Hong Kong: City of Tall Buildings

Written by Charles November 21, 2013

We landed in Hong Kong, and the first thing that I noticed was how polluted it was.  Just in driving from the airport to the hotel, the road ahead of us was foggy.  My dad said that this was nothing compared to China, but I didn’t believe him.  We got to the hotel, and we all fell asleep immediately.  The next day we took a helicopter tour of Hong Kong.  There is one main city, then “small” little cities around the island.  We flew over a statue of Buddha that was about 50 feet tall.  Then the pilot told us the amazing part; it was privately owned!  He said it was for one of the 200 billionaires that live on Hong Kong Island.  Then we flew over a different statue of Buddha, which was 112 feet tall.  It was the same color as the statue of liberty.  The second Buddha was the tallest statue in Asia!  We also saw an amusement park on the side of a mountain.  We also saw the two tallest towers in Hong Kong; they went higher than the helicopter!

The next day we went kayaking in a Geo Park.  First we took a car ride over to a dock.  Then we hopped into a speedboat.  Finally we stopped at a fishing village and got into the kayaks.  We paddled for a half a mile until we got to a beach.  We took a rest break and got ready for the trip across the straight.  Let’s get one thing right: it was downright miserable.  I was sitting in front of Ms. Jenn, and every time I lifted my paddle up, she got showered with drops of water.  She told me to paddle on the right side only.  I was getting soaked because the waves that were coming over the bow kept on soaking me.  By the time we got to the next beach we were both drenched.  The guide offered to take us on a hike, so William and I went.  Ms. Jenn stayed back because she was wearing flip-flops (William was too).  We walked up a little trail for ten minutes and saw the view from up there.  The island was like a lopsided triangle.  The part facing the ocean was steep, but the part facing the Hong Kong side was a medium grade slope.  The guide said that you could see the Chinese coast on clear days, but it was too misty/foggy/cloudy/ and pollutiony.   We went back in the speedboat, which blow-dried everyone with wind.

After the day in the kayaks, we did school and errands.  We also saw my friend Wills Acker.  Everyone from Summit would remember him.  We walked around the market and mall with him.  The market was something you would expect to see in India.  The mall was a modern high-class mall though.  The day after seeing Wills, (our last day) we went up the world’s longest set of escalators.  It was around 2,600 feet, and it was multiple escalators.  We got to the top and then started our way down.  The escalators only go up in the evening, so we had to walk 2,600 feet down.  We got dinner on one of the side streets after that.  Overall, Hong Kong was one of the best places we have been to, in my opinion.  We are going to Xi’an next.  I’m excited about it because it is in China!

Written by William November 22, 2013

A few days ago, we arrived in Hong Kong; it is very pollutionyish. The next day we went on a helicopter ride; we saw two really big statues of Buddha. One of them seemed like it was 500 feet (166 meters) tall, but it was only 250 feet (83 meters). Then we saw some of our old friends’ school and town from the helicopter. The next day we went kayaking to some nearby islands, and on the other side of a hill was a huge cliff, which had a good view. I was in a double kayak with our tour guide. Then we saw a few huge groupers at a fish market; they were about the size of me (I am around 4 feet tall). At the same market, we saw someone holding a huge crab- around 2 feet by 2 feet. 

The next night we went out with our friends, and we walked around an outdoor mall. Then we went to the world’s longest escalator. It took around 30 minutes, and it was a lot of fun going down…until my mom said we had to go to dinner. Then we started to leave. I had a great experience in Hong Kong, and I am looking forward to the rest of the trip. I hope nobody went into blog withdrawal. =)