The Peak

Only a few things left to do today: get a haircut, take a look out of the 43rd floor of the Bank of China, where there is supposed to have a good view, have yum cha at Maxim's at City Hall, go up the Peak, watch sunset there, then have dinner and catch the express to the airport.

On the way to the Bank of China, I came across these protest banners planted outside HSBC. On checking the Internet later I found that the protesters were retail investors who claimed to have been sold securities which were made worthless by the Global Fried Chicken. There were similar groups outside Standard Chartered and Bank of China.

The view is good, but there is only one bay of windows, on the west side. As with all visitors, I had to have my daypack X-rayed and register as a visitor to access that floor. They obviously expect visitors, there is a lift that only goes to that floor.


That phallic looking building is 2 IFC (International Finance Centre). Local wits call it Sir YK Pao's Errection, after the owner of the company that built it. It's supposed to have 88 stories, but is actually missing a couple due to unlucky Chinese numbers.


I had a hell of a time finding City Hall, it was a bit lost in the construction and land reclamation. The building dates from 1962 but the interior looks more like 70s or 80s as they have made renovations over time. Due to a misunderstanding of the phrasing in the guide book, I thought that Maxim's served dim sum every day, but it's only on weekends. So all that was available on this Monday was the a la carte menu. It's such a small place that I reckon people would have to stake a place in the yum cha queue early, so I never would have had a chance. They seated me, gave me the menu, and then nothing happened for a few minutes, nobody came to take my order. Maybe the restaurant staff are just as slack as public functionaries in this building. So I just walked out.

I decided to try another yum cha place, mentioned in the guide as a place where old men reading newspapers, extended families, and office groups lunch. It serves a la carte meals but there are yum cha trolleys. I had a vision of a busy but not overcrowded restaurant, where people gently enjoyed their food, with old furnishings, and maybe a canary in a cage in a corner. I should have known better, this was Hong Kong after all. It was crammed to the rafters. What's more whenever the trolleys emerged, customers would besiege them, clutching their score cards and wanting to know what was on offer. I had to follow suit. It was the first time that I had to chase dim sum instead of having it come to me. There are items you would not see in Sydney yum cha restaurants, such as pigs trotters. Still I did manage to score a couple of bamboo steamers worth of decent dim sum. I think what misled me was the bit about "reading newspapers". As you can see from the picture, customers did read newspapers, but in HK that has no connotation of a calm place.


Downstairs I bought a quartet of mini-mooncakes to munch on the run: lotus seed, red and green bean, and red date. So I did get my Moon Festival cakes after all.

I found the terminus of the Peak Tramway and took the tram. From there you have views over the island and Kowloon.

Not surprisingly, you have to pay extra to ascend to the viewing platform on the roof of the building. Also the whole station is a giant shopping and leisure centre. There is a second building nearby, the Galleria, which is also a retail centre. Still, it's not a bad thing because the restaurants can offer their customers great views while dining.

The tram goes up 400m which is not the top, a road goes higher to what must be very expensive houses. They didn't look that flash outside, but I suppose if you can afford the hundreds of millions they are worth, you can make the inside palatial.


There was still an hour or so to go before sunset, and I found that there is a walk girding Victoria Peak, formed by two roads, Harlech and Lugard, of about 3 km, or an hour's stroll. Great.

From the walk it is possible to see the south coast of HK island, and the Pok Fu Lam reservoir.

By this time, the heat had abated somewhat, a breeze had risen, and the light was turning golden, so it was quite pleasant.

Crowds were starting to arrive from the lowlands to enjoy the breezes and the evening view.

I didn't really want to leave; it was so refreshing, but it was time. The descending car was packed, but fortunately it had a large capacity.


Down at Central I found the recommended Vietnamese restaurant and ordered that signature Vietnamese dish: pork chop on broken rice. It didn't come with the ginger sauce I'm used to. It was alright, but not as good as the Vietnamese food in Australia and a bit of a struggle to finish, like the pizza the night before. I think a reason HK isn't so good for non-Chinese cuisine is the lack of a large number of native chefs and diners to maintain the quality. Also we have good fresh ingredients.


After dinner I bought some CDs I had my eye on in a shop just above the check-in counters in the city terminal, and then boarded the express for the airport. Just five minutes short of midnight, our flight took to the air, and that was essentially the end of my holiday.