Hong Kong has been a dream destination of mine, ever since I was little. In 2015 the dream was fulfilled, I visited HK for 5 days, took a daytrip to Macau and 5 days in the Chinese mega cities Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and then returned for the 6th and final day in HK. We travelled with Aeroflot from Copenhagen Airport, transferred in Moscow, and then further to Hong Kong via Latvia, Russia, Mongolia and China. The journey took about 14 hours (including waiting at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport), of which 9:40 hours for the flight from Moscow to HK:s Chep Lap Kok Airport, that replaced Kai Tak in 1998. Kai Tak was placed in the middle of residential buildings at Kowloon. For 6 days (5+1) we tried to covers so many interesting sights and neighbourhoods of Hong Kong as possible. The only big disappointment was that we only got sun for a couple of hours in two weeks for the whole trips, making the photos a bit unclear and foggy (really thankful that we have Photoshop). The foggy weather also prevented us from seeing the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, a real misfortune. You simply have to forget the sunny HK you see on postcards, a constant haze is constantly hanging over HK and other Chinese cities, probably much because of pollution. Sadly enough. We visited skyscraper districts of Central, Kowloon and Wanchai, watched views form Victoria Peak and skyscraprs, took rides by ferries, visited an amusement park where we took a ride by cable car, walked along the famous Nathan Road and Avenue of the Stars, visited markets and shopping mall, wandered the narrow streets, visited beautiful parks, took several rides with the historic trams, the very modern subway and the double decked buses. The Octupus card really makes it easy to get around, in what is probably the world's best public transport. By buying and loading the Octupus card you can travel for a small fare (about 4HK$/ride) travel by the very modern subway, double decked buses, vintage double decked trams and ferries. Cable cars cost a lot extra.
The food is generally good, you can eat at Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Spanish. Everything from street food and fastfood to 5 star restaurants can be found. The prices are pretty high, much higher then in mainland China for example, but cheap restaurants are not hard to find. They are generally clean. If you live in a Western country, I can tell you the Chinese food in China is nothing like at home (for example there are a lof of bones in it and fried food is rare). Fastfood chains like McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks and KFC are found everywhere.
Hong Kong is one of the most exciting cities I have ever visited, if not the most. It is exactly like in the movies, with its gritty streets with odd stores and restaurants and wellplanned urban blocks with modern skyscrapers. Hong Kong's motto could be "chaos in order". The central parts of the city is generally very clean, though the area Sheun Wan where we stayed were both dirty and smelling, the first impressions of HK. It was also strange the first day, since we arrived on a Sunday, after 14 hours of travelling with almost no sleep! On Sundays the streets of Central district are occupied by underpaid Phillippine and Indonesian homemaids! So it is really a pain to get through anywhere, or find a table at a restaurant, in Central on Sundays. Just don't forget that much of Hong Kong's economy is built on cheap labour from foreign countries.
In Central there are not many restaurants, and the weather was foggy, so the first impressions of HK was not that good. Another thing that made us disappointed was that you really have to struggle to find old and historic buildings, and the ones that are left are often hidden underneath highway bridges and dull highrises. So don't go to HK for the history! But I loved the streets, the water, the diversity, the surrounding nature and the skyline and the exciting architecture of the city. Just keep in mind that the majority of the population are Chinese immigrants and might not speak English at all, and the ones who speak English don't speak as good as you might expect, considering HK:s past as a British colony.
Hong Kong is not the 24 hour city that never sleep that you might think it is; except for Nathan Road, most of the streets -including the ones in Central and SoHo- start to get more and more empty already around 11. We walked through SoHo around that time in the evening, and very few people were out. At least when it is not tourist season, we visited in March.
We spent most of the time on Hong Kong Island's North part and Kowloon's South part, where our hotels were, Best Western Harbour View and (close to Central) and Empire Hotel Kowloon. These areas are also the most central parts.
Read more here, the site is currently under contruction:
http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Hong_Kong.html
Central, Hong Kong Island
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
SOME FACTS:
Population: 7 234 000
Country: China (Hong Kong)
Tallest building: International Commerce Center (484m, 108 floors)
Region: HONG KONG (British colony until 1997)
Founded year (occupied by Brits): 1839
Area: 1 104 km² (city)
Year visited: 2015
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