Hong Kong is a top spot for me! I only scratch the surface with my following description and photo's
How to describe Hong Kong China? Here is a quick background of Hong Kong itself. First off Hong Kong began as a fishing village island off the coast of China. When the British began trading with China, the Chinese forced all foreign trade through the island colony. Two Opium wars and 50 years later in 1897, the British were given a 100-year lease on the Hong Kong territory. The lease ended in 1997 with China re-assuming control over Hong Kong. While under British rule, Hong Kong had become a world trading and financial center. The worlds concern was with Hong Kong going from a democratic British colony to a communist Chinese territory. So far, China has allowed Hong Kong to retain all the freedoms that they enjoyed under British rule. However Chinese mainland citizens are not allowed to visit Hong Kong unless they obtain a hard to get travel visa. The territory is still growing tremendously with sky scraper cranes everywhere and a vibrant dense unique city that is a wonderful place to visit.
In Hong Kong, we saw something very unique that we had not seen anywhere else to this extent. The construction community uses bamboo for its scaffolding. Not just a few remodels or low height projects but actual large scale high-rise projects as well. With a quick search, online, I learned that it is old practice dating back to 1800’s. It is in decline because of safety concerns and a younger generation who do not like to do that kind of work. To me it looked like an art form and well as a construction technique.
In the Hong Kong harbor, we took a traditional Sampan boat (large wooden flat bottom traditional boat) for a quick tour of the harbor and a stop at the world’s largest floating Chinese restaurant. Seeing all the old traditional working boats beside the new wealthy yachts was a sight to see.
We got a wonderful view of the city while visiting the 100th floor of the International Commerce Center building. The Sky100 floor offered a 360-degree view of the city. We saw many cranes all over the city with some of the most robust construction projects we have run into so far. We also had a bird’s eye view of the car and bus tunnel that goes under Victoria Harbor. Built in 1972 and currently over 119,000 vehicles pass through each day.
Another fabulous view was seen from the top of Victoria Peak.
And lastly, some odds and ends of photos that I just enjoyed. The buildings are beautiful and modern, the school kids all wear school uniforms, we saw many wonderfully expensive cars and some unique ones. The trees can grow on the sides of walls, some buildings have the pipes on the outside and a huge tiered cemetery.
