By Amy

Rise and shine! It’s 9 am and we’re getting ready for an entire day of activities. Our study abroad trip could not go by any faster! For the past two days, we split up into two groups in the morning from 9-2 pm to tour Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. I was part of the group that toured Kowloon. We first took a minibus to Tsim Sha Tsui and walked to Kowloon Park. We were definitely not ready for the amount of walking we were about to do today and how much the heat would affect us. The park had a large amount of green space and beautiful plants, making it a very nice place to walk around. One of the first things we saw were older adults doing Tai Chi or exercises. Our tour guide Susan pointed out that it was very common to join in on other groups doing tai chi as long as we did not disturb them. She also shared a story when she used to go to the parks herself to exercise daily at 6 am. Most of the citizens of Hong Kong cannot afford to go to the gym and come to the park and use the exercise machines, including a “treadmill” and a pull down machine. One day, she skipped exercise and the next day she came back, the other people there asked her, “Where were you?” because they missed her. She explained that people developed close relationships seeing each other exercising daily and most of them take care of one another because they do not have kids. This was just one example of the unique aspects of Hong Kong culture and how parks are communal areas where people can relax and get to know one another. After exploring the park, seeing the recreational pool for families, and the birds, we walked over to Temple Street and had lunch. We stopped by a very small shop, big enough to only fit all 11 of us to have wonton noodle soup. Susan was also very kind and surprised us with dessert from a nearby bakery, a special sponge cake that we first tried at Dim Sum. After Temple Street, we walked around to the Jade Market and Goldfish Market.

Walking in Kowloon Park.

View of wet markets from walk bridge

Produce stands of the wet markets

Half the group at Victoria Harbor

After a few hours of free time when we relaxed a bit, we met the other group at the Sai Wan Ho MTR station. Our first stop was to visit the tofu master, Bill Chan Tze-fu. He has been running the tofu shop for over 50 years and has enlisted his two sons to take over. Bill explained the process of making the soybeans and we were able to try soy milk and soy pudding.

Various tofu products

We had even more food when we left the tofu house to visit the “little kitchen” of Chef David Forestell. Lesson learned here: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. We walked through a small cramped alley way and were told that we were going to eat in this old run down beauty. But moments later a surprise awaited: upstairs was a beautiful private European kitchen restaurant. To our delight, we enjoyed a refreshing drink created by the chef himself with ginger, mint, and lemon as well as some butter cookies. I am sure that all of us wanted to stay longer but we had more activities planned for the day.

Group inside “Little Kitchen” – a secret restaurant in Sai Wan Ho

We then walked to a park where we had an “Amazing Race” style competition exploring the Tai On Building in Sai Wan Ho, a residential and commercial building. We had a list of questions to answer such as “Which fruits are not imported from Hong Kong?” (We learned that Hong Kong does not grow any fruits) and then had a series of snacks to try. We tried foods such as egg tarts, xiu mai, egg puffs, and waffles, all of which were amazing. After the one hour we had to complete the game, the losing team had to walk across massage rocks in the park. Finally, our day was almost over and we headed to a seafood restaurant to enjoy dinner. It was a long, tiring day but we’re all enjoying our first week in Hong Kong. Stay tuned to hear about our hiking adventures!

Kathleen walking on massage rocks.