Arrived at 7 am and walked for miles down escalators, travelled on a driverless train and then walked miles up escalators to get to the queue for immigration, but we weren't in a hurry as the hotel check in was 2pm! Through baggage reclaim and then had a coffee whilst using the airport free wifi to read emails etc. Purchased our octopus cards and sorted out where the busses went, then had to top up Carol,s card as we would have used all the 20 dollars on the airport bus. Mine had 100 dollars so that was OK. Long ride into town on the front upstairs seats. Over some enormous and pretty bridges and through a couple of tunnels, trying to follow the route on Google maps but GPS didn't,t work very often. Managed to get off at a sensible station and headed fairly accurately to the hotel with one pause for uncertainty at the time a wheel collapsed on Phil,s main case. Jury rigged a shoulder strap and struggled the last 100 yards OK. Checked in about 10:30 without problem and crashed out for an hour or so. Decided on a suitable walk nearby and set off back to Admiralty station area and into the park.
Feeling hungry headed to the restaurant but found it under reconstruction so investigated a tea house nearby. Amazing choice of teas ans dim sum menu - most choices OK but jasmine dumplings with sesame filling were disgusting! Wandered round the park lake and then through a spectacular aviary built on a hillside - bit of a climb to the entrance though, past a memorial garden to the victims of 2003 SARS epidemic. Wandered on to the Peak Tram stop and found an enormous queue so went to look at St John,s cathedral, totally dwarfed by skyscrapers around it. Deep breath and joined the queue, back and forth along the serpentine queueing system and after a few "kettling" pauses we got onto the platform some 2 and a quarter hours after we began. Fascinating journey very steeply up the hill and exited into the very commercial building at the top. Found a cafe for a snack which went well til the "milk tea" arrived which seemed to be made with sterilised milk and to our tase was undrinkable.
By now darkness has come and we went up to the observation deck to see the city below us all picked out in myriads of lights. All very pretty. When we had had enough of the level 3 Typhoon blowing we descended to the tram and balked at the queue so went in search of a bus. Found the bus stop but after a quarter of an hour nothing had come, and we wouldn't have got on the first one anyway, we gave up and splashed out 600 dollars on a taxi ride. Still a queue of people at 7:30 who would be waiting 2 hours to get to the top. Back to hotel room and bed around 8:30.
Feeling hungry headed to the restaurant but found it under reconstruction so investigated a tea house nearby. Amazing choice of teas ans dim sum menu - most choices OK but jasmine dumplings with sesame filling were disgusting! Wandered round the park lake and then through a spectacular aviary built on a hillside - bit of a climb to the entrance though, past a memorial garden to the victims of 2003 SARS epidemic. Wandered on to the Peak Tram stop and found an enormous queue so went to look at St John,s cathedral, totally dwarfed by skyscrapers around it. Deep breath and joined the queue, back and forth along the serpentine queueing system and after a few "kettling" pauses we got onto the platform some 2 and a quarter hours after we began. Fascinating journey very steeply up the hill and exited into the very commercial building at the top. Found a cafe for a snack which went well til the "milk tea" arrived which seemed to be made with sterilised milk and to our tase was undrinkable.
By now darkness has come and we went up to the observation deck to see the city below us all picked out in myriads of lights. All very pretty. When we had had enough of the level 3 Typhoon blowing we descended to the tram and balked at the queue so went in search of a bus. Found the bus stop but after a quarter of an hour nothing had come, and we wouldn't have got on the first one anyway, we gave up and splashed out 600 dollars on a taxi ride. Still a queue of people at 7:30 who would be waiting 2 hours to get to the top. Back to hotel room and bed around 8:30.
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