China; Wednesday, 08 April, 2026

The arrival process back into Hong Kong was equally as smooth – I’d prepared myself for questions as to why I’d entered the country, left within about 18 hours and was now coming back in again, but nothing – instead I was issued with another very small slip of paper that I needed to protect for the rest of the trip and sent on my way to the Metro station.

A couple of stops along the Island Line to Wan Chai and then about a 10 minute walk I was at my hotel for the next five nights and, despite being more than an hour ahead of the first check-in time I was able to check into my room, and even arrange for a very late 4pm checkout on my last day, before heading up there to unpack and freshen up before heading back out.

As I was staying on the northern side of Hong Kong Island it made sense to tick off perhaps it’s most famous attraction first, the Ding Dings. These are the iconic double deck trams that run through the heart of the financial district of Hong Kong and feature in almost any view of Hong Kong. Given how busy they were looking at the start of the evening rush hour I picked up one heading the short distance to Happy Valley where it terminated and I was able to then board one starting out on it’s journey with nobody else on board, meaning I was able to get the prized front row top deck seat.

I had originally intended to catch the tram to the end of the line at Kennedy Town and then get the metro back into the centre, but there were clearly problems with the evening rush hour and by the time we reached the financial heart of the city we were in a convoy of about six trams, so it was announced that our tram would terminate at the Western Market, so I hopped off there and headed back towards Wan Chai and the ferry piers.

As Iconic as the Ding Dings are the Green and White ferries of Star Ferries that nip back and forth across Victoria Harbour day and night. Star operate two main lines from Central Pier to Kowloon and from Wan Chai to Kowloon, with the latter route being significantly quieter, which is why I’d headed back slightly further than I needed to pick up the ferry from here, which meant I was able to get a window seat on the upper deck, even though I only made the ferry with a couple of seconds to spare.

It’s not a long crossing, but the views are pretty impressive for the eight or so minutes that you make your way across the harbour to Kowloon on the peninsula that is attached to Mainland China. Originally the British settlement of Hong Kong was literally just the island of Hong Kong, but over time through a series of deals, treaties and leases the territory expanded to include the Kowloon peninsular and many of the neighbour islands – collectively called the New Territories.

Each evening at 8pm the city puts on a sound and light show in the harbour called a Symphony of Lights, which uses lights, lasers, and the advertising hoardings attached to around 40 buildings on both sides of the harbour to put on a display, and I’d arrived in Kowloon with about 30 minutes to spare, even so I only just managed to get a view point on the waterfront as lots of people were already waiting for the performance.

After watching the Symphony of Lights I had a brief wander around Kowloon before heading over towards the ferry pier to grab some dinner from one of the takeaway stalls close by, and then headed back across the harbour to Wan Chai.

I walked back to the hotel and then headed up to the roof top bar to grab a quick nightcap, but it turned out that the hotel bar is a high end cocktail and whisky bar, with a minimum spend of HK$200 (about £19), though given the cheapest drink on the menu was a small Asahi for HK$90 it wouldn’t be a difficult target to achieve.

I decided that perhaps I might be better served by heading down to the 7-Eleven at the base of the building, and sure enough I was able to purchase two Tsingtao beers for HK$30.