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Heya TL,
I'm a Taiwanese-American currently residing in Taiwan for the year, and because I've only got a tourist visa and not citizenship or an ARC, I have to leave the country and come back in every six months. I decided to go to Hong Kong this time since it's close and I've never been there before, and I was wondering if anyone here on TL would be interested in meeting up or something like that (Planning on going there 2/23, leaving the next day) since I've got some time to kill.
Barring that, suggestions for activities to do would be greatly appreciated as well, thanks!
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Calgary26003 Posts
Everything I did in Hong Kong sucked except for the peak. Macau was dope.
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I have never been there, but from what I heard, there is nothing interesting in HK, except:
+ Show Spoiler +A LOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE. Yep, that's right. That's what you see when you go to a place of perhaps one of the densest city in the world.
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On January 09 2011 09:16 Chill wrote:
Everything I did in Hong Kong sucked except for the peak. Macau was dope.
I'm just going to have to assume you really really hate food. 
HK food is awesome and really cheap, I'd go back there just to eat lol. If you're looking for something to do, then I hope you like shopping and night life. Do try to go with an plan or idea or you'll be really frustrated if you're stuck walking in the streets trying to find something to do 
Maybe the op can tell us if there's anything you're looking to buy
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Calgary26003 Posts
I think Asian people have some sexual connection to food that I don't understand. Sure I love food, but I'm not going on vacation for it...
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I suggest you try to find a local who can take you around. When I went to HK with my family, I was able to have a lot of fun because we had some family who could show us the great restaurants, shopping places, etc. If it wasn't for them, we would've just been wandering around like losers.
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On January 09 2011 10:01 Chill wrote:
I think Asian people have some sexual connection to food that I don't understand. Sure I love food, but I'm not going on vacation for it...
We take pictures of our food all the time. You are probably right.
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Shopping. Shopping is all you can really do in hong kong.
I think food is overrated in Hong Kong. It is cheap but the ingredients are of low quality cos of mainland farming practices and low grade livestock.
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have fun man. there's a chance I'll be visiting Taiwon in may for a conference.
btw, i'll vouch for funnytoss being a cool dude in real life for any hong kongers hesitant to meet up with him ;P
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Well, okay, I might have exaggerated a little. But if I had to go back to Hong Kong to say, renew my citizenship, I'd be happy eating out every single day until I left
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On January 09 2011 09:16 Chill wrote:
Everything I did in Hong Kong sucked except for the peak. Macau was dope.
yea the peak is great. There's other great attractions too but they are hard to get to (kinda far and on different islands) which you probably missed. Macau is like the vegas of the east.
hong kong is just full of everything that there's going to be something for you no matter what type of person you are. People say it's all nightlife+shopping but that's only one facet. But I have to say that it is one of hong kong's fortes.
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On January 09 2011 10:01 Chill wrote:
I think Asian people have some sexual connection to food that I don't understand. Sure I love food, but I'm not going on vacation for it...
haha i am asian and i agree with you. I'm totally down for mcdonalds or whatever even when I'm in another country, and my friends/partners give me shit for it.
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For touristy stuff, check out the peak, the Po Lin Monastery [at the very end of the Tung Chung line on the MTR] and im also a fan of the Diamond Hill Monastery/park off the Diamond Hill stop on the MTR.
Check out Lamma Island as well if you want a good walk across an island. You can start on one end at around 11am, have lunch in the small village. Halfway through get some of the best doufuhua i've ever had. Eventually you end up on the other end at around dinner for some great food, and catch the ferry home.
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I would say you can go to all the major tourist attractions in a day. Hong kong is all about shopping. This is a good time to get a new pc. Hong kong isn't really a tourist attraction. I suggest you go to korea since it's only a bit further and so much more to do.
EDIT: If you are into fighting games, please go to one of the arcades. If you dont, you will regret it. Hong kong is one of the places in the world that arcades arent dead yet. (other then Japan of course)
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Chill January 09 2011 10:01
I think Asian people have some sexual connection to food that I don't understand. Sure I love food, but I'm not going on vacation for it...
hahaha, sexual eh, very nice. its true tho, HK is not really a tourist place.
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HK was awesome, so many ridiculously good (and cheap) restaurants right on the water where you can watch the light show at night. No matter what your food tastes are you will find it in HK. Highly recommended you just go out, eat well and have a good time.
The computer markets are pretty fun to visit too if you are in to cheap hardware/games/useless junk.
Macao is also just a turbojet away if you like casinos. It is pretty much the Vegas of Asia. I got to stay at the Venetian which (even though I didn't do any gambling) was a heap of fun just walking around and again eating all the tasty food. The best sushi I've ever had was at a restaurant inside the Venetian. I haven't been to Japan yet though so I'm probably missing out  It's also the 4th biggest structure in the world, beating most airports.
+ Show Spoiler +It is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the fourth largest building in the world by floor area. The Renaissance, Venice-themed resort which officially opened on August 28, 2007 boasts of 3000 suites, 1.2 million sq ft (111,000 sq m) of convention space, 3400 slot machines, 800 gambling tables, 15,000-seat arena for entertainment or sports events and has the largest casino space in the world at 550,000 sq ft (51,000 sq m).
