RTW Trip Day #13: Hong Kong Park, Chater Hall & the Ladies Market

andrewsco3
Oct 14
4 min read

Updated: Oct 14

11 October 2025

Steps: 18,193

After 11 nights in Japan, we arrived in Hong Kong. The days have flown by, but we're ready to experience a new country now, and have been looking forward to showing the girls Hong Kong for a long time as Susie was born here. Our hotel was close to Hong Kong Park so we started our day there.

Hong Kong Park

Me and Susie have visited Hong Kong together twice now, and we've walked around Hong Kong Park each time we've been here, but I forgot how stunningly beautiful it is!

It is filled with gorgeously landscaped trees, flowers and shrubs, a lake, fountains, and of course some incredible views of the Hong Kong skyline.

The main lake in particular is gorgeous, and has a stunning waterfall in the background. There are also turtles in the lake too, which the girls loved seeing. It brought back memories of seeing the turtles at Surveyors Lake back in British Columbia.

It was a lovely day but the park was so humid, my shirt was drenched after about 30 minutes of walking through the park! Quick dry / active t shirts from here on out I think!

Here are some more photos from the park - I could have posted loads more too as I was pretty snap happy!

The Aviary & Zoological & Botanical Gardens

One of the highlights for the girls was being able to see the animals in the park, and the fact that it is all free to visit, made it a no brainer. The aviary in particular is great, as they have so many different types of birds that we don't get to see back in Canada.

After the aviary, we went to the zoological and botanical gardens. While they are technically not located inside Hong Kong Park, they are just across the street, so it feels like an extension of the park.

We did have a conversation with the girls about animal welfare, as some of the animals in the 'mammal' section didn't have much space. The orangutan in particular was difficult, as they are large animals and the enclosure seemed so small, but on the other hand, the girls had never seen one before, and were really enjoying watching it. They just seem so human like though.

That said, it does seem to be a really well run park overall, and I would still definitely recommend going, especially as it is free to walk around.

The botanical greenhouse was my favourite part, as it had a huge moth orchid! I struggle to keep a few flowers on a stick alive at home, but this thing was the size of our girls combined!

Wellington Street & Mid-level Escalators

After the parks, we headed down Wellington Street towards the escalators, as we were all hungry and there are quite a few options available.

We ended up choosing a small noodle place - that's all they sold - and it was just a guy with a huge pot of noodles at the front of the shop serving it into dish after dish. It was just what we needed as our first food in Hong Kong, and Jess in particular really enjoyed it.

Just around the corner from where we ate was the mid-level escalators, and we started to take them up towards Chater Hall.

These outdoor escalators are an absolute life saver! When Susie's parents lived here, they didn't exist, and I don’t even want to imagine walking back up that hill every single day after work in this humidity!

Part way up the escalators there is an M&S Food, which is a testament to Hong Kong's British heritage. Even after only being away from home for 11 days, the fact that we don't visit the UK as much as we'd like, coming here still felt like a treat.

Susie picked up a chocolate roll and I picked up a few packets of colin the caterpillar sweets. Both got 'shared' by the kids and were gone by the end of the day!

Chater Hall (where Susie was born)

One of the reasons we included Hong Kong in our 100 day itinerary, was to show the girls where Susie was born, and we wanted to take them to see Chater Hall, which were the apartments that her family lived in, which was government housing at the time.

We managed to walk into the grounds, including walking around to the small garden that has some nice views. We have pictures of Susie and her brother in that exact spot 40 years ago!

Our First Swimming Pool on the Trip

One of the things we found strange in Japan was the lack of swimming pools. None of the hotels we stayed in had one, and they tended to prefer onsen baths, which the girls didn’t love as you had to go in naked.

So the girls were so happy that we finally were staying in a hotel that had a swimming pool, and it was incredible! The views looking up at the sky scrapers and the peak was really speciall.

Ladies Market

in the evening we caught the MTR over to Kowloon and visited the Ladies Market.

The girls soon realized that you have to haggle here, and Evelyn bought a koala stuffy and Jess a knock off lululemon bag (as she left hers on the plane). It was fun, but I’m sure it’s going to get tiring over the next month or so!

We found a restaurant that served sweet and sour pork as Jess had been wanting to find one all day. It was pretty good, but nothing special, but a nice way to round out our first day in Hong Kong!