Your 1 DAY Guide to Hong Kong 🇭🇰 

Besides Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, there's also the New Territories, with New Territories representing what the British leased from the Chinese in 1898. The British got Hong Kong Island in the 1840s, then Kowloon in 1860, and then they leased the New Territories in 1898. Something I love a lot about Hong Kong is how its architecture incorporates feng shui! Feng shui is an ancient Chinese traditional practice which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term feng shui means, literally, "wind-water". From ancient times, landscapes and bodies of water were thought to direct the flow of the universal Qi through places and structures. Hong Kong's skyline is pierced by gaping voids called dragon gates. Such dragon gates are designed to let these mythical flying beasts pass from their hilltop homes down to the water each day and then return again each night. The sharp-edged Bank of China Tower by IM Pei was broadly criticized for not using feng shui as feng shui experts saw the angular shape as “cutting” the good fortune of adjacent buildings. The skyscraper’s poor feng shui has since been blamed for adjacent companies going out of business and other mishaps. To combat this bad luck, the neighboring HSBC Building built cannon-like maintenance cranes as negative energy deflectors. Even Hong Kong Disneyland was built with feng shui in mind, like shifting the angle of the front gate by 12 degrees to ensure prosperity!

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens you visited is important because not only is it one of the oldest zoological and botanical centers in the world as it was founded in 1864, but also all of the cultivated trees of the Hong Kong orchid, Hong Kong's symbol, derive from one cultivated at the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens and widely planted in Hong Kong starting in 1914! The Hong Kong orchid is a hybrid leguminous tree of the genus Bauhinia. This tree was discovered in around 1880 by a French Catholic Missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions near the ruins of a house by Pok Fu Lam and propagated to the formal botanical gardens in Victoria/Central! I love funicular systems! A favorite funicular system of mine is Haifa's Carmelit which goes up the religiously important Mount Carmel! It's quite the unique system since the oldest underground transit system in the Middle East, as it opened in 1959, is actually a funicular that's only 1.1 miles long! Not to mention it serves the beautiful Baháʼí World Centre. Another funicular that's also underground like the Carmelit is the Tünel line in Istanbul! Inaugurated in January 1875, the Tünel is the second-oldest fully underground urban railway in the world after the London Underground and the oldest in continental Europe as it pre-dated the Budapest Metro by 21 years! French engineer Eugène-Henri Gavand was inspired to create the line after he visited the city as a tourist and noticed how many people struggled walking up and down Yüksek Kaldırım Avenue

The double-decker trams are indeed very cool! In the UK, the earliest double-deck trams were horse-drawn. The first electric double-deck trams were those built for the Blackpool Tramway in 1885. The British Hong Kong government first looked into building a tramway in 1882, however they chose to focus on the Peak Tram instead because of business interests on Victoria Peak and the Peak Tram opened in 1888 (so the Peak Tram is as old as the Star Ferry). The tramway was finally built in 1904 as you mentioned, but not with double-deckers, only twenty-six single-deck cars with first-class and third-class sections. They introduced double-deckers to the fleet in 1912 due to increasing ridership. They began double-tracking in 1924, and the last section of single-track was replaced in 1949, leading to even more ridership. In the UK, London stopped operating double-deck trams in 1952 while Glasgow did so in 1962, but Blackpool still runs them alongside their modern fleet! So Hong Kong's double-deck trams has lasted longer than London! When they were first planning the Central-Mid Levels escalator in the late 1980s, the British colonial government found that much of the east-west traffic in the area arose from north-south travel demand, as the steep topography did not allow for major roads to be built straight up the hill. There was talk of linking Central and Mid-Levels with escalators, a monorail, or a cable-car system, and so as you saw here, the escalator system won. My favorite type of transit in Hong Kong is MTR's Disneyland Resort Line! It's a shuttle service between two stations, Sunny Bay and Disneyland Resort. Sunny Bay station has a futuristic theme, while Disneyland Resort station has a Victorian theme. The idea was that the train would act like a time machine, taking people from the future to the fantasy world of Hong Kong Disneyland. This concept works because the line uses a tunnel through a mountain to reach the resort. The trains themselves are very different from the rest of the MTR network as they have Mickey-shaped windows, Mickey-shaped handles, and bronze statues of Disney characters in glass displays

