The Futuristic Railway Station

The exterior of the Hong Kong West Kowloon Railway Station

Today we played tourist in Hong Kong and decided to check out the Hong Kong West Kowloon Railway Station, that is also known as Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Railway, Hong Kong High Speed Rail Station, and Express Rail Link West Kowloon Terminus.

How about choosing one name and then sticking with it?

Inside the columns are very impressive, and high ceilings

At the time we were at the Star Ferry in Tsim Sha Tsui and asked the Hong Kong Tourism Board staff there how to get to the railway station. They suggested taking the 77M minibus, but that we should take it to the terminus (Kowloon Station) and then walk over.

We waited and waited for the green minibus and then we gave up and walked a few metres when I turned around and saw that it had stopped at the bus stop. We ran to the minibus and got on. I asked the minibus driver if we could get off at the railway station and he waved his hand to say yes.

It just seems strange that the bus routes, especially in Tsim Sha Tsui haven't adjusted to include the railway station stop, even though it's so close by. Surely many tourists and people like us would like to get there too from Tsim Sha Tsui?

The station located right across from Austin Station, and a short walk to Kowloon Station. The outside of the railway station looks like a bunch of waves made of steel, but inside it looks very futuristic and impressive.

The space is very airy and highly accessible

There are very high ceilings in there and it's highly accessible for everyone, though there seems to be only one elevator from what we could see. We wandered down to the ticket vending machines as well as the ticket counter. It was quite busy with lots of people dragging suitcases around, or people like us checking out the station.

I did notice periodically there were large poles that were covered in cameras. Some were conveniently located at "meeting points" to suss everyone out. It was quite daunting to see so many cameras staring at you. Has anyone pointed this out before?

In terms of food there are many options, though some were just take-away places, including Starbucks that had no place for people to sit. We did manage to get a bite to eat at Tim Ho Wan upstairs, though there was quite a bit of MSG in the food. The wontons in chilli sauce were terribly disappointing -- the meat filling was too ground up with no texture, but the shrimp and spinach dumplings were good.

The Xiqu Centre (left) is only a few minutes' walk away

When we left the station to visit the nearby Xiqu Centre, an opera house designed by Vancouver architect Bing Thom, we noticed there were people on the roof of the railway station! So after our quick visit to Xiqu (where there is still construction going on), we returned to the station and went to the only elevator we could find.

We had to wait a while to finally get in, but when we got to L2, we were rewarded with a panoramic view of the area -- Tsim Sha Tsui, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong Island, and West Kowloon. Instead of taking the elevator down, we found a long stairway that follows the curve of the building, with plants lined along the route.

It's a good thing we took the elevator up to the roof because it would have been too daunting to climb up all those stairs! We made our way down and then walked to Elements shopping mall, where Kowloon Station is.

The long stairway up to the roof of the railway station

While reaching the mall only took minutes, it took another 10 minutes to finally get to the actual MTR station.

Nevertheless, it was a good way to become more familiar with the railway station, even if they are watching you all the time...