Hong Kong: how nice you are! Our first day the weather was brilliant and we headed out with our giant jet lag to see Hong Kong from above. I regularly read that Hong Kong has one of the most beautiful skylines in the world, and of course I want to know if it really is that beautiful. With heavy legs and only half-open eyes, we board the subway to Hong Kong Island. It is extremely hot, something that doesn’t really make the hike up the mountain any easier. Already puffing, we arrive at the 125-year-old train that will take us to The Peak. In other words, the highest point on Hong Kong Island and one of the city’s most touristic spots. A little longer and we will be one of those millions of people who come to admire this skyline every year. I’m curious! Let’s go!<\/p>\n
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The Peak, or Victoria Peak as it is actually called, is 522 meters high, making it the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island. Sometime around the 1850s, the wealthy people of Hong Kong discovered that The Peak was the ideal place to escape the downtown summer heat for a day. Back then, people still had to walk up the steep mountain, and the truly wealthy were carried up the mountain on a chair made of bamboo. In the year 1881, a Scotsman figured out that climbing Victoria Peak should be easier. He introduced the cable car train which then opened in 1888 as the first cable train in Asia. In the years since, the little train has been modernized, but still travels on the old track through years of history to the top.<\/p>\n\n\t\t