Hong Kong, Schenzhen and Macau - A Travelogue

         We had been planning our visit to Hongkong and other cities in China for a very long time, but it could materialize only recently in last February, when we took a six day package tour with Kesari Tours. We had lots of fun as my good friends Mrs. Sudhatai Joshi and Mrs. Sadnyan Gutte had also joined us on this trip. We took a late night flight to Hongkong on one Sunday and returned early morning on the following Sunday. Arriving at the beautiful, sprawling Hong Kong airport at 9:00 am on 17^th Feb 2014, we went straight by a limousine to the city of Schenzhen, which was our first halt. Schenzhen is a twin city, much like our own Navi Mumbai, just across a five mile long bridge on the bay that separates mainland China from the island of Hong Kong. While both Hong Kong and Macau were until recently under the British and Portuguese rule and it was only in 1949, that they came under the control of the government of the Republic of China as its specially administered regions. All the three cities we visited are the most beautiful, modern cities with tall skyscraper buildings with the modern glazed structures and clean, broad avenues lined with trees and greenery on their either side. 

Schenzhen C.B.D

       On the very first day, we were taken out for shopping to a large, seven storied Mall, which naturally pleased the lady folks, no end. However, probably because it was too late in the evening, most shops in the Mall were deserted and the shopkeepers were, in fact, seen eagerly waiting outside their shops to attract and entice prospective customers. Some of the ladies got so enamoured with the shopping that they lost track of time as well as their way and our poor tour manager had to run around quite a bit to locate them. In Schenzhen, we stayed in a five-star hotel called Century Kingdom for three days, during which we visited the Overseas Chinese Town(OCT) Resort and the Windows of the World Theme Park. We also visited a Government Bamboo Research Center, where we saw several new, unique uses of the Bamboo ranging from a magical, dusting cloth to vests for gents and medicinal oil for arthritis! 

OCT East Resort, Schenzhen

             The OCT Resort is a picnic spot situated in scenic mountains, which has fragrant tea plantations along its slopes side by side with beautiful, European style Villas and other buildings on the banks of a blue river wending its way through the valley. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery while taking a ride in a unique, funicular train, for descending the mountain. We alighted from the train at a station named as “Interlaken” ostensibly after the famous, tourist attraction of Switzerland. Here, we were shown the most spectacular and enjoyable “Teana” show in a big Theater,      provided with a colossal stage that surrounds the entire audience on three sides. While we could hardly follow the story, as it was in Chinese, however, for over one hour we were transported into a mysterious world of actual, tiny fountains and waterfalls, along with other outdoor scenery created on the stage and during the play, the actors were seen literally floating around in the air! In China, the theatre craft seems to be so advanced in the use of modern technology that it is a mind boggling sight and it should be seen to be believed.

             Windows of the World, on the other hand, is a unique theme park in which they have  displayed miniature models of several world famous ‘tourist spots’ and ‘wonders of the world’, which you can all visit in the span of a single day! Thus, we could see most of the world’s famous landmarks, right from the Pagodas of Mandalay, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Tower of London and the Roman Colosseum to our own Taj Mahal, Australia’s Sydney Opera House, the Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon besides the skyscrapers of Manhattan --- all in a not-too-small a miniature world sprawling over few acres of land.

Jet Foil Transport from Schenzhen to Macau

              Early next morning, we proceeded to our next halt, the fabulous island of Macau, considered to be the world’s capital of gambling and casinos, only next to Los Angeles in USA. Macau is an island in South China Sea, west of Hong Kong and it took us one hour ride from Schenzhen to reach it in a speed boat called the Jetfoil . A “Jet foil” is like a combination of a hovercraft and a jet plane using water jets instead of air/gas jets. It has one or more pairs of fixed vanes attached to its hull, to lift the entire boat slightly above the water surface as it gets propelled forward by the water jets at a fantastic speed of about 80 km per hour. The ride was so smooth and silent that we could realize the high speed of the boat only when we looked down at the water flowing past as we lunged forward. There was still a Japanese lady sitting by our side, who was sea sick and belching out loudly all along the journey!  

Hotel  Venetian ,  Macau

In Macau, we were put up in a palatial, seven star hotel, called the Venetian, which had six hundred rooms each one being a special, grand air-conditioned suite with marble flooring and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling! The whole interior of the hotel was beautifully decorated, with the entire third floor being a veritable replica of the St. Mark’s Square in Venice, complete with its classical style buildings, huge shops selling watches, jewelry or Swarchowski glass crystal-ware and even a water canal to go round the square in a  Gondola! For a while, we had completely forgotten that we were inside a hotel, because we could not realize that the blue sky above us was, in fact, an artificial ceiling! There was also an Indian restaurant on the same floor where we took our meals. Next to the hotel, there was the Macau Tower which is about 350ft. high and features the World’s highest  bungy jumping platform! A young, eighteen year old lad in our group had the courage to take the ‘scary’ jump and he came back alive with a stunning success and not even a scratch, but, alas, all that the poor fellow received for his daring were our weak, appreciative smiles and congratulations.  

