Hong Kong.

A hectic few days in Hong Kong trying to see as much as possible, there’s a LOT.

Published in

On the Road

8 min readDec 21, 2018

Hong Kong is one of my favourite cities because of its general madness and mix of old and new – plus I was at Uni there for a year! These are my favourite things to do, I’ve separated this post into different areas to make it easier if you’re visiting.

HK Island: Central.

Hong Kong’s Soho is filled with bars and restaurants which are great for people watching. The area is set on a hill so it’s best to go to the top of the Mid-levels escalator, the longest escalator in the world, and then walk down.

A trip to Hong Kong isn’t complete without a few drinks in Lan Kwai Fong. But drinks are expensive, so we did a Happy Hour bar crawl – Ce la vie wins for the views!

As with the drinks, food on the island can also be pretty expensive! In Central I recommend Nha Trang on Wellington street for delicious Vietnamese food, the chicken salad (Gà xé phay) is a must. Linguini Fini do a pretty sweet lunch buffet with lots of vegetables – a treat after a week of dumplings in China!

We were big fans of PMQ, the old Police Married Quarters which has been renovated into an arts and design venue with galleries, cafes and shops. It’s worth exploring and checking out all the floors for different exhibitions and little shops!

To temporarily get away from Hong Kong’s skyscrapers, visit Hong Kong Park and Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens where it’s highly likely you’ll pass more than one couple all dressed up getting wedding photos taken!

To get a decent view of Kowloon’s skyline and the surrounding skyscrapers go to the Rooftop of IFC mall, there’s loads of free seating (or restaurants!).

2. Kowloon: Tsim Sha Tsui (TST).

TST is opposite Hong Kong Island, it’s one of the best places to admire Hong Kong’s skyline along with Victoria peak. A couple of my favourite things:

Star ferry. Connecting TST and HK Island, I absolutely love hopping on the ferry day and night.

Kowloon Park. I’m just a big fan of HK’s green spaces amongst the high rises, plus Kowloon Park has a pond with flamingos.

Avenue of stars. Under construction when we visited, but when I was a student in HK strolling down the avenue of stars was one of my favourite things to do!

Symphony of lights. It slightly blows my mind that the light show still takes place everyday at 8pm, but it brings the crowds in! There’s some pretty intense techno music to accompany the lights but it’s definitely worth going to Kowloon Public Pier to watch it.

Eyebar (drinks). Amazing view of HK Island from the balcony, another one to go to for Happy Hour!

Din Tai Fung (food). My go to restaurant when in an Asian city for their beautiful Xiao Long Bao.

3. Kowloon: Mongkok.

A very hectic part of Kowloon, Mongkok is brilliant to stroll around for an afternoon, admire the markets and snack on street food. (We did just this after visiting Tim Ho Wan).

There are quite a few markets all within walking distance of each other with pretty self explanatory names(!): Bird market, Flower market, Goldfish market and Ladies market, a tourist street market selling random bits and bobs (always barter).

We were there just before Christmas and the Flower market was filled with Christmas trees which smelt delightful, but my favourite has to be the Goldfish market selling all types of aquatic life, mostly in plastic bags.

4. Victoria Peak.

Kick-ass views across the whole of Hong Kong. We avoided the ridiculous queues for the tram and got Bus 15 from Central star ferry pier which has the added benefit of driving past some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

5. HK Island: Quarry Bay & Causeway Bay.

I have a new appreciation for Hong Kong’s high rises, in particular their beautiful colours, and Quarry Bay has a lot of them.

We went to Shugetsu for a steaming bowl of ramen, there are a few all over HK and it was delicious.

If you’re in Hong Kong on a Wednesday evening go to Happy Valley to watch the horse racing – best to ask around if you want to place a bet as we had no idea what we were doing!

6. Dim sum.

I first tried dim sum in Hong Kong and I swear it isn’t the same elsewhere. I love it. I also appreciate that if you don’t know what to get it can be a bit much with chicken feet, turnip cake and rice noodle rolls (none of which I’d personally order!). So I stick to what I like: Shumai (pork and shrimp dumplings), Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), pretty much any wontons, Char Siu Bao (steamed and baked pork buns), finishing with Mah Lai Goh (sponge cake). Two contrasting dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong:

Tim Ho Wan. I first ate in Tim Ho Wan in 2010 for my 21st birthday when it was the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the world – I went back a lot of times after that visit! It’s now a chain with restaurants all over the place. My favourite is in Sham Shui Po as it’s still slightly haphazard, filled with locals and everything’s the same as it was in 2010. You have to go.

City Hall Maxim’s Palace. The main selling point of Maxim’s Palace is the trolleys piled high with dim sum baskets which are wheeled around the restaurant. When we went it was slight chaos but absolutely brilliant. It’s posh for a dim sum restaurant, with table cloths and chandeliers but one of the few that still has traditional dim sum trolleys!

7. Out of the city.

I love visiting places in Hong Kong which are out of the madness of the city, my favourites being Chi Lin Nunnery (Diamond hill MTR) or Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (Sha Tin MTR).