"Hong Kong Travel Guide, Photos, and Review"

Hong Kong floating restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour

Convention and Exhibition center in the heart of Hong Kong

Tsing Ma Bridge, Hong Kong

Double decker bus in the middle of downtown

Hong Kong park

Hong Kong Botanical Garden

Hong Kong Bank of China

Hong Kong Skyline

Hong Kong Harbor

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Hong Kong floating restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour

Hong Kong Stats

Location: Special Administrative Region, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Population: 6,843,000 (SAR).
Ethnic mix: 95% Chinese, 2% Filipino, 0.6% Indonesian, 0.5% American, 0.5% Canadian, 0.4% Thai, 0.3% British, 0.3% Indian, 0.3% Australian.
Religion: 90% Buddhist/Taoist, 8% Christian, 1% Muslim, 1% other.
Time zone: GMT + 8 (GMT + 7 summer).
Electricity: 220 volts AC, 50Hz; square three-pin plugs are common, but round three-pin and two-pin plugs are also in use; adapters available at shops and supermarkets.
Average January temp: 17 C (63F).
Average July temp: 29 C (84 F).
Annual rainfall: 2214mm (88.5 inches).
 

Cost of Living

One-liter bottle of mineral water: HK$4
33cl bottle of beer: HK$8
Financial Times newspaper: HK$20
36-exposure color film: HK$20
City-centre bus ticket: HK$5.60
Three-course meal with wine/beer: HK$150-200

Hong Kong Key Attractions

Statue Square

Previously never a feature of traditional Hong Kong tourist itineraries, Statue Square is now a must-see on account of its dazzling ensemble of architecture. Richard Rogers, headquarters building for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation forms the south side of the square, and just to the east of it is I M Pei's Bank of China Tower. Less distinguished but equally prominent buildings jostle around them, towering over the colonial remnant of St John's Cathedral. In more antiquated contrast, the Legislative Council Building, formerly the Supreme Court, on the east side of the square, houses Hong Kong's partly elected assembly. The square should be avoided at weekends, however, unless the visitor is seeking a display of flocks of Filipina and Indonesian housemaids, taking time out from their employers to chatter and picnic there.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building

Recognizable from most Hong Kong dollar notes, the bizarre profile of Norman Foster's masterpiece may not look monumental on banknote paper, but in the flesh (or steel) it is tremendous. Opening in 1986, it exemplified the fashion for atriums in world architecture, and an escalator ride up into the belly of the building, into its towering air-conditioned interior, is a must. The building has no central core: bridge engineering techniques secure the walls and its infrastructure is on the outside; so all eleven stories of the central atrium are open and unobstructed.

Des Voeux Road
Tel: 28 22 11 11. Fax: 28 68 16 46.
Transport: MTR Central Station, exit K.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1630, Sat 0900-1230

Bank of China Tower

Travel to Hong Kong can bring you unexpected suprises. Deliberately planned to dwarf the neighboring Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building, the Bank of China Tower is now Hong Kong's national monument. The Chinese-American architect I M Pei developed Beijing's triumph list intentions into a soaring, gracefully irregular pinnacle, whose design characteristics inspire lively debate amongst connoisseurs of feng shui. Visitors can ascend to the 43rd of its 74 stories by lift for a particularly stunning view of Central.

Statue Square
Tel: 28 26 68 88. Fax: 28 10 59 63.
Transport: MTR Central Station, exit K.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 0930-2130, Sat and Sun 0930-2330.
Admission: HK$9 (concessions available).
 

Victoria Peak

A miniature hill station in colonial times, the Peak is stratospheric in its social exclusiveness and its rents. Groundlings can still visit though, ascending by the vertiginous Peak Tram, a funicular in use since 1888. Atop the hill is the Peak Tower, a slightly bizarre viewing platform with displays and other facilities, and the Peak Galleria shopping arcade. The amusements and shops on offer vary from the appealing to the unforgivably tacky, but there are at least plenty of restaurants and bars to sustain visitors. The view down into central Hong Kong and across the water to Kowloon defies description, day or night. Hikers can scale the real peak, some 140m above the tram terminus.

