tour of the city

We got to meet the rest of our group this morning when we went on a tour of the city!  There are 20-25 of us from UT.  Our professor is so cool and she dresses really cute.  I'm excited to start class on Wednesday, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.  Anyways, about the tour...we woke up early this morning and met up with our group in the hotel lobby.  We all loaded up a bus with a tour guide and began our tour.  The guide was cracking us up the whole time.  She would say something in broken English that she thought was hilarious and had the most ridiculous and funny laugh.  Her laugh would make us laugh so it was a great time.

The first stop on the tour was Victoria's Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong.  The city is built into the side of a mountain so from the peak you can see all of the buildings as well as the beaches and harbor.

Faith, Erin, and I at Victoria's Peak

cool archway at Victoria's Peak

view of part of the city of Hong Kong

After Victoria's Peak the group headed to the Stanley Market.  This was just a traditional marketplace, like you would see in Mexico.  The shops were very close together and had a random assortment of items at each stall.

one of the streets at the market

CUTEST little dog in one of the stores!

they play golf in Hong Kong Steffan!

Our next stop as at a jewelry manufacturing company.  We got to see how the company designs and creates the pieces of jewelry they sell.  At the end of the tour we had the opportunity to purchase their pieces.  I got some beautiful pearls!

Dynasty jewelry manufaturing

jewelry production

 By this time we were all so hungry!  The last stop on our tour was a boat ride around the harbor and lunch at a floating restaurant.  This place was so cool.  The architecture was typical Chinese.  The entire building/boat was so elaborately decorated with dragons and chinese symbols.  We sat down at a table to eat and were so confused about how to eat the food in front of us.  Luckily, one of the other girls sitting at our table was an expert in Chinese food and helped us out.  Everything I tried tasted so good!  We would finish one plate and waiters just kept bringing more and more until we were stuffed.  The dessert, "coconut pudding", was a little strange but I loved everything else.  At the end of the dining room was a Chinese imperial throne.  We just had to take pictures!

still on land waiting for our water taxi

on board the boat

our cute new friend Ashley!

the boat driver

how cool is this restaurant?

view of Hong Kong from the harbor

Ashley and I at the restaurant

all smiles

our attempts to look like serious royalty

All of us were exhausted after the tour so we took naps.  We all went to look at the Hong Kong Avenue of the Stars.  This is the Hong Kong version of the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.  We found Bruce Lee!  The Avenue of the Stars was on the same boardwalk to view the Hong Kong laser light show.  This was amazing!  The tallest buildings in Hong Kong across the harbor participate in a 15 minute long laser and light show complete with matching music.  Hong Kong is beautiful at night because of all of the colorful lights and signs.  Adding music and laser lights in the mix makes for a fantastic show.  I'm exhausted from today so I think that's all for now.

Tomorrow we move into the dorms!