5 days in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the World’s most popular cities, and had more international visitors than any other city in 2012. It was a British colony until 1997 when it became a Special Administrative Region of China.

We found plenty to keep us occupied and had 5 long and exhausting days in Hong Kong as we made our way around using the cities superb public transport infrastructure.

Our first afternoon was overcast and foggy so probably not the best time to visit the Sky100, the viewing platform located on the 100th floor of the International Commerce Centre, West Kowloon! Fortunately we had some clearer days…

We had much better views when we took the Peak Tram to Victoria Peak. The Peak Tram is 120 years old and is one of the most popular attractions in Hong Kong. From the top of Victoria Peak we walked down the other side for about 1.5 hours towards Pok Fu Lam reservoir. We ended up along a main road where we caught a bus back to Central Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has several parks. The main park in Central Hong Kong has a large aviary full of exotic birds which is free to enter.

The Star Ferry has also been transferring passengers across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon and back since 1888 and gave us amazing views of the Hong Kong skyline.

We went on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car on Lantau Island where we walked up the 268 steps to see the Tian Tan Buddha also known as the Big Buddha. The Buddha is 34 meters high and was completed in  1993.

For a total contrast we spent a day doing the Dragons Back trek which is the final section of the 50 km Hong Kong trail.

Our final day in Hong Kong was actually spent in Macau… We took a ferry across and had another day of contrasts… visiting the Venetian Casino (the largest casino in the world) in the morning and walking through the old Portuguese streets of Macau in the afternoon.