We took the Hong-Kong free tour knowing that the topic will be political and history of HK. The problem is that everything is biased. It is not objective at all. Derek was kind of hard when it came to differences between HK and mainland China ("Honkongers feel superior than chinese" "We have better manners"....). Moreover, we saw nothing from HK, the shortest free tour in terms of walking distance (maybe 1km in 2,5 hours) and the stops are too long (20 minutes in average, f.e. in front of a wall). Basically, it could have happened in a classroom. We would recommend to watch a documentary on youtube instead, you will learn as much and more objective.
Hi Gwenaelleauxerre,
Thank you very much for your review. Please allow us to explain each point as follow:
1. Everything is biased - In Hong Kong Free Tours, we do allow our guide to express his own view during the tour so it is possible that you MIGHT meet a guide who is more biased than another. However, this is preciously the beauty of the tour because you interact directly with the local and there is no pre-existing view from the company.
Having said that, I am very surprised to hear this comment for Derek because he is more objective than most of our guides we had. For example, after he talks about Tiananmen Square incident, he talks about the democracy in the US and asks the guests if they think democracy works better there (hinting there is no best system in the world). There are a few more examples but I don't want to list them all here.
2. Differences between HK and China - For completeness, the specific topic is about the history of Hong Kong people's identity: we have been colonized by the British but we are not recognized as British. Now that Hong Kong returns to China but we don't feel being a Chinese. As a result, who exactly are we? Unfortunately I think you might have missed this point because you only cited a racial comment.
3. We saw nothing from HK - The tour is divided into two parts: first part is about the political and history of HK, second part is visiting the Central business district. We have visited and explained quite a few places in Central during the tour: Feng Shui war between HSBC & Bank of China, HSBC & its guardian lions, the reclamation of Hong Kong coastline, St. John Cathedral and Former French Missionary Building. Even in the first part about politics and history we visited Central Government Complex, Tamar Park, PLA building, and City Hall Memorial.
4. Walking distance - The total walking distance is around 3 km in this tour.
However, it is unrealistic to expect everyone likes the content. To avoid any miscommunication, we tried our best to explain our intention to every guest at the start of the tour such that expectation is aligned before the tour begins. Given this is a free walking tour, the guests could not only walk away in the beginning but also walk away at any point during the tour if the content does not fit their appetite.
I hope we answered your questions. Thank You.
Regards,
Michael
(Based on the four points above, we suspect this review is a bit too suspicious and we have reported to Tripadvisor.)
Went for the Hong Kong island walking tour with my fiancé on Sunday and we really enjoyed the process. Derek was our guide and he did a good job in explaining to us about the history of hk. The places that he brought us too was also off beaten track from the tourists. We learnt a lot from the 2 hours walk and it gave us another pespective of hk.
Don’t worry about the walking distance or speed. Route was well planned and he even gave us a toilet break in the middle too! Recommended if you will like to understand more abt hk past and politics (:
Really enjoyed this tour with Derek our guide. My historical knowledge of Hong Kong was weak so found this really interesting. Derek was very likeable with a good sense of humour. We also did the Skip the Line tour for the Victoria Tram with Mike. Saved us so much time!
After a three hour wait for the 360 cable car ride (even though we booked online to avoid long queues through the same company Viator-do not make the same mistake!) we were a bit worried this booking would turn out the same way. Luckily, it was exactly as advertised! We booked for a Sunday not knowing this is the busiest day, but were pleasantly surprised when we bypassed hundreds of people waiting in line. We only waited about 20min by the time we hopped in line.
Meeting the tour group was a bit confusing, they probably need to tell you exactly where to meet, but we ended up finding our guide.
Otherwise the instructions were pretty good, and getting the MTR from Kowloon to central was easy.
Overall the views from the Peak our amazing and the tram ride quite fun. I'd only recommend if you buy a skip the line ticket, otherwise the lines are just too frustratingly long.
Elisss
Australia
I took the morning Central HK walking tour as well as the afternoon Kowloon tour. I really enjoyed both of these tours. Hong Kong is a beautiful, unique, and amazing city, but, like anywhere else, you might not get the full picture just walking around, or hanging around at tourist destinations.
Over the course of 5 total hours of walking tours on two days, we heard a lot of interesting stories, many were positive, and some were negative. The Kowloon walking tour substantially (but very appropriately) focused on the housing crisis in Hong Kong, which is not exactly pleasant; however, for me, understanding the drawbacks and struggles Hong Kong people face, in addition to the good things about HK, helped me to connect with Hong Kong on a deeper level. Understanding these issues enriched my experience in HK.
I would recommend taking tours from these folks, particularly if you are interested in the unique history and politics of this incredible region. Derek was my guide for both tours, and he was great!