The Ding-Ding does look like fun! It's so high up above all the rest of the traffic. The view from the top of the tram way is amazing! I had no idea Hong Kong is so beautiful

What a truly wonderful young entrepreneurial CANADIAN you are Mike. Congratulations on your changes especially your marriage. Keep up your happy spirit as you navigate this new road. Thank you for all the wonderful moments that you have provided over the years. I’ve watched them all and some several times. At 80 years old this is great entertainment.

I'm so enjoying seeing you experiencing things my mother must have when she was there in 1937 with her friend another American naval officer's wife. They stayed at the now gone Repulse Bay hotel where it was said if you sit in the lobby someone you know will walk through. Sure enough a girl she had gone to school with did. They were there during the worst typhoon they had had in 50 years. She had movies of ocean going ships in the harbor that had been blown out of the water resting on their sides. Looking forward to more. 😊

It's great when you bring in Jess for your videos. I'm also already really happy with the stuff you're putting out from Hong Kong. Lots of stuff I'd never get to see. Thanks, Mike.

I love and miss Hong Kong so much ❤ thanks for a lovely tour around the best city

That was an awesome tour! Hong Kong is beautiful and practical! Wow...thanks Mike! Cheers from Ontario 🇨🇦

So excited to learn more about HK!

Love adventures with Jess!

Thank you for this lovely tour! ❤HK

I’m so glad you featured the escalator! This was my daily route to get home to my grandmother, all the way to the top!

I love the milk-tea and both the pineapple buns and cocktail buns there . ☕️🧋🍰 😎 . Super tasty Cantonese cuisines ! 🍛🍜🍚🥢 . Beautiful all over particularly the Victoria Harbor! I was a teen foreigner living in Kowloon and attending Catholic school there during the 60's . Now at age of 76 , love to watch all these tours of HK videos. ❤👍🏻🙏 😎🇮🇹🇺🇸

Awesome tour! Received my hats this week. Thank you Mike for sharing your B'day! Can't wait for the next adventure.

You two look like you had a great time. Keep enjoying your times together. ❤❤

Its cool to see how they combine all these transit methods to make the city more accessible to foot traffic.They all fit together for one purpose helping people get around.

Thanks for sharing part of your new home and modes of transportation. Loved it.

Great video Mike!!! I was in Hong Kong 53 yrs. ago when it was a British crown colony. Loved it!!!!

I loved HK when I visited years ago. Hiking Victoria Peak was the absolute best. What an excellent video, such unexpected nostalgia.

We absolutely love your sister Jess!! Any video with you two in it is awesome!!

You live in Hong Kong?! How am i just finding it out 😂❤

I’m really excited for this, or these series of a day in the life of a Hong Kong expat 🤞videos! Hong Kong kinda gives me a Vancouver vibe…on a much larger scale with more congestion and overhead power lines…the laundry hanging just makes it relatable but I’m hoping the people are friendly and you can fully feel at home for your time there. I’d imagine it’s just the same feeling I’d get from Rio or NY…overwhelmed by the sheer number of high rises in such a small area. Just reaffirms I need to travel overseas and experience that beautiful location.

