Since we have arrived, we’ve taken the opportunity to explore the city and see some sights.  Here are pictures of some of the places we’ve visited.

Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery was founded in the 1950’s.  We got our exercise as the walk up to the monastery consists of more than 430 steps and a steep concrete path uphill. 

All along the path, there are dozens of life-sized golden painted Buddha statues, in various poses.  The kids had fun mimicking some of them. 

There are not literally 10,000 buddhas there.  Actually, I believe the count is about 12,000.  The term “10,000” is a figure of speech in Chinese to mean “a gazillion” or “a heck-of-a-lot of [fill in the blank].”

There’s a temple at the very top.  We saw fruits and even take-out boxes of food laid out as offerings.  It made me wonder what happens to all of that food? It must go bad after awhile.  Who gets to make the call that it’s time to throw it out?  There were signs all around warning visitors of the aggressive monkeys in the area.  We didn’t see any while we were there, but maybe the monkeys get to enjoy the food.

The Peak

A popular tourist destination is called “The Peak.”  It’s on the tallest mountain in Hong Kong.  Although the pictures don’t do it justice, the view is stunning. 

Benjy read an article about the most expensive house in the world which is located near the top of The Peak.  We didn’t get a picture of it, but it didn’t look all that impressive to me to be called “the most expensive house in the world.”  I suppose you’re paying for the location.

Webley just had to get shots of the heart in front of the shopping center on The Peak.

Museum of History

We visited the Hong Kong Museum of History.  It was filled with a lot of interesting information about Hong Kong.  Be advised that Benjy found it so edifying that he now thinks that it should be a required stop for any visitor who comes to stay with us in Hong Kong. 

Interestingly, Hong Kong was attacked by the Japanese on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  Within 3 weeks, the Japanese had successfully taken Hong Kong and occupied it for approximately 2 years. 

I won’t bore you with more history information, but here are a couple pictures of the kids at two of the exhibits. 

Star Ferry

Supposedly, riding the Star Ferry is on some top-10 list of things to do before you die.  I’m not quite sure why.  Benjy says it has some historical significance behind it.  I suppose I should look it up.  It’s a fun trip, but it’s short and not particularly memorable.  I suppose now we can all mark it off our bucket lists.   Here’s a picture of Webley on the Star Ferry.