Hong Kong was founded on the opium trade and proclaimed a British colony in 1841, remaining so until 1997, when it was returned to China. Hong Kong is 6 million people crammed vertically onto 400 square miles. Her population is highly literate with 60 Chinese newspapers published in Hong Kong, as well as several English dailies. We took the funicular tram up to 1800 foot Victoria Peak for splendid views of the city (photo). We sailed on a sampan all through Aberdeen Harbor to see her floating population of literally thousands of families living their entire lives on sampans and junks (photos). A visit to Stanley Market provided all the excitement, chaos and clamor of a street market with shops jammed full of brightly colored silk jackets, intricate Chinese embroidery and extraordinary tapestries, rugs, jade, bamboo, chopsticks…all sorts of exotic Asian wonders. Our conclusion is that Hong Kong has been misspelled. It really is “Shop-Ping” (accent on last syllable)! Incredible pieces of Chinese creativity, ingenuity and workmanship are for sale everywhere. Most of us are aware that Hong Kong, like the rest of the world, has experienced a sagging economy in the past few years. We can assure you that Hong Kong experienced an abrupt financial turn-around as the result of our visit. Our effort to shore up their economy was magnificent! Sailing in and out of these world cruise harbors is a fantastically extraordinary experience, of which folks who fly in and out are sadly deprived. Hong Kong is a case in point. Hong Kong is miles of sleek and astonishing steel and glass towers, lined up shoulder to shoulder, whose nighttime illumination reflected on the water is a sight that shall remain with us always.

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