Part 7 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans.
Sunday, June 14 – Xian to Hong Kong
We split off from the Speizmans for the next few days. They headed toward the karst mountains and river valleys near Yangshuo and Guilin while Allie, Barb and I headed to Hong Kong. This was Allie’s first trip to Hong Kong and Barb and I were eager to show her our old stomping grounds. For Barb and I, it was our first time back to Hong Kong since 1993 with the Harders, though Barb was also there briefly with Leslie in 2003. I would have liked to taken Allie to Guilin as well but we couldn’t do everything.
We flew China Eastern Airlines to Hong Kong and arrived for the first time at the impressive new international airport on Lantau (technically, Chek Lap Kok island and a lot of newly reclaimed land just off Lantau). Here is Allie at baggage claim, enjoying her first few moments in Hong Kong.
We found our way to the Airport Express train which whisked us into Central in less than 30 minutes, a ridiculously fast and easy ride compared to my memories of getting to the old Kai Tak airport or anywhere in the New Territories, much less to Lantau Island. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos though in my defense it was a gray and rainy day. We got a cab from the train terminal in Central to our Four Seasons Hotel. We had arranged, with the help of Amy and Chris Hunsberger, for a harbor view room. We settled in explored the hotel. I think we had dinner in one of the hotel’s restaurants. Later in the evening we watched the harbor light show from the hotel’s pool deck.
Monday, June 15 – Hong Kong: The Peak and HK Museum
For Allie’s first real day in Hong Kong we started with a ride up the venerable Peak Tram for views from The Peak. It was not the best day for a view but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. I was astonished how many new, improbably tall apartment and office buildings had sprung up in Central and the Midlevels. When we lived there the buildings were already impossibly dense…now it was multiplied with a race for ever-taller buildings and views. It seemed that Hong Kong Harbor was shrinking amid all the towers — the harbor looked more like a river at this point. The Peak Tram itself seemed pretty much the same, though the cars themselves were modernized and (thankfully) air conditioned.
but the harbor keeps shrinking, it seems
We wandered around the new (for us) Peak Tower, a sort of upside down bathtub of a building that was the upper terminal for the Peak Tram and the main visitor center. Its rooftop is made for photos just like this!
We walked partway along the circular Peak walkway. We didn’t have time for the whole circumnavigation, and the weather was not terribly cooperative anyway, but we enjoyed seeing what we could see.
Having seen what we could see from The Peak, we took the tram back down then caught the MTR across the harbor to the new (since our last visit) Hong Kong Museum of History. I had never been in this museum but it had good reviews. We learned a bit about Hong Kong’s pre-history and got to see a few representative vehicles including a junk and a tram. It was a decent orientation to Hong Kong’s often overlooked history.
Our day of touristing complete, we headed back to the hotel. I’m not sure where we had dinner that night. Possibly Jimmy’s Kitchen for old times’ sake (the venerable Hong Kong outpost for European food finally closed its doors in 2020 but word is it might reopen).
Tuesday, June 16 – Hong Kong: Shopping in Kowloon
The morning brought no improvement in the weather. We didn’t let that slow us down much, but it was disappointing not to have better views from our harborfront room. It was still fun watching all the activity in the harbor. I couldn’t get over the shock of seeing the International Commerce Center rising on the West Kowloon waterfront…reclaimed land that hadn’t existed when we lived there. It would become Hong Kong’s tallest building and house a Ritz Carlton Hotel on its top floors. On most of the days we were there that meant the hotel floors would have been in the clouds. This monster building’s slightly smaller twin, the International Finance Center, was part of our own hotel’s complex of building in Central, dwarfing the other buildings on Central’s skyline.
I’m reasonably sure this was the day we connected with our old friend, Lloyd Chao, for dim sum. One way or another, we managed not to take a photo together, but he graciously took us out and we reminisced over HKIS and tennis memories.
Allie, Barb and I did some wandering and shopping in Central, including taking a short ride on the (new to us) Central-Mid-Levels Escalator. We went by the Alexandra House for a photo op with Allie and went through the Prince’s Building arcade, one of Grandmom’s favorite shopping places. We also went by the St. George’s Building where my dad used to work and where the American Club had been. The St. George’s Building had been waterfront property when we lived there, though the Connaught Centre (nee Jardine House) was built and blocked Dad’s view by the time we left. Now both buildings were completely overshadowed by newer construction on further reclaimed land. It was an astonishing level of change over 30 years.
We headed across the harbor on the Star Ferry. I noted the swathe of new land being reclaimed from the harbor on the Hong Kong side by the ferry terminal. The weather was starting to lift so we got a number of shots from the harbor.
Tsing Yi power station at far left (one of Dad’s biggest projects)
On the Kowloon side, we sought out the shop of Philip Chu, Louise’s favorite jeweler friends from when Barb was a baby. Astonishingly, they were still in business though the shop was not easy to find. Philip Chu and his wife (Dorothy?) are long gone but we had a nice chat with one of their nieces who was in the shop. I think Barb and Allie may have made a small purchase (some earrings?), as well.
I remember that even in the short walk from the Star Ferry to their shop I was drenched in sweat from the humidity and the heat which shot up once the sun came out. Good old Hong Kong!
After visiting with the Chu’s, Barb and Allie had a proper afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel. I’m not sure what I did other than try to stay in the Peninsula’s air conditioned lobby for as long as I could.
I think that evening we ventured into Wanchai to find the then-current iteration of the New American Chinese Restaurant (which finally closed its doors in 2018). It had been our main haunt for (nominally northern) Chinese food when we lived in Hong Kong — which mainly translated into scallion pancakes, good fried noodles, tasty salted peanuts for appetizers, and toffee apples for dessert.
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