So my visa for China only allows me to stay in the country for 30 days before I have to leave. Since I have a multiple entry visa, I can come back in for up to a year. This past weekend my 30 were up, so I traveled to Hong Kong for the weekend. Now while Hong Kong is technically part of China, after 99 years of British rule, going there did satisfy my requirement for leaving the country. Hong Kong is considered a “special administrative district”. If I remember correctly I read it is the principle of “two governments, one country”.
So anyway, I got up at 5am Saturday morning to catch the plane for Hong Kong. On approach, I had a feeling that this was going to be a place that I was really going to enjoy! Hong Kong consists of a number of mountainous islands and is much warmer than Beijing is right now. The airport is quite a distance from the city, but they have a great train that takes you right to the city and even a free bus that goes to the major hotels. After checking into my hotel, it was off to find some lunch. Since the Dim Sum is supposed to be great there, I found a Dim Sum restaurant and although I haven’t had much Dim Sum before it was quite good. I then set off to explore the city. One of the things I like about Hong Kong is that there are a number of parks, unfortunately since it is on a mountainous island, there is a lot of walking up hill. I saw Hong Kong Park and the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. I then headed to the Convention and Exhibition Center where I had read is a great place to watch the sun set. It wasn’t that great, but I got to see an awesome building. I then headed back towards the hotel grabbing dinner along the way. I then headed to the pool for the evening for a little bit.
Sunday I got up and headed to church. I found one the previous day that had masses in English and since I hadn’t been in awhile, I was happy to find a church with English masses. I was surprised at the number of people that were there. The place was packed. After mass I headed to the Peak Tram to take it to Victoria Peak. I had lunch up there overlooking the bay. I walked around up top for awhile enjoying the awesome views that were offered to me. I then headed back down to catch a bus to the Stanley Market. This is on the other side of the island and is a pretty impressive outdoor market. I hung around here after walking around the area to watch the sunset again. I headed back to Hong Kong where I again headed up to the pool for awhile.
Monday I woke up not feeling well at all! I don’t know what I got, but it wasn’t good. I wanted to walk around some more, so I headed to the Central/Mid-levels Escalator. I think I read somewhere that this is supposed to be the world’s longest escalator, but since it isn’t contiguous I don’t understand how that’s possible. After this I headed to one of the parks where I hung out a bit before heading to the airport for the trip back to Beijing.