Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

The base of the Victoria Peak tram

We're in Hong Kong for just 24 hours so there's no time to waste, after checking into our hotel, we made plans to take the train/tram to the top of Victoria Peak. The 1800 foot high peak over looks Hong Kong Island and the mainland beyond.  It was a short, but confusing, walk from our hotel to the tram. The roads here are not laid out in a grid, they meander and criss-cross each other with lots of over-passes which makes navigation difficult for the unfamiliar traveler (that's us). We ask lots of questions and eventually find the tram - and the long line. 

Waiting for the tram

This is is probably a good time to talk about the population of Hong Kong, which is currently at 7.3 million and rising. We had been for warned that there would be a lot of people here and we'd been lucky up to this point. Hong Kong has about three times the population density of New York city.

That magnitude of density has a noticeable effect on the culture - the "excuse me", "please, after you", and "pardon me" culture I was brought up in just doesn't exist here. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of nice people here but when it comes to waiting in a line, we learned quickly that one needs to "take" one's place in line or someone else will.

The tram we were waiting for is a funicular railway, meaning it is a rail car that is pulled along by a cable - this allows it to ascend the steep mountain without having to wind it's way to the top.

The steep incline of the tram

Once we reached the top of the railway, we entered a multi-story building full of shops and restaurants with many courses of escalators leading to the top of the viewing tower where we had a spectacular view of the Hong Kong metropolis.