We got up early this morning to say goodbye to our guide Ping.  She left who us to go back to Beijing.

Later, seven of us flew on to Hong Kong.

Yesterday, Chuck and I saw what we thought were storm bands in the sky.  We didn’t bother to look it up, because they said the typhoon was headed toward Japan.  Japan is north and east of Shanghai.
Then just before we went to bed last night we checked on the storm.  It had been basically been stationary all day long. As Floridians we know that a stationary storm is more dangerous. You don’t know where they’ll go next. No wonder the winds were so gusty.
Also early yesterday morning we noticed that the sky changed, and that the storm bands seemed to be going a different way.   Unsure, though, we didn’t pay it much attention.

Poor Taiwan, it looks like the storm doubled back on them. Because the storm was even farther out to sea, we didn’t think it would pose a problem for our flight later today.
We got to Hong Kong around 1 PM.  After freshening up, the seven of us met downstairs in the lobby of our hotel called the Cordis which is in Kowloon, an island next to Hong Kong.
As in China, the number of high rises here amazed us.

Our room is on the 29th floor of this hotel, and our view of the harbor and the high-rises all around it is beautiful.  This is a mass of humanity, though.  The island is very crowded.

For tomorrow morning we planned a tour of the islands, both Hong Kong and Kowloon.  This Hong Kong part of the trip is on our own, without a guide like Ping. So we thought taking a tour would help us get our sea legs.
We feel more at home here, as it is very westernized. Everyone speaks English. What we don’t love is the mass of population. Too many people.

 
After we met in the lobby, we went together to find an ATM and to find the subway and purchase an octopus card. This is the card that we will use for all public transportation here.
Afterwords we went back to the hotel for dinner. All of us met later and had wagyu burgers at the hotel’s restaurant upstairs which was more like a cozy lounge.  We turned in early because we’re tired, but we couldn’t help taking some time to enjoy the view of the city lights from our room.

Speaking of our room, this one is truly different. Zero privacy.