May 8 and 9
It’s been a great day for traveling. Everyone got checked into the Sioux Falls
airport in record time, and then relaxed before an uneventful flight to
Chicago. We had a 3 hr layover so most
people wandered around O’Hare airport in anticipation of the 14 hr flight. The flight was great, got to see so movies on
the little screen, and most people were able some get some sleep. We arrived in Hong Kong at 6 pm Tuesday and
as soon as we left the plane, we knew we weren’t in SD anymore. It was in the 80’s, both temperature and
humidity. Actually it felt pretty
good. An hour through immigrations,
baggage claim, and customs, and then we were met by our tour guides, Jocelyn
and Chaz. They were our tour guides on
past trips and do a great job. We
boarded a brand new bus and headed for supper.
On the hr drive to supper, Chaz shared some pretty interesting facts
about Hong Kong. It is made up of a
series of small islands totaling 420 square miles (the size of a SD county),
and 7.4 million people live there. It is
one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Since land is such a premium, housing is
crazy. An average apartment is 500
square feet and costs at least $1 million to buy. If you’re renting, it’s $2,000/month. We drove past some newer ones in the downtown
area, and they are double to triple the normal cost. People here spend at least 50-60% of their
income on housing. Hong Kong is the
third largest port in the world, and we drove past one of the container
unloading areas. High rises are
everywhere. Small building are 20-30
floors, medium are 30-60, and the highest go to 118 floors. They are very narrow and very high.
Our supper was a variety of vegetables, pork, chicken,
fungus (mushrooms), sticky rice and soup (both seaweed and corn & both were
good). Everyone found several things
they liked, and we are getting pretty good with our chopsticks. Lucas was the “man of honor” so he got to eat
the chicken head!
After a 15 minute ride, we arrived at our hotel, and it’s
really nice. Since we’ve been traveling
for over 26 hrs, we’re all ready for a good night’s sleep, and then off to a
great day tomorrow starting with the US Consulate. We hope you enjoy our blog, and we’re having
an awesome time!
Hong Kong airport
Lucas chicken
Supper
Greetings from across the globe! Question: if Hong Kong sits on a series of small islands, are the waterways between them large and/or significantly noticeable/navigable? Do you see any transportation or recreational boating within the city on these waterways?
ReplyDeleteIt sits on one island mostly; but yes, the waterways are full of large boats and barges hauling things into and out of the container ports.
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