Day 17

Hong Kong

Date - 19 May

Weather - Overcast, warm

Accommodation - Nina Towers, Kowloon, Hong Kong 


We had a quiet day. We didn't book the optional tour of Hong Kong as we are familiar with the city having been here quite a number of times including in June last year.


It was good to have a late breakfast and take it easy. We stayed in the Kowloon area and did a bit of window shopping and had a late lunch. We met some of our group at seven o'clock and found a local restaurant to have our last meal together.



Final Impressions: 

This blog has documented our wonderful eighteen day tour of China from 2 May to 20 May with Sinorama Group, a Canadian travel company. We had an experienced tour leader who stayed with us from our arrival at Beijing Airport to our departure from Hong Kong. 


Along with 35 other tourists from Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands we saw the major highlights including Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden Palace, The Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, the Three Gorges Dam and the giant pandas. The four-day cruise on the Yangtze River between Chongqing and Jingzhou was also a highlight.


We visited the large cities of Beijing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Jingzhou, Chongqing, Shanghai, Guilin, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Macau and Hong Kong. 


To see the enormous country of China we undertook four domestic flights, a river cruise, three coach trips, a bullet train ride and a ferry ride. We navigated around the sights of the super cities in local coaches with local guides. We also did quite a bit of walking as we visited the tourist sites.


Our accommodation was excellent as we stayed at five star hotels. For four nights we stayed on a riverboat called "Yangtze Gold Three" as we cruised on the Yangtze River between Jingzhou and Chongqing. 


China is a fascinating country and is developing fast with construction of high rise buildings everywhere. Pollution is a major problem and seemed to pervade the entire country. However, the country is almost litter-free and great efforts are going into tree-plantings in the cities and the establishment of gardens. It is a country on the move. 


Henk and Di


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