Chris and Alla's Excellent Adventure (2024): 7. Hong Kong Day 1 of 2

As planned, our first morning in Hong Kong was given over to rest. We woke up around 10:30 am and stayed tethered to our beds for another hour catching on up on news, emails, and doing research for the days’ activities.

In the early afternoon we headed down to the Avenue of the Stars and the Museum of Art along the Victoria Harbor Promenade. In terms of architecture and urban design, Hong Kong is amazing. So much green space has been set aside, with plants even sprouting from building exteriors and rooftops. The K11 Musea shopping was covered with multiple plant-laden panels – something I would love to install on a smaller scale in Mexico. The other urban planning feature that we both noticed and enjoyed were number of covered walkways over roads and the network of pedestrian tunnels underground. They had the effect of reducing pedestrian traffic on the streets and the risks of pedestrians being hit by cars crossing roads, but more importantly provides shade and comfort for pedestrians in this humid semi-tropical climate. The sun is intense, and I was patting myself on the back for packing an umbrella – effective against both rain AND sun.

We ate at a café overlooking the harbor, vowing to order only one dish between the two of us from now on. For the second day in a row, we had to leave half of the food we ordered on the table because the portion sizes were so big. Having seen a poster for a Jane Goodall documentary at the Hong Kong Space Museum as we were traversing one of the underground walkways, that became our next destination.

Meandering along the promenade looking out across the harbor, we stopped once to take in the end of a traditional drum performance before heading into the Space Museum. The exhibitions were fantastic. The lower floor exhibit focused on astronomy and origins of the universe, while the upstairs exhibit highlighted past, present and future space travel. It was a weekend, so we had to navigate around kids, strollers, and large family groups. There were a lot of hands-on exhibitions, and it was fun watching the kids interact with them. Not unexpectedly, the Chinese space program was highlighted.

The “Jane Goodall - Reasons to Hope” documentary movie was a feast for the eyes and balm for the soul She highlighted four projects across the world working to restore wildlife habitats and reintroduce species that had been lost from some areas, including buffalo in Montana and loons in an area of Canada. I was awed by an Austrian effort to reintroduce the Northern Bald Ibis – a project involving hand-raising the birds to ensure they imprinted on two human caretakers, then guiding their migration across the Alps in an ultralight aircraft. The goal was to restore 300 nesting pairs of these birds to their region.

After the movie ended, mom suggested that we do something on my list, which was taking the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak. It was a bit of a debacle, first trying to take the subway and then waiting in an oppressively hot and disorganized “line” for the tram. Feeling confident about our navigational abilities, we decided that the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR line would be a good way to transverse Victoria Harbor for the tram. We were first stymied by the fact that you can’t purchase MTR tickets with a Visa card, only with cash or local cash apps. With much help from people around us…in several languages...finally found the few recently installed card readers on the turnstiles that operate like the DC metrocard. You scan once upon entry and rescan upon exit and your fare is calculated depending on the route. In the optimal scenario, one credit card = fare for one person. In our sub-optimal situation, we had one card between the two of us. We spend 10 minutes chatting with a station attendant to figure out as solution, but our final workaround involved Mom scanning her card to go in, then scanning again to go out but not actually leaving the train area. She passed the card to me, I scanned in, and then we repeated the process on the other end. The result was being charged for 4 fares instead of two, but there were no other options, and it was less than $20.

As mentioned previously, standing in line for the tram was a low point, but the vistas at the summit were worth it. I found myself wishing that we had an entire day just to explore the trails circling Victoria Peak and visiting the zoo and botanical gardens at its base. Uninterested in spending the rest of the evening fighting the crowds at the peak’s two commercial centers, we instead played the stressful “what’s the Uber pickup point” game for 15 minutes and were back at the hotel around 8 pm. We skipped dinner in favor of an apple filched from the fitness center and a Kind bar, and we were asleep by 10.

Fun fact learned from today’s activities:

· Space Museum: astronauts are required to do one hour of cardio and one hour of resistance training every day to prevent bone and muscle loss.
· Traffic: we have yet to see traffic jams despite the density. Hong Kong has a very robust public transit system with subway, bus, tram, and electric trolleys, so most of the traffic on the roads seems to be car services and taxis.
· Language: I have had Mandarin-speaking coworkers in graduate school and at Reynolds, and I generally recognize the cadence. Here in Hong Kong is the first time I am hearing Cantonese, and its entirely different in melody, rhythm, and volume. Instead of 4 tones like in Mandarin (a.k.a., Putonghua for those in the know,” there are 6 tones and a lot more staccato sounds and clipped consonants. Mandarin is the official language of the People’s Republic of China and there has been tension in Hong Kong about being able to maintain Cantonese or being forced to adopt Mandarin.