Hong Kong Transit: a Day Stop in Asia’s World City

Although millions of people pass through Hong Kong every year, on their way from here to there, many of them don’t really know what are the best ways to spend a day in this exciting metropolis.

This article will show you how to cover Hong Kong’s most popular attractions in a one day stopover.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -  – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -  – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -  – - – - – - -

After clearing customs and immigration, proceed to the luggage storage counter at the ‘Meeters and Greeters Hall’, where you can store your trolley or bag till you come back… Buy an Octopus Card from the Airport Express Counter at the Arrivals Hall and hop on the Airport Express Train, with which you travel all the way to Hong Kong Station.

Victoria Peak (or simply “The Peak”) is one of Hong Kong’s most popular tourist attractions and probably the best starting point. Having your breakfast or morning coffee while enjoying some spectacular views is definitely a nice way to start your Hong Kong day-tour.

The Peak Tram is the most popular (and scenic) way of getting to The Peak. It operates daily, 7 am – 12 midnight and climbs the full distance in approximately 7 minutes.

A short walk from Hong Kong Station (exit C) will bring you to the Lower Terminus, on Garden Road, where you can buy the ticket and board the tram (you can also pay with your “Octopus Card”)

Pacific Coffee, near the “upper terminus”, is open daily from as early as 7:30 am, and is the best place to enjoy your “coffee with a view” at such an early hour.

Down from “The Peak” walk back towards Hong Kong Station and through “the elevated walkway” to the pier from which the Star Ferry departs to Tsim sha Tsui. This historic ferry route is very popular with tourists and has long become one of Hong Kong’s most prominent icons.

From the ferry building, turn right and walk along the waterfront to the Avenue of Stars: Hong Kong’s answer to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, where floor plaques of Hong Kong film industry’s who’s who can be seen.  This is also the best place to take photos of Hong Kong’s spectacular skyline.

From here, you can take a short walk to the Hong Kong Museum of History, where “the story of Hong Kong” is told… From the geological changes that took place hundreds of millions of years ago, through prehistoric eras, notable historical events and until present day. The museum is fairly rich and boasts plenty of interesting exhibits.

Continue to Nathan Road, Kowloon’s main thoroughfare, and proceed through Jordan Road to Canton Road, which is popularly known as Jade Street.

Jade and its products are the specialty of most of the shops along this section of Canton Road, as well of those in the neighboring <b>Jade Market</b>, and there is certainly a lot to see (and to buy…). From Jade Street. you can turn right to <i>Ning Po Street</i> where many traditional Chinese shops and businesses can be found.

The Old Tin Hau Temple, just a few minutes walk from the Jade Market, was built in the 1880s and is one of Kowloon’s oldest temples. It is dedicated to Tin Hau (Matsu), Goddess of the sea, protector of seafarers and one of Hong Kong’s most beloved deities.

From the temple, you can either walk or take the MTR to Mong Kok area, where some of Hong Kong’s best open-air markets can be found:

As its name denotes, Ladies’ Market specializes in women’s clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and the like, although you can find here more than a few stalls that sell men’s and children’s products, including toys, clothes, bags, jeans and watches, just to name a few…

Sai Yeung Choi Street South boasts shops of consumer electronic products at street level and upstairs bookstores above.

Fa Yuen Street concentrates many retailers of sports equipment and clothing, while Fa Yuen Street Market, in the north part of Fa Yuen Street, is full of shops selling bargain-priced trendy fashion and casual wear for men, women and children.

While in Mong Kok, you should also make a point to visit the Goldfish Market, the Flower Market and the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden (or just “Bird Garden”), where dozens of bird shops are located and hundreds of colorful songbirds in exquisitely crafted cages can be seen…

Mong Kok is also packed with many authentic eateries and restaurants where you can enjoy some delicious local food at reasonable prices:

Curry A La King, on 88 Soy Street, is a paradise for curry lovers, serving a wide selection of scrumptious curries from different Asian cuisines.

Satay King, on ladies market, specializes in Southeast Asian satays.

MongKok Fung Shing Restaurant, on 749 Nathan Road, is known for its superb dim-sum and delicious crispy chicken.

Lucky Corner Restaurant, on 146 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, is a rather humble eatery which has been serving some of the best Wonton Noodles in Hong Kong for God knows how many years.

Little Sheep (4th floor, 16 Argyle Street)is one of Hong Kong’s most favorite hotpot restaurants.

Fu Kei Restaurant, in King Wah Centre, is serving fabulous food from different Chinese cuisines.

That’s it… You can now take the MTR to Central, from which you link to Hong Kong Station (there is a pedestrian passage) and continue with the Airport Express, back to Hong Kong Airport.

