Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental Views

As usual, while in HK, I try to stay at the Mandarin Oriental. Its the closest hotel to the office and has a lovely restaurant, bar and patisserie. Very convenient. Views aren't that good, but here are some of them from the hotel room.

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Peering out from the side of the room, nearly falling out, well, would have fallen out if there wasnt the thick glass. Lots of construction going on over a reclamations project on the bay. I remember the first time when I came here, the waterline was on the road, now they have extended this by almost a kilometer.

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The road in front of the Mandarin Oriental which is called as Connaught Road. Its fascinating to see purely British names on this quintessential Asian city.

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Looking up Connaught Road

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That is the Hong Kong Club Building and behind that is the AIA Central Building.

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The Bank of China Tower, the Lippo Building and then the sharp edged Bank of China Building. The building on the bottom is the Legislative Council Building with the dome.

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Here’s the Bank of China Building and then the Chueng Kong Building.

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There’s the HSBC Building.

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A view of the Legislative Council Building. The old style colonial era building looks so incongrous around these tall gleaming windows skyscrapers.

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This is the Statue Square.

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A balcony on top of the Legislative Council Building and backing that is the Bank of China building with a rather grumpy lion in front of it.

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The Cenotaph. I always think of going there but every time I miss out, next time, dammit. I will be there.

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A nice fountain. Adding more moisture to the exceedingly humid air. Thank you.

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Cranes waving their bits around.

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The ferry jetties getting extended and constructed.

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The Hong Kong Cultural Centre cradling the Clock Tower.

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I think that grater building with the CCB sign on top is the Peninsular Building although I might be mistaken. In the front is the Space Museum and Museum of Modern Art and the road in front is the Avenue of Stars. Where you can see a photo of Bruce Lee.

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More apartment Blocks.

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That is an ugly ass big fella of a crane, even mobile. Woweee, big fella indeed.

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Another christmas tree of a crane on the bow of that ship. All the cranes are highly coloured, looks like a child’s play area.

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Not sure what this extraordinary building is but I think this is the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Building. Look at all the antennae on top.

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Lovely Building,

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A closeup of the Lippo Building.

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The top of the Dome of the Legislative Council Building. Have you noticed how most of the world’s legislative buildings have this dome plonked on top of them?

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Some good detail there on top of the roof.

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Nice balconies. You can almost imagine the mandarins walking around on these corridors.

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More views of the Corinthian pillars. How much more architecturally incongruous can you be?

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The Chinese flag flying over the building.

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Entrance to the Metro.

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Traffic queued up.

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Couple of the ubiquitous red taxi’s.

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Four very gnarled trees in the Cenotaph Building.

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View of the traffic on Connaught Road.

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View over Victoria Harbour during twilight.

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Looking up Connaught Road.

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The lights are starting to come on.

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The Bank of China Tower.

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Kowloon

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Some clouds which arent really looking threatening.

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We have closed up shop for the night.

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The Bank of China Building.

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The window cleaner crane is supposed to have some kind of Feng Shui thing going by pointing to the Bank of China Building. Something complicated, dont ask me.

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Peeking between the buildings to see a tall skyscraper perched precariously on the hillside.

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