I continued my city hopping tour with a stopover in Hong Kong. I had two full days here and half a day after I arrived, which was a little short but ok. I could have done with one more day in Hong Kong and a fourth one to visit Macau – maybe next time!

On my first day I arrived really tired and jet-legged at my hostel but still decided to head out to explore the city right away. After all, I was short on time! My hostel was located very centrally in Tsim Sha Tsui, so I decided to walk around in this area first. To be honest though, apart from the promenade with the view over the skyline of Hong Kong island, the sights here are a bit underwhelming.

So I was done rather quickly and decided to take the metro to Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden…and wow! These two more than made up for the underwhelming sights before!! Especially the Nunnery is something really special, the old beautiful building and the skyscrapers in the background.

 

Just one station away, there’s the Wong Tai Sin temple which I of course also paid a visit, however it didn’t amaze me as much. It was nice, sure, but there was a somewhat restless atmosphere contrary to the usual peaceful temple visit which I like.

 

I took the metro back to Mong Kok and walked through a couple of the city’s markets: the lady’s market, fruit and vegetable market and of course the famous Temple Street night market. If you’re into shopping, then these market streets will be paradise for you! I also saw quite some things I might have liked, but being on the road for that long, there’s really, absolutely, no space at all for additional things in my 19 kg backpack!

 

I found a vegetarian restaurant for some ok fried noodles and then made it back in time for the sound and light show back to the harbour promenade. I secured a good spot but had to wait half an hour for the show to begin… only to leave 5 min after it had started! Yeah, it was that bad. No further comment from my side. The skyline at night would be better off without that show.

 

My first full day in Hong Kong was dedicated to Hong Kong Island. I took the ferry across to the other side which was super nice! Then I walked around a bit in the Eastern part, trying to find various smaller temples and sights which were all not that amazing though.

 

The Western part afterwards was much better, lots of cafes, restaurants, some markets etc. Of course I also visited the Man Mo temple, one of the major ones in Hong Kong. I already located a restaurant for dinner which offered vegetarian dumplings! Yay!

 

But before that, I went back to the area around Central station to see some of the massive skyscrapers such as the HSBC building. In Hong Kong, between all these huge buildings you really feel small and insignificant…

 

The main sight in HK though is of course Victoria Peak, so this was my next destination. I took the old and famous peak tram up which is an attraction in itself, running steeply up the mountain. Once up, I went to the main viewpoint Lion’s Pavilion and then decide to walk the Circle Route. I was hoping for great views along the way but half of the trail (the back side) is only in the jungle and not particularly interesting. It only gets interesting again once you reach the front of the walk at Lugard Road. This is where you can take the most amazing panorama shots… it was simply stunning!

 

Since I liked it so much up there, I decided to go for a drink and wait until it got dark to see the city lights. It was a rather long wait but well worth it! See for yourself…

 

Maybe I would recommend to head up only 30 min before sunset – I thought there was more to do at the top, but the best views are really very close to the peak tram stop. So after taking over 100 night photos (encouraged by all the half/professional photographers around me), I made my way down to the dumpling restaurant, this time by bus.

After not much sleep in my party hostel, I had a hard time getting out of bed next day and started my day trip to the Big Buddha later than intended, which resulted in a longer wait at the cable car in Thung Chung. The wait was well worth it though – the ride on the cable car was very scenic with beautiful views in all directions, and took about half a hour, so plenty of time to enjoy!

 

You can already see the Big Buddha statue from the cable car and once arrived at the top station, you can climb the many stairs up to it for some more nice views. There’s also a pretty monastery which you can visit and where you even could have lunch if you wanted to.

 

After visiting the Buddha and the monastery, I hopped on a bus to Tai O fishing village. It only took about 20 min and brought me down the other side of the mountain. To be honest, the fishing village was boring and not picturesque. Luckily I found a trail leading up to a viewpoint and then across the island down to the other side with amazing views. That made the trip to Tai O worth it for me! That, and the ferry rude back to Thung Chung station which I spontaneously decided for. Sooo much better than a bus ride and much better views!

 

And this is how my time in Hong Kong came to an end. I had a really good few days exploring the city and its surroundings and definitely enjoyed my time there! Maybe I’ll return one day to see more, and to visit Macau… Here are all my (best) photos: Hong Kong album.