Shopping in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island by night, at Victoria Harbour

After spending 3 weeks in South East Asia we made our way to the commercial metropolis that is Hong Kong. This trip has taught us that every city has its own identity and Hong Kong was no exception from that rule. Hong Kong is an interesting mix of Chinese and English colonial. Street names like Nathan Road and Argyle Street abound, alongside more traditional Chinese street names. It seems that the the leading types of trading in Hong Kong are investment banking, tailoring and the "copy" watch business. On every street corner Indian sales men would offer tailored suits and copy Rolex watches. It appears that a copy Rolex is eminently superior to a fake Rolex....

Chinese junk on Victoria Harbour

We spent our 3 days in Hong Kong combining sightseeing with shopping or was it the other way around? Shopping is tax free, which helped make each Hong Kong dollar go that little bit further. Kowloon has a definite buzz about it, hectic and busy, but also very civilised and modern. Hong Kong is short on space and packed with people, it is very densely populated bringing new meaning to the term 'high rise', as virtually every building we saw had at least thirty floors. We wonder whether the owners of Hong Kong penthouse apartments must suffer altitude sickness.

The director's cut on 'The Avenue of Stars', which is Hong Kong's answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

As we near the end of our trip our book of flight tickets is much thinner. When we started the trip we had a book of tickets that was as thick as a 'War and Peace', it is now reduced to just a short story, with only one flight remaining from Japan to Heathrow.