After a day of travelling, I finally made it to Hong Kong. I still can’t believe I managed to pull off a trip like that. I entered China through the Macau-Zhuhai border then flew to Chongqing then worked my way to Hong Kong by land passing through the Chinese provinces of Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong and finally the Hong Kong SAR. I met up with my friend at the KCR station of Hung Hom in Kowloon. I’ve seldom been to Hung Hom but I do know my way around Hong Kong, fortunately, my friend was already there waiting for me, we quickly got a bus back to his place and rested.
My friend had work the following day, so I was left to explore Hong Kong on my own. The weather was no longer cool so I didn’t need to bring anything to keep me warm. My friends place is on the Aberdeen side of Hong Kong island and I had to walk a bit to get to the bus station. I got a bus going to the Central area. I needed some money and I just know where to find it. Central has this building named World Wide House, which is known for the Filipino shops it has. There are a lot of remittance centers here and of course money changers.
After getting rid of the last of my RMB’s. I set off to explore the streets of Hong Kong once again. I have been here many times and it never ceases to amaze me. The vibrancy of this city is truly something else. True, it may not be as clean nor as orderly as a Singapore, but it is far more interesting to walk here. Although sometimes, languange can sometimes be a problem here because people tend to speak Cantonese more than English and their English is not as good either. Mandarin is being spoken more and more as Hong Kong learns comes to terms with her new master.
Quite a bit has changed in Hong Kong since I was last here more than 5 years ago. A new park has sprung up in the Star Ferry area. Even the ferry terminals have been spruced up. On the Kowloon side a super tall building is being erected which will serve as a centerpiece of a new business center. Riding the MTR, most noticeable is that the announcements are now in three languages, English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Forutunately, the use of Traditional Chinese in writing is still practiced here.
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