Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong and Macau

S and I are excellent. We spent the last 4 days in Hong Kong and Macau. We spent our first two days exploring Hong Kong Island, which is the first modern city that we have seen that has not demolished many of its older parts. On the first day, we took a tram up to Victoria Peak for beautiful sights of the city and ate in the trendy SoHo district (the Mexican was disappointing), riding the world's longest escalator to get there. On the second day, we explored the city's traditional markets: dried seafood, traditional medicine, ginseng root, bird's nests (used for soup), antiques and fabric. Hong Kong is a beautiful city that certainly has a very different feel from mainland China. It goes beyond the English-named streets- the city is clean, efficient and diverse. There seems to be a coexistence between the old and the new in Hong Kong that feels natural. In Shanghai, the old parts of town were torn down to make way for big skyscrapers and, in Seoul, the old parts of town felt as though they were hidden away down back alleys. On our 3rd day in Hong Kong, we went to Hong Kong Disney World, which was something else. While it is not as big as its American counterparts, they had some decent live shows and S and I had our photos taken with Belle and Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty asked us what kingdom we were from. We spent the entire day there, eating Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream and pizza, watching the parades, nighttime fireworks show and going on all of the rides. We enjoyed analyzing the "It's a Small World" ride, swirling around really fast on the teacups and Space Mountain, which got faster as the day went on. During our three nights in Hong Kong, we stayed in Kowloon, a very diverse neighborhood of Indians, Chinese and Africans who are all trying to sell you tailored suits, fake watches and purses. We stayed in Chungking Mansions, a huge complex in the center of the city known for its low-cost accommodations. We stayed in a closet room with no windows. It was certainly an experience. While it had AC, it would make the room freezing in 2 minutes, so we opted for the blistering heat instead of freezing to death. Also, we were able to find several bookstores that had great books about China, which are impossible to find on the mainland. We made sure to stock up.
We spend yesterday in Macau, the former Portuguese concession. The small city is known as the "Vegas of the East", with loads of casinos along the waterfront. There was beautiful colonial architecture and we spent the day walking through the side streets and visiting old churches, temples and government buildings. We had Portuguese for dinner.
We are now back on the mainland and planning on taking a train to Guilin this evening at 7PM. Crossing the border into China was refreshing. While we loved Hong Kong and Macau, there is something more exciting about the chaos on the mainland. Looking forward to explore the South over the next few weeks.