Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas back home in the states. Hope you all had a wonderful time with your close friends and family. Though it's not a major holiday compare to Chinese New Year, people here do celebrate Christmas. On Christmas eve, the popular Kowloon area, Tsim Sha Tsui, is closed off to motor vehicles so thousands of pedestrians can roam the streets freely; very much like NYC's Time Square on NYE. For those of you whom have never been to HK, Tsim Sha Tsui (aka TST) is the heart and soul of Hong Kong situated at the very tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. Usually, in movies when you see the HK skyline, it is usually filmed from TST with a view of the skyscrapers on the Hong Kong Island side.

Every night, there's a light show on the HK Island side. Streams of lights are beamed from the top of the skyscrapers.


Hundreds of people line the piers from the Kowloon side to watch the show.


Check out all the people on the stairs to Harbor City mall.




Wan Chai, which is where we live, is on the HK Island side. Central, which is the business district, is also on this side. The cheapest form of transportation to HK Island is by ferry, $2.20 HKD one-way. However, if you don't mind sitting in the lower deck, it's only $1.75. Acrossing the harbor on the MTR (subway) will cost you $7+. Taxi is much much more.

This is a shot from the lower deck of a ferry looking over to another ferry and the HK Island.


Another form of transportation which is really affordable is called the Ding Ding che (electric double-decker tram). It's only $2 for a ride. It's open air so while it's a wonderful ride in the winter when the weather is nice, but not so great in the summer when it's hot and humid. It was invented in the early 1900s and runs 8 miles on the HK Island side. Lots of locals take it to and from work while tourists take it for fun; very much like the cable car in San Francisco.

As you can see, most of them are very colorful with unique designs. Riders enter from the rear of the tram and exit from the front. The trick is to move closer to the front as your stop nears. Move too slow and you're trapped behind many people unable to get off. The walkway is very narrow so you have to push your way to the front most of the time during peak time.






Of course, there's always the taxi if you want to want to get from point A to point B directly. The meter starts at $16 when you get on. Riding the taxi here is much cheaper than in NY. That's probably the most used transportation in HK. What I just learned from a taxi driver who drove me to work is that he makes about $15000/month, which is approximately $2000 USD, tax free! Not much income to western standards, but a good living for them.

We were waiting in the taxi line after shopping at the Time Square mall in Causeway Bay, probably the most crowded area on the HK Island side.