Top Ten Attractions
-
The Star Ferry
The ten-minute trip across Victoria Harbour will give you a visual feast of Hong Kong’s majestic skyline. Go first class, upper deck. http://www.hongkongvoyage.com/index
-
The Peak
Panoramic views, weather and smog permitting. The Peak tramway (actually, a funicular railway) takes you to the top. http://www.thepeak.com.hk
-
Open-Air Markets
A fascinating part of the Hong Kong experience. Buy anything from t-shirts and electronics to live birds and flowers.
-
Ocean Park
A combination of theme park and oceanarium, with a cable car linking the lowland and headland sites. http://www.oceanpark.com.hk
-
Repulse Bay
The most famous beach in Hong Kong: sandy, with a gradual slope of shallow water.
-
Temples
There are a number in Hong Kong, the most famous and colourful perhaps being the Sik Sik Yuen Wong. http://www.siksikyuen.org.hk
-
Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront
A great vantage point for viewing the north shore of Hong Kong island, one of the most spectacular cityscapes in the world.
-
The HSBC building
One of the major landmarks in Hong Hong since 1985 when it was the most expensive building in the world.
-
Big Buddha
The world’s largest outdoor bronze statue of a seated Buddha, with a long flight of steps leading up to it. http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/touring/hki...
-
Hong Kong Disneyland
Opened in September 2005. http://www.park.hongkongdisneyland.com
Eating and Drinking
If the pursuit of wealth is the engine that drives Hong Kong, its fuel is food. Noodles are slurped, succulent seafood savoured and dishes at banquets praised for their presentation, freshness, texture and taste. Many chefs enjoy celebrity status. No one is quite sure exactly how many eating places there are in Hong Kong but there are some 6,000 licensed restaurants and the variety of cuisines, ambiences and price ranges on offer is one of Hong Kong's delicious world-beating attractions. Although there is something for almost everyone, the major culinary glory of Hong Kong is its Chinese restaurants: the true gourmet can depend on finding the finest ingredients, chefs and standards of service in the world. Of all China's regional cuisines, that of Canton (Guangdong) province is generally recognized to be the finest and has been considered so for centuries. Freshness is the keyword in Cantonese cuisine. Twice-daily trips to the fresh vegetable and meat markets throughout Hong Kong are still the custom for traditionalist housewives. Steaming and stir-frying are a Cantonese cook's pride and the most popular dishes are seafood (the one plentiful natural resource for coastal communities), pork (largely imported), fowl (primarily the versatile chicken) and vegetables, which have an honoured place in a cuisine that has been influenced by Buddhist and Taoist vegetarian beliefs. Dim Sum is a Cantonese invention. It refers to food that comes in small portions on equally small plates. Traditionally served mid-morning, these days it’s possible to find dim sum up until 2 or 3pm.
To make a choice about where to eat, you might find this website helpful: www.hongkongfoodguide.com/eng/index. A word about table manners: many westerners struggle with chopsticks, with small and loose rice grains a particular menace. It’s perfectly acceptable to raise the rice bowl to your lips and shovel the elusive morsels into your mouth. Scraping and slurping are not considered a faux pas.
Shopping
Hong Kong has often been called a shopper’s paradise and it’s certainly true that most Hong Kong citizens are insatiable shoppers. Places range from colourful night markets to glitzy shopping malls, from bustling narrow streets full of antiques and bric-a-brac to multi-floor department stores. Hong Kong may not be the bargain basement it once was, but shopping may nonetheless prove to be one of the most compelling activities of any trip to the territory. The Hong Kong Tourism Board offers two golden rules for shoppers:
- Shop around and compare prices before you make any decision, especially with an expensive item
- Always deal with reputable establishments. The quality mark issued by the Board is a red junk set next to a big golden Q with the Chinese character for quality written in black inside
The best-known shopping malls on Hong Kong Island are Landmark in Central, Pacific Place in Admiralty, Times Square in Causeway Bay and City Plaza in Taikoo Shing. In Kowloon, the linked Ocean Terminal and Harbour Centre complexes plus Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong will keep you busy. A new addition to Hong Kong’s trademark shopping malls is the IFC in Central – a vast selection of swanky shops and snack bars wrapped in a cocoon of shiny steel and glass just above the Hong Kong Airport Express station.
Hong Kong has a number of lively markets. These include Cat Street (flea market); Stanley (clothes, linen, silk, leather); Temple Street (a night market with practically everything available on colourfully-lit stalls); Tung Choi Street (fashion, jewellery and accessories); Jade (jewellery) and Ladies’ Market in Kowloon (clothing and accessories)
Night Life
Hong Kong's night-time districts announce themselves with a riot of neon, heralding frenetic after-hours action. Clubs and bars fill to capacity nightly while evening markets pack in shoppers looking for bargains. All premises licensed to serve alcohol are supposedly subject to stringent fire, safety and sanitary controls, although it might not seem like it, given the overcrowding at the hippest places. True clubs, as distinct from public premises, are even less strictly controlled, and wise travellers should think twice before succumbing to the city's raunchier hideaways. If you stumble into one, check out the cover and hostess charges before you get too comfortable. Pay for each round of drinks as it's served (by cash rather than credit card), and never sign any blank checks. Most of the cosmopolitan clubbing action takes place in Central but, if you prefer to go clubbing with just the locals, there are some fairly wild clubs in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. Wan Chai has many clubs, most of which open past dawn every day of the week. An invaluable guide to clubbing in Hong Kong is
www.hkclubbing.com. Hong Kong has a small but thriving gay scene.
