First Impressions…the 3 things I am loving the most about Hong Kong
My husband and I have been living in Hong Kong for about five months now and I wanted to share my 3 favorite things about life here with you! All of these experiences were so unexpected for me as I knew little to nothing about them prior to living here, so I’m thrilled to share them with you.
1. Riding the “ding ding”
This is by far my favorite way to get around Hong Kong Island.
The Ding Ding is a double-decker streetcar with over 100 stops along Hong Kong Island. It is an incredibly slow way to get around town and has a very similar sensation to riding an old wooden rollercoaster, but if you have the extra time, it is such a fun way to get around and see the city. I absolutely love sitting on the upper level and catching the breeze, even on the hottest days. There’s just something special about the experience that I have fallen in love with.
It currently costs $2.60 HKD per ride no matter the distance, which is approximately 33 cents USD…such a deal! I occasionally get on going the wrong way because I forget that traffic goes in the opposite direction from what I’m used to, so having to hop off, cross the street, and board another ding ding, and only losing 33 cents makes it a lot less heartbreaking.
*The ding ding is also the most environmentally friendly way to travel in the city so that’s an extra win!
2. Shopping at the wet markets
I am truly surprised by this one!
Naively coming here, I expected to be able to continue shopping at local neighborhood farmer’s markets every weekend. OMG, I was so so wrong. Farmer’s markets in Hong Kong are a bit more limited, as Hong Kong imports around 90% of its food, but guess what…I was happily surprised! Hong Kong has many permanent street markets every day of the week. And yes, by far my favorite thing about the markets is the fresh tofu stands like the one!
2 bricks of tofu for $10 HKD… That's a little more than $1 USD. And they have so many varieties of tofu (fermented (stinky), firm, silken, fried, puffs, five-spice), I honestly don’t even know what they all are, but I’m excited to learn!
I also stumbled upon this shop in Wan Chai Market with countless varieties of mushrooms.
It’s so fun to discover new produce that I’ve never seen before!
More future posts to come on the Wet (produce) Markets here.
3. Hiking
I knew that hiking was possible in Hong Kong from the research and blogs I read in preparation for our move here, but I did not realize it would be this beautiful!
When my husband and I got out of our 21-day mandated quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong, the first thing I did was go for a hike to Victoria Peak (the highest hill on Hong Kong Island). I was so out of shape after only doing a few home workouts (from our apartment to the Peak it was about 45 flights of steps), so it was quite the challenge, but the view was worth it! I have since been on multiple hikes (which has slowed now that it’s unbearably hot and humid or rainy in the summer here) but we did get in a 15-mile hike on one of the last cool days in April, so I’m hoping to get back to it more in the fall!
Leaving you with this beautiful (almost 360 degree) view from the Peak.