optional extra £1.20 (HKD15) to the Sky Terrace with 360 degree view of Hong Kong. In the afternoon, we came down from the Peak to the Central District area took 10 minutes walk to the bus central station and took the bus to the Aberdeen on the south shore of Hong Kong Island. The buses are no different than our London bus again very clean and air conditioned and journey took 20 minutes and cost approx. 60p (HKD7.50) per person. Aberdeen is another one of the popular tourist spot with Jumbo Floating Restaurant surrounded by all traditional Chinese Junks station in the harbour area to and from the open sea for fishing. We catch the MTR back to the central district for our evening dinner and spend our evening in nearby watering holes called ‘Lan Kwai Fong’ another tourist hotspot with full of bars where all foreign visitors to Hong Kong and decent to this area for drinks and meeting friends and fellow countryman alike. Day 3 – What happened last night? We took the taxi to the Ocean Park in Aberdeen area approx. 15 minutes with entrance fee approx. £25 (HKD290) per person. Popular attraction for the local and foreign tourists and it is ideal for family with children as well as adult couples. The park experience including all the fun rides, Giant Panda, Grand Ocean Aquarium, Garden of Joy, Sea lion and you can take the cable car up to the mountain for more fun rides, Ocean Theatre for dolphin and killer whale, Emperors of the Sky and many more. Ocean Park also has plenty of restaurant area for short breaks of hot and cold drinks or food. After we spent most of the day in the Park, we took the local bus to Central District again and crossed the harbour with Star Ferry. After our dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui area, we return to the harbour quay at 8pm to watch the magnificent Harbour ‘Symphony of Lights’ show with spectacular multimedia light displays include more than 40 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour creates an all round vision of coloured lights, laser beams and searchlights performing a stunning, unforgettable spectacle synchronised to music and narration that celebrates the energy, spirit and diversity of Hong Kong. The show is FREE for everyone and last 20 minutes, then we catch the MTR to Mongkok station to an area called ‘Lady’s Market’ for all night shopping until early hours in the morning before we head back to our hotel. Next day we returned to Hong Kong International Airport catching our flight home, we discovered more shops, restaurants, resting places in one airport which we had never experienced before. The space and the facilities provided to all travellers making our journey very comfortable. Our 3 days experience in Hong Kong is unforgettable and we feel that we can certainly stay few days longer to visit many more attractions and places including outer islands of Hong Kong. We found that the public transport like the electric tram in Hong Kong Island, buses and MTR travelling between Hong Kong and Kowloon are so inexpensive. Ferry crossing the harbour to one part of Hong Kong to another is so cheap and romantic I think! There are plenty of taxis available although you need to avoid the shrift changeover period between 4pm to 6pm each day. Again the cost for the taxi is affordable for tourist, but if you can mainly use the public transports like tram, bus, ferry and underground to get around Hong Kong, you will find that your shopping trip and sightseeing in Hong Kong is very economical and hassle free.