Tuesday in Hong Kong

We had a really nice day in Hong Kong on Tuesday. We were up fairly early, probably due to jet lag, but we were fortunate to get a good night of sleep after arriving on Monday night. Our hotel is more upscale than we are accustomed to, but we are trying hard to adapt. The breakfast was incredible in the morning with many different kinds of food and great service. It seems like the clientele of the hotel come from all over Asia and probably the world. We are located about 30 minutes from the downtown area by train. The steep green hills make the city really beautiful. Although it is a huge city with tons of skyscrapers, and construction projects going on everywhere, it is also interesting since buildings can only be constructed in certain places due to the incline of the mountains. That makes it seem like little pockets of developed areas. We took a shuttle from our hotel to the Tsim Sha Tsui area, which is right in the heart of the city. We walked around some there. It was really fun to be tourists here. We took a ferry across Victoria Harbour to the "Central" area of the city. There is a lot of affluence concentrated in a small area. We at dim sum at a small restaurant that was recommended to us. It was a really nice meal and a good way to take a break for a little while. We then walked around that part of the city, visiting a temple called Man Mo and hiking to the cable car that goes up to Victoria Peak, which overlooks the city. It was a lot of walking, but probably a good strategy for keeping us awake all day to adjust to the time. The whole day was very hot and humid. We were lucky to miss the heavy downpour in the morning while were were on the shuttle and then it started to rain again just as we got back to the hotel. We took the subway/train for our return to the hotel at the end of the day. It is a pretty easy system to navigate and the train stops just a block or so from our hotel. I took a swim and then we headed back out to get some dinner at a huge shopping mall two stops down the line from our hotel. One thing that was striking was how many shopping malls we encountered here - unintentionally. On a Tuesday night the mall where we had dinner was packed and the stores are very high end and expensive. We saw the same thing in countless places as we made our way through the city. It was a funny feeling to be doing this touring in such a cosmopolitan area as we are on the brink of meeting our kids. In some ways it felt like we could be in any major city in the world, with all of the same stores and brands that we would find in Washington or New York. Also, English is spoken everywhere and almost all the signs are in both English and Chinese. Throughout the day we had to keep reminding ourselves of where we are and what we are about to do. Somehow, even though we are closer than ever, it seems quite distant. Anyway, so far we couldn't ask for anything more from this trip. It is great to have a little time to acclimate here before heading to Nanchang on Thursday.