It was a heap of fun just wandering around seeing how ridiculously large it was. The fake indoor sky is pretty impressive.
There is a lot to do in and around HK.
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PM alffla, he might be free to show you around :p
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Thanks for the replies everyone.
A LOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE. Yep, that's right. That's what you see when you go to a place of perhaps one of the densest city in the world.
Well, I've been to Tokyo before and that was already pretty impressive...
HK food is awesome and really cheap, I'd go back there just to eat lol. If you're looking for something to do, then I hope you like shopping and night life
I suggest you try to find a local who can take you around.
Sadly, I like neither shopping nor night life, and I'm not really the type to be like "OMG GOURMET FOOD" either. Yeah, it's pretty stupid to go to HK if you're not crazy about food, shopping, and bars, but it happens to be the closest and cheapest country to fly to, so...
Not looking to buy anything in particular, which is why I was more interested in maybe meeting up with people from TL and catch dinner or something. That said, I'm only there for half a day anyway so if worst comes to worst and I just wander around the city for a bit before heading back to the airport that's fine too.
have fun man. there's a chance I'll be visiting Taiwon in may for a conference.
Sweet! Lemme know if it happens. Chances are you'll be in Taipei (I live in Taichung) but we'll see.
For touristy stuff, check out the peak, the Po Lin Monastery [at the very end of the Tung Chung line on the MTR] and im also a fan of the Diamond Hill Monastery/park off the Diamond Hill stop on the MTR.
Check out Lamma Island as well if you want a good walk across an island. You can start on one end at around 11am, have lunch in the small village. Halfway through get some of the best doufuhua i've ever had. Eventually you end up on the other end at around dinner for some great food, and catch the ferry home.
Thanks, this is really useful!
Hong kong isn't really a tourist attraction. I suggest you go to korea since it's only a bit further and so much more to do.
Yeah, I actually really want to go to Korea when I have the chance - maybe in another six months when I have to leave the country again. Hopefully there'll be Proleague... the biggest inconvenience to that is that I need more planning to go to Korea, since I can wing it in HK just based on the fact that I can read Traditional Chinese, whereas I can only pronounce Hangul with no idea what it means.
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I might be able to show you around somewhere.. I dunno if im working that day or not though at the moment. Like other people said, theres not that many exciting things to do, at least, if you dont speak chinese its hard to find fun things!
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On January 09 2011 19:34 Galaxy77 wrote:
I might be able to show you around somewhere.. I dunno if im working that day or not though at the moment. Like other people said, theres not that many exciting things to do, at least, if you dont speak chinese its hard to find fun things!
That's something I'm a bit curious about - I can't speak any Cantonese at all (except swears), but I can read fluently... and I kind of assumed I could still get around pretty easily, but who knows.
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I once read a tourist guide about Hong Kong, and it has so many pages that every single district has its own section! Who say there's nothing to do in Hong Kong :D
Anyways, if you do not like shopping, you can still visit some beaches, historical sites and museums... or go hiking if you like to see natural scene
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On January 09 2011 19:50 Funnytoss wrote:Show nested quote +On January 09 2011 19:34 Galaxy77 wrote:
I might be able to show you around somewhere.. I dunno if im working that day or not though at the moment. Like other people said, theres not that many exciting things to do, at least, if you dont speak chinese its hard to find fun things! That's something I'm a bit curious about - I can't speak any Cantonese at all (except swears), but I can read fluently... and I kind of assumed I could still get around pretty easily, but who knows.
Many people in Hong Kong know mandarin; especially the younger generation, because of the triple language schooling. They aren't totally isolated from the mainland, especially since 1997.
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Hey there,
I went to HK year before last and loved it. My recommendations for tourist attractions would be going up the peak and also the giant buddah. Both of those were pretty cool, the views are awesome on a good day. I think coming from the UK it was more enjoyable because of the total contrast to here. The star ferry is pretty cool too. I mean its nothing that special but its historical and cheap and a fun way to kill time if thats what you're doing. I liked looking across at HK island from Mong Kok at the sky scrapers it was pretty sweet, especially the bank of china building i <3 it. Also IFC 2 is pretty nice, but if you're used to seeing the 101 building idk if you'd find it as cool! There is also a pretty nice place on HK island if you're going to go up the hill, i think it was called victoria peak gardens. Its a pretty nice little place and is sorta like a mini zoo or something. Has some cool animals there.
I also went to Taiwan, spent most of my time in Taichung, boy do you guys love mopeds ^_^ . Ate in some pretty ballin restaurants in Taichung.
Hope you have fun!
Edit: added below and some more stuff above!
With regards to getting around, its super easy really. So much stuff is in English and tonnes of people speak English, at least from my experience. Even when they don't its pretty easy to get by. The MTR makes it really easy to get around, its clean, spacious and efficient (at least in comparison to the London Underground). Really easy to get to and from the city/airport on the MTR. I picked up a map somewhere that was mega useful with all the places marked including MTR stations etc.
Anyway enough of my ramblings, i hope you can tell from this post that i <3'd HK.
Edit 2: Also i went to the hong kong history museum which i thought was really good if you like that sort of thing. The beginning bit was a bit boring (for me) geological development and cultural history but then later on it moved on to more modern generalised and political history which I enjoyed.
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EPT
