Hong Kong Highlights

HONG KONG -- Just a few photos, as we prepare to leave Hong Kong.



By the way, a few tourist rants, all of them based on Hong Kong doing things the right way. Every tourism office director out there should visit Hong Kong if only to get a lesson in how a city should put up signs directing people to everything. You would have to try very hard to get lost in Central Hong Kong or in many of the closer-in neighborhoods. Every time you're about to say, "Gee, I wonder where...," you practically run into signs. In at least two languages.

Also: Anyone who plans to build an airport 45 minutes or more outside the central city should be required by international law to build something like Hong Kong's Airport Express, a dedicated train that connects easily with the MTR (subway) system.

An one more thing about public transit: As a Washingtonian, I've long been annoyed by people, mostly ex-New Yorkers, who whine that Washington isn't a real city because the Metro doesn't run 24 hours a day. MTR in Hong Kong runs 6am-midnight, and this is as much of a "real" city as anyone could imagine.