Left the dismal day that was Taipei in Taiwan bound for Hong Kong. We had a day on our own on day 1 & a ships tour on day 2. It's generally pandemonium getting on & off the boat what with extra border security, taxi queues and the rest. Day 1 was no exception. You needed your hiking self in full gear. Went out mid morning on to the terminal gangway, uphill for about quarter of a mile, into nice modern terminal, thankfully it had travelators. Then up hill down dale security people and then out on the concourse where cabs & buses stop. Directed to shuttle bus, walked to join queue, got to shuttle to be told it's the wrong one, it was the free one & the paid one is at the other end of the terminal. The terminal is about half mile long. By the time we got to the proper shuttle, a woman who was walking with us told us we had already walked a mile. Knackered!
So we did our usual wandering, on & off with rain, but not bad. Found our way to Tsim Sha Tsui, strolled around the harbour and the Star Ferries and chanced upon the Hong Kong Discovery Centre in Kowloon Park. The discovery centre was the former British army Whitfield Barracks built in 1890. They had a special exhibition running on the Tang Dynasty. Very impressive, up to British Museum standards. The capital city, Chang An now Xian had a population of 1 million in 800ad and was designed in a functional grid system. They were so pleased to see us, making us really welcome and gave us souvenir gifts when we left.
Nice light & music show using the buildings & lasers put on in the evening. At least the terminal connector to the ship was downhill on the way back.
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