Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 25 - Hong Kong Part 1 (Day 2)

Day 2 started with a walking tour of the Central District on Hong Kong Island. We caught the metro (subway) over from Kowloon. The Central District used to be called "Victoria" for Queen Victoria, but now is just the Central District. A good bit of the land which the skyscrapers sit on near the harbor is all reclaimed land. We started in Statue Square, which once had a statue of Queen Victoria. However, that statue has now been moved to another park and now, the only statue in Statue Square is that of Sir Thomas Jackson, the former manager of the Kong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). They were also setting up for the Christmas Festivities and so there was a really tall Christmas tree. The park there is also very nice and serene.

Next came the traditional cable cars ... the road called Des Voeux Road Central has the tramlines snaking along it. Des Voeux Road itself was constructed as part of an early 1800s land reclamation project; before that the waterfront was situated farther inland, at Queen's Road. Land reclamation has proceeded continuously throughout Hong Kong's history, slowly encroaching on the harbor itself. You see these quaint double-decker trams making their way up and down the roads, in between these high-rise buildings. The tramlines and cable cars were established in 1904 and they are now the city's oldest form of land transportation. They are also quite colorful, as you can see. They basically run East-West across Hong Kong island. We took one a little later in the day and as you can see, the interior is still very old-fashioned.

Part of what we did in the Central district was an Architecture tour, which looked at various buildings in the downtown area. We took a few pictures of the major ones.

These are the twin towers that makes up the Lippo Centre. They somewhat look like one building from this angle, but you can see the two different "Lippo" words on the stop, one on each building. They are not exactly twins, since one is slightly taller than the other. The taller of the two towers is 186 meters tall. They were completed in 1988, designed by an American architect. He designed the buildings with clusters of obtruding windows, which some people say look like koala bears clinging onto trees, hence the nickname of "The Koala Tree".

The Bank of China building, was the tallest building outside the US when it was completed in 1990 (although obviously, no longer). It was designed by I.M. Pei, who also did the pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. It is 70-stories tall and is somewhat of a futuristic building, with its crisscross pattern reminiscent of bamboo. The tower has no internal structural columns and its weight is supported by the four corners and these diagonal braces that make up the bamboo pattern. However, according to feng shui, the sharp corners are bad as they cast negative energy on the nearby buildings. The crisscross patterns are lit up nicely at night. If you are in the bank lobby (on the 2nd floor), you can look up through the center of the building all the way up and out the top. They also had this really large Christmas tree in the lobby.

Also in the Bank of China building, they had the Prehistoric Story Room, which had fossils and information about dinosaurs. Somewhat of an interesting thing to have in the lobby of a bank building.

We walked from there to the HSBC building. We're not sure exactly what was going on, but they have what looked to us like people demonstrating against corrupt bankers.

Out front, like all good bank buildings, are the pair of lions, these being bronze lions that have been there since 1935. The bank itself, HSBC, is Hong Kong's largest bank although it has offices around the world. When we moved to China, we opened an account with HSBC US, and then also do our China banking with HSBC. The building itself was designed in the mid-1980s by renowned British architect Sir Norman Foster and was supposedly one of the most expensive buildings in the world at the time (almost US$1 billion). It has an external structure instead of a central core and attracts visiting architects the world over. The "ground floor" is totally open and then you can take escalators (once the world's longest freely supported moving staircases) to and from the first floor where the bank starts.

This 52-story building is the Jardine house, which as you can tell, is a little different than the others .. the windows look like portholes of a ship. It opened in 1973 and back then, supposedly it was a symbol of how innovative and fast-paced the city had become. Now, with the other buildings around it, it looks a little odd with the windows, but isn't the tallest or the most unique architecture around. Still, a cool little building.

Another view of the IFC Tower 2, that we saw from the boat on Day 1.

From there we headed to our first Dim Sum place for "brunch". This was on the 2nd floor (a main restaurant on the ground floor) and Tom really liked the interior ... quite old fashioned. It was interesting sitting there as it was around 10 on a weekday and the table next to us seemed to be a table where a set of friends (chinese men that some looked like they were getting into the office a wee bit late) would come, have tea, a bit of breakfast, chat a bit, read the newspaper, and then head into the office. They were a bit loud :-)

The Central-Mid-levels escalator was opened in 1994 and while it is called an "escalator", it is more a set of escalators, stairs, walkways, and moving sidewalks, with a set of stairs next to it. Every couple of streets there is an exit/entrance. It was created to accommodate commuters who live in the Mid-Levels but work in Central and beyond. Since there is only one "escalator", it goes "down" from 6-10am to move all of the commuters to work, and the rest of the time, it runs up the hill. As you can see by the slope next to it, going UP the hill is quite a feat although we did see a woman running UP the stairs.

We exited at Hollywood Avenue and walked down to the Man Mo Temple. The temple is Hong Kong Island's oldest and most well-known temple. The temple dates back to the 1840s and is dedicated to two deities: the god of literature (Man) and the god of war (Mo). From the ceiling hang huge incense coils, which burn as long as 3 weeks, purchased by patrons seeking the fulfillment of their wishes; the aromatic smoke is said to carry prayers to the spirit world.

