The Land of the Little People
Hong Kong was a welcome and interesting stop over on the long journey down to Oz. A place where a Guernseyman can actually feel tall. The sites and smells (and there were plenty of those) were intriguing. So many people and so much life all packed into a very small space with multi-level roads and flyovers and overhead pedestrian walkways all ingeniously inter-woven together. Not an inch of space is wasted with swimming pools, tennis courts and gardens packed on to the tops of many of the buildings. A 30 to 50 floor tower block almost seems the norm here.
We spent our one full day exploring on an open top bus tour that took us around Hong Kong Island and across to the Chinese mainland via ferry through Kowloon Harbour.
Although formally handed back from Britain to China in 1997 it’s still incredibly British; Red double deck buses driving on the left; School kids in English school uniforms and various British institutions much in evidence.
The shopping streets teem with life with huge gaudy neon signs filling every space on the densely packed streets.
Unfortunately the weather was very cloudy with many of the taller skyscrapers being lost in the clouds.
It’s an interesting city but certainly not a place for the claustrophobic !
