Hong Kong is the next destination to tell about in our travels. We originally picked Hong Kong as a starting point for traveling on land through Asia, but after a little research we learned that we’d need to postpone our on land travel until we hit Vietnam.
If you don’t know, Hong Kong was a territory of Britain for years. It wasn’t until 1997 that power of the city was given back over to China. It’s interesting though because even though Hong Kong is now apart of China and is surrounded by China on all sides, it still functions separately from China as an autonomous territory. What this means for travelers is that different visas are needed for each land. For US citizens, a visa to Hong Kong is free, but a visa to other parts of China is around $200 per person. What this meant for us is that we could fly to Vietnam for less than half the price of the visa we would need for the rest of China, so at the last minute, we bought tickets and skipped out on the rest of China for now.
Our six days in Hong Kong turned out to be nothing like what I expected. Honestly, I thought I wasn’t going to like it. The idea of being in a city full of millions of people, all speaking a language that that I don’t even know how to say “Hello” in sounded very stressful to me.
As it turns out, it’s kind of an introvert’s paradise. Aside from the occasional street vendor trying to sell you a custom made suit, and the random unknowledged shoulder hit from one of the thousands of people never looking up from their phones, everyone keeps to themselves. It was fascinating being surrounded by so many people and still feeling on our own. I think this atmosphere would make Hong Kong a difficult place to settle and make friends, but as a traveler, I was pretty happy.
Even the park benches keep a barrier between you and the person next to you 😉.
Overall Hong Kong as a whole is a pretty interesting place. From visiting the Hong Kong History museum we learned that this city essentially went from being a small fishing village to a metropolis of 8 million in about 150 years (let that sink in, it’s shocking!). I expected Hong to be filled with dingy looking buildings, much like other large cities I’ve visited, but I was surprised to find that Hong Kong is, in some ways, quite clean – sparkling, even. (Well, there actually is quite a bit of trash, but the buildings themselves are beautiful!) The growth of the city seems to have happened recently enough that huge sections of the city are filled with modern, towering glass buildings. I’ve seen plenty of buildings like this in metropolis areas in the states, but I’ve never seen so many of these buildings together, continuing for blocks on end. These blocks of buildings are all over the city, both on the mainland and the island of Hong Kong. It’s quite a sight to see from either shore line.
Sparkling buildings
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A view of Hong Kong Island from the mainland.
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Another view of Hong Kong Island shoreline with another another glass building on the mainland. And as a side note, a ferry between the two costs less than fifty cents!
Though you wouldn’t know it from the ferry or food prices, the wealth in Hong Kong is pretty crazy. Ranking among the ten wealthiest cities in the world, the amount of high end shopping available is unbelievable. We accidentally ventured through one of the malls one day and found that the majority of the stores were so high fashion we had never heard of them. I giggled occasionally, while also admiring the artistry, as I checked out the window displays, filled with eclectic runway type designs for absurd amounts of money. The higher end stores we had heard of could be found every few blocks – Louie Vuitton, Michael Kors, Tiffany’s. These types of shopping venues were as numerous as the glass buildings, scattered throughout the city, not confined to one area of town. We passed plenty of the people on the streets in these high end designs too. I remember turning to Kirk during one of our walks and saying “I feel like we are in the future.”
Really, something about some of the things we saw reminded me of the capitol city in “The Hunger Games.” Interesting styles, shine all around, disconnection with actual people due to technology – Hong Kong even has a pretty extensive above ground sidewalk system, connecting all the buildings, and allowing traffic to keep flowing. I’ve seen all of the above in other places, but never in such abundance. It was fascinating to be on onlooker there. 
I thought this building with all round windows was quite a sight – but in this picture you can also see some of the walkways connecting between buildings. It’s an interesting walkway system because it takes you through the actual buildings, not around them. For shopping centers, this is an excellent way to advertise – people have to walk by to get where they are going – but we also walked through quite a few office buildings. I imagine they must have good sound proof walls to have so much traffic going through those!
This picture shows some of the other above ground walkways. If you look closely you can see them layer behind each other. In some places they had one for every block. They also have similar systems underground. The stairs that lead to the subways also lead to underground walking tunnels.
In spite of all the glitz and glam, Hong Kong is an incredibly affordable place to visit. Food is around 4-5 US dollars a meal, and if you don’t mind sharing a small place, sleeping is pretty affordable too :).
As for our actual stay, we booked a place called “City Guesthouse” in the Chung King Mansions that was right in the middle of town on the mainland. This building houses some of the cheapest accommodations in Hong Kong, with several guest houses inside. The rooms are small, but you have everything you need!
This was our original tiny room. They moved us to a slightly larger one for the rest of our nights there, but don’t confuse the word “slightly larger” for anything of great size – Neither bed was even a full sized twin 😂.
Though I found much to be fascinated by in Hong Kong, it probably wouldn’t surprise many of you to know that my favorite part was the food. Hong Kong is known as a “foodie” city, and it did not disappoint!