Victoria Peak
Transport: Peak Tram from Garden Road; shuttle bus from Star Ferry terminal (HK$3, 1000-2400 daily).
 

Western Market

A four-storey redbrick Edwardian building dating from 1906 occupying an entire block at the eastern end of Central, the former market was reopened in 1991 as a shopping centre featuring small shops, souvenir stands and curio sellers. Ground-floor shops must sell unique merchandise rather than chain-store goods, and the first floor recreates the old 'Cloth Alley', selling silks and fabrics of all kinds. There is also a dim sum restaurant and a fine antique-shop café?

Connaught Road
Tel: 25 43 68 78. Fax: 25 43 69 31.
Transport: MTR Sheung Wan, exit B or C; bus or tram along Des Voeux Road to Sheung Wan.
Opening hours: Daily 1000-1900.
 

Times Square

The retail plaza to end them all, Times Square is a vast temple complex to Hong Kong's number one deity: consumerism. The vast Times Square building houses nine floors of shops, and has a spectacular exterior with a huge electronic clock: the venue for the big millennium countdown in 2000. At weekends, the hosts of sacrifices ascending the escalator, to be swallowed up in the belly of this huge idol, demonstrate exactly what the Asian economic miracle was all about.

Tel: 21 18 89 00. Fax: 25 06 20 22.
Transport: MTR Causeway Bay; bus or tram along Hennessey Road to Causeway Bay.
Opening hours: Daily 1000-2200.
 

Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware

Situated in the beautiful Hong Kong Park and overlooking the ultramodern mania of Central, Flagstaff House is the oldest surviving colonial building in Hong Kong, dating from 1846. It now houses a fine museum of teaware, seals and other ceramics.

Tel: 28 69 06 90.
Transport: MTR Admiralty, exit F; bus or tram along Queensway to Pacific Place.
Opening hours: Thurs-Tues 1000-1700.
Admission: Free.
 

Hong Kong Museum of History

It is somehow fitting that this go-ahead territory has its history commemorated in a dazzling new building. Opening in late 2000, the new museum building in Kowloon houses exhibits covering 6000 years of the region, including some spectacular sets in situ. There are traditional costumes, a huge collection of period photographs, replicas of old village houses and an entire street, c. 1881, with its own Chinese medicine store.

100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 27 24 90 42.
Transport: MTR Tsim Sha Tsiu, then walk via Granville Road; or maxi cab no 1 from Kowloon Star Ferry in Tsim Sha Tsiu to Science Museum Road.
Opening hours: Mon-Thurs and Sat 1000-1800, Sun 1300-1800.
Admission: HK$20 (concessions available).

Wong Tai Sin Temple

An ornate traditional temple in the heart of Kowloon, Wong Tai Sin Temple combines Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist traditions. Wong Tai Sin himself was a Zhejiang shepherd/alchemist who supposedly concocted a marvelous cure-all, and his statue in the main building was brought from the mainland in 1921. The building is spectacularly colorful with its red pillars, golden ceiling and decorated latticework, but not particularly distinguished. Far more fascinating are the fortune tellers in their arcade of booths and the throngs of worshippers.

Tai Sin Road, Kowloon
Tel: 23 27 81 41. Fax: 23 51 56 40.
Transport: MTR Wong Tai Sin, exit B, then follow signs.
Opening hours: Daily 0700-1730.
Admission: Free (donations welcome).
 

Yuen Po Street Bird Garden

Rearing caged songbirds is a time-honored Chinese pursuit, and the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden is Hong Kong's shrine to this obsession. There are about 70 stalls, each with its own chorus, and ornate cages and cage furniture provide added interest. And while conditions in the average Hong Kong poultry market would give an animal welfare activist apoplexy, the birds here are pampered and cosseted, even fed honey nectar to sweeten their songs. Just north of the Bird Garden there is also a fine flower market, and there is a goldfish market closer to the MTR station in Tung Choi Street.

Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon
Transport: MTR Prince Edward, exit B1 or B2, then follow signs.
Opening hours: Daily 0700-2000.