Shenzhen- Window of the World

We took a single day trip to Shenzhen, China, as part of our Hong Kong trip. Our complete itinerary is available at our  Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen post. In Shenzhen, we visited Window of the World, which is a well-known theme park in the city.

We took MTR from Hong Kong to Luohu Station. The station is connected to Luobao MTR line, which brought us straight to the entrance of Window of the World. The whole journey took us around 2 hours (35 minutes from Tsim Sha Tsui East to LuoHu Station, 25 minutes to clear all the immigration procedures, 35 minutes from LuoHu to Window of the World Station, plus queuing, waiting etc.). The MRT ticket at Shenzhen could only be bought from the auto ticketing machine. We found that Renminbi that we brought exceeded the highest limit that the machine could accept. Luckily, we found the exchange counter, offering free service to change for smaller value note and coins. The information about Luobao line is available on this page.

The entrance fee for Window of the World is Renminbi 140 per adult (around RM 73 or USD 23). Cheaper compared to the Ocean Park and Disneyland in Hong Kong. It opens from 9 am to 11:30 pm daily. The theme park is divided into several areas, namely The World Square, The Area of Asia, The Area of Oceanic, The Area of Europe, The Area of Africa, The Area of America, The Sculpture Park, and The International Street. Among all the areas, we like The Area of Asia and the Area of Europe the most.

Luohu Immigration buiding.

This is the scene outside of the immigration building.

It was a rainy day. The rain fell once in a while for the whole day. Luckily, we brought an umbrella with us. This photo shows the entrance of Window of the World within the arch on the left, while the arch on the right is the exit.

This photo was taken at the exit of the park, right after the arch. The pyramid structure resembles Louvre Museum in Paris is the access point to the MTR station.

The entrance lead to a big open air theatre. The theatre is surrounded by structures and relief walls that represent the civilization of the world. Behind us, Egypt. Further behind, prominent Eiffel Tower that we could see it within the theme park.

This blue gate is big. It is located on the right side of the stage.

From the theatre, we turned left and entered The Area of Asia, where some replicas of the buildings from Japan were located, as shown in the photos. We found Borobudur and Angkor Wat as well. Anyway, they are much more less significant than the real structures. You might like to read our sharing about real Borobudur and Angkor Wat.

We watch 4D movie here underneath Fujiyama. The movie is free. It is the one and the only one free entertainment service in the park. So, please make sure that you don't miss it. It is located opposite of the Itsukushima Shrine.

Taj Mahal, India!

The next area we entered was The Area of Oceanic, where we saw Sydney Opera House.

Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen, looking at the St. Mark's Square in Venice? This scene is solely available at The Area of Europe in this theme park.

Alcazar Castle in Spain.

In The Area of Africa, we saw this.

Niagara Falls, at The Area of America.

Is this place looks like Grand Canyon of Colorado? Well, this is the "extreme-scaled-down" version.

There are more than 80 different sculptures replicas of the attractions or iconic buildings around the world. We can't name them one by one.

We took more than 2 hours to walk around the theme park. Many of the replicas looked good and real, while some of them were not. Sign of lack of maintenance was obvious in some of the area of the park as well. Overall, the theme park made us felt like we were in a small world, with all the building, structures and sceneries around us were small. It is a place that worth a visit.

Shenzhen and Hong Kong shared a same weather during our visit. Hot, humid, and rain for a short while either in the morning, or in the afternoon. The rain could not help much in cooling down. We sweat thorough the whole trip (however, not so bad if compared to our trip to Hong Kong Disneyland). So, our advice, bring enough drinks, extra clothes if you are the type that sweat easily, and comfortable footwear. The park didn't prepare many shelters and one might get soaked in case of raining. So, bringing an umbrella might help to keep a happy journey. By the way, we found that the food offered in the park had very limited choice. A pack of snack or sandwich from outside might help to satisfy our empty stomach. We found that the eatery on the left to before the entrance served good soy milk with you tiao, sold with reasonable price.

We found some information at the official website of Window of the World. However, the information provided by Chinahighlight is more useful.

[Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen Trip] [Ocean Park and Repulse Bay]
[Hong Kong Disneyland][Hong Kong Island Trip]
[Accommodation, Food, and Shopping in Hong Kong]
[Macau] [Shenzhen- Window of the World]
[All Our Destinations] 

Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen Trip

Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan of steel and concrete. Hustle-bustle streets, highways, underground tunnels and railways, and ferries lines webbing across the city, forming a system that connects millions of people within the city.

Scenery of Hong Kong Island and the peninsular of Kowloon from the Peak.

The dense high-rises line closely along the road.

In May 2012, we took a 7 days 6 nights trip to Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen (or Shen Zhen). Our itinerary is as follows:

First day, we arrived at Hong Kong International Airport around 6:15 pm, settled down at our hotel around 8:00 pm, and then we took our dinner at an eatery a street away from our hotel. Second day, we spent quite some time in the morning to get ourselves familiar with the public transportation system in Hong Kong. Then, we took a long trip to the southern part of Hong Kong Island to visit Repulse Bay (浅水弯) and Ocean Park (海洋公园). We spent a whole day there. We stopped at Mong Kok (旺角) for dinner on our way back to our hotel.

