My son and I were happy to arrive at the
Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong after nearly 24 hours of travel from the US East Coast. Located on Mody Road in Tsim Sha Tsui East, this 5-star luxury hotel offers 679 guest rooms and suites which are among the most spacious in the city. The hotel also offers 9 restaurants, a bar, lounge and deli - all in a prime location overlooking Victoria Harbor. We had a one-bedroom Harbor View Suite at 947 square feet featuring floor-to-ceiling bay windows with panoramic water views. Our room had two queen beds with nightstand lighting and curtain controls, a full bath as well as a half bath off the sitting room. Both were appointed in Italian marble and well stocked with designer toiletries. We were granted free Wi-Fi access and enjoyed flatscreen satellite television in the bedroom, sitting room and the bathroom! But the best part of the suite was our invitation to visit the Horizon Club Lounge.
As guests here, we had a choice of tea or coffee delivered to our suite with a wake-up call each morning and were able to enjoy a full or continental breakfast served in the Club Lounge or made available for take out. Drinks and snacks were served throughout the day, including during the evening cocktail hour and our in-room minbar consumption was also complimentary. There were even more exclusive benefits made available to Horizon Club guests such as a portable Wi-Fi enabled device for staying connected outside of the hotel, a suit pressing or laundry credit and shoe shine service. We were also granted access to the Club’s private meeting rooms and, while we didn’t avail ourselves of that perk during our stay, it’s a nice benefit if you’re traveling on business. Finally, as Horizon Club guests we had access to a dedicated Club Concierge to take care of dinner reservations and any special requests that came up during our stay. We were also given a late 4:00 PM check-out on our day of departure. After settling in, we paid a visit to the Club Lounge and enjoyed a few small plates before turning in for the night.
The next morning we walked several blocks to the Tsim Sha Tsui Cruise Pier in Kowloon to join the crowds of locals and visitors for a five-minute ferry ride across Victoria Harbor aboard the famous Star Ferry, which took us to the Central Pier on Hong Kong Island. This passenger ferry service has become one of the best-loved tourist attractions in Hong Kong. Founded in 1888 and now serviced by a fleet of twelve ferries, the company operates two routes across the busy harbor, carrying about 70,000 passengers per day, or 26 million in any given year. Even though the harbor is crossed by subway and road tunnels, the Star Ferry continues to provide a very inexpensive mode of harbor crossing at the equivalent of US $0.10 per ride. It was actually rated First in the “Top 10 Most Exciting Ferry Rides” poll conducted by the Society of American Travel Writers in 2009.
A visit to Hong Kong isn’t complete without experiencing Victoria Peak and we made our way up the circuitous Peak Road by taxi from the Central Pier in about ten minutes for roughly US $11. The Peak, as the locals call it, is a hill on the western half of Hong Kong Island. With an elevation of 1,811 feet, it’s the highest spot on the island and a major tourist attraction, offering views of Central, Victoria Harbor and Lamma Island, drawing some seven million visitors every year. As early as the 19th Century, the Peak attracted prominent European residents because of its panoramic view over the city and its temperate climate compared with the sub-tropical climate in the rest of Hong Kong. The number of visitors led to the construction of two major leisure and shopping centers, the Peak Tower and the Peak Galleria, situated adjacent to one other. In addition to being a major tourist attraction for Hong Kong, The Peak is also the summit of Hong Kong's property market. Residences on The Peak can be as expensive as anywhere else in the world. In January of 2014, a Barker Road property sold for over HK$ 100,000 (US$ 13,000) per square foot for HK$ 690 million! After a good walk around, we had lunch at The Peak Lookout, later taking the tram back down the hill to its exit nearby St. John’s Anglican Cathedral in Central.
