Honk Kong 

We spent the last few days in Hong Kong. I was really surprised. What a magical place.  Although this country is less than a quarter of the size of Delaware, it’s about the same population of New York City, and it packs a lot of punch. 

Our first day we enjoyed a tour of the Landau Island. This island is just a few miles West of the main city. After a quick bus ride through town and across several suspension bridges, we arrived  at a tram station, and took a tram car up over the mountain and down to the island on the other side.  From the tram car, we could see the huge airport, which is one of the busiest in the world. 

We could also see the longest bridge in the world, the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, which joins Hong Kong to China. This typhoon-safe bridge is quite the engineering marvel. Part of the bridge runs under water, which allows ships to pull into the Honk Kong Harbor without being impeded. 

Landau Island is home to a monastery and a giant Buda. We also enjoyed a thousand year old fishing village. It was really cool because they still fish and live in the village. Awesome!

The following day, we toured the city of Hong Kong. We really liked this city. Great architecture, and super nice people. The prices were normal, but the real estate prices are crazy. $3,000 a square foot is the price for normal housing, and places with views are off of the chart. 

Lots of new construction. They build scaffolding, up to 72 stores, out of bamboo here. Crazy!

Did you know that, because space is so tight in Hong Kong, virtually all of the city is large skyscrapers? Since there is no room for factories, they are all located inside of these tall buildings. Also, we learned that, while manufacturing was very big business in the late 1900s, Hong Kong’s labor cost is 7-times higher than 20 miles across the sea in China. (Hong Kong is expensive, presto much the same price as the USA, except real estate.)

Right in the middle of town is another Fishing Village/Yacht Club!

I really liked Hong Kong’s manhole covers.  They are individually hand painted. Cool!

Although Hong Kong (and we’ll find out later, other countries too) are part of China, they are very outspoken regarding their independence under the their “one country, two systems” principles. It is all very political, and I will not get into it, but I will say this. While Hong Kong  does maintain separate governing and economic systems from China, the ship and our cellular carriers were required to use the China-provided WiFi and cell services while we were there and in Taiwan. Based on the guidance provided when I worked at LANL, we disconnected for four days, and we’ll be going off-line again in a few days when we visit Beijing…

Anyway, having ongoing back-to-back days of excursions, and limited Internet access has made keeping up with the Blog a challenge, so I’ll be brief. 

Big city. Fun time. At the end of the second day, we had a “Sail Away” party on the deck of the ship, and left at sunset. It was fabulous. 

Next stop Taiwan. But that my friends, is a different story. 

Thank you for checking in. 

– Mike

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” – Tom Bodett