Hong Kong

36 MMAG. / MILES

photo by funwallz.com

TEXT BY RICHARD & DORIS CAMPBELL

HONG KONG 37 MMAG. / MILES

photo by wallpaperank.com My journey started from Heathrow London, on a cold late November morning. Both my wife and l were returning back to Hong Kong after 25yrs, having previously served in the Royal Military Police with HM Forces between 1986-88.

So we started our 5day stop-over and over the next few days visited many places which we frequented all those years ago.

Tsim Sha Tsui, Star Ferry, Central and of course the famous Peak Tram. So many changes, some good some not so.

We made the long flight to Kuala Lumpur before transferring on to Hong Kong. Having arrived we quickly passed through customs and got our taxi to Shatin and the Regal Riverside Hotel. This area of Hong Kong is known as the New Territories and is located about 20-30minutes further north of the main Kowloon peninsula.

The population of this small enclave in the South East of China is now around 7.5 Mil, densely condensed into around 426 sq miles. Daytime temperatures were around 23-25c but it became a little chilly in the evening with temps falling to about 15c, so eating out was not an option. However, that didn’t stop us enjoying and exploring the back streets for the food vendors and eating houses.

The hotel was large (1200 rooms) and on the banks of the Shing Mun River. We were on the 13th floor with fantastic panoramic views, especially at night when all the neon lights and riverside was alight with colour.

38 MMAG. / MILES

PHOTOS: Toerisme Brugge - Jan Darthet

photo by Toerisme Brugge - Jan Darthet

The changes which have been made and were most notable which we noticed were more buildings (huge skyscrapers,) reclaimed land around the Star Ferry area of the island and huge Plaza shopping areas. As has already been mentioned the vast population in this small area does make it very chaotic at times especially when using public transport.

The cleanliness has greatly improved since l was there last, when there where numerous open meat & veg markets, these have now been made into clean covered shopping areas.

The island now mainly services the mainland Chinese, which are now the predominant tourist group.

1843, it is now open to the Chinese and as such is now a holiday destination.

So we had a lovely stay and saw what we had come to see after all these years, we even amazed ourselves that we still knew where we were going, albeit, the surroundings had changed dramatically. Would l go back again, yes but only for a short stay and maybe stay on the other side of the island, don’t think that we can leave it another 25yrs though?

If you are going to Hong Kong anytime soon enjoy.

There are European and other groups which still visit Hong Kong, along with the liners which make a stopover at Ocean Terminal, however, after the handover in 1997 to China from its previous status as a British Colony, which it had been since

39 MMAG. / MILES