That pineapple bun looks similar to a Japanese melonpan! Melonpan is lighter in weight and taste, slightly drier and has a firmer outer layer (including top cookie crust) which resists flaking. The fact that the Central-Mid Levels escalator system fueled the proliferation of different businesses along the system goes to show you that if you build a type of transit whether it's a train line or even an escalator system as shown here, people will come! Caojiawan in Chongqing opened in 2015 with nothing around it, and then it became surrounded by developments by 2019! When the IRT Flushing Line first opened in Queens, stations had basically nothing around them, so all the diverse neighborhoods that now surround that line in Queens, developed because of the subway. Because it gave people a reason to live there! To put things into perspective, approximately 800 languages are spoken in NYC, with 300 spoken along Roosevelt Ave that the 7 serves! Really shows that NYC is truly the international city! Star Ferry was first founded in 1888 as the Kowloon Ferry Company but was renamed to Star Ferry in 1898. Before the steam ferry service was first established, people would cross in sampans. In 1870, a man named Grant Smith brought a twin-screw wooden-hulled boat from England for operations between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. In July 1873, an attempt was made to run steam ferries between Hong Kong and Kowloon. This was stopped at the request of the British consul in Canton, who feared it would enable visits to gambling houses in Kowloon. The company was founded by Parsee (the Indian Zoroastrian community) merchant Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala and Naorojee bought Smith's boat and later acquired two steam vessels, naming them Morning Star and Evening Star. Its popularity led him to increase the fleet.

It's great to see that you now live in Hong Kong. Have a wonderful time there!

I love your signature goodbye! “I don’t know where I’m going next, but I know I want you there with me “ It seems sincere and I think about joining you 😊

Absolutely Loved Every Second // Absolutely Awesome From Start To Finish

I was in Hong Kong in 1988 and I was amazed at the bamboo scaffolding on high rise buildings

This looks like it was a fun day - and Jess was a great sport, especially bringing the puns at the end there. Nice video Mike.

Amazing content as always man. I'm following all the way from 🇿🇦

Mike, loving the video upload mate! Been a fan of your channel since the Vancouver covid series. I'm sure you have already but if not, you need to get yourself a sourdough Portuguese eggtart from Bakehouse (there's a few around HK island). Looking forward to more adventures from ya!

Probably my favourite city to have visited, but maybe 17 years ago!!

Great to see you begin to explore Hong Kong and getting to show your sister around adds to the fun.

We love all the transportation modes! Nice to see your sister again

Congratulations on all the positive changes in your life Mike. I hope you will do some more fun transportation (train, ferry, etc) videos for places "near" your new home (Japan, China, etc.).

What a fantastic and interesting video of Hong Kong. I was hoping your family could visit you there so awesome to see Jess made the trip and into the video.

Great tour! The Peak Tram was my absolute favorite thing while growing up in HK

I found your channel through my 7yo son that loves trains .. and now I love it to ♥

Great video Mike, cant wait to see more adventures in Hong Kong, amazing place so looking forward to the future content! Best wishes from 🇬🇧

Id love to see a video of how you're enjoying Hong Kong now that you're settled in more! What you miss about back home and what you enjoy in your new city! I think we can all say we do love the vlog style that you normally don't do!

Yes! Lovely tour.

Rock on, thx for the upload team!

Nice! I was there with the family in 2018 and did all the touristy stuff. I actually spent most of that year in Beijing and loved every minute of it. It is so different from the west that it was exhausting for the first month until I figured out how shape my daily life, then I just enjoyed it. Learned enough Mandarin to get by and the rest is on your phone.

Did this same route this morning to the tram. Thank you.

When I was in Hong Kong on Vacation in New Years 2008, I was in a hotel near Times Square. Nice mall there. I hit up Kowloon, Macau, and the Big Biddah on the hill. Po Tian Monastery I think it was called. Fun times in HK. Great 2 weeks there. Way to ring in 2009.

Thanks for the introduction, booked my solo trip from 3rd to 10th July. Hope can cover all the interest shown. Love from Singapore.

I loved to ride the ding ding. And the air b&b I stayed at was near that asculator.

love your travelling videos!! i hope more people know about you :)

Love this video buddy!

Great tour! Thank you

Beautifully presented. Fabulous journey

What a day thank you so much for the video! Never knew Hong Kong had all these cool transit things to put on my bucket list!

I love when you have your sister along. She loves to tease you! Also this made me want to visit. Most of my Eastern visits were to Shanghai.