For more travel information on Hong Kong, including recommended hotels, suggested city-walks and sightseeing, a Restaurant & Nightlife Guide, great shopping tips, and much more: visit Metropolasia – Hong Kong Travel Guide where all the information you may want or need, is compiled in one easy-to-use website.


Roni Shwartz is a travel consultant and writes for Metropolasia

November 29th, 2009 Comment (0) Uncategorized

Hong Kong Transit: a Day Stop in Asia’s World City

Although millions of people pass through Hong Kong every year, on their way from here to there, many of them don’t really know what are the best ways to spend a day in this exciting metropolis.

This article will show you how to cover Hong Kong’s most popular attractions in a one day stopover.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -  – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -  – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -  – - – - – - -

After clearing customs and immigration, proceed to the luggage storage counter at the ‘Meeters and Greeters Hall’, where you can store your trolley or bag till you come back… Buy an Octopus Card from the Airport Express Counter at the Arrivals Hall and hop on the Airport Express Train, with which you travel all the way to Hong Kong Station.

Victoria Peak (or simply “The Peak”) is one of Hong Kong’s most popular tourist attractions and probably the best starting point. Having your breakfast or morning coffee while enjoying some spectacular views is definitely a nice way to start your Hong Kong day-tour.

The Peak Tram is the most popular (and scenic) way of getting to The Peak. It operates daily, 7 am – 12 midnight and climbs the full distance in approximately 7 minutes.

A short walk from Hong Kong Station (exit C) will bring you to the Lower Terminus, on Garden Road, where you can buy the ticket and board the tram (you can also pay with your “Octopus Card”)

Pacific Coffee, near the “upper terminus”, is open daily from as early as 7:30 am, and is the best place to enjoy your “coffee with a view” at such an early hour.

Down from “The Peak” walk back towards Hong Kong Station and through “the elevated walkway” to the pier from which the Star Ferry departs to Tsim sha Tsui. This historic ferry route is very popular with tourists and has long become one of Hong Kong’s most prominent icons.

From the ferry building, turn right and walk along the waterfront to the Avenue of Stars: Hong Kong’s answer to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, where floor plaques of Hong Kong film industry’s who’s who can be seen.  This is also the best place to take photos of Hong Kong’s spectacular skyline.

From here, you can take a short walk to the Hong Kong Museum of History, where “the story of Hong Kong” is told… From the geological changes that took place hundreds of millions of years ago, through prehistoric eras, notable historical events and until present day. The museum is fairly rich and boasts plenty of interesting exhibits.

Continue to Nathan Road, Kowloon’s main thoroughfare, and proceed through Jordan Road to Canton Road, which is popularly known as Jade Street.

Jade and its products are the specialty of most of the shops along this section of Canton Road, as well of those in the neighboring <b>Jade Market</b>, and there is certainly a lot to see (and to buy…). From Jade Street. you can turn right to <i>Ning Po Street</i> where many traditional Chinese shops and businesses can be found.

The Old Tin Hau Temple, just a few minutes walk from the Jade Market, was built in the 1880s and is one of Kowloon’s oldest temples. It is dedicated to Tin Hau (Matsu), Goddess of the sea, protector of seafarers and one of Hong Kong’s most beloved deities.

From the temple, you can either walk or take the MTR to Mong Kok area, where some of Hong Kong’s best open-air markets can be found:

As its name denotes, Ladies’ Market specializes in women’s clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and the like, although you can find here more than a few stalls that sell men’s and children’s products, including toys, clothes, bags, jeans and watches, just to name a few…

Sai Yeung Choi Street South boasts shops of consumer electronic products at street level and upstairs bookstores above.

Fa Yuen Street concentrates many retailers of sports equipment and clothing, while Fa Yuen Street Market, in the north part of Fa Yuen Street, is full of shops selling bargain-priced trendy fashion and casual wear for men, women and children.

While in Mong Kok, you should also make a point to visit the Goldfish Market, the Flower Market and the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden (or just “Bird Garden”), where dozens of bird shops are located and hundreds of colorful songbirds in exquisitely crafted cages can be seen…

Mong Kok is also packed with many authentic eateries and restaurants where you can enjoy some delicious local food at reasonable prices:

Curry A La King, on 88 Soy Street, is a paradise for curry lovers, serving a wide selection of scrumptious curries from different Asian cuisines.

Satay King, on ladies market, specializes in Southeast Asian satays.

MongKok Fung Shing Restaurant, on 749 Nathan Road, is known for its superb dim-sum and delicious crispy chicken.

