Hong Kong City

On our second day in Hong Kong we took a guided tour around the city.  We left first thing in the morning and headed over to see Aberdeen's old river community.  We boarded a sampan boat and the driver took us for a ride through the harbor.  It was an interesting site to see these poor communities on house boats and in the same glance see multi million dollar yachts docked nearby and multi billion dollar buildings in the background.  Right as we were ending our ride on the sampan the rain started to pour.  It rained off and on all day causing clouds to roll in and unfortunately making it hard to go sight seeing in certain areas.

From Aberdeen we headed over to a well-known jewelry factory where we got to see some jewelry being made by hand. The next stops was one of my favorite. It was at Stanley's Market.  It was and outside farmer's market like set up selling all shorts of stuff tourists like to buy. We walked along the Repulse bay which led us to a Chinese temple and a little outside courtyard area with multiple restaurants to choose from for lunch. We did a little shopping and had a quick lunch at McDonald's before boarding the bus again.

As we traveled between each of the stops our tour guide gave us a lot of information on the city, it's history, the landmarks and the culture.  I feel like we learned a lot and we were able to see a lot of the city just by driving through the different burrows to get to each of our scheduled stops.

Our last stop was atop Victoria Peak.  This is where we were to see panoramic views of the city but unfortunately we were just trying to stay dry and the only thing we saw were clouds.  We did take the eight minute tram ride down the mountain and our tour bus picked us up at the bottom.  We were returned to our hotel in Kowloon just in time to catch our shuttle to the airport.

I was really glad that we did the guided tour.  We had a short time and it was a good way to see a lot of the city. I do feel like it was a little bit of tease. The city seemed like NYC on steroids.  There were just so many skyscrapers and so many people - just everywhere.  I feel like there was so much more to see and many more things to do. I'd definitely like to go back one day.

 Metropark Hotel in Kowloon - Our Hotel.

 View from the taxi. 

 This was a giant floating restaurant right on the river.

 Views of the city from the sampan boat ride.

 Yep, we were definitely tourists. Don't worry, the hats were just for the photo op. 

 The worker making jewelry at the factory. 

 View from Victoria's Peak

 Looking out into Repulse Bay

 Inside the Chinese temple 

 View from the tour bus

 The cable tram down the mountain

Unfortunately our Hong Kong flight to Shanghai was delayed over an hour while we sat on the plane on the tarmac.  Luckily for us we got the exit row and we were able to sleep.  Between adjusting to the significant time change and the two jam packed days in Hong Kong, we were ready for some sleep!