Your 1 DAY Guide to Hong Kong 🇭🇰

Besides Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, there's also the New Territories, with New Territories representing what the British leased from the Chinese in 1898. The British got Hong Kong Island in the 1840s, then Kowloon in 1860, and then they leased the New Territories in 1898. Something I love a lot about Hong Kong is how its architecture incorporates feng shui! Feng shui is an ancient Chinese traditional practice which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term feng shui means, literally, "wind-water". From ancient times, landscapes and bodies of water were thought to direct the flow of the universal Qi through places and structures. Hong Kong's skyline is pierced by gaping voids called dragon gates. Such dragon gates are designed to let these mythical flying beasts pass from their hilltop homes down to the water each day and then return again each night. The sharp-edged Bank of China Tower by IM Pei was broadly criticized for not using feng shui as feng shui experts saw the angular shape as “cutting” the good fortune of adjacent buildings. The skyscraper’s poor feng shui has since been blamed for adjacent companies going out of business and other mishaps. To combat this bad luck, the neighboring HSBC Building built cannon-like maintenance cranes as negative energy deflectors. Even Hong Kong Disneyland was built with feng shui in mind, like shifting the angle of the front gate by 12 degrees to ensure prosperity!

The Ding-Ding does look like fun! It's so high up above all the rest of the traffic. The view from the top of the tram way is amazing! I had no idea Hong Kong is so beautiful

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens you visited is important because not only is it one of the oldest zoological and botanical centers in the world as it was founded in 1864, but also all of the cultivated trees of the Hong Kong orchid, Hong Kong's symbol, derive from one cultivated at the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens and widely planted in Hong Kong starting in 1914! The Hong Kong orchid is a hybrid leguminous tree of the genus Bauhinia. This tree was discovered in around 1880 by a French Catholic Missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions near the ruins of a house by Pok Fu Lam and propagated to the formal botanical gardens in Victoria/Central! I love funicular systems! A favorite funicular system of mine is Haifa's Carmelit which goes up the religiously important Mount Carmel! It's quite the unique system since the oldest underground transit system in the Middle East, as it opened in 1959, is actually a funicular that's only 1.1 miles long! Not to mention it serves the beautiful Baháʼí World Centre. Another funicular that's also underground like the Carmelit is the Tünel line in Istanbul! Inaugurated in January 1875, the Tünel is the second-oldest fully underground urban railway in the world after the London Underground and the oldest in continental Europe as it pre-dated the Budapest Metro by 21 years! French engineer Eugène-Henri Gavand was inspired to create the line after he visited the city as a tourist and noticed how many people struggled walking up and down Yüksek Kaldırım Avenue

The double-decker trams are indeed very cool! In the UK, the earliest double-deck trams were horse-drawn. The first electric double-deck trams were those built for the Blackpool Tramway in 1885. The British Hong Kong government first looked into building a tramway in 1882, however they chose to focus on the Peak Tram instead because of business interests on Victoria Peak and the Peak Tram opened in 1888 (so the Peak Tram is as old as the Star Ferry). The tramway was finally built in 1904 as you mentioned, but not with double-deckers, only twenty-six single-deck cars with first-class and third-class sections. They introduced double-deckers to the fleet in 1912 due to increasing ridership. They began double-tracking in 1924, and the last section of single-track was replaced in 1949, leading to even more ridership. In the UK, London stopped operating double-deck trams in 1952 while Glasgow did so in 1962, but Blackpool still runs them alongside their modern fleet! So Hong Kong's double-deck trams has lasted longer than London! When they were first planning the Central-Mid Levels escalator in the late 1980s, the British colonial government found that much of the east-west traffic in the area arose from north-south travel demand, as the steep topography did not allow for major roads to be built straight up the hill. There was talk of linking Central and Mid-Levels with escalators, a monorail, or a cable-car system, and so as you saw here, the escalator system won. My favorite type of transit in Hong Kong is MTR's Disneyland Resort Line! It's a shuttle service between two stations, Sunny Bay and Disneyland Resort. Sunny Bay station has a futuristic theme, while Disneyland Resort station has a Victorian theme. The idea was that the train would act like a time machine, taking people from the future to the fantasy world of Hong Kong Disneyland. This concept works because the line uses a tunnel through a mountain to reach the resort. The trains themselves are very different from the rest of the MTR network as they have Mickey-shaped windows, Mickey-shaped handles, and bronze statues of Disney characters in glass displays

Jess is by far your best travel companion. She seems to be as excited to explore as you are and maybe even a bit more adventurous (a good thing).

