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Victoria Harbor - View from our Hotel in Causeway Bay

We © Hong Kong!

Let's begin with the harbor.  The name Hong Kong literally means "fragrant harbor" and it is a gem.  Like San Francisco or New York, it is hard to get away from the water.  It seems like you are always crossing over or under some part of the harbor.  The port, with all the ships and cargo coming or going, gives the city its pulse.  That heartbeat helps form a supportive economic climate for just about every kind of business imaginable.  From mega banks and corporate titans to the endless merchants in the city's street markets, commerce hums twenty-four hours a day.

To understand Hong Kong, it helps to know a little geography.  The city is made up of a series of islands plus a large section of the Chinese mainland.  The new airport, Chek Lap Kok, is on Lantau Island.  The mainland part of the city is called the New Territories and ends at Kowloon - a peninsula that juts out into Victoria harbor.  The commercial district - called Central - is located the northern side of Hong Kong Island opposite Kowloon.  Connecting Kowloon to Hong Kong Island are several vehicle tunnels, a subway tunnel, and the venerable Star Ferry.  No visit to Hong Kong would be considered complete without at least one harbor crossing on the Star Ferry.

Most visitors stay either in Kowloon or on Hong Kong Island.  There are arguments for both locations, but we like Hong Kong Island better.  This time we stayed at the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay.  Located a few miles east of Central, Causeway Bay is one of the city's best shopping and dining areas, plus it is convenient via taxi to anywhere else on the island.  The Excelsior is part of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and is famous for legendary service.  Their staff certainly lived up to that reputation by making us feel immediately welcome and treating us like royalty during our entire stay.

One of our first stops in Hong Kong was the Stanley Market.  The taxi ride from the Excelsior took us past the Happy Valley race track, through the Aberdeen Tunnel to Repulse Bay, and then along the narrow, shoreline road to Stanley Village and the market.  The market bustles with activity across eight blocks of merchants offering designer clothes, jewelry, paintings, luggage, shoes, porcelains, and children's clothing.  While the prices tend to be somewhat higher than in Guangzhou or Beijing, plenty of bargains can still be found.  We did quite well at the market and had to purchase an extra suitcase to carry everything back!

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed dinner in the Excelsior's award-winning Chinese Restaurant - Yee Tung Heen.  The food and service were excellent.  

The next day, we rode the Peak Tram to the top of Victoria Peak.  At times the tram seemed to be going up the mountain vertically.  The route takes you from the heart of Central through some of the priciest real estate in the world (higher elevation = higher price) to the peak itself.  At the top, there is a scenic walkway and two shopping malls.

After some shopping, we took a taxi back down to the hotel for lunch.  In the afternoon, we walked around Causeway Bay taking in more of the sights and sounds of the city.

Ocean Park - Headlands Section

Riding the cable car to the Headlands section of the park was an experience.  We waited for about 45 minutes in the very hot and humid weather to even board the ride.  The park actually has two sets of cable cars but, despite the large crowd on this first day of summer vacation for Hong Kong students, they only had one in operation.   Once on the cable car, the views of Repulse Bay and Lamma Island were fantastic.  After a series of stops and starts, we eventually reached the Headlands station where we toured a jellyfish exhibit, a huge indoor atoll coral reef, and a shark aquarium.  The Headlands part of the park winds up and down a very steep hillside - so we certainly got our exercise!  

Our last stop was the park's signature dolphin and seal show (below).  We are always amazed by what dolphins can do and enjoyed the show very much.

Ocean Park Dolphin Show

After the show we descended a very long series of escalators, past some awesome looking rides, to the Tai Shue Wan exit to the park.  At the exit, we took another taxi back to our hotel. 

That evening we had our final dinner in the Excelsior's excellent Italian restaurant - Cammino.  At dinner we talked about our adventures in Hong Kong and decided that we can't wait to come back.

The next day we made our way back to Chek Lap Kok airport to catch our return flight home.  Once again, we used Cathay Pacific.  Our flight left Hong Kong at 1:10 PM and arrived in Los Angeles at 9:45 AM the same day.  At LAX we had no trouble clearing immigration and customs and then caught a shuttle bus to one of the airport hotels.  We decided to spend the night in L. A. to try and shake some of the jet lag. 

The following morning we caught our return flight to Houston.  After three weeks, it was great to be back home.  We miss China but have so many wonderful memories of the trip.  The girls loved seeing their homeland and all of us look forward to our next visit.

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