Tags: Asia / Hong Kong / Places To Visit In Hong Kong

Places To Visit In Hong Kong

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Places To Visit In Hong Kong

From the busy markets of Kowloon to the serenity of Lantau Island, Hong Kong is full of surprises.

  Since the First Opium War of 1842, Hong Kong has remained a land of promise and adventure, first as a vibrant British trading post, and now a Chinese special administrative region. At its heart, it is a vibrant megacity, with a distinct architectural heritage immortalised by virtually every fictional cyberpunk metropolis from Blade Runner to Ghost in the Shell.

  Its distinctive skyline forms a corridor along southern Kowloon's Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, where a 44-metre (144-foot) high clock tower memorialises the region's colonial past, beside the Avenue of Stars, paying tribute to the giants of Hong Kong cinema. Further inland, Nathan Road forms the spine of an eclectic mishmash of high-end luxury stores, enthusiastic restauranteurs, Bollywood-themed merchandise hawkers and Shanghainese tailors.

  In the adjacent area of Yau Ma Tei is Temple Street, home not only to a Tin Hau temple, but the Night Market, a sprawling assortment of vendors and traders, featured in many a film. Street food is in no short supply, with piping-hot noodles and fresh seafood on hand to rejuvenate  weary shoppers for a second wind of haggling.

  Just north, in what was once the triad heartland of Mong Kok is the Ladies’ Market, awash with inexpensive clothes for both women and men, as well as gadgets, gizmos and all manner of delightful knick-knacks. While the nearby Tung Choi Street features an array of Chinese pubs, on the opposite side of Victoria Harbour, Wan Chai is marked by its distinct colonial-style bars a short trip from the upmarket restaurants, boutique art galleries and antique shops tucked along the historic streets of SoHo.

  The city’s most exclusive postcode, The Peak, is aptly named, whether enjoyed aboard the charming Peak Tram (which has run since 1888) or from 428 metres (1,404 feet) above sea level atop Peak Tower. The area offers a vantage point to reflect on the island’s fascinating history.

  However, there is much more to Hong Kong than just the city. In the east and northeast, New Territories is Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark, a marvel of the natural world, with hexagonal and twisted volcanic columns crawling upwards, alongside a coastline of volcanic rock.

  At Central Star Ferry Pier, visitors can catch a ride out to Hong Kong’s southern Islands District. From the hiking trails, beach barbecues and rolling hills of Lamma Island to the bun-snatching festival of the tiny Cheung Chau, each of these laid-back isles is a testament to Hong Kong’s natural beauty and time-honoured traditions.

  Hidden within the verdant mountains of Hong Kong’s largest outlying island, Lantau, Po Lin Monastery is given away by a curious landmark the enormous 34-metre (112-foot) tall, bronze ‘Big Buddha’. A pilgrimage site for Buddhists across Asia, the statue sits atop 268 steps, with a peaceful garden and a vegetarian restaurant to boot. Elsewhere, 38 monuments are aligned in an infinity pattern, adorned with the Heart Sutra in Chinese calligraphy forming Wisdom Path. On the western side of the island is Tai O Fishing Village, a rare collection of traditional stilt houses, with a fish market, cafés and restaurants.

Tags: Asia / Hong Kong

Legends of old Hong Kong

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Legends of old Hong Kong

  This former British territory is synonymous with skyscrapers and light shows, but beneath its steely glint the city is beholden to deities, rituals and urban legends. Alongside myths inherited from  China, Hong Kong ha!s spun its own tales from events in its modern history. Ghostly whispers about Sheung Wan and Western District have origins in the Bubonic Plague that began in 1894. Reports of poltergeists are common at sites where executions took place during WWII. Then there are the stories that no city is immune to, around murder scenes, prisons and cemeteries. But most fascinating are the legends born of the fantasies, obsessions and taboos of ordinary citizens, made wilder through decades of retelling.

