OZ -2 (HK+1): They paved paradise...

Actually, I suppose we did. You can't really blame the Chinese.

Up on The Peak, some guy was hawking old black and white photos alongside a modern day colour one so you could play Hong Kong Spot the Difference. Quite developed in the fifties, but no real high-rise buildings... Now every square inch is packed with skyscrapers - office blocks...



...and apartment blocks (what the tour guide called "kissing apartments" - so close to each other, you could kiss the person in the neighbouring block...)



Before any buildings, you could imagine what the harbour looked like, sailing in, between the islands, it would have been steep, rocky hillsides, covered in forest. A real paradise. But now it's so dense...

On the plus side, you can walk between adjacent buildings and through their (thankfully air-conditioned) lobbies via covered, elevated walkways. You can get round most of the central business district like this - no-one seems to walk at street level.

After walking, the main way of getting around seems to be ferries across the harbour. The Star Ferries between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island cost HK$2 - the equivalent of about 14p. And as well as a public transport route, the harbour is a big tourist attraction. An evening cruise on a Chinese-Style Junk (pushing it, that description, really - it was a motorised, split-level boat with bar) means you can see what the city looks like as it lights up...



(*Note to self... consider travel plans more carefully when opting to go somewhere where it's hotter at 9pm than it ever gets during the summer in the UK...)

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