What to See and Where to Go

Holidays by Destination Asia Hong Kong What to See and Where to Go 

Museums and Tourist Sights

Note that all museums are free on Wednesdays.

In no particular order:
Museum of History Tsim Sha Tsui, a series of reconstructions going back to a jungle 6,000 years ago, climbing on a junk, witnessing a Punti Marriage proposal, entering a shop from the ‘40s, etc. It also shows peasant life on the island and an air raid shelter from the Japanese Occupation.
Hong Kong Science Museum In Tsim Sha Tsui East There are 500 hands-on exhibits on science-related themes including technology, robotics, transportation, virtual reality, plus a City of Life section, also with activities.
Man Mo Temple One of the best Chinese Buddhist temples on the island, on Hong Kong's Hollywood Road. Visitors can light joss sticks and have their fortunes told. (nearby is Ladder Street which runs across Hollywood Road, the last remaining one of such steep, stepped streets, designed to help sedan chair carriers up the hill.
Pak Tai Temple in WanChai is home to craftsmen who make replica items for use in burials, including cars and houses, in bamboo and paper.
There are a few temples on Kowloon, including the Tin Hau Temple in the middle of modern development but used as a hangout by older Chinese men, for example playing mah jong. Further out in Kowloon is the Wong Tai Sin Temple (near the MTR stop of the same name), the most popular in Hong Kong so full of those burning incense, consulting fortune tellers and offering food and drink. Some fortune tellers speak English and can give either a palm or face reading.
Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens In Hong Kong's Central District, a centre for breeding endangered species, usually housing a couple of baby orangutans or a few gibbons, though to westerners the spaces can seem very small. There is also an exotic bird aviary with a kookaburra, flamingoes, ibises and parakeets among others.
Hong Kong Space Museum In Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon, Visitors are given headsets to watch the space footage. The programme changes at intervals. Exhibition halls include the option to fly a space shuttle or take a walk on the moon.
The Noon Day Gun in Causeway Bay, famous from Noel Coward's song about Mad Dogs and Englishmen, is still fired daily
The Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum in Kowloon is part of the Museum of History, built over a 2,000-year-old tomb, found in the '50. Photos of the site show the paddy fields that surrounded it at the time.
In the New Territories Sam Tung Uk Museum is a restored, two-hundred-year-old walled village typical of the area and used until the ‘70s. It can be reached from MTR stop Tsuen Wan.
Kat Hing Wai in the town of Kam Tim in the New Territories is Hong Kong's last inhabited walled village, dating back to the 17th century.
The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Shatin near the Chinese border is just 40 years old but is intriguing with the Po Fook Ancestral Worship Halls and 400 steps above the monastery which is stacked with shelf on shelf of Buddhas around a central Buddha. There are good views outside and more statues including an elephant and a dragon.
Near Tai Au Mun at Clearwater Bay is the Tin Hau Temple in Joss House Bay, rebuilt in the ‘60s but dating back around 800 years.
On Lantau there is the Po Lin Monastery, the largest temple in the whole territory, up on the island's plateau and only established in 1927. Locals arrive to pay their respects to the largest seated bronze outdoor Buddha in the world, and eat at the temple's vegetarian restaurant.

For Children

Ocean Park
At Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island, the largest leisure park in Southeast Asia, covering an entire peninsula. It makes a full day outing if you want, but in summer you need to arrive early to avoid too much time queuing. There are lakes, waterfalls and gardens, a bird theatre and an Adventure World of rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks and other small animals. The park's simulated coral reef is set in one of the largest aquariums in the world, there is a dolphin show and performing sea lions. The Dragon roller coaster is one of the fastest and longest in the world, there are two giant pandas, An An and Jia Jia, plus the latest attraction, Pacific Pier. A Middle Kingdom area covers five thousand years of Chinese history with architecture, crafts, theatre and opera. A dedicated bus operates from Central.

Cityplaza
In Taikoo Shing on Hong Kong Island, a shopping centre with an entertainment plaza with ice rink (skates for hire) games and rides.

Snoopy's World
In Shatin, split into six different "fun zones", contains a canoe ride, a baseball dugout, a big yellow American school bus, and 60 Peanuts figures. The giant Snoopy on top of his doghouse is the largest outdoor one in the world. There are regular live shows.

Hong Kong Disneyland
Due to open on the northern shore of Lantau island close to the airport by 2005.

Out and About

There are limited outdoor areas on Hong Kong island but options include the Peak (though not if it is cloudy as you will find yourself in fog), with attractive walks down. Victoria Park in Causeway Bay offers a bit of central space out of doors.

Aberdeen to the south of Hong Kong Island is the place to go for a sampan tour around the harbour to see the diminishing number of locals living on sampans and junks. It's particularly pretty at night and the glimpses of everyday on board life might be fun for children.

There are beaches on Hong Kong island but it is best to beware the water, for example at Repulse Bay which also gets very very crowded in summer weekends. Better is the beach at Shek O, especially on week days.

Elsewhere it is worth remembering that 70% of Hong Kong territory is farmland, forest or mountain, with more than 40% preserved in 23 country and marine parks, some only 40 minutes from downtown Kowloon.

The New Territories are worth exploring for just a brief glimpse of rural Chinese life - water buffalo, old villages and even valleys and mountains with one twice the height of Victoria Peak, alongside the fast-growing New Towns.

