Hong Kong Trip 2010 – Part Two–Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok

 

   

 

 

The Markets and Tin Hau Temple.

Originally posted Monday, March 29, 2010 on my blog News From Italy

Hong Kong Trip Part Two

The next morning March 3rd we started to properly explore the amazing city of Hong Kong. We were to walk many miles during our stay and we started our tour using a useful little book 'Hong Kong Walks', a useful addition to our own Eyewitness and Lonely Planet guides.

Today's cacophony of sights and sounds took us to the Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok districts, a non stop experience of local urban Chinese lifestyles in the heart of the Kowloon peninsula.

We visited the Flower Market, Bird Garden, Goldfish Market, Jade Market, Ladies Market (misnamed as not just for ladies but selling a vast array of items at bargain prices). Also Shanghai Street one of the city's oldest where kitchenware shops mingle with those selling Chinese style wedding clothes(more of weddings another time) and a Tin Hau Temple.

I will leave the photos to say the rest and remember if you want to see more take a look at LindyLouMac Flickr Photos

Mong Kok Flower Market

 

 

The Bird Garden

Owners take their birds with them to the Bird Garden for an outing, it is also a market for all bird related purchases.

Even live food!

The Goldfish Market

The Ladies Market

The Jade Market, where yes I did buy a little something from this lady.

Tin Hau Temple

No photography was allowed inside but to finish off, here are a couple of the ones I took in the garden.

These trees are amazing and we were to see many of them during our visit.

All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection

Hong Kong Trip 2010 – Part One

Originally posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 on my other blog News From Italy

You may have noticed that this post is headed 2010, this is not a mistake. I have decided before continuing any further with posts about our recent trip that we should skip back in time to our first trip to China in March of last year, when I shared a series of six posts on  News from Italy.

 

Hong Kong Trip Part One

So lets get started, with our first few hours in Hong Kong. Arriving early morning we had a few hours sleep then started the day feeling refreshed at lunchtime. We spent the afternoon getting our bearings in the Central and Western district the area closest to Selina and Chris's apartment  in Mid-Levels.  The apartment is on the 27th floor, a fact we had to keep from my husband as long as possible before the trip as he hates heights. He managed amazingly well as long as we did not expect him to get too close to the huge windows. In the master bedroom one wall is nearly all glass!
Amazing views from the apartment, so very different from the sort of views we are used to!

 

Our explorations that first afternoon took us through the antiques district of Hong Kong and down (literally downhill all the way) to Possession Street, also known as Shui Hang Ho which is where the British first landed in 1841, although it is now hundreds of metres inland due to multiple landfills over the years.
 

 

 

We returned to the apartment by returning to mid-levels on the escalator. If you have a minute do read this article about it, although written in 2004, it is still relevant and interesting. Mid Levels Escalator/Dihn Tai

That evening we had our first experience of watching the high-rise skyline light up as dusk falls over Hong Kong.

A far more professional and beautiful shot than I managed to achieve with my camera that really manages to reproduce the magical atmosphere of Hong Kong.
Uploaded on March 9, 2010
by wickateers at www.flickr.com

Hong Kong Park

 

 

It was when I realised just how many places and photos that I would like to share with you that I decided that News From Italy was just not the right place to do so, especially as with this third post for Travel Tales I am still sharing the same day!  Hong Kong has so much to offer its visitors that I believe I have enough material to last a good while, especially if I revamp some of the posts I wrote on our first trip last year, some of the places we did not return to this time but I would still like to include them here.

To continue the day after visiting Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens and taking a ride on The Peak Tram we visited  another beautiful garden located just across the road from The Peak Tram Station.

Another oasis of calm within the city The Hong Kong Park was built at the cost of  HK$398 million and opened to the public  on 23 May 1991 by Sir David Wilson, the Governor of Hong Kong at that time. In the early colonial days of 1841 part of the area was called Cantonment Hill, where on its upper slopes Victoria Barracks,  was built between 1867 and 1910. The barracks were handed to the government in 1979 and the construction of the park became a joint project by the Urban Council (dissolved in 1999) and the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (renamed the Hong Kong Jockey Club in 1996).

Covering an area of 8 hectares it is an excellent example of how the old and modern designs can be made to blend in with natural landscape. A few of the former buildings of the barracks have been conserved within the park and have been put to use as a Museum of Teaware, a Visual Arts Centre and a Marriage Registry Office.

One of the main attractions of the park is the Edward Youde Aviary where I took this first group of photos, ideally one should sit there for hours with a tripod to get photos of the birds that fly freely within this area, maybe another time.  This walk-though aviary features a collection of 800 birds of 100 different species, so many more than my photos show!

 

The Aviary in Hong Kong Park

Around the park.

Aquatic Creatures Hong Kong Park

Water features Hong Kong Park.

 

I hope you enjoyed the stroll through the park and that the blog format works ok for you, please let me know if it is causing you problems and if I can make further adjustments I will do so.

If you are interested in finding out more about the park you may want to visit the Hong Kong Park Official Website and more photos can be viewed in my Flickr Album Hong Kong Park where you will also be able to view in a larger format.

All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection

With thanks also to  Wikipedia  for the historical information.