Victoria's Peak and Time Spent Travelling

Yesterday we fought the rain and made our way to Victoria's Peak, a touristy mountain on Hong Kong Island which boasts a shopping center equipped with various eateries and a spectacular view of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Leaving campus takes some effort: We take the MTR to get into town most of the time, but it takes 30 minutes to walk to University station (our MTR station) from the I-House, or we can wait for a bus to take us to the station but there is usually a wait for that and one of the buses (the "light bus" opposed to a bigger bus) costs $4.50 HKD (which really is nothing. $1USD=~$7.5HKD). Once we get to University Station we take that line all the way to one end (8 stops), walk underground to transfer to the red line and take that another 2 stops to the end which is called Central. Whew. If you think this is confusing to read, imagine travelling it. THEN, we took a bus from central to the Victoria's Peak tram, pay a tourist price for the tram (still cheap compared to the US, about $4USD) to take you to the mall at Victoria's Peak. THEN once in the mall you got up about 8 escalators to get to the Sky Terrace, pay another fee and finally witness all of the skylines Hong Kong has to offer. Boasting more sky-scrapers than any city in the world, it's worth the almost 2 hour journey. I want to go back during the day, hike up Victoria's Peak, then hopefully see more distant views (although between the smog and the rain just how far that will be is debatable).

After taking a group photo, attempting to take non-flash skyline photos, and holding hands with Rebecca (because it was just too romantic of a spot not to hold hands with somebody), we ventured off to find some dinner. Because Victoria's Peak is so touristy (and romantic), the range of restaurants is from McDonald's (~$30HKD) to fancy pants restaurants where I imagine couples get engaged or up and coming stars spend a lot of money to feel more like celebrities($1000HKD+). Me being me, I found some weird but delicious looking crepe stand and had some awesome tuna-fish concoction. **Don't worry, I've already recognized the need for a future blog solely about food; I'm preparing a food diary of photos.**

Despite the fact that school is pretty tough and the mountainous pathways of CUHK are exhausting, I'm proud to say we have managed to leave campus every day. A few of us went to Sha Tin mall after class for lunch and tonight we are watching a Chinese movie projecter-style with the entire group and working on homework.

I miss home and American things. Happy Birthday to Carol last week, congrats to Matt for finishing his CFA, and props to Mary for finishing her LSAT!