HONG KONG

I'd done my first real reading about Hong Kong in Simon Winchester's 'Outposts - Journey's to Surviving Relics of the British Empire' where he provides some amazing and almost unbelievable history of this 'Special Administrative Region'. Nutshell backstory: The British had obtained a 99-year lease (from 1898-1997) of Hong Kong Island from China who were compelled to sign over this small, yet strategically desirable island group by awkward circumstance of the time. A canny move by the British which had its motivations steeped in the opium trade.

As of June 1997, HK reverted back to Chinese dominion under the principle of "one country, two systems." A mirror of the west, in the east. Though, recent events in 2021 have altered this arrangement.
HK was my stopover going to and coming back from New Zealand. I made the most of both with outbound excursions.

Cheung Sha Beach & Tai-O Village
(First Stopover)

While standing on Hong Kong's longest beach with sweat drenching my back and sun piercing my skull, I had a "Holy shit, I'm on the other side of the world" moment. It was a jetlag-edly surreal realization. The area on the south coast of Lantau Island is mostly rural, but for a couple of small villages popping up from the sand.

Over on the northwest shore of the Lantau Island is Tai-O fishing village that long ago became a primary entry point for illegal immigration for those fleeing the People's Republic of China. Nearby salt marshes has been in use since the 1940's, but the old stilt houses and the local fishermen using them are vanishing.

Po-Lin Monastery (First Stopover)

Situated on Ngong Ping Plateau on Lantau Island, this Buddhist monastery features the massive bronze Tian Tan Buddha; a giant statue (and world’s largest Buddha) which was built in 1993. I had a fantastic vegetarian meal in the monastery with a few other day-trippers after ascending the stairs up to the metal god.

Kowloon (Second Stopover)

A tour through Hong Kong's Kowloon District offered a bit more of an urban outing than my initial visit was. A stop to gander at the outside of the anarchic Kowloon walled village, and a glimpse into a jewelry-making shop offered sobering insights into some harsh realities of HK. Also stopped to gaze across the Sham Chun river at Chinese monster-city Shenzhen from the Lok Ma Chau lookout, before stopping to hurl an orange tied with a note into the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree.

When in Rome, right?