We got in a cab to the airport and arrived to an almost empty airport. I flight sat on the runway for over an hour, which was annoying, but we finally arrived in Hong Kong 3 hours later. Because our flights were so expensive, due to Chinese New Year, we opted for cheaper living arrangements and stayed in a hostel on Cameron Rd in Kowloon (opposite side from Central Hong Kong). We ate dinner locally, and then walked around Kowloon looking at all the shops and restaurants. I could quickly tell that Hong Kong was a shopper's paradise. There are tons of name brand stores as well as markets and boutiques. And unlike Shanghai, there are many types of restaurants in a close proximity to wherever you are, so consumerism is very accessible in Hong Kong. We weren't sure what was going to be open during the New Year Holiday, so we couldn't really plan our trip, but we figured out a few main things we wanted to do and went to bed early, so we could have a full day of exploring.
Saturday morning, we talked to a woman at our front desk, who advised us to visit the museums and markets, because they could be potentially closed for the rest of our visit. We started the morning at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, where we saw people setting up for the New Year's Day Parade. We walked along the Avenue of the Stars, which is a walkway facing the Central side of Hong Kong. The museum was very interesting, and had a lot of great exhibits, but we soon found ourselves wandering to the "Ladies Market." Although its names suggests otherwise, this market has everything anyone could want, namely clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, and electronics. Unfortunately, our bargaining skills weren't as useful as they are in China, but nonetheless we walked away with a few finds. We also picked up some street food along the way, and spoke some Mandarin. Cantonese is the primary language here, so we truly felt like tourists only being able to communicate in English, but in the markets, many of the merchants speak broken Mandarin, so we decided to practice.
We walked back down Nathan Street, the main street in Kowloon, and it started to slightly rain. We had hoped for good weather in Hong Kong, leaving a very cold Shanghai at 28 degrees, and an even colder Beijing in Sophie's case. However, even though the temperature was a little more moderate, the weekend was rainy and foggy overall. We walked up past the bar district on our way home, and sat in Kowloon park to figure out our plans for the night. A club next to our hostel was having a Chinese New Year's Eve Party, so we decided to go out to that after dinner. Upon arriving at the club, we were approached by the host, who asked us why we decided to come to such a "local" venue. We hadn't really realized how local it was, but after an hour went by, and many people approached us to offer us drinks and introduce themselves, we realized that we might be the first foreigners some of the guests had met. The host warned us that we would be popular, and later on the dance floor we were surrounded at all times by people wanting to dance with us! The club had a countdown for the new year at 1am (very weird), and also had a lion dance to accompany the countdown. We met a lot of people who were in the club business, and they invited us out to events throughout the weekend that they were putting on.
Even though we stayed out pretty late celebrating the New Year (and Valentine's Day!) Sophie and I got up early to go to a region called the New Territories to see the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. When we got there, we realized that the 10,000 was not an overexaggeration, and was more likely and underestimation of how many Buddhas there were. The entire hike up to the temple was lined with golden Buddhas, and once we arrived each temple had miniature Buddhas lining the wall. There were a lot of people visiting for the New Year, and there were many people offering gifts and prayers at the temple. It was interesting to look out at the Hong Kong horizon stacked with buildings while standing in a completely serene temple only up a hill from the mentioned buildings. We left to eat an early dinner of yummy Chinese food in honor of the holiday, and then staked out spots for the Chinese New Year Parade that was happening that night. The parade was amazing, and it had floats from all over the world, including an extremely random one from the San Diego Charger girls :) The parade went late, and then we walked around a little before going to bed. We wanted to be well rested for our adventure in Central Hong Kong the next day.
To get to Central the next morning, we took the Star Ferry across. It takes only 6 minutes to cross the water, and it happens to be cheaper than the subway. Our first stop was "The Peak." Victoria Peak was extremely crowded today most likely because of the holiday, and we had to wait awhile to take the incredibly steep funicular up the hill. We bought extra tickets to see the highest view, but much to our disappointment it was so foggy we couldn't see past the guard rail. Although the trip seemed like somewhat of a failure, the train ride up and down was one of the coolest parts, because we had more visibility of the city. Now we have an excuse to go back, so we can see the peak for real. Next, we went to Lan Kwai Fong, which reminded me of Greece with its small streets and stairs connecting the streets above and below. There is a long escalator that you can take to get up the hill, and in the morning it is reversed for business people to get down the hill to their offices. Sophie and I had an early dinner at a little Mexican food restaurant, and then went home quickly to change and get ready for our night.
Our plan was to go back to Central to watch fireworks and then meet up with our friend Tommy from Berkeley, who is studying abroad in Hong Kong. After the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen, Sophie and I went to meet Tommy. We walked around Wan Chai going to a couple different spots, before heading back to Lan Kwai Fong to visit some of our promoter friends we had met the night before. We made it another late night, but luckily our flight didn't leave until 3:30 the next day, and we wanted to embrace every moment of time we had in Hong Kong. The next day we headed to the airport and flew back to Shanghai. Sophie and I both had to quickly repack for a 7am flight the next day, as we are both (separately) going to Yunnan Province for the rest of our vacation. My program has scheduled a 10-day vacation in 4 cities in the Yunnan province (Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Xishaung Banna), and the weather is supposed to be amazing because it is further west and much more south than Shanghai. More to come on those adventures later!
Chinese Word of the Day: 香港 (Xiang gang: Hong Kong)
China is a country of migrants. I saw a modern city with a very large population become quiet over a fortnightly period. Streets usually bustling with people were strangely, at such a festive season, quietened. Restaurants I was used to frequenting, closed. The train and bus stations were fit to burst with an annual magnitude far exceeding reasonable fore planning.
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