After arriving late in Hong Kong we didn’t get to see as much on our arrival day as we had hoped. After a fitful night trying to adapt to the new timezone we checked out and set off for our one day exploring.
Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very good – humid and foggy with clouds over the distant island peaks. We quickly realised that our planned trip up Victoria Peak for the famous views was going to be pointless. So we set off on foot to explore the area around Wan Chai. Breakfast places were few and far between so after a leisurely Starbucks we walked to the Conference centre and the nearby Great Bauhinia which commemorates Hong Kong becoming part of China. I was particularly impressed by the scaffolding up the side of the Conference Centre, a couple of a hundred feet high all made from bamboo poles!!
We then caught the Star Ferry from Wan Chai to Kowloon. Our timing was terrible, the humid, cloudy weather suddenly turned into a huge thunderstorm. Visibility was almost zero, the rain was lashing down, and the crossing was almost apocalyptic!! We didn’t stay on Kowloon for very long. The rain made it too difficult. We caught the Star Ferry back across to Central on Hong Kong Island. Central is quite interesting, lots of shops, government buildings and offices including the famous HSBC tower.
Going back to Wan Chai we eventually sat on the harbour side watching the boats going by. Mid afternoon we left for the airport.
My overall impressions was good, Hong Kong definitely lives up to the popular view of it. Trying to get a flavour of it in a day probably isn’t the best easy though!