HONG KONG - This city dazzles the senses in a frenzied and furious setting of some 6 million people bursting with energy. Well-dressed, serious Hong Kongers clutching briefcases move through the maze of one-way streets like Olympic race walkers exhibiting a vitality and work ethic that is somewhere between New York City and Lance Armstrong.
SITTING ON STILTS - A visit to Tai O, a 1,000-year-old fishing village on Lantau Island, is dropping back in time to another era. The village is built on over-water stilts complete with an exotic fish market, and where everything that swims the ocean seems to be dried, stacked and for sale. CNS Photo by Laura Weston.
Hong Kongers are not rude, nor are they overly friendly, and if you pause for a moment you could be trampled into the pavement. If cellular phones are a status symbol, then Hong Kongers are nearly royalty, with cell phones permanently rooted in their ears.
Amid the hustle and bustle, Hong Kong remains a top banking and financial center, has the highest standard of living in Asia, other than Japan, and is home to towering apartment buildings and upscale shopping malls that line Victoria Harbour on Kowloon and Hong Kong islands, featuring glittering night vistas that will remain etched in your memory for decades to come.
One of Asia's great view cities, Hong Kong is served by some of the finest view hotels on the planet, including the stunning Four Seasons at the edge of Victoria Harbour in the heart of the business district on Hong Kong Island, and the booming Harbour Plaza Hotel on the shores of Kowloon. Both make a splendid home base from which to discover the best of Hong Kong.
The Four Seasons has designed the award-winning Lung King Heen restaurant responsive to Chinese culture, serving classic Cantonese cuisine. The hotel also offers tai chi classes with Master William Ng, while the five-star Harbour Plaza on Kowloon can arrange cultural tours and an authentic Chinese holiday.
SIDEWALK SALE - Hong Kong Island is filled with busy, high-energy markets, with both sides of their narrow cement walkways stacked with dried, salted fish, shrimp paste, crabs, fruit and other offerings that tickle the nose. CNS Photo by Laura Weston.
The glorious harbor is the heart and soul of Hong Kong, pulsing with the incessant flow of pleasure craft, small barges burdened with goods, rusted junks and sagging mom-and-pop fishing boats. Large container ships toss little two-person sampans around like soggy corks, and high-speed catamarans head to Macau for the red-hot casinos and a taste of Macanese cuisine. The ubiquitous double-decker ferryboats, some sailing to mainland China, chug to and fro like toys on a string, looking - and steering - like giant bumper cars, but somehow never colliding.
The harbor is full of clues hinting to observant travelers of a world beyond the glitzy shopping and the wall-to-wall skyscrapers stacked together like matchsticks in a box. Follow those clues and you can step back to another era of old Hong Kong and a Chinese culture often overlooked by visitors.
Put on walking shoes, hop on the ferry and dig out the nooks and crannies in Kowloon. Meet the people and take pleasure in their traditional values by enjoying a classic Chinese congee breakfast at Nathan's with 32 choices, including noodles with diced chop suey, chile and abalone. Chinese is spoken, the English is broken.
Browse through the side streets off busy Nathan Road and the Jordan area along Temple Street to Yau Ma Tei to find a web of narrow, intriguing streets bustling with markets and more characters than a Hollywood Halloween. Drop by the Eu Yan Sang herbal shop selling rosebuds for depression, dinosaur teeth for insomnia and centipedes for a stomachache. Experience gambling dens, hole-in-the-wall vendors, alleys of flowers and stacks of ladies undergarments next to piles of ginseng root, and every size Buddha known to Asia, including one that would fit in a thimble.
NO BOAT IS TOO SMALL - A glorious harbor is the heart and soul of Hong Kong, pulsing with the incessant flow of pleasure crafts, small barges burdened with goods, rusted junks and sagging mom-and-pop fishing boats. CNS Photo by Laura Weston.
The open-air street markets where vendors shout in a singsong cadence sell everything from duck tongues and lotus roots to salted fish, packets of incense, fish bladders and sacks of frogs and pigs feet. The raw reality of Chinese cuisine is exposed. If you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian, this will push you over the edge.
At the smoky and exotic Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple, ancient religious customs are observed, but you can also have your fortune told and receive an update on your health, along with horse racing tips. Hong Kong thinks of everything.
A 30-minute ferry ride carries probing and passionate travelers to Lamma Island and Yung Shue Wan village through a narrow walkway lined with stands of exotic fruit, vegetables and fresh fish. Earthy sidewalk cafes are scattered along the way, where Euros and others are sipping wine at 10 a.m., living the Bohemian life, pretending to write in their journals and appearing very superior, while twitching dogs sleep on their tattered sandals.
A 1 1/2-hour walk on a winding stone pathway leads to the other side of the island, past Hung Shing Yeh Beach to daunting Tin Hau Temple and Sok Kwu Wan Village, overlooking a small harbor overflowing with fishing boats. A local insider favorite is the open-air Rainbow Restaurant, offering a little of everything edible - or nearly so - that swims in the South China Sea.
SEATED ON HIGH - Lantau Island, a rural enclave laced with extensive hiking trails, is home to the world's largest seated Buddha, reached by a thrilling cable car ride. CNS Photo by Laura Weston.
The clatter of chopsticks and the intense Chinese language is the aural setting for five courses, including sweet and sour pork in a fresh pineapple, with steaming rice served at the end of lunch, just in case you need one more nibble. Guests can pick up the ferry here for the ride back to Kowloon or Hong Kong islands, enjoying vistas that many visitors miss entirely.
Attractive Lantau Island, a rural enclave laced with extensive hiking trails and troubled by few cars, boasts the world's largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha, which dominates the horizon. Reached by the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, the ride is not for those fearful of heights, though the enlightened Buddha seems to reassure one that everything will be well. Just don't look down.
Nearby is Tai O, a spectacular fishing village dating back 1,000 years, where the open, wooden houses, many with connecting passageways and communal kitchens, are built on rickety over-water stilts alongside canals and the Tai Chung River. A market with a narrow, cement walkway is stacked with dried, salted fish, shrimp paste, four different types of crabs and other exotic offerings that tickle the nose, while a primitive incense shop sells long incense for long prayers.
Kids on bicycles wheel through ringing their bells. Move or get whacked. A noted long-life village, the average life span is 96, with many over the age of 100, attributed to steamed fish and a stress-free life.
Hong Kong's culture and traditions are a treasure patiently waiting for the adventurous traveler.
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