Hong Kong is about a big of a culture shock as you could get after a month in mainland China. To suddenly surrounded by people of all nationalities and not the only Westerner in town was the biggest change.

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Now I am not a big fan of shopping and all that big cities have to offer, so my day off in Hong Kong was to be spent exploring some of the hill areas that surround the city.

First up I took the ferry across from my hotel in Kowloon to Central. Ferries in Hong Kong are cheap and plentiful, and are a great way to get around.
A 20 minute walk took me to the Peak Tramway, which gets you quickly up to elevated ground and great views across the city.
There are a lot of walking tracks in this area,and they are popular with the locals. The 50km Hong Kong trail a well-known walk, and is usually done in stages.
I chose to do a loop that took in the Pok Fu Lam reservoir. This was a fair hike as it involved descending almost to sea level, and then all the way back up to the Peak. The reservoir is one of the main sources of water for the city and I saw fish and turtles swimming in it.

The temperature was around 30 degrees and 70% humidity, so it was a hard grunt. I scrambled up a river bed and found a great rock pool to take a dip in - that was bliss! After a short break for lunch in my hotel, I took the underground train out Tung Chung on Lantau Island and the to the large gondola that takes you up to the Tian Tan budda. The gondola is the biggest in the world, at least according to my Singaporean companion in the cabin. It really does take about 25 minutes for the journey so it is massive.
The Budda is pretty huge too. The Po Lin monastery is quite a spectacle. Lots of people were praying and holding incense candles
I was quite taken with the Path of Wisdom that leads you to a display of wooden pillars inscribed with Chinese buddist sayings. Overlooking a misty and brooding hillside, I thought this wa a fitting note to end my Chinese journey on.