Hong Kong-December 24

We had another half day of touring.  I was excited about this tour because I am bored of shopping.  I wanted to see the world's largest seated Buddha.  This was amazing.


Our first stop was the park overlooking the world's longest suspension bridge.  2.5 kilometers.

We made a few other stops, not worth mentioning.  We had an interesting (but too long) stop at a local fishing village.  Caroline and Bill were not happy because they both hate fish and the whole village smelled like it.  Their are still people who live in huts built on the water.  Some of the old Hong Kong.  The government wants to put them in subsidized housing but the residents refused.

The stuff you see hanging up are dried fish bladders.  Apparently they are a great soup base.

The dried shark skin is not for consumption, it is just an attraction.

The village had a temple to worship to of their gods.  One is the goddess of the sea, the other is a local god (can't remember).

Caroline met a friend on the tour.  We were traveling with another family, the Snowmans.  No kidding, their last name is Snowman.  They were a really great family.  Lots of fun.  Caroline ditched us most of the tour and hung out with her friend Bryce Snowman.  That was okay with us!

Finally!  We got to the giant Buddha. Amazing!!

There were six of these statues representing offerings to the Buddha.

The path to the stairs leading to the buddha were lined with the twelve generals that represent the Chinese zodiac.  Caroline and Bryce posed next to their general, the year of the tiger.

A service was just ending as we arrived at the Monastery.

We had a great vegetarian lunch at the Monastery.  All of the food is grown and prepared by the monks.

The little village next to the monastery was decorated really cute. That day, they had a real snow blower.  From there we caught the cable car down the mountain.

We did not realize how great the cable car ride would be.  It ran about 25 minutes.  We rode with the Snowmans, our traveling companions and had a blast.

This next picture is interesting because it shows how much land was "reclaimed."  The new airport is built on reclaimed land.  The mountain to the right is the original land.  All of the rest is reclaimed land.  We were amazed to see it from the cable car because we could actually see how much land has been added to Hong Kong.

After our half day tour day, I wanted to cross the harbor and check out the world's longest escalator. The escalator takes those living up the side of the mountain down to the downtown area for work.  The escalator only goes down until 10 am and after 10 am it brings up everyone back up the mountain.

We took a picture of this poster because we can say that we crossed Victoria Harbor.

Views of the downtown from the escalator.  There are exits along the ride at various streets.  We stopped at the Soho area because there are great restaurants in Soho.

This is the Soho area.  We ate in the Soho area.  It was great to have so many restaurants to choose from.  Everything in Okinawa has a Japanese twist to it.  So we got Mexican in Hong Kong because it was real Mexican.  Loved it.

This area was more like the old Hong Kong.  

Notice that the escalator is decorated with Christmas lights all the way up.  Hong Kong was decorated to the max.  This is another view of the escalator.

End of an amazing day!