Lucky Corner Restaurant, on 146 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, is a rather humble eatery which has been serving some of the best Wonton Noodles in Hong Kong for God knows how many years.

Little Sheep (4th floor, 16 Argyle Street)is one of Hong Kong’s most favorite hotpot restaurants.

Fu Kei Restaurant, in King Wah Centre, is serving fabulous food from different Chinese cuisines.

That’s it… You can now take the MTR to Central, from which you link to Hong Kong Station (there is a pedestrian passage) and continue with the Airport Express, back to Hong Kong Airport.

For more travel information on Hong Kong, including recommended hotels, suggested city-walks and sightseeing, a Restaurant & Nightlife Guide, great shopping tips, and much more: visit Metropolasia – Hong Kong Travel Guide where all the information you may want or need, is compiled in one easy-to-use website.


Roni Shwartz is a travel consultant and writes for Metropolasia

November 21st, 2009 Comment (0) Uncategorized

Akron – the Rubber Capital of the World

Akron, Ohio is a small city with a big history. It was founded in 1825 near the Erie Canal and, with its “twin city” of Canton , became an important American Midwest manufacturing center that continues to thrive to this day. In fact, Akron is known as “The Rubber Capital of the World”. Long before the invention of the automobile, B.F. Goodrich started the first rubber company in Akron in 1869. General Tire was later founded in 1915 with the rise of the automobile industry, and then the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company became America ’s top tire manufacturer, giving Akron a very important place on the country’s map. Once the boom of heavy manufacturing declined in the 1970s and ‘80s, the city redefined itself as a center for financial, high tech and research sectors.

But Akron is also a city of many firsts, some respectable, some notorious. Sojourner Truth delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in 1851 at Akron ’s Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. In 1885 two Akron brothers, Frank and Charles Menches, invented the hamburger at the New York State Fair and would also later go on to create the ice cream cone. In 1920, the first meeting was held in Akron , Ohio to form the American Pro Football League. One of the first organized crime operations was established in the Midwest when Rosario Borgio, an Italian-American mobster came to Akron in the early 20th century. Bill Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron in 1935, where the first meetings took place.

Akron is also known as the City of Invention . Other “first” fun facts: the first automobile tires made in the U.S. , the first balloon tire, first synthetic rubber tire, and first rubber wound golf ball all came from Akron , Ohio . The first zeppelin built in the U.S. was in Akron, which also had the first U.S. toy company, the first automobile police patrol wagon, first U.S. space suits and first trans-active science museum, the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Akron had the first long distance electric railway in the world; the first National League Football champions (the mighty Akron Professionals of 1920). The first high volume boxes of breakfast cereal (Quaker Oats) were manufactured in Akron as was the first artificial fish bait.

Given first place in the City Livability Award competition by the United States Conference of Mayors in 1999, Akron is also a three-time All-America City winner and a world-renowned center of polymer research and development. It’s the home of the Soap Box Derby World Championships, the NEC Invitational golf tournament and Stan Hywet Hall, one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival Architecture in America . The world’s largest model train display is at the Depot, at Akron ’s Quaker Square (former site of the Quaker Oats Co.)

For more information on Akron, Ohio visit http://www.akronblog.net and http://www.ohiomicroblog.com.

November 19th, 2009 Comment (0) Uncategorized

Is The World Getting Odder?

Oddity #1: As of 2009 there are more new fragrances released yearly than there were in the 1970’s and 1980’s combined – at least 500 a year. In 2008 celebrity scents made up 10% of fragrance sales – more than 3 million bottles. It seems perfume is the best way to sell celebrity. The perfume houses don’t pay for what’s in the bottles. Fragrance manufacturers develop scents for free and share the profits with the perfume houses. Also, having celebrities’ names on the bottles saves millions of advertising dollars. Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, 50 Cent – celebrities are profitably “scentimental”.

Oddity #2: In 2009 the ball was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The curator explained that the Ball had just gotten in because the Toy Hall of Fame didn’t come into existence until 1998 and because only 2 or 3 toys are inducted a year. Both the Atari 2600 Game System and the Nintendo Game Boy were already in. So were the Cardboard Box and the Stick. Obviously, those who decide which toys are inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame hadn’t been keeping their eyes on the ball.

Oddity #3: On November 1, 2009 family and friends identified the body of 59-year-old Ademir Jorge Goncalves, a bricklayer in southern Brazil, who had died in a car crash. The funeral took place the following day, the Day of the Dead, a holiday when Latin Americans pray for family and friends who have died and remember them with gifts. When Goncalves attended his own funeral, shocked relatives tried to jump out of windows in the funeral home. Although Goncalves wasn’t dead, he’d been dead the night before – dead drunk in a bar near the crash site.

