4 days in Hong Kong advice welcome

bigadaj

Ballard wrote: »

I'd recommend Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. From memory you'd need to get the tube to the end of one of the lines and then a cable car.

When did it stop being the big Buddha?

Ballard

bigadaj wrote: »

When did it stop being the big Buddha?

It's known as both as far as I know.

zagubov

I'm not sure I'd recommend hiring a car, but weirdly it's a right-hand-drive (as in it drives on the left) enclave in a massive left-hand-drive country (which therefore drives on the right). Not many examples in the world (and yes I know about Savoy Place off the Strand in London)

bigadaj

zagubov wrote: »

I'm not sure I'd recommend hiring a car, but weirdly it's a right-hand-drive (as in it drives on the left) enclave in a massive left-hand-drive country (which therefore drives on the right). Not many examples in the world (and yes I know about Savoy Place off the Strand in London)

Hiring a car isn't worthwhile, the public transport system is very good and will get you to anywhere a tourist might want to go.

It's obviously historically not been part of China for 150 years and under the one country two systems system is still basically separate, mainland Chinese can't enter Hong Kong without permissions for example.

Voyager2002

bigadaj wrote: »

It's obviously historically not been part of China for 150 years and under the one country two systems system is still basically separate, mainland Chinese can't enter Hong Kong without permissions for example.

Yes, that is very striking. At the time when the mainland was cracking down on Falung Gong, Hong Kong was full of posters supporting them. I remember taking a picture of a police officer with a background of these posters: try doing that on the mainland!

Cisco001

zagubov wrote: »

I'm not sure I'd recommend hiring a car, but weirdly it's a right-hand-drive (as in it drives on the left) enclave in a massive left-hand-drive country (which therefore drives on the right). Not many examples in the world (and yes I know about Savoy Place off the Strand in London)

Don't hire car. Not worth.
it is expensive to park.

Voyager2002

Cisco001 wrote: »

Don't hire car. Not worth.
it is expensive to park.

It is also expensive (and unnecessary) to take a taxi, and there are weird rules about which taxis are allowed to go to which areas.

Take a boat to Lamma, where no motor vehicles are allowed.

zagubov

The car parks we saw there would almost require you to climb in and out of your sunroof, the cars were jammed so close together.

bigadaj

zagubov wrote: »

The car parks we saw there would almost require you to climb in and out of your sunroof, the cars were jammed so close together.

Having a car in Hong Kong is very much a status symbol.

Taxes both on the car and the permit to use/ tax mean it's multiples more expensive than in the uk or Europe.

When I worked there we did some jobs on government housing estates, pretty unpleasant and run down in public areas but often a car park full of bmws, Mercedes and above.

The psychology was very different, car was for show, no one knew you lived on a rough estate because you would meet people at hotels or restaurants and do your business there. Many couldn't afford the crazy property prices and rents and many of those that could took advantage of subsidised government housing to then rent the property they owned out for a huge return.

zagubov

Our friends there said the same. There's an unusually high proportion of bigger cars for such a congested territory.

It felt like Manhattan, but much much safer to walk around in. The transport was really easy to use. They even had elevated walkways that crossed through the heart of buildings, presumably funded by the shops that lined them.