Hong Kong Birding

11/13

Friday, November 3

Birding in Hong Kong

Determined to see a little of Hong Kong, but avoid the touristy, shopping stuff we decided to visit the Hong Kong Park, in the middle of the city. We read that it was a mecca for birds, so we donned the cameras and binoculars. As HK is built on a mountainside, the roads and sidewalks are steep, so the 2 km walk had us huffing and puffing. 

The park is quite beautiful, with ponds, waterfalls and pretty plantings. We did actually see a new (to us) bird species, and lots of familiar ones. It is apparently a very popular outing spot for schoolchildren, because we encountered wave after wave of first and second graders in their school uniforms and teachers herding them along, holding up signs for the class to follow. There was a very nice conservatory with plants from different ecosystems, but, the big hit with us was the aviary. We spent hours in there watching and photographing a variety of Asian birds. Overhead, outside the netted in aviary, flocks of "Earnies," sulphur crested cockatoos, (just like the lovable, but incredibly destructive, Earnie, that I fostered for several years) would periodically fly by squawking. Following the park visit we checked out a beautiful, high end supermarket, and found a delicious Japanese restaurant for lunch. We finished off the evening with a goose dinner at a local Chinese restaurant.  (It's all about the food!)

Impressions

The land being mountainous, and surrounded by the sea, is quite beautiful, and although the sky is almost obliterated by skyscrapers, HongKong is fascinating. The streets are very hilly and narrow, full of double decker buses, taxis, high end cars and people. Many of the downtown buildings are brand new corporate centers, particularly, financial institutions. Surrounding the inner city, and across the bay are hundreds more very narrow high rise apartment buildings, some still under construction.  There are a surprising number of little parks and green areas in the city, and quite a lot of "country parks," in the outer areas. Although we didn't get to any, there are still small fishing villages and small towns left,  reminiscent of the past. A series of beautiful bridges and tunnels connects the islands and mainland, while the harbor is full of tankers, container ships, ferries, tug boats and assorted work vessels. There are huge container ship docks, with miles of cranes and containers.

Busy, Busy

A very cosmopolitan city, Hong Kong has many Asians, of course, but many Westerners, as well. The streets were full of people off to work, vendors selling things and in the evening especially, many very trendily dressed young people. In the outlying areas, there are mostly native Chinese. New buildings are cropping up everywhere, and the airport is going through a huge expansion. Although technically part of China as of 1997, when the UK gave it up, HongKong maintains a very different culture, including its own currency, driving on the "British" side of the road and lots of little British touches. Many people speak at least some English, and there are a number of British shops, businesses and financial institutions.