[cb1118]

(1)ok..if you have a car, you can park your car at Hopewell Centre
(2)the street that is directly facing the road entering the car park of Hopewell Centre is "Spring Garden Lane
(3)there are 2 great chinese restaurant there

a.see photo below..."chiu-yuen" (famous for hand-made fish ball and beef cake)

b.left of "chiu-yeun" is a chinese style cafe name "kam-fung" in chinese.
famous for "ice-cold coffee/milk tea mix.." (as famous as "chun-hang" chinese style cafe of happy valley for the same ice-cold coffee/milk tea mix..)

(4)ok after eating..it is time for sight-seeing and exercise..
first, walking toward the causeway bay direction of queen-east road,
after passing Wu-Chung Building (next to Hopewell Centre), you will be seeing 2 historical buildings

a.the old Wanchai post office (now is the office of the environment protection dept)
b.the famous "blue building"


(5)ok, after seeing the "blue building" go up the street to the small park!

(6)in the park, there are 3 very well-kept chinese temples!!

a.the three treasure house

b.temple Emperor of the North Kingdom..(hope I translate it right)

c.Mother of Sea..(or River) temple (no photo available for this one, sorry)

(7)keep going uphill, and you will find the street above is a famous "high-society expensive residential district..
walking uphill (to the right after exiting the park...


(8)you will notice a tourist sign printing...." lover's rock"
great, now we must cross the road, to reach the road that goes up the mountain..


(9)guarantee a very great exercise for you!! (very physical)
you now reach the very famous "Bowen Road"


now walk for 8minutes in the direction of causeway bay (heading East)
you will reach the Lover's Rock..


remark: the rock is in the shape of a young lady kneel down to give prayer to the heaven

(10)after seeing the rock...
you can either walk down to Wanchai to get your car..or....

(11)walk to the west direction (Central district)
**don't need to go down the mountain

Bowen Road is a district for very expensive housing..
trust me, it is worth a look (you will see the history of HK expensive houses)

first, for modern world,
you will find this very big property when you reach Central area (end of Bowen Road)
http://www.hld.com/construction/prime_rr.html
http://www.mpfinance.com/cfm/NewsCon...&File=gmt1.txt

**of course, you will see all the beautiful view of the Hong Kong victoria harbour from the mountain..

[cb1118]

(12)when you reach Central at end of Bowen Road.
you will be seeing some very historical resident building..
you will notice the lower floor of the buildings is actually lower than the road (so if the residents open the windows, they actually will see people's feet!!)
and they park their car on top of their flat (the roof of their flat)
very funny...I bet you don't see this kind of construction very often in HK...

then, you see the CABLE CAR crossing under the bridge..


(13)after you reach "GARDEN ROAD"
you may walk down to the Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens
(or the HK people call it the "soliders' hats garden)

during the UK colony, across from the park is the "GOVERNOR's HOUSE"
there are always 2 British soliders with traditional tall hats standing guard in the front gate...so the locals give the park a name "soliders' hats park"


the park is famous with the gorillas from Philippines (very old now)
and 2 Jaguars..(too bad the black one is not there anymore)


(14)to end the journey, you may walk down to Lan Kwai Fong
and go to Central to have a wanton noodle..(see photo) **wellington street


there are other good restaurant

a. a Vietnamese fusion food house (see photo) *Wellington street
foods are quite good, but service is not..worth a try for a new style of vietnamnese cookings..


b. a traditional tea house if you take a longer walk down the Wellington Street called "Ling-Hang"
they serve tea a traditional way (not by tea pot)

[nation]

Good stuff CB. Amazing what you can find if you get off the MTR and away from the well beaten tracks.