1-Yau Ma Tei Theatre  

  Mention Yau Ma Tei Theatre to any Hong Konger and you’ll  get a knowing smile. It’s unfair, but this 1930s relic a mix of classical, Art Deco and Chinese styles of architecture, and the only pre WWII theatre lef in Kowloon is best known for its years as a porno cinema. It began life showing silent filmsto hawkers and  fishermen. Asthe film industry flourished in the 1960s,so did the cinema.The 1980sled to an influx of low budget porn and an ‘all you can watch’  policy, before the business went under in 1998. Despite this, the translations of the film titles legendary in their irreverence and too filthy for words stuck in the city’s memory. The theatre  is now a Cantonese opera training and performance centre.

2- Wholesale  Fruit Market  

  Behind the theatre isthe century old Wholesale Fruit  Market, a labyrinth that once made a popular backdrop for crime thrillers. In the 1980s  and 1990s, Triads exploited its shadowy layout to run drug trafc and gambling dens. Gang fights were frequent. Now peace (and CCTV) reign,  and it’s a safe, indeed charming place in which to lose yourself. The one or two storey stone buildingsin the 1.5 hectare sprawlsport gables and pedimentsin a Dutch Colonialstyle, carved with traders’ names.Trees sprout from parapet walls, and smells of fruit, both fresh and rotting, permeate the arcades.

3 - JL Ceramics  

  Blindman Nanyin is a soulful music that featuressinging and  narration in colloquial Cantonese. Originating in Guangdong during the Qing dynasty, it was performed by blind beggars all over Hong  Kong in the early 20th century,  notably in the opium dens,  brothels and teahouses of the old red light district. The beggarssang of doomed love between courtesans and customers, life on the streets,  suicide by opium swallowing harsh realitiesromanticised by posterity. The craf and antiquesshop JL Ceramics Concept Store holds Nanyin concerts, usually on the third Saturday of every month. You might hear Man Burning Funerary Goods, in which the lover of a debt ridden courtesan who hanged herself  burns paper oferings. Check out the decor 1930s floor tiles and French doors, and original  terrazzo stairwell.

4 - Luk Yu Tea House  

  Arguably Hong Kong’s most beautiful teahouse, 85 yearold Luk Yu was where illustrious painters and writers used to come for dim sum. It wasn’t until burglars made away with 18 paintingsin 1996 that the  rest of Hong Kong realised the exorbitant value of its art collection. Today Luk Yu is known for its old school Cantonese cooking. Some of  the waiters who poured tea for the literati as boys are still here, as are the lovely ceiling fans, folding screens and stained windowsthat together make up the finest example of Asian Art Deco in Hong Kong.

5 - Central Police Station  

  Hong Kong’s oldestsymbol of law and order has been turned into an arts hub called Tai Kwun (‘Big Station’) by a team starring Swiss architect firm Herzog & de Meuron, also behind the Tate Modern  extension in London. The 19th century complex, ten minutesfrom Centralsubway station, comprisesthe old police HQ, a magistrate’s court and Victoria Prison. Fleeing rebels, exiled writers and  prisoners of the Japanese military did time here, and public executionstook place. More than 2,000 spectators attended the first (in 1859), of two Englishmen convicted of murder. The facility isrife with ghoststories. One tells of a workerstruck dumb by the uncanny. The poor man slept in the hall by a connecting bridge between prison block and magistracy. One night he saw dead prisoners floating into his makeshif bedroom, and lost the ability to speak ever afer.

6 - Aberdeen West Typhoon Shelter  

  Vigorous dragonboat action at dusk is one of many ritual rich  sightsin a city whose patron deity is Tin Hau, Goddess of the Sea. ‘On Tin Hau’s birthday we pay our respects at her temples,’says boatman Leung Ka lung. ‘Then we collect the partially burnt incense sticks and stash them away on our boats. If we need protection  during a fishing trip, we light incense. Say we haul in a [human] corpse. Either we find an island to bury it or we light  incense and bury it when we get home. People who throw one overboard are plagued by misfortune.’ If you want to see the harbour via boat ride  yourself,sampan operators mill around the eastern end of  Aberdeen Promenade, a 40 minute busride from Central. In the 1960s, the water was covered by a blanket of boats; now you’llsee fishing  junks next to luxury yachts; temples and shipyardsside by side luxury high rises.