T is for Harbour Town aka Hong Kong

The end of April is just around the corner and you know what that means. It means we're almost to the end of the alphabet. We're not there yet, but almost...just six more posts and this A-Z blog challenge will be nothing more than a happy memory. I still have one whole entire amazing city to squeeze into those six posts so I best get started.

T is for Harbour Town

Hong Kong is special...it was here we met up with old friends and on top of that we experienced one of our very best 'it's a small small world' encounters ever. Those events will get their own post before the challenge is over.

I thought I'd kick things off in Hong Kong by introducing you to the star of the show-

Her name is Victoria Harbour and wow.

Just wow.

The harbour is situated on the South China Sea between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. I found the two sides a little confusing at first...isn't it all Hong Kong? In a word, yes. Well then, is Hong Kong a city or a country? Hong Kong is a city in China, but their government is different than China's. It's not a country but operates sort of like it is.

All you need to know right now is that on one side of Victoria Harbor sits Hong Kong Island and on the other side sits Kowloon. There are 260+ islands that are also part of Hong Kong but we won't worry about them today.

Both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island are jam packed full of tall buildings and more tall buildings. The International Commerce center, at 108 stories is currently the 4th tallest building in the world.

I'm not sure you could work in this city if you had a fear of heights. I know for sure I wouldn't want to be a window washer in Hong Kong. Or a construction worker. Or a ferry boat captain but that's a story for another day.

Besides the tall buildings and the taller buildings you'll also find hundreds, if not thousands, of restaurants along with shops whose number I couldn't even begin to guess.

From the street market stalls to the highest end designer shops plus everything in between you quickly discover that shopping is a hobby, a pastime, a literal art form in this city.

Hubs had some shirts made while we were here because that's just what you do when you're in Hong Kong.

We stayed on the Kowloon side of the Harbour since that's where he was working and I loved the location. You could be on the Hong Kong Island side in less than ten minutes via ferry or subway and we be-bopped back and forth every day.

We stayed in the Sheraton Hong Kong Towers and they had this amazing space on the 18th floor...a bar/restaurant overlooking Victoria Harbor. We sat up there almost every night with co-workers and friends and our last night in town just the two of us. The view is positively spectacular.

More than 40 buildings take part in a permanent laser light and sound show on the harbor at 8 pm each evening. You'll see a great show from either side of the harbor. We watched it one night from the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade which is a walkway running along the riverfront on the Kowloon side.

Near the walkway is something called the Avenue of the Stars which in essence is a Hollywood Walk of fame for Hong Kong.

Chinese film celebrities have their names and hand prints in the cement here and its a fun place to walk and admire the harbour view. Again.

Every city I've ever been in seems to have its own unique personality and Hong Kong is no different. It's old world British colony meets new world China. It's a cacophony of sights, sounds and smells. It's skyscrapers and alleys. Its steep hills and people everywhere. The bankers, the shoppers, and the vendors selling produce all share the same air and sidewalk space. It is bustling, crowded, loud.

In the middle of all this noise there is a harbor.

It's magnificent.

The harbor is why someone on a business trip with her husband falls in love with a noisy-busy city called Hong Kong.

S is for 'Sun'

Time to wrap up Taipei so I can move on to the last leg of our trek across Asia-Hong Kong. Hubs had a couple hours of free time on our last day in Taipei and since it was gorgeous and sunny we hit the streets.

Literally. There was a little neighborhood market just across the highway and thru the alley opposite our hotel...mind the motorcyclists!

Told you foreign travel wasn't for the faint of heart.

As we wandered thru this market I pondered things like why we're paranoid about setting a whole chicken, frozen solid, on a plastic cutting board reserved solely for poultry, in an air conditioned house, for so much as a minute, and here they put raw fish and chicken pieces on wooden boards in the sunshiny out of doors yet don't keel over from salmonella. Run on sentence I know but it was a run on thought.

This sweet man took a liking to me and wanted us to take a picture together. I know this because a lovely Taiwanese woman who spoke English stopped by on her bicycle to interpret. For some reason he wanted me to hold random vegetables from his stall.

He also wanted hubs and I to take a picture together and a few more random vegetables were added for good measure.

Insert travel mantra here.

In case you've forgotten my travel mantra it's- 'Just go with the flow people.'

