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This past week I got sent to Hong Kong on a work assignment. Being my first trip there, I was very excited. I bought a guidebook and did a fair bit of research on what to see during my limited time there. As I had work during the day, it would mean I only had the evening in which to explore. Fortunately there was a lot to see at night, so I did not struggle organising my schedule.
The trip did start of on a bad note unfortunately. We woke up on Sunday morning with no hot water. Turned out that the control panel had blown. Fortunately my sister volunteered their bathroom, so I managed to have a shower before heading of to Heathrow to catch my flight. 12 hours laters, I finally arrived in Hong Kong. Must say that the service from Cathay Pacific was great and would be happy to fly with them again. After checking in at the hotel, having had something to eat, I crashed for the night.
Waking up on Tuesday morning, I looked out the window and saw it was raining. So I headed off to work in the hope that it would clear up by the end of the day. Alas it did not, so I headed out anyway and just explored the area around my hotel. The hotel was located in an area called Causeway Bay and had an interesting mix of high-end stores and interesting local restaurants.
On Wednesday I woke up with it still raining, but fortunately by midday it had cleared up and turned into a great evening by the time my work day ended. I headed off to the MTR to take the subway through to Central with the idea of walking around and then taking the tram up to The Peak. The Peak Tram has been running for over 120 years, having started taking people up to The Peak in 1888 and is one of the most visited attractions. The Peak itself offers one of the best views of Hong Kong, and on a clear evening you can see for miles in every direction. That evening it was a clear evening and a spent quite a bit of time finding the right position on the viewing deck to get the shot I wanted.
Thursday night I made my way to Kowloon via the ferry. The boat trip itself is only a few minutes, but gives you a great view of the city from the water. The main reason for going to Kowloon was to see the Symphony of Lights, which is a synchronised building exterior decorative light and laser multimedia display, featuring 44 buildings on both sides of the Victoria Harbour. Afterwards I stayed a bit longer to capture a few long exposure shots and from there to explore the area around Tsim Sha Tsui.
On the final night, I decided to explore the area around Mong Kok. After some good recommendations from Timothy, I knew exactly where to go. Due to it being a Friday night, everyone was out shopping and having a good time. There were many buskers out which added to the festive mood. Towards the end of the night as the shops were closing, I played around a bit with long exposure traffic shots and quite liked the results.
Overall I had a really amazing time in Hong Kong. I found everyone very friendly and helpful. I will definitely go back at some point, be it for work or for pleasure. Hopefully next time I will have more time to explore during the day.
Thanks for taking the time to view this post.
Thanks for the comment Trudy!
Hong Kong is an amazing place and worth a visit.
Great shots Dave – looks like it was an awesome adventure.