Hong Kong: Friday: Central (business) District

On Friday, I decided to explore "Central", a district on Hong Kong Island. As the region's main business district, I figured a weekday would be a good time to explore it. I took a bunch of pictures this day and also recorded (by hand after the fact) a google map showing my walking/ferry route.

I was out of my hotel by 9am after switching rooms. The hotel also upgraded my room this day (as on the previous day), this time to a premium floor (which was a smaller room than the suite but nevertheless supposedly larger than room I'd reserved).

It was overcast, as it would remain for the whole trip.

I grabbed breakfast at the directly named "Relax for a While".

After breakfast, I walked straight to the ferry terminal to go to Hong Kong Island. Although the neighborhood, Kowloon, near my hotel on the peninsula has many tourist sites, I ignored them this day, deciding instead to explore it on Saturday and exploring the business district on this day, when it would be busy and active. On the way to the ferry, I walked down Nathan Road, passing many electronics and jewelry stores, and passing many well-dressed Indians promoting tailors or watch sellers. Hmm. I then walked down the nice waterfront promenade, passing signs promoting the Shanghai Expo :), until I reached the ferry terminal.

Once on Hong Kong Island, I walked a lot. My adventures are well documented by the pictures.

At one point, I stopped by the substantial Hong Kong Park and explored its Museum of Tea Ware, which was fairly well done. It covers many aspects of tea culture ranging from how people in different Chinese provinces take their tea to how tea drinking has evolved in the last few millennia, and also how tea cups and teapots have changed designs and manufacturing techniques over time. Additionally, the museum discussed (of course) the various types of tea and their flavors and supposed effects. However, the museum wasn't my cup of tea (so to speak), probably because I don't regularly have one, so I didn't stay long. (If you didn't understand that last sentence, read it again.)

I also wandered through the park's conservatory and its cactus garden and humid plants garden.

I also explored the park's good quality aviary. Obviously, as a single aviary, the area was not as big as Singapore's bird park, but that's a place that specializes in birds.

A bit later, I wandered through the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, which turned out to have many more aviaries in addition to many cages of primates and a greenhouse. I went through all this fairly quickly, as I was getting sick of nature and wanted more of Hong Kong's culture, its urban scene.

As I walked through Central and especially its busier nightlife spots, I kept noticing a variety of restaurants. In Soho, for instance, I easily found Nepali, Mexican, British, Lebanese, Vietnamese, French, Italian, and Greek. It's a very international neighborhood.

At one point, I visited the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum. Although it has information (illustrated by photographs and videos), it lacked anything that could not be easily copied and put in a duplicate museum (i.e., it has no physical artifacts). I'd call this poor. I guess this is what happens when China decides it wants to have Dr. Sun Yat-sen museums everywhere.

In the evening, I grabbed two dinners (because the first one was an utter failure).

At night, I was struck by how pretty Hong Kong's skyline is, which I'm sure is one of the world's prettiest. The buildings are artistically lit, often with animated colored lights. It's quite a panorama.

I ended up making it back to my hotel at 9:30pm after a long day spent hiking up and down both Hong Kong's hills and the stairs to its elevated walkways.