A Replica of St. Mark's Square of  Venice inside Hotel Venetian in Macau

Ruins of St. Peter's Cathedral

In the evening, we visited the ‘Ruins of St. Peters Cathedral, the most famous tourist attraction of Macau. It is a five hundred years old church built by the Portuguese and as the name suggests, it is now in complete ruins and  the front façade with its grand stone stairs and five tiers are the only remains of the largest church in Macau. Each tier is adorned with vertical ‘ornamental’ columns and statues of Madonna, Jesus and Virgin Mary with the two stone lions, projecting out from its sides, being an example of  architecture of Chinese variety. In fact, the entire façade is a rare combination of the Western and Oriental art.

A-Ma Temple, Macau

Our next visit was to A-Ma Temple, which is one of the oldest and most famous ‘Taoist’ temple in Macau and it is dedicated to the Goddess Matsu who, according to local folklore, helped the fishermen and seafarers of yore to ward off calamities at sea. They called the deity as “Maa Gok” from which came the present name, Macau. The entire temple complex has been designed esthetically in regards to its size and architectural style, which is typically of Chinese classic origin. Outside in the courtyard, there were giant sized incense sticks or “Agarbattis” burning with lot of smoke, but, no aroma worth the name filling the atmosphere

    Next day, we returned to Hong Kong crossing the sea again, as before, by a jetfoil.. Hong Kong is the busiest commercial city of Asia being famously known as the “Pearl of the Orient” or the “Oriental Manhatten”  It ranks the highest among 108 countries of the world because of its very high longevity of 80 – 84 years and a very high average IQ of 107 of its population in April 2013. The city is very beautiful with natural gardens and parks and its famous, wide, wave - lapped beach, called the Repulse Bay which is very popular with the tourists as well as its local population. 

Hong Kong Street

        Our main sightseeing in Hong Kong was the full-day visit to the Hong Kong Disneyland  and Madame Tussoud's Wax Museum. Way back in the year 2000, when we had visited Paris and London during our Europe tour with M/s/ Cox and King, we had seen the European versions of both these tourist attractions. While both the Disneylands are more or less the same in concept and design, the one in Hong Kong is spread over a much wider area of about 50 acres of land and it was much more “lively” than its Paris counterpart. As in Paris, here too one could meet all the Disney characters ‘in flesh and blood’, like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Winney the Pooh and their Disney Parade was just as wild and frenzied. The entire area is divided into smaller parts based on various different themes like the Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and the Toy-storyland. We were also taken in a nice boat ride around an island called the “Mystic Point” in the middle of a dense, rain forest and we came across some wild beasts and cannibals etc.  I don’t know if those were real creatures or some sort of mechanized, lifelike, life-sized ‘toys’ that suddenly came to life when one approached them. At one point, an elephant bathing in the river raised its trunk and suddenly, showered water all over the boat drenching us completely. We also experienced some kind of weird, terrifying events like a dragon spewing out flames of fire or a crocodile menacingly advancing towards us with all the ladies and kids screaming wildly. The day ended in the evening with a spectacular display of fireworks, outside the gates of “Cinderella's Castle”,  similar to the ones we saw on TV during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Flight of Fantasy Parade in Disney Land, Hong Kong.

Our last day in Hong Kong was marked by our visit to the Victoria Peak, which is the highest point in the island at an altitude of about 550 m with most of the Telecom and other facilities, public parks, the residences of some of the wealthiest people in China and also the major shopping centers being located there. The Peak is a major tourist attraction as it offers a spectacular, aerial view of the Hong Kong harbor and the city. Hong Kong has the seventh tallest building in the world, called the International Commerce Centre, with a height of 484m and 118 floors. (In terms of floors, it is the world’s third tallest building.) With so many of the sky scrapers jetting out prominently out of clusters of tall buildings, the city resembles the city of New York as it appears from the airplane while landing at the JFK airport and so, it probably deserves its nickname viz, ‘Manhatten of the Orient’.

Aerial View of Hong Kong City from Victoria Peak

Madame Tussoud's Wax Museum
 

Vasant in deep discussion with Dr. Einstein

 

Meeting with Her Highness Queen Elizabeth III

While at the Victoria Peak, we also dropped in at Mme. Toussoud’s Wax Museum for a tete-a-tete with Queen Elizabeth, Einstein, Merilyn Monroe and our very own Amitabh Bachchan and other similar celebrities. Most members of our group did not give up this one, rare opportunity of getting photographed in the company of their favorite stars! My husband did not forget to get himself snapped with ‘Einstein’ while discussing with him ‘General Theory of Relativity’ or some such thing !

Our most enjoyable six day trip to Hong Kong, Schenzhen and Macao was over!