S is for Sun Yat-sen

Here we are posing together-

Technically it's me with a statue of Sun Yat-sen who is known as the founding father of the Republic of China. Also ROC's first president so he warrants a memorial in Taipei too.

Not quite as elaborate as the Chaing Kai-shek Memorial I told you about yesterday, but not too shabby either.

There's also a changing of the guard at the Sun Yat-sen memorial so hubs did get to see that.

No blinking here either.

Speaking of the Chaing Kai-shek Memorial we wandered back by since it's a do-not-miss attraction, and hubs wanted to see it too. He was working while I was playing when I visited the first time.

While we were admiring the memorial a man approached and I thought he wanted me to take a picture of him with his wife. My big fancy camera always throws people. They think I know how to take pictures. Anyway, we did the whole pantomime thing and since I had my hands full of stuff I called the hubs over to take the photo.

Can you tell its warm?

Turns out pantomime isn't 100% effective as a communication tool because the gentleman began shaking his head no no no. What he was trying to ask was if I'd get in a picture with his wife. Blue eyes make you something of a celebrity here. Perhaps I should have removed my sunglasses?

I told hubs to get in a picture with the Mister too just because.

Now for a word about face masks. They were everywhere in Taiwan, and Shanghai too. We didn't see as many in Hong Kong but in Taiwan nearly everyone wore a mask on the subways and out and about town. They're worn primarily to protect the wear-er from germs and potential pandemics and the like but their effectiveness is questionable.

These kids were awfully cute in theirs though...I love the little cheeky one in back who's waving at us.

We spent a little time wandering thru the garden before getting back on the subway. Got a hankering for some peanut soup? No worries....the vending machine's got you covered.

We passed a bride and groom on their way to have some pictures taken. Gotta love her creative footwear!

We exited the subway close to the hotel about the time school was letting out for the day. We were surrounded by school children of all ages and watched the safety patrol in action.

When the pole is vertical it's safe to cross. When she holds the pole horizontally the kids know to stop. This is a very busy street.

We meandered thru a little park where artists were hard at work. Play? Whatever...they were quite good.

There's Taipei 101 which means we're almost home.

By home you know I mean the hotel, right?

Just in time to collect our bags and head to the airport.

Hong Kong here we come!

R is for Ruler

We're still in Taipei.

Not literally, but in terms of my recap we're still there.

Who feels like this trip lasted forever?

I'm going to wrap up Taipei with tomorrow's post and move on to Hong Kong on Monday (no worries Judy!).

R is for Ruler

Not the kind that measures.

The kind that rules and then after his death ends up with a beautiful monument and memorial built in his honor.

The Chaing-Kai shek Memorial-

Hmmm...do I attempt to insert some Chinese history here?

In a nutshell (a very small nutshell)...Chaing-Kai Shek was a political and military leader and head of China's Military Academy in the mid 1920's. He was a close ally of Sun Yat-sen (first President and founding father of the Republic of China) and in the early 20's led something called the Northern Expedition to unify the country. He then became its leader (Sun Yat-sen died in 1925). Fast forward to the mid-1940's and civil war had resumed. Chiang's government was forced to retreat to Taiwan and while he declared his intention to retake Mainland China he instead ruled the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975.

History buffs please forgive.

I don't want to comment on his leadership style and definitely don't know enough to weigh in on good vs. evil here, but I do know this-his memorial is spectacular.

After Chaing-Kai Shek's death in 1975 a funeral committee was established to build a memorial. A competition was held and the winning design was created by an architect named Yang Cho-chen. Let me tell you, Yang Cho-chen had some serious talent. When you round the corner into the space it kinda takes your breath away.

The buildings on the left and right are The National Concert Hall and The National Theatre and they are stunning.

The whole memorial area reminded me somewhat of The Washington Mall in that it's a long open space with a monument at one end.

Inside that monument sits a man in a big chair.

Chaing Kai-shek.

Two guards stand frozen in place at the memorial. Frozen as in they do not blink for one solid hour. I'm not kidding-they don't blink.

At all.

For one solid hour.

I'm not sure how that's done but I have a theory.

Changing of the guard happens every hour-

Fascinating to watch up close-

Incredible precision-

and focus-

I love the way travel opens the door into another culture...the food, the language, the people, their traditions. The world is so big and the more I see the more I realize how much more I have/want/need to see.

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign."

~Robert Louis Stevenson