There was also a place for a donation (which Tom provided) and then you hit the drum and it is supposed to bring you good luck. So Tom hit the drum for luck ... and then the next person did and BOY ... if your amount of luck is based on how hard you hit the drum, Tom is only getting a wee little bit. His was just a light tap compared to her LOUD bang on the drum.

St. John's Cathedral was inaugurated in 1849 and is the oldest ecclesiastical building in Hong Kong, and is dedicated to St. John the Evangalist. The church was used for Japanese social functions during the Japanese occupation and underwent extensive renovations following World War II. It still retains some quaint tropical characteristics like the ceiling fans. The last picture shows the front of the Cathedral with the HSBC building in the background.

There is an interesting mosaic in the floor at the main entrance to the cathedral. At the top, God the Father is represented by hands creating order out of chaos. On the left, Jesus is represented by signs of his passion and death (the Crown of Thorns, the robe, the hammer and nails, the spear and sponge. On the right, God the Spirit is represented by the dove and the flames of Pentecost. The next picture shows the cross that is in the middle of the mosaic, which is the Nestorian Cross, copied from a 13th century cross discovered in China. The Nestorian Christians arrived in China in the 17th century and the cross was the work of a Mongolian tribe that converted to Christianity. The last picture shows an eagle, which is the symbol of St. John the Evangalist.

We then headed to Victoria Peak, which at 1,811 ft, is the highest mountain on Hong Kong island, but not in Hong Kong itself (which includes Kowloon and the New Territories). We took the tram up to the top. The lower tram station was opened in 1888 and the tram is the steepest funicular railway in the world (for you funicular buffs, it rises from 28m/92 ft. to 396m/1,299 ft. on a 1 mile track, with a gradient of between 4 to 27 degrees. Prior to the tram, it took 3 hours by sedan chair to travel to the top and with the tream, a quick 8 minutes .. along with the 30 minutes to wait in line :-)

Once you get to the top, you have great views of Hong Kong island (if you get a clear day, which we really didn't get, as you can tell from the haze on the buildings). There are also some houses (it would look like) dotted around the peak.

After heading back down the peak via the same funicular, we stopped by the Hong Kong Park. Mind you, we took the really LOOONNNGG route to get there, since it took us about 30 minutes going up and down hills to get the 2 blocks or so over to the park. The park opened in 1991 and has about 20 acres right in the middle of Hong Kong. There is an aviary that you can walk through (which we did) that houses 600 exotic birds in a tropical rainforest setting. You walk through on an elevated walkway. There were a few really nice birds that Tom got a picture of, eating some fruit.

Also inside the park itself is the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware. The house itself is the oldest colonial building in Hong Kong, dating from 1846, in the Greek Revival style. It served as the office and residence of the commander of the British forces until 1978. The museum itself was somewhat interesting, and had displays about the different types of tea (black, green, white, and pu'er) as well as lots of tea pots and cups. Near the museum is also a nice area of the park with a pond and fish.

The Government House, completed in 1855, this building served as the official residence of 25 British governors until 1997. During the World War II Japanese occupation, it also served as the headquarters of Lieutenant General Isogai, who ordered some extensive building renovations, a curious mix of Asian and Western architecture, including ceramic tile roofs and a tower reminiscent of Shinto shrines. Since the 1997 handover, the grand, whitewashed edifice has served as the residence of Hong Kong's Chief Executive (the head of the Hong Kong government) and is also used for official functions. You can only get as far as the driveway before they shoo you away.

Last thing before dinner was the Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens, which is just around the corner from the Government House. It was opened in 1864 and had quite a few animals although it was kinda depressing since the zoo was designed back when you just had animals in cages with some natural habitat in it, but still just cages with concrete floors.

Back at the hotel, in the lobby we noticed a nativity scene and a Christmas tree, along with a big gingerbread house.

The Temple Street night market is on the Kowloon side, and is one of the busiest flea markets at night. It sells alot of different things ... clothes, watches, purses, and electronics. It was actually quite huge. It is also famous for its snacks and local street cuisine. Multiple stalls setup tables out in the street and alot of people (locals mostly) have dinner there. We didn't try it, but it seemed quite popular. The one thing we did see .... hookers and cops. It is a funny story here. So in the street on both sides are the stalls, but there are also stores that line the street as normal. These stores tend to sell DVDs ... both normal and "adult" DVDs. So we're walking on this one side and we see these two girls that look like, well, hookers. Tom & I are just about to say something to each other about these girls when a guy about 10 or 15 feet ahead of us whistles at them and swosh ... off they go into the building. We're like .. hmm. Then when we get up to where the whistle-guy was, we see two cops walking down the street. So, it seems that the whistle-guy was the lookout and basically told the girls to get hidden so that they didn't get caught by the cops.