Asian tour 1/4: Hong Kong, the city of skyscrapers

here we are at last.. after a long summer of planning we set off, crossing into South-East Asia! direct flight Rome-Hong Kong with the excellent Cathay Pacific of a good 11 hours(!); between a film, a bit of music and some excellent food the time passes fairly quickly and here I am at Hong Kong airport. 23/09/09 The first sensation is the one I'd already read about in so many travel accounts...

a crazy heat and humidity; after 5 minutes you're already sweating and you don't even notice, while wherever you enter they blast you with air conditioning at 5 degrees that freezes you instantly...And then of course that incredible blend of smells that you only get in an Asian city...perfumes, smells of spices, of fried food, of incense, of sweat, of anything possible...welcome to Hong Kong! Although the thing that struck me most was, once I came out of the MTR (the local metro, truly efficient and always on time), seeing this swarm of skyscrapers everywhere, very tall blocks where thousands of people live crammed together, a human beehive, over 6,000 inhabitants per square kilometre: third in the world.. and now you'll understand why most likely you'll be left open-mouthed too, especially if, like me, you live in a city where there are no skyscrapers.

Time to start arguing with the chopsticks (alas, a duel lost from the start!) and off for the first tour of the city on the Kowloon side, with a visit to the Wong Tai Sin temple, where the smell of incense is so strong it makes me flee, and to the Cho Lin monastery, very beautiful because it's set in a lovely park, where you breathe the typical calm and quiet of Chinese cities...no one makes a racket, you don't hear a sound...peace reigns. I end the evening with a lovely stroll to one of the most beautiful things in Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour, the view of the bay between Hong Kong island and Kowloon, and of the Avenue of Stars, the street of stars, very similar to the more famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, where you can see the stars of celebrities of the calibre of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Stephen Chow and Bruce Lee, to whom they've also dedicated a statue.

24/09/09 A day spent exploring the northern part of HK island.. first stop the tiny but charming Man Mo temple, where you can see very large circular incense coils hanging from the ceiling; and a look at the Mid Levels, one of the cleverest things invented in the city: an 800-metre escalator that links the office district to the bourgeois northern residential neighbourhood; in the morning it runs only from north to south to let people go to work, and in the afternoon and evening it takes them back north to their homes, all fast and free...

venturing among the thousands of little streets and alleys I find myself in front of the beautiful St John's cathedral, set in a park, it's really hard to find; parks that you can find everywhere, in fact many people, to escape the chaos and smog of HK, take refuge in them for a moment of peace and quiet (some even play bowls..)...I do the same and take the chance to have a little wander in HK park, a lovely park set in the heart of the Central district where I catch sight of the Lippo Center, a pair of identical skyscrapers that look as if they were built with Lego bricks! Time to get out and finally take the tram to go to the Peak, surely the most beautiful attraction in HK...the view over the city from up there is beautiful, it's impossible to count all the skyscrapers there are! Don't forget to pick a sunny day...it's common to get cloudy days, and you'd see absolutely nothing! 25/09/

09 I must say the weather is doing me a favour, sun again today...but wasn't it the rainy season?! I rush to the port to take the ferry to Lantau island, famous because it has the largest seated Buddha in the world....and indeed seeing it from bottom to top is truly wonderful, and after a climb of about 250 steps you can see the panorama of HK and its dozens of little islands.

Just 150 metres away is the Po Lin monastery, very beautiful for its interiors with various buddhas and exceptional bas-reliefs...and a village where you can shop and refresh yourself, although you can buy a vegetarian meal at the entrance to the staircase for a tiny cost...I'd read that the city was very expensive, but honestly Oslo or London, to give two examples, are in another league! In the evening I return to base, this time by bus and then the metro, to see the view from the Peak at night....the most beautiful thing of my trip to HK, a spectacle of colourful lights out of a fairy tale, the view of the hundreds of skyscrapers and the fully lit harbour, absolutely not to be missed for any reason in the world! 26/09/09 The alarm goes off early as always...today we explore the southern part of HK island, and maybe even have a nice swim in the sea! Having taken bus no.6 (but you can als

o take the 6A or 6X) I first head for a wander in Stanley...a very pretty neighbourhood, where there's a nice market where you can do plenty of cheap shopping, and a lovely promenade where you can relax and enjoy the tranquillity and the view of the bay.

Very different is the nearby Repulse Bay, (also reachable by the same bus), where, besides seeing some very funny typical Chinese statues of dragons and phoenixes, it looks like the typical Californian beach, complete with lifeguard lookout and a kilometre-long beach where lots of people blissfully sunbathe...how different HK is! The evening ends with a visit to Ocean Park, a very famous amusement park, where the Halloween themed nights are already on, even though it's more than a month away(!), very nice because everyone is already dressed up on theme and it's full of attractions, including a cable car that takes you from one side of the park to the other over a sheer drop where I really saw stars! 27/09/09, Last tour in Kowloon, between the Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok districts, along the immense Nathan Road, where you'll truly find anything you can imagine...anything you're looking for

is here; are you a fan of shopping and/or knick-knacks? go there!...And the time has come to take the ferry to Macau, my second stop of the tour. What can I say..HK is truly as beautiful as it is different; you just need to leave the chaos of the centre to find peace and quiet, it seems another world, where there are no skyscrapers nor traffic nor smog, where you can breathe the air of old China, the markets, the signs only in Chinese and not in English, people who speak only Chinese, the real Chinese food and the genuineness of people who do everything to help you if they see you in difficulty. HK is this, very rich and cosmopolitan in the city where skyscrapers and suffocating heat reign..but if you have time, take a trip to the islands too, you'll discover another world apart!