Can’t really tell as a tourist that China has taken over except for flags flying from buildings. Some people say you can tell. Truth is I haven’t been here before so I am not the best expert but the police keep a low profile and the region is not bureaucratic to the tourist except if you want to visit China and need a visa. Not much to do here except shop. Not more than 4 hours worth of sightseeing and a suggested 2 day visit schedule is outlined below. Book to be written: How to Kill Time in Hong Kong Between Fittings While Your Wife is Out Shopping.
Flew Singapore Airlines from San Francisco to Hong Kong; it is 13 1/2 hours going and 12 hours returning. Flying over China i can’t believe i am flying over china. Sit right side arriving hong kong; left side leaving. new airport is about 20 miles away from the city. i will always regret never having had the thrill of landing at the old airport between city buildings. best seat on singapore is exit row in upper deck business class; row 17 on the 747-400 nowadays. otherwise you must step over your seatmate to get to the aisle if you have the window. seats recline but i didn’t sleep. little compartments next to the window are nice for storing things during flight. extensive personal entertainment system and meals are nice but not that exciting for all the fuss they make over them. service is very attentive; they address you by your last name; air stewards and hotel operators know your name when you pick up the phone. if you ask a steward a question about singapore’s history, for instance, he’ll know all about it and can speak about things in full sentences with flowery vocabulary. in a hotel if you ask a waiter about the hotel chain, she knows all about it. it is a real pleasure to deal with people in service positions that are obviously overqualified for their jobs. in america, people tend to know nothing about their companies or their history. economy class was filled with malaysians and very crowded with tons of kids; i would advise avoiding it. cathay was not nearly as busy in economy. all in all, business class is more civilized on a long flight but it is still a real long flight and the only real luxury in the sky is in first class. if you want to eat something not meat or seafood, order vege in advance; if you want non-spicy or non-dairy, say so.
new airport is excellent and it is easy to get to the express train running fairly often which goes to the city and kowloon in about 25 minutes; the seats have personal video displays which was real cool. a lift lets you take your luggage cart and your stuff upstairs to a free shuttle to any large hotel which runs every 20 minutes. our transfer took just over an hour. porters are also on hand to help and don’t expect to be tipped. the train is about $5 or you can take a taxi for about $35 and it takes about 30 minutes from anywhere in Kowloon to the airport. Were impressed by the airport transfer with the train and overall technology with interactive kiosks at metro stations and interactive telephones at sites such as the Convention Center.
Monday — arrived to nap amid a big storm with huge lightning and thunder. fortunately, we had nice weather rest of week. we are in Kowloon which is a district across a body of water from downtown Hong Kong. went to Holiday Inn in Kowloon for lunch; good takeout area with pastries and sandwiches. Had fish and veges and the price for a fish entree is about $15 plus 10% service, no tax. Viewed afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel which is a beautiful site and the first of many wonderful lobby orchestras. cheap labor enables hotels to put up good entertainment in their lobbies in the afternoons and evenings. quite a few citibanks and all have atm’s. visited the tailor at the Hong Kong Hotel shopping arcade 2nd level (David Wan of Charles & Company) for the first of about 5 fittings and to choose fabrics. Am really not yet of sound mind to deal with the science of choosing a wardrobe so i just choose a few suits. visited a few of our family’s business associates and looked for women’s tailors at Regent Hotel (ie: The British Tailor). In hong kong (HKG) most tailor shops are in shopping malls attached to hotels. Hotels all have big shopping malls attached to them. Shopping malls empty into other shopping malls and there are no exits. This is what you figure out after the second day. Dinner at hotel coffee shop; land of the $5 baked potato but very good, and plate of cooked veges and rolls. TV has channels from Australia, France, CNN, CNBC, MTV, BBC, HBO, etc. (Tuesday) More fittings; walk around Kowloon with my dad and my cousin morgan who has now joined us; continental breakfast at DeliFrance, a good chain of croissanteries with predictable food and several locations in HKG. Walked Ocean Terminal shopping area near the ferries to downtown HKG. Dinner at New Orleans Jazz Cafe at the Sheraton Hotel. Pretty pricey there. Rooms could be gotten at the Sheraton for $135 a night which