Oddity #4: On November 11, 2009 Forbes magazine ranked Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman 41st on its list of the world’s most powerful people. That ranking put him ahead of Russian President Medvedev (43), Oprah Winfrey (45), Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu (46) and U.S. Chief Justice Roberts (49). Guzman isn’t a world leader, a religious leader or a humanitarian. He’s a reputed, Mexican drug lord, head or the Sinaloa Cartel, with a $5 million reward on his head. Over the past 8 years Guzman has shipped between $6 billion and $19 billion in cocaine to the U.S. The world’s 41st most powerful person is a drug dealer addicted to power.

Knight Pierce Hirst has written for television, newspapers and greeting cards. Now she writes a 400-word blog three times a week. KNIGHT WATCH, a second look at what makes life interesting, takes only seconds to read at http://knightwatch.typepad.com

November 16th, 2009 Comment (0) Uncategorized

Building a World of Fun: the History of Lego®

Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christianson in Denmark, The LEGO Group began a tradition of play that has touched the lives of millions of children across the world. Children in more than 130 countries use their imagination and creativity to build everything from castles to robots with these well-loved construction toys. And LEGOs arenâ??t just for toddlers and school children. They are also LEGO products for teenagers, as well as adults who are young at heart and still enjoy the fun of building whatever their imagination designs.

 

The brand name LEGO is an abbreviation for two Danish words, â??leg godt.â? Translated, the phrase means â??play well.â? However, while LEGOs are great fun for kids who enjoy playtime, the toys are also quite educational. In fact, LEGOs are often used in the classroom. The toys are stimulating, engaging and even challenging, and great tools for developing motor and problems solving skills. Children become engineers and architects as they build bridges and buildings, and the sense of accomplishment they feel once they complete their project is priceless. For this reason, parents and educators are also huge fans of the LEGO brand.

 

The LEGO Group first entered the market by manufacturing wooden toys. In 1947, the company purchased its first plastic injection-moulding machine and by 1949 was producing approximately 200 different types of plastic and wooden models. One of the models was the Automatic Binding Bricks, which is a forerunner of the LEGO bricks children all over the world play with today.

 

The 1950s was a groundbreaking decade for the company. In 1953, the Automatic Binding Bricks were renamed â??LEGO Murstenâ? or LEGO bricks, and in 1954 the name was trademarked. Just four years later the LEGO brick model that we know and love today was launched. The following year the company launched the â??LEGO System of Playâ? which would prove to be a revolutionary concept. The company began exporting its product to countries outside of Denmark and product development began to soar.

 

A number of popular LEGO toys emerged in the following years including LEGO model car and the LEGO train. By 1966 the companyâ??s product range was comprised of 57 sets and 25 vehicles, and 706 million LEGO pieces were produced in that year alone! In 1967 the LEGO DUPLO was launched. Initially a big brick designed for children with small hands, the LEGO DUPLO became an ideal model for children aged 2-6 years and was noted as a safe toy that couldnâ??t be swallowed.

 

In 1968, LEGOLAND opened and attracted 625,000 visitors during its first season, which was a testimony to the success of the company and the brand. For the next several decades the company would continue to live up to the tradition of innovation and excellence that it had established. The company would develop more groundbreaking products, expand to countries all over the world, and add new departments including the Educational Products Department, which would later be called â??LEGO Dacta.â?

 

The LEGO Group has received a number of awards and honors over the course of the companyâ??s history. In 1986 the company was granted the title of â??Purveyor to Her Majesty the Queenâ? on the birthday of the H.M. Queen Margrethe of Denmark. The company has also received the honor of â??Toy of the Centuryâ? twice by Fortune Magazine and by the British Association of Toy Retailers. And just this year, the third generation of the LEGO family, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick.

 

Today, the LEGO Group is still headquartered in Denmark and now produces 2,400 different types of LEGO brick shapes. The companyâ??s products have inspired other colorful, plastic construction toys such as Bristle Blocks, Krinkles and the popular Stickle Bricks, created by U.K. based toy maker Denys Fisher. The LEGO Group is the fifth largest toy manufacturer in the world based on sales and continues to be recognized as a leading innovator in the industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having once owned the second largest toyshop in the UK, the owners of Toys Direct to Your Door (http://www.toysdirecttoyourdoor.co.uk/) have been in the toy business for over 40 years. Since the beginning, the company has supplied Lego to children across the globe. From Star Wars Lego to Lego train sets, the popular toy continues to be a part of every child’s life.

November 15th, 2009 Comment (0) Uncategorized