Before I start, I have to apologize for the lack of really good pictures...my hard drive crashed before I could edit the majority of the pictures...I just started doing the panoramas when it crashed. I do have all the files on a backup hard drive in Canada, but I won't get to those for another year and a half or so).
Random picture to get us started:
My first introduction to Hong Kong was the awesomeness of expats...a friend of a few friends, Danielle, whom I've never met prior to this, had offered to let me crash on her couch. Faith in humanity: restored. She was an amazing host, and she lived in an awesome part of town, Wan Chai, which is close to most of the exciting stuff on Hong Kong Island.
For those who have never been, HK consists of two areas, the "mainland," and the island. The mainland is a little rougher, though not downtown Detroit rough. It's also the place where a lot of the foreigners aggressively trying to sell suits hang out...spaced about 10 feet apart. The mainland (Kowloon) side is also where most of the hostels are...according to most reviews I've read, they're a less than stellar experience, I'm glad I got to miss out on them.
Another random shot...I'm starting to get into street photography...really enjoying it:
Anyways...Hong Kong. Hong Kong is amazing. It's beautiful, generally clean, warm (in the middle of January I spent my days in a T-shirt all day, and got a sunburn), busy, full of life, classy, etc. It's also incredibly affluent. Short of Dubai, I'm not sure I could think of a place where there are so many Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Rolls Royces per square metre. For a car geek, walking around there after the blandness of Korea (the land of silver Hyundais and white Kias), no walk through the streets was boring. I even saw one of my all-time favourite cars in my favourite colour: a pearl orange Tesla Roadster (the world's first true production electric supercar!).
Unfortunately, HK is also home to some incredible smog. While it didn't bother my breathing, it was apparent in every single picture. This is the clearest picture I took of the HK skyline. On the left is the island, complete with the famous Bank of China building (the building with the 45* lines criss-crossing it)..the middle is the opening to Victoria Harbour, on the right is a little bit of Kowloon, the mainland...the shot was taken from a little harbour boat that's been operating between the island and the mainland for over 100 years. It costs about 35 cents to cross and takes 8-9 minutes. Gotta love Asia):
Other days, you were treated to a monochromatic view of HK's magnificence (if you look closely, you'll notice that the same traditional-style ship is in both pictures!)...by the way, the building in the middle is where HK was handed over to China in 1997.
Okay...since all the days have blurred together, he's a random list of highlights from Hong Kong:
- The world's longest escalators...it's a network of 800m (half a mile) of escalators taking you from one part of the city up the hill to another. It's really cool. They change direction depending on the time of the day to deal with foot traffic. I kept popping off to check out different neighbourhoods, then popping back on to continue my journey.
- Multi ethnicity/multi-religiosity. You can walk from a Buddhist temple to a Muslim mosque and then pop over to a Catholic church (many of which were built by the British long enough ago that they're architecturally interesting!) all within 10 minutes. And guess what...no one firebombs them. Many places in the world could learn a lesson from the way religions and races coexist in HK. I went into multiples of each place of worship and was welcomed with open arms at each and every one. Hong Kong was also the first place in Asia where I didn't feel special or different being a white guy. HK has great racial variety and, happy for me, that meant variety in food, which (unlike in Korea) included a wicked selection of veggie options.
- The people are absolutely amazing in HK. That is, the locals. Interestingly enough, most of the foreigners I bumped into seemed to have an air of self-importance about them. Wearing an expensive suit and rocking an iPhone 5 tends to do that to people sometimes. The locals, however, were very friendly, often stopping or going out of their way to help me when I was looking at my map, etc. Without a doubt, the highlight was when I was trying to figure out which exit I needed to take out of the subway and a boy - about 12 or 13 years old - came up to me and said "Hello. How may I help you?". Out of the blue. My jaw dropped. I told him where I wanted to go, he pointed me to the correct exit and was on his merry way. Well played, Hong Kong...well played. To be fair, though...they're apparently not very tolerant of wheelchair-bound scientists:
Random picture time: Fire hall with a classic red/silver Toyota Crown (every taxi is a Toyota Crown in that paint scheme) taxi:
- Victoria Peak. This peak overlooks the city and is home to a really cool cable-driven tram (that in places goes up an incline I swear is close to 40 degrees) that goes up the hill to a wicked lookout point. I spent a good 4-5 hours at least up there, going in the afternoon and waiting until it was pitch dark. The view of the city is magnificent, day or night. As is standard for Asia, the tram/lookout point admission tickets were very reasonable. None of the rip-off prices we've grown accustomed to paying in North America.
- The public zoo/botanical gardens. Again...North America could take a lesson here. HK has an awesome zoo (full of monkeys, giant turtles, ultra-rare birds, etc)...open to the public. It's just part of a park. The other part is a gorgeous botanical gardens. The sight of a beautiful and expansive garden with stunning modern skyscrapers is a unique and awe-inspiring one.
- Tsim Sha Tsui...TST is a neat place on the southern tip of the mainland, meaning it faces HK's true downtown: the island's north end. There are two ways to get to TST: via the efficient or cheap subway or the efficient or cheap cross-harbour boat. I preferred the boat because the views were beautiful, but the subway - true to every subway I've seen in Asia - was clean, safe, cheap and quick. I'm really going to miss the public transportation in this corner of the world. TST has everything from high-end shops to the Avenue of Stars, where Asian movie stars I've never heard of are immortalized on a beautiful waterfront walkway. The view of downtown from TST...Avenue of Stars on the left...
Every night at 8 p.m., the buildings in downtown HK put on a wicked laser show, best viewed from TST:
Speaking of nights....Hong Kong holds true to what I've seen in most of Asia (Japan, Korea, China, etc)...and you can feel completely safe being a foreigner walking around alone at night...gotta love that!
I was usually walking/shooting until around midnight most days...never an issue!
All right...this is HK in a nutshell...again, I apologize for the lack of pictures, I'll do an update in a year or so when I get to my pictures, I promise! :D In the meantime, I'll leave you with this. Shot in TST in Hong Kong...a tourist demonstrating proper posture during portrait photography:
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