DCDayTripper: 7/30/06 ~ Hong Kong Part I

On the Rio: Grateful Dead ~ When I Paint My Masterpiece, 4/7/95 Tampa Stadium, Tampa, FL

I had a nice, although very wet, trip to Hong Kong.

The express airport train service to Kowloon, the district I stayed in, is extremely convenient. Kowloon is a mangled way of saying Nine Dragons (gau lung) in Cantonese. Legend has it that Kowloon received its name in 1277 when Song dynasty boy-emporer Di Ping arrived. He counted eight mountain peaks, so figured there must be eight dragons. But his counsel reminded him that he, too, was a dragon, and since he was there, there must by Nine Dragons.

My hotel was at Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong’s best known tourist and shopping district (and you all know how much I love to shop – ugh!). The first thing I noticed was that all of the cabs were red with white or silver tops, and all are Crown Comforts by Toyota.

But the hotel was also only a block away from the Waterfront Promenade (today's topic), Star Ferry, Museum of Art and only several blocks from Kowloon Park.

My first stop was the Waterfront Promenade. But let me tell you, it’s extremely hard being a tourist during the rainy season. Here is a picture I took of myself (although not flattering) in my rain gear with Hong Kong in the background.

[I was unable to do everything on my Hong Kong itinerary such as visit Victoria’s Peak and check out some beaches on the south side of Hong Kong, due to the weather and low clouds, which you will see in following pictures of Hong Kong.]

The Waterfront Promenade area I visited includes The Avenue of the Stars, similar to the Stars of Hollywood, dedicated to Hong Kong movies and actors.