Last but one day in Hong Kong, so still a few places to see, and what better way to do that than with a walking tour.

We met up with Christine from our old China tour group, along with a mix of Spanish & other Europeans and started our 3hr walk around Central and Soho.

We started in Bank Street, the original home of HSBC and heard the history around the building design, with an open square opposite the bank and a clear view all the way down to the harbour, all part of the feng shui beliefs.

A feng shui ‘war’ occurred following the design and build of the nearby Bank of China Tower, due to the angled and threatening shape of the latter towards HSBC. To ‘defend’ itself HSBC bank ended up having a figurative gun on the roof pointing back at the Bank of China Tower!

Our tour took place on Sunday when all the Philippine female workers meet up on their only day off to share food and catch with their friends as they take shade underneath the banks reception.

The walk around Central involved a fair amount of steps as the city is perched on the side of a hillside and the streets have a San Francisco feel to them with pronounced ups and downs.

As our walking tour progressed, we moved into the Soho area and back to the start of the longest external escalator in the world, where we’d visited a day or two back.

Leaving the restaurants and bars of Soho behind, we walked back in time to one of the famous Buddhist temples Man Mo.

Man Mo Temple or Man Mo Miu is Cantonese for Wen Wu temple, a temple for the worship of the civil or literature god Man Tai / Man Cheong and the martial god Mo Tai / Kwan Tai. The two gods were popularly patronised by scholars and students seeking progress in their study or ranking in the civil examinations in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

This temple was modest in size, but was full with historic religious items and worshippers, and felt a million miles away from the modern Hong Kong out on the street.

After the walking tour finished, we carried on with our own exploring coming across numerous artefacts on the streets & murals on the buildings.

The murals depicted bar life from the early 20th century, whilst others had famous Hollywood film stars emblazoned across the front, signifying we were on Hollywood Road!

After another busy morning, we took a break with Christine and had an enjoyable coffee stop to watch the local HK people on their day off away from the rigours of work.

Late afternoon we met up with one of Andy’s former work colleagues son, Ali Jessop, who has worked for PWC in Hong Kong for the last 5yrs.

We had arranged to meet at Hong Kong Football Club, which conveniently for us was just a 25min walk along the waterfront from our hotel. It was a great opportunity to take in the views and mingle with the locals as we ebbed our way through the cities shops to the serene private members club at HK FC.

Arriving at the football club was like being back in the UK with familiar English voices and Premier League football games being played on the tv.

We had a really enjoyable afternoon with Ali, Antonia and their son Charlie hearing all about their lives in Hong Kong and how much they have embraced their life on the island.

They were very kind treating us to drinks and dinner, whilst also entertaining young Charlie.

Later that evening we returned to the harbour and had a final meet up with Simen and Julie, our Norwegian friends from the China tour to watch the light show.

The lights across a number of the buildings on the harbour are illuminated and marry up with music played each night at 8pm. It’s a lovely sight and on an epic scale.

After the lighting finale, we met up for drinks with Christine, Simen and Julie and said our final goodbyes before returning to our hotel after another busy day in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow is our final day and we plan to take a trip to Kennedy Town for a more relaxed side of the city and check out the bay views over a coffee and cake!