Return to Hong Kong, Day 1

After a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong, I’m back in Chicago and excited to share photos and highlights from just four days in my favorite city. I hope you enjoy this post and the ones to follow. Here’s day one!

Tom and I stayed at the intersection of Wan Chai, Happy Valley, and Causeway Bay. This was our view from our hotel room.

I envisioned taking the tram to and from the hotel each time we went out. But with the Occupy demonstrations closing off the major arteries of Central and Admiralty, tram service was limited for most of our trip. I was amazed and inspired by the patience and tolerance of most people we spoke with. So we just went with the flow and ended up using the subway a lot. The nearest station was a quick walk to Causeway Bay.

On our first morning, we hit the Luk Yu Tea House for dim sum. It’s been around forever and is a blast from my past, as my parents used to take me there when I was a penniless student.

I wanted to show Tom the southern part of Hong Kong Island, so we made our way to Wanchai (after finding out that bus service had all but stopped from Central) to take a bus to Stanley. We found this temple across from the bus stop, so took a look inside.

There was a cool banyan tree behind the temple.

The bus ride to Repulse Bay and Stanley is one of my favorites in Hong Kong. We sat across from an older couple who had lived in Hong Kong for decades until they moved to Scotland around the same time I left Hong Kong in the late 90s.

Stanley is peaceful on the weekdays. We walked around and I shopped some.

After a couple of naps and a walk around the Causeway Bay outdoor markets, we took a cab to the Jewish Community Center for my first of three book events in Hong Kong. The fabulous Erica Lyons arranged this event and went all out.

Author and journalist Ray Hecht crossed the border from his home in China to attend and give me print copies of his fabulous review of Good Chinese Wife.

And at the end of the reading, Erica gave me this lovely photo book about Shanghai.

There were about a dozen people at the event and afterwards some of us went out for Vietnamese food in Wanchai.

Since the trams weren’t running down Queen’s Road, Tom and I walked home and passed the Sikh temple next to our hotel. We were staying at the crossroads of all cultures in Hong Kong. More on that in future posts.

What a great way to end our first day back in Hong Kong!