sueandstevestravels: 16/01/2011: ABERDEEN

Aberdeen is in the south west corner of Hong Kong Island. Its original name was 'Hong Kong' but that name got highjacked to describe the whole of the island so they had to give it another name. Apparently some expats living there in the 19th century thought it reminded them of the Scottish port of Aberdeen (?), and so it was rechristened.
It's a small place, only 500m across, but 60,000+ live there, mostly in tower blocks but some still in the boat houses that used to be the norm. It's a major fishing port. Unfortunately we missed the fish market as we went on a Sunday.

Of course, there is the obligatory temple to the sea-faring god Tin Hau. This one allowed no photos inside.

Just around the corner from this was a street of colourful shrines and lots of Chinese devotees bringing incense, fresh fruit and flowers.

The bay is populated with lots of boats and Sampans. Apparently the boats and fishing have declined significantly over the years as the skyscrappers were built. It still retains its fishing village feel and the ladies in their Sampans try to entice you to take a trip at $60 a person. We declined and used the ferries at $1.80 a trip to move around the bay.

After the trip around the bay we took the free ferry to the floating Jumbo fish restaurant: a boat moored in the harbour, 3 storeys high and containing an array of different restaurants.

Luckily it was lunch time but before we went up to eat we couldn't resist the fish exhibition in the basement.

The ferry