Day 10 - Hong Kong

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We didn’t get a chance to watch that DVD we intended, but we still managed to sleep in until 10:30am. My aunt and uncle both had the day off today so we all went to dim sum together in Tsim Sha Tsui. It was pretty hard to explain Paul’s allergy problem to the older generation because it is almost unheard of in Hong Kong.

After brunch, my parents went to renew their identity cards and we followed along. In Hong Kong, everyone including travellers has to carry around some sort of proof of identification (by law). Foreigners can carry around their passports while citizens/residents must carry around a smart (chipped) identification card. If you are caught without an ID card, the cops will throw you into the slammer for a night…or two (it happened to my dad…lol). Unfortunately the daily quota was full, so we were unable to get the cards.

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Then we walked along the seawall to the Avenue of Stars which is the Chinese version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame (I think that is what it’s called). It wasn’t all that exciting as we could only recognise the stars of Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat, Jet li and Jackie Chan. I was hoping that they would have a star for the Chinese Donald Duck at Disneyland HK.

We walked all the way over to the Star Ferry Harbour and took the boat over to the Hong Kong Central District. We then walked aimlessly around the city to see all the well known skyscrapers of downtown including the HSBC building, Bank of China building, Lippo twin towers, and some really really tall building by the harbour. Oh…I forgot the Exhibition Center, it’s not very tall but it’s funky looking. Paul and I both got really tired of walking so we all headed back to Kowloon. At the harbour we were harassed by a group of guys that were trying to sell us custom-tailored shirts and suits. It seemed like some sort of scam. While we enjoyed our hot chocolates in Starbucks, we noticed that they were only targeting foreigners specifically white men. It was definitely fishy.

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It got really late really quickly and by the time we realized it, the night time events began. We stuck around to watch the Symphony of Lights which was a “spectacular multimedia event, named the world’s largest permanent light and sound show by the Guinness Book of Records”. It was an incredible show that featured over 30 buildings with flashy colourful lights and lasers synchronized to tacky modern Chinese music. We had the best view on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour. Paul’s favourite part was the lasers that were shooting in the sky.

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We met up with my parents and left shortly after the show. We went home and watched the DVD while everyone else chatted.

-Amy