Ok, so on Monday we took the ferry to Hong Kong island and then took a tram up to Victoria Peak. The tram takes 10 minutes and goes up a 27 degree incline! At the top of the peak there is a tower with some shops and restaurants and you can hike various trails with lookouts of the mainland and other islands.
We ended up walking two of the trails and had lunch at Bubba Gump's which was a restaurant based on the movie Forrest Gump. It had an excellent view and the food was not bad. (very Joe's Crab Shack for those of you who are from the south)
After taking the tram back down the hill we decided to check out the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical gardens which was within walking distance. It was of course, on a hillside and the walking was a real workout. Not too much to see, we were only there for about an hour.
So we went on to see a little of downtown which is accessible by a series of covered escalators totally 792 meters. There are interesting shops and restaurants along the side of the escalators. It was a really neat way to see the city.
We ate at an Italian place just off to the side of one of the escalators and then walked around some of the side streets.One thing that we noticed right away in Hong Kong was we don't get stared at like we do in Suzhou and Shanghai. There are a ton of westerners, you see them everywhere. We're not used to that. Also, english is spoken just about everywhere. The official languages of Hong Kong are Cantonese and English. Not to mention a lot of western chains ( we counted 17 7-Eleven stores during our time in Hong Kong).
So that's about it for Monday. Here's one of the pictures I took of a flower market street.
I'm turning in for the night, school tomorrow. But I will right about the rest of our time in Hong Kong later this week.
Hope everyone is well.
