Kungfu Chronicles: Hong Kong

Welcome to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong had a much different feel that mainland China. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that it was technically part of the UK until 1997. Because of an agreement signed by China and the UK in1984, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China in 1997. In this agreement, China promised that, under its "one country, two systems" formula, China's socialist economic system would not be imposed on Hong Kong and that Hong Kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years.

More people spoke English here (including taxi drivers which made it a bit easier!). Definitely a different fashion style, architecture, food choices (hadn't had a "real" hamburger in months!!). Chinese people from mainland China who want to visit Hong Kong need a special visa to be able to. And our trip was considered "international" - we had to go through customs at the airport.

Did you know that Hong Kong has the most skyscrapers in the world? Classified as buildings with more than 14 floors, Hong Kong has around 8000, almost double that of New York, its nearest rival!

It is also the most densely populated city in the world. Could we tell? Most definitely! It may have had something to do with the fact that we stayed in the Mangkok district - the world record holder for dense population. There were people everywhere, all the time :) I think most people could get a little claustrophobic here - but it was AwEsOMe (to visit!)!! The kids keep asking if we can go back!

The kids had Friday off of school for a teacher prep day so we pulled them out a day early for a four-day weekend. Hong Kong was on "The List." Here are a few highlights...

Riding the tram up to Victoria Peak to get a 360* view of the city.

Riding the Subway for the first-time...and we rode it a lot!

The subway here wasn't as crowded as the one in Beijing...not sure why, maybe the time of day we were riding it. The kids were getting pretty savvy :)

The life-size Lego city at a mall we visited.

Street market at night...

Oh man, these signs were funny. I wish the photo turned out more clear, but the English translations were hilarious! "Your mom on sale for my dad" "no fart in car" I should have grabbed a few :)