Tim's First Visit to Hong Kong

January, 1999

My first visit to Hong Kong was in January, 1999. I had been corresponding with Wendy for 9 months and I really wanted to meet her. When I got on the plane, I was excited to visit a good friend. When I left Hong Kong two weeks later, I was sad to leave the woman I loved.

	Wendy was a great "tour guide" for me ! She introduced me to China, and made sure my first experiences in the country were positive ones. She met me at the airport on the day I arrived. We rode back into Hong Kong on the high-speed KCR train. Here is my first photo of Wendy, riding that train. This was the first time I had seen her smile, and it was wonderful.
	Wendy introduced me to her friends, and we took a day-trip to nearby Lamma Island. We walked through the villages, along the beach, and finally made our way up to a shrine on the hillside. Here is the photo of our group that day, next to the shrine.
	The waterfront promenade is the name of a wide walkway along the south edge of Tsim Sha Tsui ("chim-sha-choy"). You have great views of Hong Kong harbor and the tall office buildings of Hong Kong Island while you walk along the promenade. As you can see here, walking on the promenade appealed to me.
	On a wonderful bright day we took the trolley up to the top of Victoria Peak, the mountain that overlooks Hong Kong. Once at the top we strolled on paths that lead around the entire peak, and witnessed great views like the one in this next photo. Behind Wendy you can see the skyscrappers of Hong Kong's Central District, the harbor behind them, and finally the Kowloon peninsula stretching out beyond.
	After a week with Wendy, our feelings blossomed beyond friendship. We became a couple. It was a wonderful feeling to fall in love in (what to me) was an exotic place. Here we are posing for one of our first photos as a couple, in Hong Kong park.
	One last place we visited was the Po-lin monastery, a serene place located in the mountain valleys of Lantau Island. The most impressive feature of Po-Lin is the "Big Buddha", a huge statue situated on top of a hill overlooking the monastery. You can see Buddha on his hill behind Wendy in this photo.
	We climbed the long stairs up to see Buddha more closely. Here we are posing with him. That's all from this trip.