Leaving Victoria Peak / The Peak 太平山, we headed to Victoria Harbour 维多利亚港 next to watch the Symphony of Lights show held nightly at 8 pm. 

Victoria Harbour 维多利亚港

Victoria Harbour (previously known as Hong Kong Harbour) is a natural landform harbor situated between Hong Kong island and Kowloon 九龙 Hong Kong. It is the largest trading port in Hong Kong due to its deep waters and strategic location on the South China Sea, Victoria Harbour is known to be one of the busiest port in the world.

A major tourist attraction in Hong Kong, the harbor is well-known for its dramatic panoramic night view and skyline.

There are many places to view the magnificent Hong Kong's skyline. However, the best place to enjoy the view will be from Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade 尖沙咀海濱花園, which looks directly at the Hong Kong's skyline across the Victoria Harbour. 

We headed to Tsim Sha Tsui East Waterfront 尖沙咀東海濱平台花園 located at Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. The Waterfront is a popular gathering place for both locals and international tourists as it offers a great view over the harbour and skyline.

Besides Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, a ride on the Star Ferry is another popular way to view the beautiful harbour and cityscapes. Founded in 1888, the Star Ferry is a passenger ferry service operator that carry passengers across Victoria Harbour between Hong Kong island and Kowloon.

Ferries generally run every 10 to 15 minutes. departing from Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Wanchai. However, I would recommend the Tsim Sha Tsui  - Central route in order to enjoy the spectacular view of Hong Kong's stunning skyline.

Price for a one way crossing is amazingly cheap - upper deck seats (adult) costs HKD 2.50 on weekdays and HKD 3.40 on weekend while the lower deck (adult) costs HKD 2.00 on weekdays and HKD 2.80 on weekends. The tickets are payable with Octopus card, cash or by onsite vending machine. For more information on the Star Ferry, please refer to its official website. 

The East Waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade offers a stunning and unobstructed panoramic view of the Central area of Hong Kong across Victoria Harbour. 

It is an attractively scenic place for couples to stroll along the harbour, hand-in-hand and take in the sights. The best time to visit will be night time when all the buildings are lit up against the darkness of night. It was a very picturesque sight!

The harbour is also famous for its annual 23 minutes fireworks display held during the second day of Chinese New Year every year. There is no admission charge and you can watch the fireworks display all along the waterfront. 

The annual Chinese New Year fireworks display is a major event in Hong Kong, attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Fireworks are set aloft in conjunction with the nightly Symphony of Light show with orchestrated music and narration played on loudspeaker for the event.  

The stunning Hong Kong skyline provides a perfect backdrop for photography. Photo enthusiasts   will instantly fall in love with the magnificent view and spend most of their time busily snapping away on their camera.

The Symphony of Light 幻彩詠香江 is a nightly multimedia show organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Named the world's largest permanent light and sound show by the Guinness World Records, the Symphony of Light show is developed by the Australian firm, LaserVision, and costs approximately HKD 44 millions.

Hundreds or even thousands of tourists flock and gather at the observation area to watch the Symphony of Light show which starts at 8 pm every night, lasting about 15 minutes. We arrived at 7.30 pm in order to grab a good spot, but was surprised to find the entire area was already crowded with tourists (mainly from Mainland China). Even so, we still managed to grab a good spot on the observation area. 

At 8 pm. the show started with occasional light beams shooting from the buildings out into the dark night sky. There was music, but unfortunately, it was barely audible. We could barely hear the commentary as well. 

The show was totally unimpressive with one or two colorful light beams flashing on and off in the night sky. We did not even know the show has started because the light beams were hardly noticeable. 

Just like any other tourists, we were expecting to see something special from the light show. Most of us even have our camera ready, but was disappointed when we realized there was actually nothing spectacular about the show for us to capture.

I would say that the Symphony of Light is highly over-rated and you will certainly not miss anything if you did not get to see the show. The entire experience was absolutely underwhelming and disappointing. It was a total waste of time. 

The Symphony of Light show was certainly nothing to get excited about. In fact, I have seen much better light and sound shows in both Singapore (Wonder Full at Marina Bay Sands, OCBC Garden Rhapsody at Gardens By The Bay ) and Malaysia (The Lake Symphony at Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur). The Symphony of Light show was so boring that most of us have this "is that all" look on our face when the show ended.

I would definitely not recommend visiting the Victoria Harbor specially for the Symphony of Light show. Even so, the skyline of Hong Kong is of course, worth seeing. No trip to Hong Kong is complete without visiting the Victoria Harbor! But visit the harbor only for the magnificent cityscape view. Do not expect anything from the highly raved Symphony of Light show, or else you will be utterly disappointed!

If you are interested to know more about our trip, you may want to check out our 3D2N Company Trip Summary + Itinerary for the list of attractions that we had visited during our 3 days in Hong Kong. Be sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter for the latest updates on my 3 days adventures in Hong Kong! You might also want to check My Wanderlust page for some of my other travel adventures.