Yesterday we spent our first full day tripping around Kowloon and even caught the ferry to Hong Kong island and back. 

We saw a lot of graffiti throughout the city.

The best hotel in Kowloon is The Peninsula. Right across the street is a major subway station. The sidewalks are covered with red brick pavers. The protesters peel them off and throw them onto the street to stop traffic. Everywhere there were piles of pavers to the side or on the middle medial strip. 

A Search for Family Roots

U.S. State Department travel advisory: Exercise increased caution in Hong Kong due to civil unrest.

Since June 2019, large and small political demonstrations have taken place in various areas of the city. Some have resulted in violent confrontations between protesters and police.

Ignoring all that, RHS'69 Reunion Committee chair Vincent Yim visited Hong Kong to see and learn about the part of his family he never met.

Back home he removes his flak vest and tells of a wonderous trip.

We had a nice walk into the swanky part of Kowloon. They are getting ready for the holiday season.

Back in the days, when Kowloon was a major shipping port, the ship mast above the Chopard building would post flags to signal the town folks what ships were in port. The merchants would rush down to buy their newly arrived goods. 

Today, it has become like Rodeo Drive and you come to buy your high end goods.

We took a 35 minute ferry ride across the Kowloon Harbor to Hong Kong island.  It is the best way to see the majestic hustle and bustle of the island.

This must be the largest Apple Store in the world. Three stories and built over a major boulevard.

This pedestal building is the People’s Republic of China’s Army Headquarters.

Back in 1988 all you could only see were Junks docked along every inch of the coastline. Some areas ten deep! Land were so valuable that there were thousands of these HKG junks and people were living and doing business on them. It is known that some residences would not set foot on land for months at a time. Packed solid and tied together you could jump from junk to junk buying provisions for the day.

Today, there are few. Developers started to fill the coastline, called reclaimed land. Thousands of acres were built, taking away all the homesteading coastline from the Junks. While still called a symbol of Hong Kong, only a few are still afloat for ferrying tourists around the harbor.

The charm of old Hong Kong gone.

A junk is a type of Chinese sailing ship and is considered a symbol of Hong Kong - although they are largely gone from the area.

They were developed during the Song dynasty (960–1279) based on ship designs which have been trading with the Eastern Han dynasty since the 2nd century AD.

Found more broadly today is a growing number of modern recreational junk-rigged sailboats.

February 1, 2020