We took a fast train from Guangzhou to Shenzenbei, which only took half an hour. We had to do a border crossing at the Futian Checkpoint to get our exit stamps and also get our final entry stamp of the trip. We've nearly filled up our passports on this trip alone, shame they're not quite full though. I guess it shows we racked up the air miles. When we arrived at the Hong Kong side, we just had to take the MTR to Hung Hom, then to Tsim Sha Tsui East station.

Chunking Mansions

We've booked to stay at a guest house in the Chunking Mansions, in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong, which is a fairly central location. Chunking Mansions are a collection of apartment blocks of hostels, hotels, guest houses, short and long term rentals and the whole of the ground floor is full of annoying salesmen. They tried selling us calling cards, hotel rooms, tailored suits, fake watches, anything you can think of, they sell here. Once we'd navigated our way past the salesmen, we had to wait for the lift. That's a big task in itself, only 7 people are allowed in each lift at a time, so it's a constant flow of people waiting. Once we'd checked in, we were shown to our room in block B. I had heard that rooms were small in Hong Kong, but you've got to see it to believe how compact they really are. Although compact, it's got everything we need and we're actually the first ones to stay in a newly decorated room.

Avenue of the stars and the city skyline

After we got ourselves sorted and organised in our tiny room, we went off to explore the local area. I was desperate to see the famous harbour and city skyline, so we wandered up to the harbour. We ended up passing through avenue of the stars, which is set right upon the waterfront and there are excellent views of the tall buildings on Hong Kong island from here. We passed a few named celebrities who have handprints carved into the ground. The only ones we knew were Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li. There were many more, but their names didn't really ring any bells to us. There's even a statue of Bruce Lee, which was a bit overcrowded. It's a nice walk way, and I loved looking at the the skyscraper buildings opposite us. We stayed around this area until the sun set and watched the sky go from day to night. It was pretty impressive watching all the lights switch on. We didn't stay for the symphony of lights show, which is on every night at 8pm, so will return another evening to watch that. I loved Hong Kong from the minute I arrived, it just feels so different from main land China. There's a ban on smoking in most public areas, nobody is allowed to spit or throw rubbish and people know how to queue. I do like China, but arriving in Hong Kong is a welcomed break from the sheer numbers of people in China.