Asia Part II- Hong Kong

By Ryan Kinports

Hong Kong is an impressively developed city. The standard of living is drastically higher than Thailand. There is clearly a great deal of money flowing into the Special Administrative Region (SAR) which holds 7.2 million people. We were mostly in the downtown area but saw hundreds of housing developments on the high speed rail into the city. There are many westerners, mostly British and American, which live and work in Hong Kong. There is a strong banking and financial services sector that drives much of the economy. At some points it could have easily fit into Manhattan NY. One of the more interesting aspects is that there is no last call for bars.

  

The city has an advanced public transit system that includes double-decker rail cars.

 The food was outstanding. This was a small Japanese restaurant by our hotel.

 This is part of the Chi Lin Nunnery. It is a beautiful park area landscaped with attention to detail.
 This is one of many high-rise housing developments in the financial sector. Many of them were uniquely designed.

Correctly prepared eel is difficult to find in the U.S. This is the best I’ve had

 We went to Two International Finance Center and walked through the Ritz Carlton on our way to the bar in Hong Kong – OZONE. It was interesting to see how that segment of the population lives. The price to sit on the couches in the observation deck was $2,000 with a $500 minimum drink order. (We did not sit.) This is a view from the front drive looking across the bay.

Many streets had expensive retail stores. There was a whole wing in this mall for children’s luxury clothing brands. Look for Macau in part III.