Average (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

In 2009, Hong Kong, a territory with a total population of slightly over 7 million and land mass of 989 square kilometers (382 square miles), played host to some 29.6 million tourists. The vast majority of these visitors will have taken the ride across Victoria Harbour on the Star Ferry and/or gazed across the harbour and looked at the northern Hong Kong Island skyline from the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront promenade (sometime during the day and/or night). They also will have bunched around certain parts of the territory even while largely leaving other areas to the locals.

To be sure, there are large, often incredibly scenic, swathes of Hong Kong that are accessible only to hikers and their ilk. But for one reason or other, some fairly easily accessible (albeit not by MTR train) areas of Hong Kong -- including the two areas where this Photo Hunt entry's photos were taken -- have been deemed unworthy of a visit.

Granted that what they offer may seem on the average side in that it can seem not all the spectacular, exciting or particularly exotic. But I like Siu Sai Wan's long and clean harbor-side promenade and the different, less built-up and calmer views of Victoria Harbour from those featured in tourist literature that it offers up; and that Kennedy Town's view of the same body of water emphasizes that it really still is used as a commercial waterway by some.

Additionally, for those who like to get beyond the tourist veneer and get a sense of what average life is like in Hong Kong, I figure that a quiet stroll around these opposite ends of northern Hong Kong Island would be a pretty good and rather pleasant way to start; and, at the very least, take one temporarily away from the madding -- and sometimes potentially maddening -- crowd!