As someone who grow up in Hong Kong, your sister was doing it right! Walk around and get food whenever you feel like it. Glad that both of you are fit because there are A LOT of walking even though there are public transportation everywhere. When I went back for a visit, everyday I walked between 12k to 20k steps and that's very common. Which also help burn off all the foods and drinks I had throughout the day!

That pineapple bun looks similar to a Japanese melonpan! Melonpan is lighter in weight and taste, slightly drier and has a firmer outer layer (including top cookie crust) which resists flaking. The fact that the Central-Mid Levels escalator system fueled the proliferation of different businesses along the system goes to show you that if you build a type of transit whether it's a train line or even an escalator system as shown here, people will come! Caojiawan in Chongqing opened in 2015 with nothing around it, and then it became surrounded by developments by 2019! When the IRT Flushing Line first opened in Queens, stations had basically nothing around them, so all the diverse neighborhoods that now surround that line in Queens, developed because of the subway. Because it gave people a reason to live there! To put things into perspective, approximately 800 languages are spoken in NYC, with 300 spoken along Roosevelt Ave that the 7 serves! Really shows that NYC is truly the international city! Star Ferry was first founded in 1888 as the Kowloon Ferry Company but was renamed to Star Ferry in 1898. Before the steam ferry service was first established, people would cross in sampans. In 1870, a man named Grant Smith brought a twin-screw wooden-hulled boat from England for operations between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. In July 1873, an attempt was made to run steam ferries between Hong Kong and Kowloon. This was stopped at the request of the British consul in Canton, who feared it would enable visits to gambling houses in Kowloon. The company was founded by Parsee (the Indian Zoroastrian community) merchant Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala and Naorojee bought Smith's boat and later acquired two steam vessels, naming them Morning Star and Evening Star. Its popularity led him to increase the fleet.

It's great when you bring in Jess for your videos. I'm also already really happy with the stuff you're putting out from Hong Kong. Lots of stuff I'd never get to see. Thanks, Mike.

Probably my favourite city to have visited, but maybe 17 years ago!!

I was in Hong Kong in 1988 and I was amazed at the bamboo scaffolding on high rise buildings

I’m really excited for this, or these series of a day in the life of a Hong Kong expat 🤞videos! Hong Kong kinda gives me a Vancouver vibe…on a much larger scale with more congestion and overhead power lines…the laundry hanging just makes it relatable but I’m hoping the people are friendly and you can fully feel at home for your time there. I’d imagine it’s just the same feeling I’d get from Rio or NY…overwhelmed by the sheer number of high rises in such a small area. Just reaffirms I need to travel overseas and experience that beautiful location.

Thank you for showing the Victoria Peak funicular, I haven’t been to Hong Kong since 1979, but it’s nice to see that some things haven’t changed that much.😊

You live in Hong Kong?! How am i just finding it out 😂❤

You two look like you had a great time. Keep enjoying your times together. ❤❤

That was an awesome tour! Hong Kong is beautiful and practical! Wow...thanks Mike! Cheers from Ontario 🇨🇦

I love your signature goodbye! “I don’t know where I’m going next, but I know I want you there with me “ It seems sincere and I think about joining you 😊

I call trams in Sydney 'ding ding' as well :) Love cantonese. Yay for video on HK from your perspectives.

Would be real cool having an indepth travel guide around Hong Kong. Maybe a roadtrip around the island out of the city itself, see some of the less commonly visited/viewed places, some of the historic spots, you name it. Tons of opportunities to see the sides not often shown off!

I love and miss Hong Kong so much ❤ thanks for a lovely tour around the best city

What a truly wonderful young entrepreneurial CANADIAN you are Mike. Congratulations on your changes especially your marriage. Keep up your happy spirit as you navigate this new road. Thank you for all the wonderful moments that you have provided over the years. I’ve watched them all and some several times. At 80 years old this is great entertainment.