Hong Kong (10/27): HZH in HK - Part 1: The Peak

My wushu teacher, Hao Zhi Hua (a.k.a. Patti Li) is in Beijing for a month, visiting family and watching the World Wushu Games which will be held in November.  During her visit to China she took a few days, along with her older brother, his daughter JingJing and a student named James, to come visit me in Hong Kong.

I went to their hotel in Causeway Bay to await their arrival.  Originally they were scheduled to show up around noon, but due to flight delays out of Beijing they didn't arrive until later in the afternoon.  It was just three of them, as JingJing had opted to go to Macau first to do a bit of gambling. 

Typical street in Causeway Bay

After getting settled in their hotel we sat in the cafe next to the lobby for a bit to munch on appetizers and get something to drink.  But pretty soon they got restless so we decided to head on out and take a trip up to the famous Hong Kong peak.

Since it was Saturday night I suggested we just cab straight up instead of taking the tram, as the lines around sunset tend to be pretty long and they had already spent the majority of the day travelling on planes and waiting in lines.  After a 15 minute taxi ride we arrived at the top of the hill.

Great view from the Peak, if not a little blurry

In case you feel like falling ... don't.

The first stop was, of course, the lookout area.  Last time I was there they didnt' charge people to go to the top, but this time they added a $20 HKD fee.  There's commerce for you.  At the top of the hill we spent time looking around and enjoying the view.  But pretty soon we started to get hungry.

Patti sports the universal symbol for "cheese!"

Me and the Hao's

Er Jiu, James and Patti

James was nice enough to bring me this rockin' hat

After some exploration we settled on a Chinese restaurant called "Zen".  It was appropriately named since the prevailing zen-like service attitude seemed to be "time is an abstraction and your food is with you never and always".  The food itself tasted okay, but it would have been nice to have better service.

Er Jiu checks out the menu

The table spread

After dinner it was back down the hill where I dropped them off at their hotel and then took the tram home. 

The following is a video I made of their first day in Hong Kong.  Enjoy!