First Stop: Hong Kong

The first stop of our journey was "Hong Kong", an incredibly bustling city on the Chinese Sea. During the 12-hour flight, we already prepared ourselves for the first destination with a noodle soup from the onboard kitchen.

Our hotel was located on the border of downtown and next to various shops where bags full of dried something were sold. Lizards, mushrooms, fish, squids, starfish, and everything that crawls on land and in water. Even hardened foodies wrinkle their noses at these flavors.

From the hotel room, we had a view of countless skyscrapers. But they were not only in the center, but also visible far on the horizon. A proud Zurich resident with his "Swiss Prime Tower" (36 floors) can pack up. Even a simple residential tower next to our hotel was much taller (46 floors).

In addition to the topic of "dense construction", Switzerland could also learn other things from this metropolis. For example, regarding traffic planning. In Lucerne, the roads and train stations burst during rush hour. In Hong Kong, on the other hand, we never saw a traffic jam or queues at subway stations. But this is probably also because metros run every minute during peak hours and are as long as an Intercity train in Switzerland.

And especially in times of terrorism in Europe, it is nice to see that all races and ethnicities can live together peacefully in this global city. During our 3 days there, we only saw 5 police officers!!

A bigger highlight were the various green oases in Hong Kong. Beautiful parks with tropical plants and flowers are located right next to the glass skyscrapers. A special highlight among the countless parks was the "Nan Lian Garden". A Japanese garden with an adjacent monastery. The park and the buildings were beautiful. The photos above prove it. And unlike in other cities, we didn't have to pay anything for visiting these attractions. So it can also be done without commercialism!

The only real tourist machinery was the Peak Tram up to the Peak, the mountain of Hong Kong. But the long queue was definitely worth it. The view of the city and the bay was breathtaking.

Of course, a classic Chinese noodle soup from a street kitchen couldn't be missed during a visit to Hong Kong. At the night market, we tried a self-created noodle soup. The experience was great, the taste not so much... Luckily, we had salt to bring the soup to Swiss taste ;-).

The planned visit to the "Symphony of Lights" was probably the flop of the day. Unfortunately, we were completely in the wrong place due to construction work. Instead of a light show from various high-rise buildings, we only saw a few beams of light flickering in the sky. Well! But even without the light show, the view of the nighttime skyline was breathtaking.

The first stop of our journey was great and makes us excited for more. Now we continue to New Zealand. You will find out here what we will experience there...