This is a picture of me excited to eat our first noodle dish! (Noodle soups/bowls are quite popular in various parts of Asia). We didn’t do research before stopping at this place and the food turned out be mediocre, but the jasmine milk tea was delicious!
Though that first choice wasn’t the best, we found one of our favorite places to eat when Kirk said “We need to find an alley, because that’s where the best food is.” We turned onto the next alley we saw and went into the first place that had prices posted and the menu in English. I ordered the Wonton Soup and Kirk ordered the Chongquig Hot and Sour Noodles with spicy pork, both dishes medium heat. Mine was delicious, Kirk’s was out of this world. We liked it so much that I’m posting directions on here in case any of you ever visit Hong Kong and want to try it, or in case Kirk and I visit again and need to remember how to find it :).
This is the menu telling what’s in each dish – don’t be deterred by anything that sounds strange – the mix of flavors was so good! Also I’d recommend the rice noodles instead of the sweet potato for the Chongquig. To me, glass noodles are a little slimy and don’t hold flavor as well.
Those are Hong Kong dollars. Divide by 8ish to get the US ($4-$5 for each dish 🙂 )
Some directions: The restaurant is on Hau Fook road. It has a yellow sign (seen below one the right), but is in Chinese. “Craft Hotpot” is next door, which is much easier to understand! It’s a few blocks from the Hong Kong History museum and the store we originally turned at to find it was “Cotton On.”
Wankwaiheung was on the menu – I wonder if it is the English translation/pronunciation of the restaurant name? If you google what’s above for directions, on our computer it was the third option, Tsim Sha Tsui.
This is a picture from our first time visiting – the wonton soup in front and Kirk with the Chongqing. Also, medium heat was quite hot, but not hot enough to keep me from ordering it again when we went back!
This is from the second time we went. I got the Chongqing and Kirk decided to try the HK Noodle broth. The HK was good but didn’t compare to the others.
We’ve noticed that we get the most “likes” on Facebook on pictures of us, so we decided we should take one with our favorite soups :). Even though you can’t “like” pictures on the blog, we guess you must like seeing our faces 😉
After visiting there we also found a milk tea place down the same alley that had a mango milk tea that was to die for. If you’ve never had milk tea, it’s a drink that’s absolutely delicious and pretty terrible for you. It’s usually some kind of strongly brewed tea mixed with creamy milk and quite a bit of sugar (though you can adjust the sugar amount in it). You can also order tapioca pearls or candy jellies that you slurp up through a big straw from the bottom of the glass. At first it’s a little weird to have gummies in your drink, but then it becomes addictive. Our mango milk tea ended up being an earl grey tea with mango jellies – and the floral taste from the two of those was amazing. We ended up trying a different milk tea place everyday! Another notable one that we actually know that name of was “Coco.” It’s a chain with locations around the world (even a few in the US) and we were really impressed with their classic bubble tea. The pearls we had tasted slightly of coffee and we loved it.
Another tea place that happened to be located right next to our guesthouse was called “The Alley.” “The Alley” had a line that reached all the way down the block nearly every time we walked by. The wife of a US businessman that we met in an elevator told us she goes everyday and usually waits around 2 hours for her drink! Who has time for that? The Alley opens around noon and one day we were walking by at 11:45am and noticed only 5 people were in line so far, so we hopped in. Our whole wait still ended up being about 45 minutes, but we tried the tea, and even while harboring the aggravation that I had waited in line for 45 minutes for it, it was probably my favorite tea we had (though not by far, and not so much that I’d be willing to wait for it a second time in the same trip – though I’d certainly go back if we find ourselves in Hong Kong again). If you are ever there though, it’s definitely worth trying their deerioca brown sugar milk tea, and their taro red bean green milk tea (which actually has beans in it, but the flavor is awesome).
The store front
We watched as every single person who got their drink took a picture of it, so we followed suit :).
Another favorite place of ours was a dumpling place mentioned in the Michelin street food guide that also happened to be a block from our hotel. We ate these for breakfast four of our six days there, ha.
The sign of the dumpling place – I believe the last word didn’t make it into the picture. It should say “pan-fried buns”
I was always so excited to eat them that I forgot to take a picture when the box was full! Above are two dumplings with the chili sauce and vinegar on top. It might seem weird, but add the vinegar. It takes it to a whole new level! We tried all three types of dumplings they had and liked them all!
Another food we really fell for were the egg waffles. We’d heard they were worth trying and decided to give it a go even though all I could think was, “How good can a waffle be?”
Y’all. SO good! The “original” tastes essentially like a regular waffle, but the texture is what gets you. Super crunchy on the outside and chewy soft on the inside. We also had a coconut milk flavored one that had a delicious flavor, but wasn’t as crunchy. We’d suggest trying Mammy Pancake – they make them fresh ensuring the crunchiness!