is roughly what we paid at the Shangri-La Hotel after getting a major discount although you could get the Shangrila via a consolidator for about $190 a night. Add 13% taxes and charges to these numbers for all hotels. The Hyatt is also discounting at about $130 a night. All these hotels in Kowloon are roughly within 10 minutes walk of each other; the Peninsula is very pricey and hard to get under $320 a night. Or you could stay at the YMCA next to the Peninsula for under $75 a night; has a cafeteria which is good for breakfast. The Shangri-La is like a Hilton, has local charm, nice views of the Harbour if you take a Harbour-view room and was quiet, even overlooking the streets. Very good service with butler who will come to your room if you ring for him. Also a business center where you can check AOL, Netscape, etc. but it closes at midnight which is trouble for people who need to be awake when the markets are open in the US. The Shangri-La is not the most centrally located hotel but it has its points. A 7-11 is nearby but the cakes here are awful. Laundry is very expensive even with a 20% discount they gave me. Electric drapes pretty cool. Good view of Hong Kong in the mornings from business lounge on the 20th floor and you can steal some breakfast if you drop in the lounge in the morning. They actually are serving real breakfast on the 21st floor in a special dining room. hotel kowloon shangrila in phone 2721.2111. do not confuse it with the island shangrila on the hong kong side.
Wed — Took a city tour with Morgan. 8:30 to 2pm for $40. Visited Victoria’s Peak to see a hazy view of city and rode a little fishing boat at Aberdeen for a half hour; rest of tour was guided shopping and a real waste. No need to go to Repulse Bay, for instance; it’s just a beach. At Stanley Market, got a $2 gift for my niece — box opens and frogs are dancing. She loved it. Store #46-a in the bazaar. Really nice view of Aberdeen from Peak Road on the way up to Victoria’s peak; in my opinion, the nicest view on the tour. Dinner at Valentino’s italian restaurant on Chatham Road near the hotel –pricey and miserly on the portions but food was good. Featured a chinese guy singing frank sinatra, elvis and other american singing sensations with a pretty good accent. taxi to Night Market about 15 minutes away for a sweaty but local flavor. bought nothing. taxis are cheap — $2 for the first mile and almost anywhere in the central part of Kowloon is less than a mile away though there are many one-way streets. Hong Kong Daily Post a very good newspaper and local radio is British in tone and pleasant. BBC World Service Radio has local relay here. Metro and local telephone calls are cheap. Also the ferry to and from downtown HKG. Tunnels can be crowded; take the Western Tunnel which costs a bit more but is faster. No sales taxes or duties.
Thursday — Spent most of the day at the jewelry show hanging around with my mom on business. Wanchi Exhibition Center is an impressive building; an excellent business library is located in the basement. Food was decent there as well and its restaurants should not be overlooked if you are in the building. Went to Conrad Hotel (slight connection to Hilton) for tea near the Pacific Center which is a major shopping mall in downtown Hong Kong and which looks exactly like the US. Prices are 30-40% lower here for things such as film, shoes and shirts, but remember you pay duty of about 10% when you enter the US if you declare what you spent. Grand Hyatt, next to the Wanchi center, has a beautiful lobby. Testament to the grand investments in Asia that had no purpose and made no business sense. Other hotels in downtown area are Ritz Carlton, Fuyama, Mandarin Oriental, and Island Shangri-La. Dinner at the local Jewish Community Center at 70 Robinson Road, a 5 story building next to a beautiful synagogue and which had a restaurant, grocery store, history exhibit and facilities locals use. Restaurant was very disappointing with food out of the microwave and mixes. There is a significant Jewish component to Hong Kong history since Jews made up a good part of the merchant class that built the city; the first British governor was a Jew and Nathan Road, the main street in Kowloon, is named after him. To reach the rabbi, Yaacov Kermaier, 2589.2621 or cell 9266.3111. HKG skyline is beautiful at night with exciting looking buildings all lit up. HINT: If you get in a taxi, have someone write down in Chinese where you are going or let the bellman direct the driver. Driver says he understands you but often doesn’t. Even something such as Sheraton Hotel means nothing to them. Most taxi drivers don’t know English. One taxi took us to the wrong place — hard to mistake Shangrila Hotel for Mandarin Hotel. Take a card from your hotel with its name written in Chinese on it. Fortunately, people here care if you are happy with their service. Thank you: Seh sieh in mandarin chinese; dawtieh in local cantonese dialect. you will hear seh sieh much more often.
