hong kong

• Basics, Transportation and Facts
• What to see
  • Kowloon
  • Hong Kong Island

I was in Hong Kong for a few days in late August. Here some tips and recommendations of what to see and what to do.

Basics, Transportation and Facts

The city has great public transport options and is very walking-friendly. Definitely use the MTR and all the buses. If you live on the southern island, use the cute and tiny double-decker tram.

After you arrive to Hong Kong, get the Octopus card. This is a card which you top up with money and is used to pay for all public transport. Also, it can be used to pay in some stores and restaurants. They generally accept credit cards as well.

Some shops that could come in handy are:

• 7-Eleven and Circle-K for all-day snacks & drinking water.
• Wellcome for bigger grocery shopping.
• Mannings for cheap cosmetics and meds.

Tap water in Hong Kong is generally NOT SAFE FOR DRINKING. Only drink bottled water or water from drinking fountains/taps that are in parks, some hotels, etc.

I recommend using Apple maps since these work here the best, for some reason. Google Maps are great as well, especially for user reviews. An alternative is Amaps, which are Chinese (translated to English) -- so they work very well here.

The city is generally very safe, even at night. As a queer cis white male, I felt very safe in Hong Kong. Everybody minds their own business and they do not care about you. If you are normal, kind and respect them, they will respect you.

In the last years, Hong Kong is trying to limit smoking in public spaces (and generally everywhere). Do not smoke while walking or in big crowds. You can smoke on the street, but only at the orange trashcans with an ashtray on top of it.

The weather changes during the year, but one thing is the same -- the humidity. It's really humid here. In the summer, it's hot AND humid. You'll sweat a lot.

What to see

First of all, some topography. Hong Kong is a city state composed of a lot of islands and one mainland part (which directly borders China). These are called

• Kowloon, a densly populated area on the mainland side,
• Hong Kong Island (HKI), the island on the south you can see from Kowloon,
• Lantau Island, a smaller island there the airport and Disneyland are, and
• The New Territories, which are north of Kowloon (sometimes, Lantau is also considered a part of these).

The following are my peresonal recommendations. I have visited all of them in the five days I've spent in Hong Kong. The list is, obviously, non-exhaustive.

Kowloon

Pier and the seaside

Go and walk through the Avenue of the stars with the statue of Bruce Lee at its start. Walk through the pier around the huge shopping mall and continue to Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Right behind the centre, there is a large bus terminal serving the major streets of Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and a ferry port from which you can take a ferry to HKI. North of the ferry port, there is another large shopping mall called Harbour City.

If you continue west, there is a lovely park with the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Arts Pavillion.

Tsim Sha Tsui (TST)

Right dead center in TST is Kowloon Park, which is a huge city park similar to Central Park in NYC.

Downtown TST is mainly business and office buildings, however, north to Kowloon Park the residential area starts. You can find a ton of local shops and restaurants there.

One of them (that got really touristy in the last couple of years) is Australian Dairy Company, where you can get (really tasty) breakfast.

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Right at the Sha Tin MTR station, there is a monastery. The path to this monastery is decorated with gold statues of Buddha -- every single one is different from the others. After 20 minutes of steep stairs, you get a wonderful view from the monastery.

Since this is a real functioning monastery, please be respectful to all the people there. Don't be loud and don't photograph the insides of the monastery itself.

Lion Rock

If you feel like going for a hike, don't hesitate to go on top of the Lion Rock. You can take the bus to Fat Jong Temple and then climb up the stairs to the peak. The whole hike up was around 3 kilometers with around 500 altitude meters.

This one was really worth it, the view is outstanding, and in my opinion, much better than Victoria Peak.

Hong Kong Island

Victoria Peak

You can either hike there or take the tram/bus. The tram is super crowded on the way up and the lines can be extremely long. That's why I took a local bus up to the peak.

Once you are on top of the mountain, there is a shopping center, some tourist gift shops and The Peak Tower. I don't recommend going on the viewing terrace.

I also took a pleasant walk around Victoria Peak, it is about 4 kilometers and near the end there are wonderful views of the city.