Hong Kong
Hong Kong had me at the first day. Its buzzing atmosphere and rich culture is a rare combination worth exploring! Only after leaving the city we realized the full extend of how lively, full and energetic this city is. Any other place on earth just looks quiet and tranquil in comparison!
In terms of typical sightseeing spots Hong Kong has some to offer but the main thing is just feeling the city, walking through the different neighbourhoods and mingling with the locals. Take a ding ding double decker tram or the star ferry to cross the river; eat some dimsum or noodles at one of the thousands local spots or get lost in one of the many night markets.
We first visited Hong Kong Central (which is on the island) on a Sunday which ended up being a great coincidence. While the part of the city was still full of people, it had nothing to do with the Monday morning crowd. We got to explore the neighbourhood and ride the double decker dingding trams without getting stuck in traffic. The area has some sightseeing spots to offer such as the Man Mo Taoism temple or the PMQ station (old police station now turned into arts area), but the majority of the charm comes from just walking around and absorbing the energy of the city. Seeing the longest elevator that takes around 30 minutes to get to the top (and which btw in the mornings until 10am runs only downwards to ensure all locals get on time to work) or grabbing food at one of the markets is just pure fun.
The peak offers some beautiful views of the city and the bus tour to get there a great opportunity to see where the really wealthy people live. Housing is quite a topic in Hong Kong and especially the lack of affordable options. To our surprise, it seems most of the government budget is funded by taxes on properties or transfer taxes, which is how they balance the books and compensate for the lack of VAT tax (shopping!) and low incomes taxes.
Hong Kong is also a great shopping destination with something for everyone (trust me, this is not an overstatement)! We saw here every brand we know and stores / markets at every price range imaginable. Going through the local (night) markets is an experience in itself.
Mainland Hong Kong offers a different type of craziness. This area feels more traditional than the business/modern feel of Hong Kong island. I would definitely recommend the Hong Kong history museum (free!), which offers a great intro into the rich history of the country as well as its folk culture.
Food!
For me food is an important part of being a tourist and experiencing the culture and well.. the taste of a country. And Hong Kong had so much to offer!! Including Michelin star dim sum places at cheap prices (try the baked bun with bbq pork at Tim Ho Wan) or the inspired by overseas bubble milk tea (by now at every corner), egg desserts, pineapple bread and lots of amazing octopus!
Some other things to consider:
– horse races: unfortunately we didn’t make it to one of the big horse race events which typically take place twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday/Sunday)
– judo classes: I understand that this might be quite of a narrow target group, but just in case if you’re into judo there’s a very friendly class group named Kuma Dojo. They’ll even let you borrow a judo suit 🙂
Shen Zhen
During our stay at Hong Kong, I had to do a short trip to Shen Zhen for work. The city pretty much didn’t exist 20 years ago, which you would find hard to believe once you’re there. By now the population is close to 20 million (though you’ll hear different numbers, some say it’s 12 million).
It is home to a massive high tech park compared to the Californian Silicon Valley. I could see the headquarters of Tencent from my hotel, the company behind a.o. WeChat and many others and which reached a market cap of usd 0.5 trillion! It is fascinating to see the speed with which China is growing.
Macau
I know understand why people talk about food tourism (next to the casinos of course) when they mention Macau! Tasty!! And different! Where Asia meets Europe or in particular Portugal.
Everything is written in Chinese characters but also in Portuguese.
The more popular side of Macau, namely the casinos, were an interesting site. It is difficult not to make a comparison to Las Vegas. Macau has its own version to the Strip, namely Cotai where the largest casinos are. We read that the Venetian hotel has 3,000 rooms – its complex is definitely huge so that must be right. Contrary to Vegas the night life seemed to be much less (or just much less obvious) and the visitors were less explicit and flashy and simply focusing on the main purpose of a casino – gambling!
And to finish off, some more photos of Hong Kong
Tutto il mondo è paese 
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