A short map of Kowloon: Ferries go from end of Salisbury Road (a perimeter road close to the water) which features Peninsula and Sheraton Hotels. Other end of the road about a 5 minute walk is Regent Hotel. You must turn left onto Chatham Road which leads to Shangrila Hotel which intersects with and is at the end of Mody Road. Mody Road leads to the Hyatt and Holiday Inn at Nathan Road which is the main shopping street and which ends at Salisbury Street where you began. The intersection of Mody Road and Nathan Road is just 2 or 3 blocks away from Salisbury Street. Just a block beyond Nathan Road is Canton Road which has Ocean Terminal and Hong Kong Hotel. Metro station is right by the Holiday Inn. Walking times: From ferry to Shangrila: 15 minutes; from Shangrila to Hyatt about 10 minutes. From Holiday Inn to the ferry is about 7 minutes. Streets are not generally straight but it is roughly within a big triangle and it begins to make sense after 2-3 days.
Friday — Got up early to walk in a nearby park and see people doing morning things such as Tai Chi. Best to go to Victoria’s Park overlooking Nathan Road. Mostly elderly people doing this; young ones go jogging. Go early. Went back to the jewelry show using the ferry to Wanchai to get to the Exhibition/Convention Center; 25 cents versus $15 for a taxi and we got there before the taxi did. Ferry takes 8 minutes to cross the bay and puts you a block away from the Convention Center. Another ferry will take you to Central which is about a mile away but closer to downtown things of interest. Both ferries run from the same place in Kowloon. By the way, I am quoting US dollars all the way through here but Hong Kong dollar is roughly 7.75 to the US1. A ferry also runs from Central to Tsim Sau Tsui (TST) which is right next to the Shangrila Hotel. It can be confusing to know the difference between Kowloon and TST since both terms are used often. The TST metro station, for instance, is right next to the Holiday Inn. Kowloon station is somewhere else entirely and you’d have no reason to go there except for the express train to the airport. Metro from TST to Central station in downtown is 4 minutes which is faster than the ferry. Today Morgan and I sweat and walk downtown Hong Kong. It’s gotten progressively hotter and more humid as the week wears on. Center city is pleasant with pretty gardens and buildings and some open spaces. Not terribly as frantic as i had feared. Lane Crawford and Marks and Spencers are main department stores (they have smaller locations in Kowloon) but pricey and filled with European imports we can buy cheaper elsewhere. Customers are wealthy mafiosos from mainland China. Lane’s has men’s room; M&S doesn’t but a manager will let you in. At Traders Restaurant in the Wanchai Center, a manager got me rolls and butter after the waiter figured it wasn’t included in the price of the meal so he had none. I offered to pay extra but once the manager intervened it got done and was gratis. WELLCOME is a supermarket chain. Not much to write home about; prices are somewhat high here and the supermarkets are not very impressive. At the end of the main shopping street here begins a network of escalators which goes up the mountainside to Mid-Level. You stand for about 20-25 minutes on these escalators and go up the mountain to this more residential area (ie: the JCC is a 10 minute walk from the end of the line at midlevel). Ferry and metro are liberally air conditioned; escalator is not but it beats walking. One escalator was down for maintenance and we had to walk for a few minutes and it was hellish. This tremendous improvement was just implemented a few years ago and it’s free. City has built huge overpasses to keep pedestrians moving above the flow of traffic and to keep cars moving. Also, some of the pedestrian passes are just a marvel of engineering and seem to be built into the sides of mountains connecting various neighborhoods. And I thought it was only the Swiss who did all the engineering marvels. Morgan and I are walked out and it’s hot; we taxi up to Victoria’s Peak for what I suspect will be a better photo-op. Best views are about 4pm; gets dark at 8 in the summer. Best view is from the observation deck atop the Peak Tower — not the actual Victoria’s Peak. Also there is a Movenpik restaurant on levels 6 & 7 of the Tower which of course features a nice shopping mall. Great at night; book ahead at 2849.2000. I really like the Movenpik concept and you should try it if you have not yet. Also at the Peak Tower you can do stupid