I took a long walk through Hong Kong that I’ll never forget

Nicholas Carlson/Business Insider

On a recent visit to Hong Kong, I went to brunch with friends at a restaurant called The Square.

The Square serves dim sum, a type of breakfast food oriented around pastries with meats in them and sweet rice confections.

Then I walked back to my hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in the Western district. It was a long, meandering walk.

During my walk, I saw a bright green Lamborghini, stood on an escalator that took me across the city, and walked past a flattened pig face hanging from a storefront. There were also million-dollar antiques and some squid.

I’ll never forget any of it.

My day started with brunch in this city, Hong Kong.

See the twin towers next to the really tall tower? My restaurant was in one of those.

Then I walked back to my hotel, the Courtyard Marriott.

Here’s where I had brunch. It’s called The Square. It has a Michelin star and it’s cheap.

The Square serves Dim Sum, and we put a small dent in the amount we ordered.

After we left, we walked out of the tower and onto Hong Kong’s famous outdoor escalator system

Up we went. To the left, we floated by windows into stores.

There’s a plastic reindeer behind that window.

There were restaurants looking onto the escalator.

55,000 people use them every day, so it’s probably good for people-watching.

That’s 110,000 eyeballs so the place was covered in ads, too.

The system is 2,600 feet long.

It’s called the “Central-Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system.”

It’s being watched.

It goes around corners, wrapping around the sides of buildings above the traffic below.

There are stations on major roads, just like a subway.

You can either step off or keeping heading up. Standers move to the right.

As you get higher, you see fewer stores and more restaurants

That’s because the escalator is going through more residential areas.

Some apartment buildings open right onto it. It feels a little like “Star Wars.”

The locals eat organic.

I got off at this stop.

The stop was an intersection with this bar on one corner. One of my friends said it’s a good bar for “day drinking.”

On the other side of the street there was this pub …

… a pub with a whale on it.

Onward. I turned right, walking past the day-drinking bar.

I was walking toward Hollywood Road, a famous street in Hong Kong known for its galleries.

I saw these giant stones — construction material.

I saw shops again, but this time they were high-end, designer stores.

The street was full of open cafes.

Is this sign supposed to be a play on “Well Well Well”?

I dropped off the last of my friends by this cafe. They had work to do.

This sign pointed me down a bunch of stairs.

This is Hollywood Road.

I turned left onto it. I was about halfway home by the map.

Looking up, I saw a tower covered in bamboo scaffolding

In the storefronts, there were antiques.

I had to stop at this store when I saw these guys.

Most of the stuff in this place was at least a thousand years old.

I asked, and the items cost between thousands and millions of dollars.

I love this horse’s expression. Looks like a Muppet.

So does this guy, from the Ming Dynasty.

And how about this dog?

He’s from 1,300 years ago.

This vase is even older.

It’s from 5,000 years ago.

Old.

The one on the right looks like Ursula from “The Little Mermaid,” right?

C’mon.

He totally does.

This could be a Loony Tunes character or a Geico duck.

Love it.

This is how to contact the store.

I saw this carving in another window.

Don’t worry, I didn’t go in. But look at that detail.

Different areas had different themes and scenes.

It reminded me of Rodin’s Gates of Hell.

I walked on. Amid the antiques, signs for Facebook and Instagram

An older man slept, hunched over. There’s not much poverty visible on the streets of Hong Kong.

But there is conspicuous consumption.

The driver of this car slowed down so I could get a photo.

There were modern art galleries along with the antique shops. No photos in them.

Hollywood Road ended, and I turned down this narrower street.

This street and a few winding paths after it would open onto Des Voeux road.

It’s a busy street near the harbor.

All along my left, there were open stalls selling goods strange to my eye, like this dried octopus.

Snake skins, I think.

Dried pig face.

Poultry.

In America, we’ve become so used to never seeing the dead bodies of animals we eat.

There were a few stores selling goods the way I’m used to seeing them.

Shark fin, I think.

I have no idea what these are.

A stack of fish.

An open butcher’s shop.

Thing is, if you’re not familiar with raw food, it can look disgusting. Imagine if you’d never seen walnuts before?

These fruits were gorgeous, though.

Amid all the food, there was this clothes store.

There were also a couple Circle Ks and 7-Elevens.

7-Eleven and Circle K are both Texas companies, and they are everywhere in Hong Kong

One of the last things I saw was this guard tower at the top of a barracks. Hong Kong does not feel militarized at all.

Finally, I arrived at my hotel. The Courtyard.

Now for the story of how I barely got to China.

I Barely Made My $8,000 Business Class Flight To Beijing — Here’s What I Would Have Missed »

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