Another notable food that I don’t have a picture of is the pineapple bun. No, there’s no pineapple in it, but’s it’s incredibly tasty. It’s basically a sweet yeast roll (think O’Charley’s or Texas Road House) with a sweet flour crumble on top. It’s served warm with a chunk of cold butter in the middle…Mmm…
So far all the foods/places I’ve mentioned were on the mainland, but two days we ventured over to Hong Kong Island for some good eats. Hong Kong houses the cheapest restaurant in the world to have been given a Michelin Star. They are known for their goose and y’all, it’s worth the ticket to Hong Kong just to try it. It’s sweet and savory and perfectly crispy. I didn’t know I could get so excited about goose, and we got the cheapest cut they had!
Kirk’s plate is the goose, but we also tried their pig. It was tasty, but nothing compared to that goose!
The name of the restaurant is Kam’s Roast Goose. There is always a line, but it moved really quickly for us!
Tim Ho Wan is another cheap eats Michelin star rated restaurant, but we ended up not making it there. It’s on the list for next time though :).
A second place we went to on Hong Kong Island was Kau Kee Beef Brisket, a restaurant whom a local Hong Kong blogger said had the best brisket in the world. Coming from Texas, this is absolutely not true, but it was pretty delicious none the less. The meat we had here was a little tough, but this brisket in particular is served in a noodle bowl and the broth was fantastic. We got the curry brisket and the regular brisket and both were delicious in completely different ways. There is also a wait at this place, but it went quickly too!
Not a great picture of me, but this exemplifies several of our meals in Hong Kong.
Many of the restaurants are tiny, so they just put you at a table with other people. I bumped elbows with this guy the whole time, but we never spoke to each other! (Being hungry and stuck at a table with strangers, but then no one talks – that’s a hangry introvert’s nightmare turned dream 😂)
The restaurants are incredibly efficient and hand you the check as soon as you order. We were never rushed to eat, but we never lingered afterwards either. This is the opposite of South America – everywhere we went there, they wouldn’t give us a check until we asked – the culture is relationship based, so they expect you to linger and talk. Relationship based vs. efficiency based culture – America is somewhere between these two when it comes to most restaurants – waiters give you the check at the end without you having to ask – and want you to enjoy yourself – but not too long :).
Curry brisket on the left, regular on the right. Mmmm so yummy.
Another notable feature of Hong Kong is their green spaces. They have decorative greens growing on top of buildings, on walls of buildings, and in intentional parks around the city. While on Hong Kong Island, we visited their public park that has sizable free aviary. It was a beautiful space filled with tons of unique birds and it was large enough that I didn’t feel too bad for these flying creatures!
This is the only aviary picture I got, but there was much more than this to see!
This pond is in that same city park. It’s impressive how much park space they’ve made in the middle of all the skyscrapers, and there were plenty of people utilizing it!
Earlier I mentioned that we went to the Hong Kong History Museum. Below is the only picture I took while there, but in spite of my lack of pictures, this free attraction is well worth the visit (I think it’s especially good to visit at the beginning of your time there). Hong Kong’s museum tells both the natural and political history of this territory that has been under the power of several different governments over the last 150 years. Reading about the opium wars was fascinating (when Britain essentially attacked China because China didn’t want Britain selling opium to their people anymore.) The museum even tells about the history of their land – how past volcanos and rivers shaped the land into how it looks now.
This picture in particular is from the more “cultural” section of the museum where they explained different cultural customs – dances, celebrations, etc.
We learned a lot about the land in which we found ourselves at this museum and it being free to visit was a big bonus!
One day when we were leaving the ferry we passed this group pictured below. A man from the group approached us and asked if we wanted a free turban, adding that they were raising awareness about their religion, Sikhism. We took his paper to learn more.
Kirk mentioned that he thought this event was probably more about clearing things up about Sikhism rather than trying to convert people, and after a little research, I found Kirk’s guess was right. It turns out International Turban Day began not long after 9/11. Because Osama Bin Laden was often pictured wearing a turban, people began to associate turbans with Islam, and with the association of Islam and terror growing, many Sikhs were (and are) attacked simply because of wrongful associations. International Turban Day is simply to teach people about Sikhism so that their turbans are no longer associated with terror.
Reflecting back, I feel quite moved by having encountered this group. Anytime I’ve seen pamphlets like this handed out by other religious groups the papers came with a message like, “Come join us.” To have someone hand me a pamphlet with information about their religion and the attached message is, “Understand us, so that we can stop being hurt” – that’s a sobering thought.
Understanding more about what the movement is about, I wish we had taken the time to have them wrap our heads. I can think of no better way to have sat in solidarity with someone in that particular moment.
Well, I suppose that’s all I have to share about our time in Hong Kong! I leave you with a couple of pictures of the city all lit up at night. Though I’d prefer a nature walk to a stroll in the city, there is certainly something beautiful in all that shine.
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The Yonderers 