Today is China’s 67th Birthday. This is national holiday here, they celebrate for 2 days in Hong Kong an 7 days in mainland China!
We woke up to dull morning after some storms went through last night, but the visibility had improved. At first we were sorry that we had used our ticket to the Peak yesterday rather than save it for today (more on that later).
Again we headed out sans escort and had breakfast. On the way to there we walked along an elevated pedestrian walkway situated above the road. Along either side of the walkway groups, predominantly women, had set up sheets on the ground and were sitting on them surrounded by food. At first we thought we may have come across a women’s rights demonstration, but we later found out these people were domestic help from the richer families, and they group together on holidays and Sundays to socialise with people from their own heritage.
After feeding, then headed down to the southern end of Kowloon to the ferry terminus. From here took a short ferry ride across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island. Today’s plan was to take a different route on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus.
Another Ferry and a Dull but Clearer view if Hong Kong
Skyline View
Docking in Hong Kong
Below are a couple of general views of the city.
Tram is a less Prosperous Area
As the morning wore on the crowds of people heading downtown for tonight’s celebrations increased. We arrived at the Peak Tram station; yesterday we waited maybe ten minutes to board the tram to the top, today I’d estimated the wait at greater than two hours. With the temperature in the low 30’s and the humidex in the low 40’s I was happy to forgo the trip, even with the improved visibility.
At the end of the tour we took the ferry back to Kowloon for lunch and a final round of shopping. It may be a national holiday but the shops are all open, it’s seems only the banks are closed!
At the end of or MTR ride back to the hotel we cashed in our Octopus cards, in the two days we had spent $5 Cad each on transportation!!
Next on the agenda is to take advantage of some of the hotel facilities and go for a sauna and a swim before dinner, then pack everything up for a 26 hour trip home via Beijing and Toronto starting at 5 A.M. tomorrow morning.
I will probably do a wrap up blog either on the plan tomorrow if the WiFi works or early next week.