Where To Go in Hong Kong
27 places across 9 categories — the landmarks on the postcards, the observation decks, the museums, the parks, and the neighborhoods where the city actually lives.
Landmarks
TODO — what landmarks in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
Victoria Peak
The view that sells Hong Kong, reached by a tram at a gradient that pins you to the seat.
The Star Ferry
A ten-minute crossing on a green-and-white boat that has run since 1888 and costs less than a bottle of water.
Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery
A 34-metre bronze Buddha on a Lantau hilltop, reached by 268 steps and a cable car over the sea.
Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade
A waterfront walk facing the most photographed skyline in Asia, with a nightly light show pointed at it.
Man Mo Temple
Coils of incense hanging from the ceiling in a temple to literature and war, on a street of antique shops.
The Central–Mid-Levels Escalator
The longest covered outdoor escalator system in the world, running downhill in the morning and uphill the rest of the day.
Museums
TODO — what museums in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
M+
Asia's first global museum of visual culture, in a Herzog and de Meuron building with a screen on the side of it.
Hong Kong Palace Museum
Nine hundred objects on long loan from Beijing's Forbidden City, in a building shaped like an inverted ritual vessel.
Hong Kong Museum of History
Four hundred million years in eight galleries, from the Devonian to the handover, with a full-size fishing junk in the middle.
Tai Kwun
The former Central Police Station, magistracy and prison, restored into a free arts and heritage complex.
History
TODO — what history in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
Kowloon Walled City Park
A Jiangnan garden on the site of the densest settlement that has ever existed, cleared in 1993.
Tai O
Stilt houses over a tidal creek on western Lantau, built by a boat-dwelling people who have largely stopped living on boats.
Ping Shan Heritage Trail
A one-kilometre walk past a 600-year-old pagoda, ancestral halls and walled villages of the Tang clan.
Parks & Outdoors
TODO — what parks & outdoors in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
Dragon's Back
An eight-kilometre ridge walk on Hong Kong Island with the sea on both sides, forty minutes from Central.
Kowloon Park
Thirteen hectares on the site of a Victorian barracks, with flamingos, a maze and Sunday afternoons that belong to Hong Kong's domestic workers.
Hong Kong Wetland Park
Sixty hectares of managed wetland on the border with Shenzhen, built as ecological compensation and much better than that sounds.
Food & Drink
TODO — what food & drink in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
Dim Sum and Yum Cha
Small plates and endless tea, taken loudly and early, and the single thing Hong Kong does better than anywhere.
The Cha Chaan Teng
Hong Kong's own diner — milk tea strained through cloth, macaroni soup for breakfast, and a pineapple bun with no pineapple in it.
Eating in Sham Shui Po
The poorest district in Hong Kong, and the best place in it to eat for very little money.
Culture & Music
TODO — what culture & music in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
The Xiqu Centre and Cantonese Opera
A curtain of curved metal tubes over a theatre built for a 700-year-old art form that Hong Kong nearly let go.
Happy Valley Racecourse
Wednesday night racing in a floodlit bowl surrounded by tower blocks, with a beer tent and the largest betting turnover in the world.
Shopping
TODO — what shopping in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
Temple Street Night Market
Stalls, fortune tellers and open-air seafood under the flyover, in the market that has supplied a hundred Hong Kong films with a backdrop.
Hollywood Road and Cat Street
A ridge road of antique dealers and galleries, with a lane of curio stalls below it that was named for stolen goods.
Day Trips
TODO — what day trips in Hong Kong are actually worth the time.
Macau
A former Portuguese colony an hour away, with baroque churches, egg tarts and more gambling revenue than Las Vegas.
Cheung Chau and the Outlying Islands
Car-free islands half an hour by ferry, with fishing harbours, seafood and a bun festival involving a tower of pastry.
Neighbourhoods
TODO — what each part of Hong Kong is like to walk around, and who lives there.