It was just a seven-minute walk from the cathedral to the closest MRT (Mass Transit Railway) Station at Tsuen Wan. For about US$ 1.00, we rode the subway under the harbor and back to the Tsim Sha Tsui Station In Kowloon. The MRT is the quick and inexpensive major public transport network serving Hong Kong. It consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder-bus service centered on an eleven-line rapid transit network, all servicing the urbanized areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. Before heading out to dinner that evening, we made a stop for drinks at OZONE, the highest bar in the world. It’s located on the 118th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and was put together by Wonderwall, a Japanese interior design company. This rooftop venue was hopping during our mid-week visit. It boasts two private rooms as well as an outdoor terrace. From nearly every vantage point we could see, guests were savoring their signature cocktails, Asian tapas or Japanese specialties and enjoying the booming DJ music. The real star of the show however, was the mesmerizing view. Just imagine looking down on Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong Central from an outdoor terrace 118 stories above the ground!
The following day we spent hours exploring Nathan Road. It’s the main thoroughfare in Kowloon running south to north from Tsim Sha Tsui to Sham Shui Po. Shops and restaurants abound and it echoes with multiple languages spoken by throngs of pedestrians. It’s simply not possible though to walk down this road without being accosted by hawkers pushing “copy watches” at every turn. Their quality is sub-standard (at best) but the watches are so cheaply priced, most folks just throw them out when they invariably stop working. We weren’t deterred by the hawkers and only stopped for a dim sum lunch. Afterwards, we headed straight for Sam’s Tailor Shop, one of Hong Kong’s longest standing, custom-made tailors. Sam’s has a tradition of fine tailoring that goes back several generations to when the store opened in 1957 in the same Burlington Arcade location at 90-94 Nathan Road. I’ve had any number of suits and shirts tailored at Sam’s and was happy to treat my son to a new suit and several dress shirts as early Christmas presents. He loved the personal service while selecting fabrics from so many bolts and then being expertly measured by an experienced tailor. By the way, Sam counts many Presidents, Prime Ministers, actors, celebrities and athletes among his devoted clientele and the walls of this famous tailor shop are filled with photos of his countless “Who’s Who” customers.
The Big Buddha on Lantau Island was next on our itinerary. Since there is no direct connection from Kowloon to this attraction, we took the MTR to Tung Chung Station and then bought tickets for the 25-minute, 3.5 mile cable car ride up the mountain to the Ngong Pin Cable Car Terminal. The cable car should have been an attraction in itself because it was such a beautiful ride up the mountain. From the drop-off point, we walked to the Big Buddha. Completed in 1993 and located near the Po Lin Monastery, it’s said to symbolize the harmonious relationship between man and nature. Either way, this massive statue stands 112 feet tall, weighs over 250 metric tons and was constructed from 202 individual bronze pieces. In addition to the exterior components, there‘s a strong steel framework inside to support the heavy load. Reputedly, on a clear day the figure can be seen across the bay from as far away as Macau. We saw so many Buddhas in Hong Kong but it’s worth sharing that here, the Buddha's right hand was raised, representing the removal of affliction, while his left rested open on his lap in a gesture of generosity. How peaceful.
On the morning of our final day in town, we visited the Hong Kong Museum of History, established in 1975 to preserve the city’s historical and cultural heritage. I always stop by during my visits to the city and knew my son would enjoy it as well. One of the highlights is The Hong Kong Story, a permanent exhibit that showcases the history and development of the city. Occupying an area greater than 75,000 square feet, the exhibit comprises eight galleries on two floors. Through the display of over 4,000 exhibits with the use of 750 graphic panels, a number of dioramas and multi-media programs, and enhanced with special audio-visual and lighting effects, The Hong Kong Story outlines the natural environment, folk culture, and historical development of Hong Kong. The exhibition, starts from the Devonian period 400 million years ago and concludes with the Handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The museum also exhibits prehistoric fossils, colonial documents from the 19th Century as well as ancient Chinese pottery.
That afternoon, we were on our way to Sydney for the second half of this journey. I’ll tell you all about it in a future post.
Until next time…stay safe.
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