Jess is by far your best travel companion. She seems to be as excited to explore as you are and maybe even a bit more adventurous (a good thing).

I call trams in Sydney 'ding ding' as well :) Love cantonese. Yay for video on HK from your perspectives.

Mike, you are making me SO "homesick". I had "loved" HK from a distance my whole life. Had lots of HK friends. Finally, in the late 1990s (sigh, I know, before you were born), I went to teach in GZ. (Guangzhou) Caught up with one of my best friends/ former roomie, now back in HK. He gave me a key to his flat, and HK became my refuge - I travelled there every long weekend/ holiday, hiking, partying, etc., for all of the remaining 3 years I lived in GZ, and then moved to HK to work there. I LOVED it. Living in DB was the best of both worlds - HK & nightlife, and country park hikes in DB (well, there was that "slight" issue of travelling time/ ferry timetable, which, after multiple years, DOES become a pain in the butt). Was there for 9+ years, until I had to return - injured - to Canada. ( Edit - spelling of "park" Sigh - autocorrect.) Bro, you're making me very homesick. To any HongKers friends, hello, and I hope you are very well. Cheers!

Would be real cool having an indepth travel guide around Hong Kong. Maybe a roadtrip around the island out of the city itself, see some of the less commonly visited/viewed places, some of the historic spots, you name it. Tons of opportunities to see the sides not often shown off!

Thank you for this!

I have family living in HK and have been there twice, with hopefully a third time coming up soon. It’s so fun to see so many spots I enjoyed so much and yet so many new spots as well ☺️

Very convenient, im visiting HK right now!

welcome to Hong Kong!! I love your trains video and i can't believe you are in my city now!

Locked in and taking notes!! 📝 Love seeing you and Jess on adventures!

Have never been to Hong Kong.... thank you for the tour!!! I really enjoyed this...

I appreciate the escalator content, that was really cool and interesting

nice! that's sweet to show your sister around. i enjoyed watching the video. i'll be there on the 4th of june. see ya around😊

You should come to St. George, Utah!! There are a lot of national parks that surrounds the town and there are a lot of fun stuff to do here outside

Thank you your video is an awesome way to see Hong Kong

This video was very interesting! Thank you again for 'bringing' us along on your journeys, Mike.

When the fire truck came up this was my first thought. I'm a US Citizen born abroad in Hong Kong, I was to young to remember anything but one thing I was told that when I was born I was in the public hospital and had to be transported to the Government Hospital Via a fire truck. I really want to go visit some time, as much as I remember nothing from the 2 years we lived there after I was born and the one trip we took when I was a little kid, there is just something about Hong Kong that makes me feel attached to it. I just don't got the time or money to go visit let alone know how to speak the language there, but one day I do want to visit.

Never been to Hong Kong and can't see myself getting there any time soon but knew about the trams and ferries from other friends and travel guides. What a great day you had with Jess! (Nice to see her with you again.) Loved the foodie start, the tram ride, ferry ride, escalator fun facts and ride and you top it off well with the peak tram to Mount Victoria Lookout. You were so blessed to have a smogless evening view over the greater city and harbour. If, and when, you come down to Melbourne, you'll find the largest tram system in the southern hemisphere and a great metro rail system to explore one of the most liveable cities in the world (we regularly spar with Vancouver for title of the best). Lots of things to see and do (Google for more info) and I do recall giving you a few suggestions when I first started viewing your channel almost four years ago. I think I have mentioned that our transit system travel card is named Myki (not joking). I think your dad would chuckle over that. Also we have frequent regional rail services to explore other parts of the State of Victoria and the Myki card is valid for many of these as well. Come on down and see us soon (or when you can get the opportunity). Cheers from Michael.🙂😉🙂

As someone who grow up in Hong Kong, your sister was doing it right! Walk around and get food whenever you feel like it. Glad that both of you are fit because there are A LOT of walking even though there are public transportation everywhere. When I went back for a visit, everyday I walked between 12k to 20k steps and that's very common. Which also help burn off all the foods and drinks I had throughout the day!

