Hong Kong

The camera is high above the north shore of Hong Kong Island, looking down on the part of the city that everyone photographs. The towers of Central and Wan Chai stand directly below and ahead, lit floor by floor, and the ground between them falls away so steeply that you are looking at roofs as much as facades. Beyond them Victoria Harbour is a black gap with ferries crossing it, and past that the Kowloon shore picks up again and runs back into haze. This is a narrow band of a panorama rather than a full sphere - the view is the strip between the hillside below and the sky, which is all there is to see from up here at night.

Many visitors to Hong Kong have stared wide-eyed out their taxi window at Hong Kong's famous night skyline along Victoria Harbour, the deep-sea harbor that first put Hong Kong on the world map as one of the world's major shipping destinations. The harbor is lined with brightly lit buildings, from the distinctive jagged lines of the Bank of China building, to the elegant stateliness of the International Finance Centre Building, to the perfect feng shui of the HSBC headquarters. Every night, an impressive laser and light show is performed at 8 pm, when the skyline's most famous buildings participate in lighting up their exteriors while choreographed to music. The show, called A Symphony of Lights, lasts for ten minutes and includes 44 buildings on both sides of the harbor.

Across the waters of the harbor, the iconic Star Ferry plies the waters, carrying commuters from Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon Peninsula. The ferry ride is an attraction in itself, with thousands of tourists riding each day, in addition to the commuters, having been named one of the ten best ferry rides in the world in 2009. Kowloon, along with the north coast of Hong Kong Island, is one of the most densely populated areas on earth, something you can experience while riding the ferry, or trying to cross the road during rush hour in Wan Chai.

Yet Hong Kong is more than skyscrapers and neon lights. North of Kowloon in the New Territories, sleepy fishing villages retain a traditional lifestyle, and wind-swept beaches accessible only by foot beckon intrepid hikers. The outlying islands, such as Lantau and Cheung Chau, exhibit a slower pace of life, with subtropical rainforests, nature reserves, and mystical temples as part of their appeal. Street markets filled with curios and trinkets, as well as more valuable jade, silk, and pearls, abound in the alleys of Hong Kong, right alongside enormous air-conditioned shopping malls, as the city brings a little something for everyone seamlessly into its fold.

Kowloon Kowloon has some of the oldest neighborhoods and many prominent tourist areas. Tsim Sha Tsui boasts fancy hotels and restaurants, and is a great spot to watch the evening light show along Victoria Harbour. The harbor crossing between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central on Hong Kong Island is one of the most picturesque in the world. Nathan Road is Kowloon's main thoroughfare and its oldest road, taking you from Tsim Sha Tsui to the markets of Mong Kok.