Hong Kong Museum of History: A Must-See!

Since it's a slightly rainy Saturday, we decided to visit the Hong Kong Museum of History today.

It's one stop from our hotel on the MTR, with a few blocks of walking at the other end. We took our official Conrad umbrella along, but fortunately never felt the need to open it, spending most of our efforts dodging the umbrellas of other pedestrians on the crowded streets.

We entered the museum at 10:15 a.m. and immediately noticed that a 90-minute tour in English started at 10:30. Sometimes we get lucky. That gave us just enough time to watch an eight-minute movie on the geological formation of Hong Kong over the past 300 million years before returning to the entrance to meet Mr. Leung Hau-Yeung, who turned out to be our private guide. Mr. Leung is a volunteer guide who before his retirement was an editor for a major French publishing company. What an outstanding guide he is, and what a fabulous museum it is.

As a matter of fact, after Mr. Leung left us, we walked through the museum again, taking time to view the videos he'd recommended. The multi-million dollar museum is ambitious in its scope, covering the geological, historical, political, and cultural history of Hong Kong, with a variety of specialized exhibits.

We spent nearly four hours in the museum, and could have spent another four. For HK $5per person (a senior rate equivalent to US 65 cents) we certainly got more than our money's worth.