I shall start by sharing with you the places that I visited, some of them several times during my recent stay there because I enjoy them so much. Then in my later posts I shall share with you the food (glorious food) that I found and tasted.
Kowloon Walled City Park is hidden in one corner of the Carpenter Road Park in 九龍城. Originally a densely populated ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, the enclave was demolished and re-opened as a park in 1995.
The park's design is modeled after the "江南" (meaning south of the Yangtze) gardens of the early Qing dynasty. Some of the artifacts from the original walled city are on display throughout the park. The foundations of the South Gate, which served as the main entrance to the walled city, still stands. If you have time, take a walk around the park. It will give you the feeling of being transported back in time into one of those costume dramas where courtesans and eunuchs wonder the gardens of the imperial kingdom.
When in Hong Kong, taking the tram up to Victoria Peak is a must. The Peak Tram Station is located in Central (中環) on Garden Road near the St. John's Cathedral. Do go early if you do not wish to join the long queues of tourists.
The Peak Tram is a funicular railway that runs from Garden Road, through Kennedy Road, MacDonnell Road and Barker Road to the Peak. Up at the Victoria Peak (太平山, previously known as 扯旗山), you can have a beautiful view the Victoria harbour, Kowloon and Central. Within the Peak Tower, you can also find many shops selling souvenirs and Madame Tussaud's the wax museum.
One of my favourite places to chill is the Peak Lookout Restaurant, which is housed in an old traditional building used for engineers working on the Peak Tramway. It was turned into a restaurant in 1947 and has a beautiful open garden terrace overlooking Aberdeen.
While on Hong Kong island, we also visited some of the large shopping malls in Central including the Landmark Building where they have a mini-train running on a railway track in the atrium.
Then we were off to the try out the Central-Mid-levels Escalators (中環至半山自動扶梯), the world's longest covered escalator system linking Central with the Mid-level housing projects. Over 800 metres long and rising some 135 metres, it runs from Cochrane Street to Shelley Street. It's quite an experience riding one escalator after another, going up and up, for over 20 minutes.
After the comfortable ride up the escalators, the journey down is by walking down staircases, one after another. About halfway down, we digressed and walked over to Lan Kwai Fong (蘭桂坊) for a drink.
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