Winter Trip--Hong Kong

We spent almost four days in Hong Kong. Our China Teacher's Program (CTP) winter conference was held there. We were quite busy with that, but did take the afternoons and evenings to do some sightseeing. We stayed on the Kowloon side and took this picture from the waterfront near our hotel. It shows some of the skyline of Hong Kong with Victoria Peak in the background.

Here's a night view of the same skyline from a different angle. There is a light show every evening with the buildings lit up and laser lights flashing. It was quite a spectacle.

We were in Hong Kong 35 years ago. Needless to say it has changed. At first we were quite disappointed. It just seemed to be a big city with an incredible amount of skyscrapers. We took the tram ride up to Victoria Peak. I remembered going up on a winding, narrow road. No more. But after wandering around the huge lookout buildings, we went outside to this area to take pictures. As we were meandering along, we came across the small road I remembered (now blocked off, however). It made me feel good to know that my memory was still intact. We took a double decker bus down the hill--an exciting trip from the top deck as the bus wound around on the small, steep streets and back to the city.

After Victoria Peak we were looking for the Sun Yat Sen Museum and in the process discovered some of the Hong Kong we had remembered from 1973. Here is one of the narrow streets. Note the three building levels. The first is the old apartments; the next is the high rise apartments; last is the really tall skyscraper. I thought it was the perfect picture to show how Hong Kong has grown and changed through the years.

We were happy to discover the Hong Kong we remembered--narrow streets, shops, steep hills. This is looking down one of the steep streets.

And here is looking down a market street. I was so happy to find it, as the street market was one of my lasting memories of our previous trip.

When we arrived and went out to look at the harbor, Jim commented that the harbor seemed smaller than he remembered from when his submarine used to come in and anchor. Sure enough, we discovered that both the island and Kowloon are "growing." Here is a picture of the next area of growth. Piles are being driven into the bay and eventually the water will be drained, land will be filled in and buildings will be built on what used to be part of the harbor. So, yes, the harbor is actually smaller.

I also remember many sampans and junks from when we were there before. This is the only boat I saw that evoked those memories.

This building houses the Sun Yat Sen Museum. It was originally a mansion built by a Chinese businessman. For a number of years our Church owned it and used it as a chapel and mission headquarters. Then the church grew too large to be housed here so they worked with the government to trade this building for some other land to house all the offices and chapels. The Chinese have restored the building and made an excellent museum. As a tribute to the church, they left the baptismal font, and it is now displayed along with a plaque telling about when the church owned the building.

One morning our CTP group went to the Hong Kong temple. It is on a busy street, but Jim ran across and took this picture. it is a lovely building and we had a wonderful time there. I am the little red dot standing in front of the wall. Of all the new buildings in Hong Kong/Kowloon, I liked this one the best.