Like many first time visitors to Hong Kong I had a number of preconceived ideas of what to expect – towering skyscrapers, a frantic pace of life, great food and of course *that* view from the Peak. But unlike many other visitors, Hong Kong was not a stopover for me on the way to somewhere else. It was the destination.

I had decided to spend a full week in Hong Kong and flew in from Malaysia which I had also been visiting. I was not going to be staying in a 5-star hotel at the waterfront, but somewhere a little less salubrious – a hostel in one of the mansion buildings in Mongkok. That in itself presented a challenge, trying to locate it whilst avoiding tripping over the busy shoppers at 11pm, but find it I did and wedged myself into my incredibly small room for the night.

As I ventured into the streets on my first morning the mass of people, traffic noise and food smells had my senses tingling – a busy morning in Mongkok is quite an introduction! I have travelled in a number of other Asian countries and Hong Kong felt more familiar than some other places I had visited – but I definitely knew I was far from home. My first priority was food and so despite the overwhelming smell from some of them I headed to a street corner food stall (I was later to discover the smell was deep fried stinky tofu, which I subsequently was pleased to find tasted far better than it smelt!)

Of course, despite wanting to see more than just the obvious sights I also wanted to see those that Hong Kong is famous for, so over the next few days I took the Star Ferry, headed up the Peak, went to Lantau to see the Big Buddha and wandered around the harbour taking in what surely must be one of the world’s greatest vistas.

I had read many years ago of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival and fortunately was able to time my trip to co-incide with it. Despite the queues to get there (& the bigger queues to come back) it was a great experience and the island, with its beaches and low rise buildings, felt a world away from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island. The Hong Kong people seem to throw themselves wholeheartedly into their festivals and it was great to witness this first hand.

Food was going to play a large part of my trip (I was in search of the perfect char siu!) and I enjoyed foraging on the street stalls, trying out little noodle bars, eating in the markets and, of course, going for morning dim sum. Luckily I was able to meet up with a Chinese friend for a visit to Lin Heung and she was able to take care of all the ordering - I could concentrate on eating instead! It was a great experience and a wonderful start to another day of exploring Hong Kong.

Staying close to Tung Choi Street meant that I could witness up close the obsession with shopping; the streets were teeming with people under the neon signs looking for the latest technology or the greatest bargain. Other than some window shopping to check prices (which surprisingly seemed to be about on a par with UK prices) I didn’t join the locals in their shopping activities, but the shopping streets were fascinating and exciting places to wander along.

Whilst in Hong Kong, I decided to take a day trip to Macau and it was interesting to contrast the two places. Macau has a very obvious Portuguese feel to it, with the footpaths and many of the buildings being in a Mediterranean style. I find casinos fairly soulless places and so didn’t longer too long in the gaming rooms, but the scale and facilities of the casinos was incredible. I couldn’t resist trying out the pastel de nata (in fact I ate 3 during the day – just for research purposes you understand!) and rounded off an interesting day with some Macanese food before heading for drinks in one of the newest and most impressive mega-casinos, the MGM Grand. A short nap on the fast ferry and I was soon back in Hong Kong!

The pace of change means that tall buildings and continuing land reclamation seems the order of the day in Hong Kong and there appeared to be few older buildings prominently on show. Whilst there are examples of old buildings, the overwhelming impression is of a modern city constantly undergoing change, which seemed in contrast to Macau which, despite the proliferation of modern casinos, still has an older more traditional feel to it.

As for the frantic pace of life, I am not sure if it is because I am used to spending time in London, which in itself can be busy, or that I have witnessed rush-hour in Tokyo & Seoul but the pace didn’t seem overwhelming to me. Yes, there are a lot of people and whilst there isn’t the obvious order of somewhere like Tokyo, things never felt uncomfortably busy.

One preconception which didn’t appear to be correct, which I had read of in some guide books, was that people in Hong Kong are less friendly than in other parts of Asia. I found most people to be approachable and met quite a few who were willing to offer their time which helped make my trip more enjoyable. A bar crawl through Kowloon – with lots of noise and dice games – wouldn’t have been half as much fun without sharing it with local people. I was even taken to see a Chinese opera in Tsing Yi which I would never have discovered on my own. In fact I was the only western face in the audience (I was also one of the few people under 60 years old as it was a matinee performance!)

Were my preconceptions wrong? Not entirely. Hong Kong is all of the things that I thought it was, but also so much more! Many people think of it as one small island; I don’t think that I had really appreciated the number of islands & variety of landscapes that it consists of and I really only scraped the surface. It is a great city that I don’t feel can be done justice in only a short stopover and I think deserves far more time than that. The buildings, landscapes, food and people all present a great image of Hong Kong and I hope I managed to capture some of that in my photographs.

More of my photography can be seen at www.shimmerimages.co.uk

Jonny Boyle