things such as take a Disney Epcot-style ride into Hong Kong history and kill a half hour and a few dollars. From the tower runs a funicular down toward Central and the ride takes about 15 minutes. There is a dramatic view of the city at a certain point coming down the mountain. Free double-decker bus to the ferry and an exciting way to drive down the middle of downtown at rush hour. Best to view the Kowloon skyline in the afternoon from HKG side. The clock tower at the ferry in Kowloon also looks prettiest at this time. Friday night services at a local business renting space to a synagogue attended by tourists and local business people; many Israelis living there doing their businesses. Sefardic and friendly. Good food which is free but you of course make a nice donation afterward. Synagogue is to the right of the Siberian fur store at corner of Mody Road and Chatham Road. Go up to the 4th floor. Returned to sit and lobby and enjoy yet another good orchestra. Saturday afternoon walked Nathan Road; at night another visit to the tailor and late night snack at the coffee shop in the atrium of Hong Kong Hotel shopping area. Oliver House which is near this shopping area is OK for potatoes but pass on the tuna. Sunday killed time going to Hollywood and Cat Streets to see antique bazaar but most of it was closed and not worth seeing even if it were open. Back to the jewelry show, the tailor to finish clothes, a last meal in the hotel coffee shop, a mad rush to buy casual shirts and off to the airport, sat with brother Avi at the Singapore business lounge where he enjoyed their liquor, and exit on the 10:00 flight which arrived in Frisco same day at 7pm. Interesting to arrive before you depart.
OK, now for some impressions. We didn’t go to Chenzin, which is just across the border in mainland China. Told it was just a bunch of junky shopping and the price of visas to China is pretty high if you are not willing to wait a couple of days or try your luck at the railroad station; we got lots of conflicting advice and in the end just decided it wasn’t worth it and certainly didn’t feel like paying $50 to take a shopping tour. Bathrooms in hotels can be very lush with attendants, towels and folded down paper. Lots of marble in buildings and hotels. Hong Kong is clean and efficient. Things work. All signs are bilingual, meaning English and Chinese and the city is user friendly to the tourist. Plenty of ATM’s and people take US dollars. Lots of air conditioning around; no problem wearing long sleeves during the summer. It pays to come and buy clothes here if you buy enough of it. I paid $100 a pair of pants and between $300-650 per suit. A $650 suit is with 150-strength wool. A custom-made shirt should cost about $50. $100 a pair of pants sounds crazy but they fit right and the same pair pants not tailored in Marks and Spencers was also $100. There are many lousy tailors here so it is best to go to a good one and be prepared to sit here for a week and go through 4 or 5 fittings and bring someone along to help check the tailor’s work on your backside because my tailor, although a good one, made mistakes and several things needed to be corrected more than once. And of course they don’t point these out to you. At least they work hard and will sit with you at 11 on Saturday night and bring the clothes to your hotel Sunday 6pm just before your flight and even get a suitcase for you and pack the stuff in it. My mother had dresses made at different places and the better places charged her 50% more but she liked what she got; the other stuff she threw out. You don’t save much money if you bring your own material since the bulk of the charge is labor but there is definitely benefit to bringing in material since there is a lot of the same material all over town and the designs are not terribly interesting, especially in shirts. In a perfect world, I’d buy materials in Italy and bring them here. To get the best of the best here you’d go to the tailor “Stuart” in the shopping mall of the Peninsula Hotel and you’d pay about $1,200 for the suit. In New York, you’d pay $1,500. New York charges sales tax and importing from Hong Kong involves duty if you declare so these two charges are a wash. For $300 it doesn’t pay to come to Hong Kong but if you buy 10 suits it does. I bought a dozen pair pants, 5 suits and about 20 shirts so it paid for me. On a personal note, sizes here are cut to my frame, so in the US a casual shirt doesn’t fit me even in small size; here I am a Medium! Purchasing here involves bargaining.