The places to make for are the Country Parks which provide facilities like picnic areas, playgrounds and barbecue pits and which are close to deserted on weekdays. Exploring Hong Kong's Countryside is a good guide for walkers, sold by the tourist office. Particularly good is the area on the Sai Kung Peninsula where there is untouched forest, plus grassland and sandy beaches with Cearwater Bay particularly commended.

Promoted for tourists is the Wong Nai Chung Reservoir Boating Park, not far from the Victoria Peak, and adjacent Tai Tam Country Park, with rowing boats, pedal boats and ducks.

The outlying islands offer a chance to see old fashioned Hong Kong with almost no cars except for the taxis and buses on Lantau island though the new airport and the development of Disneyland on the northern shore here probably means this will change.

For the moment Lantau is relatively undeveloped and more than half the island is a designated country park including a 70km Lantau Trail linking key points on the island. Best beaches are round Cheung Sha Beach.

Although there are many other islands, only some are inhabited and easy to get to. Among these there is Lamma, closest to Hong Kong Island and good for cheap restaurants with just a couple of hotels. There is also a nice beach.

Cheung Chau is just south of Lantau and good for a stroll of a couple of hours being just 2.5km square but one of the most populated of the smaller islands with old fishing ports, temples including the 200-year-old Pak Tai Temple and traditional shops like herbalists. The main beach is often busy and there are marked trails. For example to a cave reputedly used by pirates in the 19th century.

For early risers, free tai chi classes take place every morning outside the Hong Kong cultural Centre and in parks all over the city.

Activities

At Victoria Park there is a swimming pool and there is another indoor and outdoor swimming pool complex in Kowloon Park north of Chungking mansions in Tsimshatsui.

Walking is growing popular with excellent hiking trails in the New Territories Country parks. There is a good walk at the end of the Hong Kong Trail called the Dragons Back - not too challenging and ending up at two great beaches-Great Wave Bay and Shek O.

Shopping

This is not the draw it once was. Hong Kong's growing wealth means prices like for like are higher than London for designer goods for example. However, there are small factory shops in Kowloon which offer bargains for those willing to do some serious searching, while Stanley Market on Hong Kong Island's south coast is specifically geared to tourists and includes reasonably cheap jeans, teeshirts etc, though nothing particularly stylish. Two parallel streets in Central known as "The Lanes", Li Yuen Street East and Li Yuen Street West in Central, includes stalls selling all kinds of cheapish clothing.

Some of the fun however is just looking, for example in Bonham Strand in Western District on Hong Kong island which is an area specialising in Chinese medicinal products. The main area for this is Ko Shing Street. Items like live and dead snakes will appeal to less squeamish children.

Chinese character chops (name stamps) are carved in stone or wood for example in Man Wa Lane near the Sheung Wan MTR in Western District on Hong Kong island. Uphill from here is Hollywood Road and a range of antique and curio shops.

Despite the increasing slickness of parts of the Hong Kong, there is still a very active market culture. Examples include Central Market, busy in the morning but with lots of poultry, fish and meat being prepared. Graham Street, also in Central, is a good fruit and vegetable market where you should be able to look for lots of exotic items.

While Tsimshatsui is rather too geared up for tourists (and occasionally to ripping them off), to the north the area of Mongkok is rather more interesting with more genuine Chinese neighbourhoods and markets such as the night market in Temple Street which starts early afternoons with clothes, food stalls and fortune tellers, plus sometimes Chinese opera. Close by is the Jade Market. In the area there are also a Flower market and Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, the first better on Sundays, the second in a Chinese style garden where locals bring their own birds for a walk.

Shops which can include good quality items at sensible prices are the mainland China department stores such as the Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporia including one in Central and five in Kowloon, and the CRC Department Stores. These sell items made on the mainland, generally in traditional style and including silks, traditional handicrafts and clothing, including for children. An emerald green mandarin jacket and trousers has been a surprise hit in our family.

Buildings

The people of Hong Kong regard preservation of old buildings as peverse and infinitely prefer the new and modern. As a result there is little in the way of historic buildings to see, but plenty of modern stuff of which a few pieces are of interest - even to children if nothing else because of sheer size/height. Among these are the Hong Kong Bank and Shanghai Bank building designed by Norman Foster, supported on giant pillars because of the feng shui belief that the centre of power (Government House) should be accessible in a straight line on foot from the main point of arrial on the island - the Star Ferry. Looking up underneath the building you can see right through a glass atrium and into the centre. A little further east is a blue glass structure considered knife shaped (so considered bad feng shui) and three hundred metres high.Watch out too for the bamboo scaffolding, used even when working on skycrapers.

Buildings

The people of Hong Kong regard preservation of old buildings as peverse and infinitely prefer the new and modern. As a result there is little in the way of historic buildings to see, but plenty of modern stuff of which a few pieces are of interest - even to children if nothing else because of sheer size/height. Among these are the Hong Kong Bank and Shanghai Bank building designed by Norman Foster, supported on giant pillars because of the feng shui belief that the centre of power (Government House) should be accessible in a straight line on foot from the main point of arrial on the island - the Star Ferry. Looking up underneath the building you can see right through a glass atrium and into the centre. A little further east is a blue glass structure considered knife shaped (so considered bad feng shui) and three hundred metres high.