Money

The Hong Kong dollar, pegged to the US dollar around 7.75–7.85, so the rate barely moves.

There is no sales tax. The price shown is the price paid. Restaurants add 10 per cent service and that is the only routine addition.

Cards are widely accepted; Octopus covers transport and much small retail. Keep cash for minibuses, market stalls, older cafés and many taxis.

Get an Octopus card first

Genuinely the first thing to do on arrival. It removes every subsequent question about fares.

Tipping

Modest. The 10 per cent service charge covers restaurants; rounding up or leaving the change is the convention beyond that. Taxis are rounded up. Hotel porters get a small note.

Tipping on top of the service charge is not expected.

Typhoons and rainstorms

Between roughly May and October, check the Hong Kong Observatory each morning.

Signal 8 or above means the city closes — transport stops, ferries are suspended, and you stay indoors. Black rainstorm means severe flooding and landslide risk.

Both happen with a few hours’ notice and both are taken seriously by everyone here.

The heat

Summer humidity is the thing visitors underestimate. Heat exhaustion on the hiking trails is a routine emergency call-out. Drink more than feels necessary and stay out of the middle of the day.

Escalators

Stand right, walk left. Hong Kong observes this rigorously.

Health and safety

Hong Kong is a very safe city with low violent crime. Ordinary care with pockets in dense crowds.

Tap water meets WHO standards; most residents filter or boil it out of habit because building tanks vary.

Travel insurance is essential — private healthcare is excellent and expensive, and public emergency care charges non-residents.

Smoking

Banned in all indoor public places, on public transport, and in many outdoor areas including beaches, parks and bus stops. Fines are issued.

Hong Kong remains straightforward and safe to visit, and ordinary tourism is entirely unaffected.

It is worth knowing that since the National Security Law of 2020 the space for political expression has narrowed substantially — public protest is heavily restricted, several publications have closed, and certain slogans, songs and symbols carry legal risk. The law has extraterritorial provisions.

This does not touch a normal visit. It is a real change from older guidebooks and this site would rather say so than leave it out. The fuller account is in the history article.

Emergency numbers

999 for police, fire and ambulance.

Odds and ends

Driving is on the left, a colonial holdover, unlike mainland China.

Plugs are the UK three-pin type, 220V.

Traditional Chinese characters are used, not simplified.

Numbers: the fourth floor is often missing from buildings, four being unlucky, and eight is prized.