Tourism is down here and hotels and businesses are hurting; some are closing. The day tour I took was all women who were wives of men on business trips. That means no real tourists. The jewelry show was poorly attended. This city often feels like Chicago; I didn’t tend to feel I was sitting in Asia. More and more I find traveling is less exotic in the food and the commercial areas than in the people you know and meet. I personally don’t have many contacts in Hong Kong and spent much time killing time. You could use Hong Kong as a base for sidetrips; Taipei is 1 1/4 hours flying; Bangkok is 2 hours flight. Macau is 40 miles away and a waste if all you want to go there for is the casino; if you are into Portugese culture, you will find things of interest. A travel agency in Hong Kong for airline tickets is Bixley at 2521.7239.
Good amount of wealth here; only nice cars, especially in front of the hotels. No scooters or motorcycles. Hong Kong is reasonable but not cheap. Lots of cellular phones; they even work in the metro stations. Doesn’t seem too frantic to a tourist (like I said, more like Chicago than New York) but this is a function of pleasant open spaces and smart city planning. Inside, they work like dogs here. This city is open 7 days a week, 364 days a year (except for Chinese New Year). Stores open at 10 and stay open late. Best to stay away from traffic and use ferry and metro to cross the bay between Central Hong Kong and Kowloon or pay extra and use a faster tunnel such as Western Tunnel if it is trafficky. Taxis are good within Kowloon or Central/mid-level and are basically reasonable to cheap. Remember that people appear to understand you but don’t always. They are just trying to be nice; don’t get upset. Although people are committed to service, quality is not always of the highest standard. Hong Kong is not Switzerland but then again you are not paying Swiss prices. Eating on the street is not as good as Europe but you can eventually find just about anything. Water is safe. Not all medicines are available; make sure to bring enough of prescription items and remember that Express Mail will get you stuff here in 3 days. Eyeglasses are a good buy here; a sharp salesman at Regent Eyecare at 66 Nathan Road is Vanno. Telephone 2191.9668. All in all, Hong Kong is a 4 hour sightsee and worth 2 full days.
Ivan’s Suggested 2 day tour of Hong Kong: Day 1: 5-6 hours: Metro to Central, walk around downtown and see legislative building, parks, shopping streets and join escalator to mid-level and walk some more. Taxi to Victoria’s Peak around tea time, take funicular (tram) down, take double decker to Ferry to Kowloon and see the clock tower. Go to Nightmarket in Kowloon. Day 2: Kowloon: Walk Nathan Road, Victoria Park, Salisbury Road, Mody Road, shopping arcades at Regent, Hyatt (nice stores) and Hong Kong hotels (the Ocean Terminal complex is also next to the Hong Kong Hotel shopping arcade). (3-4 hours). Take tea at the Peninsula Hotel. Taxi to Aberdeen and ride a boat. Go to the amusement park if you like. Take a cable car up the mountain (I didn’t actually do this but it should be fun). Taxi to Victoria’s Peak near sunset and take dinner into the evening (ie: Movenpik) and get a table on Level 7 with a view of the cityscape.
LOS ANGELES HOTEL: Carlyle Inn 310.275.4445. About $110 a night. Includes nice breakfast and tea; pleasant architecture although rooms are small. Location is good in the Pico/Robertson area near Beverly Hills. Other hotel is the Marriott Courtyard Residence about $150 a night with similar amenities but the room is a suite and has a full kitchen and is about 10 minutes walk closer to the Rodeo Drive area, although it is still a 20 minute walk away.
