Into Hong Kong
Our late night last night took its toll and we were moving very slowly this morning. The plan was to walk from our hotel in Shenzhen across the Hong Kong border and catch the train into Hong Kong central. Downtown Shenzhen is surreal - it's a "special economic zone" in China, which means it is a highly groomed city for big businesses.
It was all so clean and new - skyscrapers and Starbucks galore! We found a great little bakery with some fantastic breakfast pastries, and yes, we did enjoy a latte from the Starbucks next door. It was our only Starbucks visit the whole trip, and it was quite fun to sit and watch business life in China go by over the steam of our coffees! We even, for research purposes, walked through the Wal-Mart in downtown Shenzhen - not exactly like what we have at home, but definitely had that trademark smiley-face!
We arrived at the border, and after a little shopping at the border (people shop in Shenzhen because prices are higher in Hong Kong), we started the crossing over from mainland China into Hong Kong. Even though Hong Kong is now part of China, they treat the border like you are going to a foreign country. U.S. citizens don't need visas for Hong Kong, but they do for mainland China - we still aren't sure how Hong Kong is part of China, but it didn't feel very much like we were in China anymore.After passport control and customs, we caught the train for Kowloon and soon we were shooting away across the hilly countryside that is the New Territories of Hong Kong. Just a short walk down the street from the Tsim Sha Tsui train station is a wide, sweeping view of the Hong Kong bay - what an incredibly beautiful, sweeping view it is!!! The Hong Kong skyline is one of the best in the world, their architecture is truly an artistic passion!
We purchased an Octopus card at the Hong Kong station after taking a ferry across the harbor to Hong Kong island - the cards are proxy cards that work on all forms of transportation in Hong Kong (so cool!). After finding our hotel and cooling off (the temperature was in the upper 70s with sweltering humidity), we made our way to the great shopping area they call Times Square near Causeway Bay. They had a great food court in this mall, with a supermarket that sold everything from Belgian waffles, to sushi, to gelato. We snacked our way through that place! Off to the Temple Street night market in Kowloon, we shopped our way through the flee market, purchasing a couple great finds - beautiful Chinese shirts, coins, and of course, a little red Mao book.