I gotta visit! looks like a fun city to explore, especially those mountains close by!

Neat video!!🚋✌

I was in Hong Kong in 2019 (my early days of vlogging). It was a solo trip to Asia, mostly I was heading to Taiwan but I got a great deal to stop in HK for a few days. Enjoyed every minute of it. Beautiful city with so much to see do and eat. Your vlog reminds me of several places I was. The Funicular was closed at that time though (reconstruction I believe). Would love to visit there again because I felt there was much more to see and do.

you're now one of my favorite people ever

I first visited Hong Kong in Nov 2023. Its great to see places i been to especially the North Point area where i stayed at.

saw that you were there on insta and decided to go to hongkong in november for a week! thanks for the inspriation!

Thank you for taking us along. 💛

Awesome video. I grew up in HK. Lots of memories. 🙂

Wow!!! I love hong Kong and i lived in HK in 1980.

MIke nice to see your Sister back, you both were Out& About for the day lol can still hear Your Canadian accent even though your thousands of miles from home all the best to you both

Liked your video! Glad you and wife (& hi sister!) are doing okay. Great to show us the pineapple bun and milk tea 👍🫖Love the trams 🚃

Wow, what a beautiful day in Hong Kong!

Thank you for showing the Victoria Peak funicular, I haven’t been to Hong Kong since 1979, but it’s nice to see that some things haven’t changed that much.😊

Amazing! The places you could show us in Hong Kong, and I feel like this is just the beginning! I loved all the escalators and you touched on just about every other transport too! Very cool Downey, very cool! I love how your Sister is up for whatever the day brings. You two are so fun! Looking forward to wherever you take us, though I'd love to see more of Hong Kong, I feel we're just getting started. You know? I think yours is the first video of Hong Kong I've ever seen. Hint hint😉😊

Love it!

Made me really miss HK when i saw this video.

Do you ever post your itineraries in case we travel to these places. LOVED the tour! ❤

I was in HK a week ago and rode the tram to Kennedy town. Also caught a ferry to Peng Chau, which was an island i hadn't been to before. I love the place, I've been there many times, its a crazy diverse place. I'll be back again in a few years because i'm always finding things to see and do there! FYI I got the octopus card for travellers app and just used my phone to tap on and off, but in the past its been easy to buy a card at HK airport as well. The reason i was in HK was just to stop there because i could on the way home from 2 weeks in Taiwan. You should do some train videos from there, so close to HK for you and i think the Alishan forest railway would be right up your alley!

There is also New territory area in Hong Kong … love your content ever since Amtrak series

Oh, it seems that you're living at Happy Valley, so you can try to walk onto the Peak directly from Happy Valley next time; furthermore, at the place you turn left to the Peak Tram Station through that special bidge, there has been already a single road for walking onto the Peak if you turn right (hikers walk from there directly to the Peak instead to turning back downhill for the Peak Tram sometimes).

I watched this randomly and was so surprised to see myself on the escalor in front of you at @12:19 ! 🤣

Interesting n lovely video of travel. HK is vibrant and Modern +tradition . A day can do lot of things, fun .

The Stanley Market, which it is in the southern part of Hong Kong Island. So many foreigners you may find them in that area.

This video is going places!

This was so great! I didn’t think I had any questions about Hong Kong, guess I did 🙂

Great tour lots of childhood memories on the trams

your channel and 44 Teeth are my fav's, you two do look alike!

Great video and amazing city, congratulations, I subscribed on the channel

I love Honk Kong, such a crazy mix of cultures.. I worked for a tour company and Hong Kong was one of my locations that I brought groups after we toured Mainland China, it was a refreshing break from pure Chinese culture. Hopefully you will show a night market and take. trip on. a Junk to the largest restaurant in the world on the harbor. The food is okay, but it's all about the experience of getting there and navigating the massive place I found that drinking some whiskey helps bridge teh gap of eating some of the more exotic dishes on offer and just dont' pay too much attention to what you are eating..