Third day, Hong Kong Disneyland filled the whole day. As we were getting more familiar with the public transportation system, our trip went smoothly throughout the day. Fourth day, we took a day trip to Macau (澳门). We visited Temple Street Night Market (庙街) at night, after we had returned to Hong Kong from Macau.

Fifth day, we had our Hong Kong Island trip by visiting The Peak (太平山顶), where we enjoyed the 360 degree view over the island, followed by the Golden Bauhinia Square (金紫荆广场) and Causeway Bay (铜锣湾). We went to Tung Choi Street (通菜街) and Ladies Street (女人街) to take our dinner afterward. We strolled around the street for a while before we continued our trip to Avenue of Stars to witness the world's largest light and sound show there.

Sixth day, we travelled northward to Shenzhen using MTR. We visited the Eye of the World (世界之窗) and did some shopping around the terminal of Luo Hu (罗湖). We came back to Malaysia in the morning of our seventh day.

We used to think that Hong Kong is a very big city with excellent public transportation system, uncountable high rises, good looking celebrities, and of course, a place with the wrestling between the police and the mafia, as what we could see in Hong Kong movies. After we visited Hong Kong, we gained the real experience of staying at Hong Kong.

Firstly, about the public transportation system in Hong Kong. It is very systematic, but complex. We found the most confusing part within the system is the link between different commuter lines. For example, Central MTR Station is located quite near to the bus station to Repulse Bay, but we need to go upstairs and downstairs, with a few turns in between. The information stated in the station was too much to be digested in a short period of time. The ferry terminal to Macau at Kowloon can only be accessed through the shopping mall of Hong Kong Gateway Towers. Well, we don't think that it is as simply as follows "33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong" to get to the place, as we couldn't find any clue about the terminal outside of the shopping mall. The Central Terminal at Hong Kong Island is even worse. We were led to a big shopping mall (Shun Tat Center) just after we went out from the ferry terminal. There was no sign or direction given to lead us to Sheung Wan Station, not until we reached the ground floor of the shopping mall. Well, we were forced to "shop" in the mall for about 10 minutes to find our way to the MTR station (we will mention more about this later).

Then, about the automatic ticketing system using Octopus Card (八通卡). There was no instruction or manual given on how to utilize the card. Well, we thought that it should be quite similar to "Touch and Go" card in Malaysia. We were right, partly. For the part which we were wrong, we had to learn it in the hard way (extra fee was paid). Later in the evening, we came out with a conclusion- we could get all the precise information only if we cross-refer several tourist's maps and guides together. Plus, "fine-tune" our direction by asking the people along the way. A few try and error and together with the help from the locals, we learned constructively and could get along with the transportation system starting on our day 3.

Pedestrian walkways are almost everywhere and convenient in connecting places in Hong Kong. Many of these walkways are built elevated from the ground.

The electric commuter train or been called MTR in Hong Kong is the major transportation system in Hong Kong. The station can be identified by the red and white oval sign (upper left). Most of the stations in the city are air-conditioned. The seats on the train are very limited. However, finding a place to stand is not a problem.

Beside MTR, other transportation lines such as the buses and the electric trams (upper left) are available with many intersecting points to connect them. The public transports are always overloaded with passengers (upper right). We have to go to the main road in order to get a taxi (lower left). There is no special stand for the taxi in most of the part in Hong Kong. The taxi's fare is counted by meter. The ferries transporting people between Hong Kong and Macau has the facilities that similar to aircraft cabin.

We want to mention a little bit more about the Octopus Card, which we bought from MTR station. The card is like a debit card for ticketing purpose only (more convenience, plus, we can enjoy the discounted fare for MTR). We need to top up the card before we can use it. For MTR (the trains), we have to scan the card at the entrance and the exit of the stations. We will be charged upon the exit (scan the card at the sensor, just like what we have in Malaysia, and the fare will be deducted from the card). For the bus, it's different. Once we get onto the bus, the maximum fee for the trip will be charged on our card. If our destination is the last stop of the route, then we don't have to scan the card again on the sensor. However, if we disembark somewhere at the middle, we need to scan the card to claim back the extra fee. The electric tram line in Hong Kong Island uses different ticketing system from the others. For electric tram, we need to pay only when we are leaving the tram (so we just need to scan the card once, before we leave the tram). The fare for the tram is fixed, without considering the distance. The tram to the Peak is using the same system with the electric tram.

Octopus card.

From our observation, the taxi drivers in Hong Kong were good in Cantonese only. They tended to answer in simple and short when we talked to them in Mandarin or English. However, they can understand Mandarin and English well. The fare of taxi is charged according to the meter. It is must for the passenger to fasten their safety belt in taxi.

We would like to comment a bit about the people in Hong Kong. By first impression, they were impolite and inpatient (we are willing to share our personal experiences through email only). They really made us feel bad about Hong Kong. However, some good people that we met afterwards remedied our a bit. The shopkeepers around our hotel turned to be more friendly to us after seeing us for several times (as we stayed 7 days 6 nights at the same location). We will share our more of our experiences in our next few posts.

We visited Repulse Bay and Ocean Park on our second day in Hong Kong. Follow us now.

We will share our experience at Macau and Shenzhen soon.

[Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen Trip] [Ocean Park and Repulse Bay]
[Hong Kong Disneyland][Hong Kong Island Trip]
[Accommodation, Food, and Shopping in Hong Kong]
[Macau] [Shenzhen- Window of the World] 
[All Our Destinations]