Hong Kong

Last week we celebrated Chinese "National Holiday." I'm by no means up on my Chinese history, but National Holiday is basically just celebrating the formation of the People's Republic of China back in the 1940's. It's pretty similar to our 4th of July. We got the entire week off, which we used to head to Hong Kong for some much needed R&R. Officially, we were sent by the school to obtain our permanent work visas. That process only took a few hours though so we had the rest of the week to relax and explore a very unique city!

Hong Kong has definitely been one of our favorite places to visit thus far. Although it is technically part of China as one of two "Special Administrative Regions," it actually operates pretty independent of the mainland. It has it's own currency, language, and government regulations and has been under British rule for so long that it has a lot of Western influence. The residents are all decedents of China though which makes for a very unique blend of East and West. The peninsula (Kowloon) seemed to have more of the Chinese culture, while Hong Kong Island was more of a western culture. Wherever we went though, the vast majority of people we encountered spoke English very well and we had no trouble finding Western restaurants and attractions. It was also unique in that there is a great combination of busy city life and peaceful, scenic parks. We had a really amazing week and Hong Kong has definitely made the list of places we would like to go back to.

 

On our fist day we went hiking in one of the many country parks. It was about a 3 mile walk up some pretty intense hills, but it was definitely worth it. The trail ended at a huge reservoir which was beautiful. There was also some great scenery along the way. Looking back, this was probably our favorite day and we wish we would have done more hiking. There is definitely an abundance of other parks a lot like this one that we would have liked to explore also.

There are also lots of city parks around town with easier walking paths that offered great views of the city.
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We took a ferry to Macau, which is the other Special Administrative Region of China. Like Hong Kong, it has its own currency, language, and government. And flights from China to Macau and Hong Kong are considered "international." But where Hong Kong was a previous region of the UK, Macau was previously ruled by Portugal, which is obvious in the names of a lot of places there. The main source of revenue in Macau comes from the casinos. All these buildings are huge hotel/casinos. It's considered the Las Vegas of Asia. We took an open top bus tour of the city. The three pictures above are all from the bus tour.


A group of about ten of these girls showed up at one of the casinos we stopped off at. I'm not sure what they were doing but they looked cool and were letting everyone take pictures with them.

We found a Zoological and Botanical Garden in the middle of town. There were a ton monkeys, birds, and reptiles, plus some really cool trees and plants. The black and white lemurs would all start making an intense howling noise if people got too close to the enclosure. The sign said it was their way of warning us to back away from their territory!

Hong Kong has only been back in control of China since the late 90s. Before that, it was under British rule for around 140 years, which there was tons of evidence of. Just about everyone spoke English, they drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the road, and there were random statues like this one. God save King George!

One of the top attractions in Hong Kong is Victoria Peak, which overlooks the city and provides some great views. Unfortunately, it was pretty hazy the day we went up, but we were still able to get a good view of the city and relax on a rooftop restaurant with some drinks.

Every night, the city puts on "A Symphony of Lights," which is a light show on the island that can be seen from across the channel. It lasted about 15 minutes and was synced to music. Pretty cool show!

For out last day in Hong Kong, we just decided to relax at the beach all afternoon. Suprisingly, it wasn't too crowded and we had a great afternoon just relaxing. The views from the bay were amazing.

The two guys kinda ruined our Corona beach moment, but you still get the idea.

The bay and the mountains in the background made for some amazing views at sunset. A great end to the week.

In the end, we accomplished what we were technically there to do, which was get our permanent visas. We are now able to legally work and live in China! We now also have the ability to leave the country and re-enter without any problems, which means we have more trips to plan :-)

Hunter