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Airport

Chek Lap Kok is one of the world’s most efficient and user-friendly airports. From its free porter service to moving walkways and boarding direct from airbridges, everything is calculated to ensure a smooth arrival and departure. The Plaza Premium Lounge in the West Hall, available to all passengers for HK$250 per day, is very useful. It provides Internet,buffet, showers, music and film lounges and a conference room. Free Internet facilities are available at new Cyber Mall in the Northwest Concourse. Overall, the airport has some 150 outlets including several restaurants, bars and cafés. Smokers will be pleased to discover that Katie O’Connor’s pub in the arrivals area allows smoking – the only outlet to do so. Bank of China and Bank of East Asia have branches in the terminal, operating normal banking hours, and HSBC cash dispensers abound throughout.
Airport to City Centre
The Airport Express is the quickest and easiest way to get downtown, speeding between the airport and Central station in just under 25 mins. The single fare is HK$100, or HK$90 to Kowloon and HK$60 to Tsing Yi. Same day return is free, otherwise return fares are HK$180, HK$160 and HK$110 respectively, valid for one month. Airbus services operate 7 separate routes, take roughly 1 hr and stop at many major hotels. The most useful routes for visitors are the A11 to Causeway Bay and A12 to Sai Wan Ho and Hung Hom KCR station. There are also hotel shuttle buses, costing HK$120 one-way. Note though that these days many hotels offer free airport shuttle as part of a package. Travel by MTR and conventional bus is cheaper but slower and less direct, serving the new town of Tung Chung en route. A taxi to Central District costs around HK$350 and HK$285 to Tsim Sha Tsui. The taxi rank is located in front of the terminal, to the left of the arrivals exit. Prices include tunnel tolls, but not luggage charges. Substantial tips are not expected unless the driver has been particularly helpful, but it is virtually mandatory to round up cents to the nearest dollar. Receipts are available on request. Limousines cost upwards of HK$450 one-way.
Orientation
Hong Kong covers 1,042 sq km. The mainland is occupied by the satellite towns and traditional villages of the New Territories, tapering down to Tsim Sha Tsui at the tip of the Kowloon peninsula. On the other side of Victoria Harbour is Hong Kong Island, which accounts for only 50 sq km and is linked to the mainland by road and rail tunnels. Central district’s boundaries now spill into neighbouring Sheung Wan, home to plenty of steel and glass office towers. Further west are the more traditional neighborhoods of Western and Kennedy Town, which have a proliferation of Chinese medicine and dried food stores. East of Central is glitzy Admiralty, Wan Chai, chaotic Causeway Bay, Quarry Bay, Taikoo Shing and Shau Kei Wan. Affluent Hong Kongers live in residential suburbs of Deep Bay, Repulse Bay, Stanley and Shousan Hill on the south side of the island, as well as on the Peak that crowns the island. Ferries link Central to the semi-rural islands of Lantau, Cheung Chau and Lamma. Some 235 islands – 75% of which are uninhabited – fall under Hong Kong boundaries. The stretch of Nathan Rd in Tsim Sha Tsui was nicknamed The Golden Mile in the 1960s because of its bustling shops and profusion of garish neon signs; today it is still Hong Kong’s answer to Oxford St. 
Excursions                                                         - Boka Flygstol -  Biljett           Queensway Travel
With a full day to spare, visitors should take a trip to Macau, the former Portuguese enclave. Unless gaming is your thing, ignore the casinos and take a stroll downtown to see the restored colonial buildings and the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral. An excellent museum charting the history of Macau has been built into the walls of an old fort, and the Maritime Museum opposite A-Ma Temple also deserves a look. Macau can be enjoyed in just half a day, but is best savoured as a whole day or overnight trip. No trip to Macau is complete without a meal in one of the many Macanese or Portuguese restaurants in the territory. 
For a shorter excursion, take a ferry to one of the outlying islands – Cheung Chau retains much of its heritage as an old China Coast port, while laid-back Lamma has some marvelous restaurants and beaches, and Lantau is worth visiting for Po Lin Monastery and quiet hill walks. 
Sai Kung, in the western New Territories, is a good starting point for hikes into the hills, and when you get back there’s a bustling harbour, numerous seafood restaurants, a couple of pubs and pizzerias. Take a 1A minibus from outside Choi Hung MTR station. 
Getting Around
Taxis are plentiful, except around the shift change at 1600 and very late at night. Flag-falls are HK$15 for urban routes. Pick them up at ranks or on the street. Always write your destination clearly on a piece of paper – your cabbie will probably not speak English. Green taxis operate in the New Territories only and blue taxis on Lantau only, with flag-falls of HK$12.50 and HK$12 respectively. If you travel through a toll tunnel, you are required to pay double the toll, unless the taxi is from the other side of the harbor. Look out for the new taxi receipts, which have discount coupons printed on the reverse side, valid for various restaurants and shops.
What to see
Victoria Harbor: To experience the sights and sounds of one of the world’s busiest harbors, take a boat tour (1-5 hrs) or the Star Ferry and enjoy great views of the island. The Star Ferry is a 100-year-old Hong Kong institution. Excursion boats depart from Ocean Terminal on the Kowloon side, or Queen’s Pier on the HK side. Star Ferry is every 7 mins from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central and every 20 mins from Tsim Sha Tsui to Wan Chai. Routes and prices are displayed and you purchase tickets from a booth on the dock. 
Hong Kong Park: An oasis of greenery and water between the tower blocks of Central and Pacific Place. The Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware is housed here in the oldest surviving colonial building in the SAR. There is also an aviary, hothouse and pleasant outdoor restaurant. A marriage registry makes the park a popular venue for wedding photos and, although most brides wear frilly white Western-style gowns these days, it’s occasionally possible to spot a traditional red embroidered Chinese gown. Admiralty MTR. 
Museum of Art: Speciality Chinese art museum, including a fine collection of China Coast paintings. Watch out for the regular special exhibitions, including Western art.
Museum of History: Now in Chatham Rd, the museum gives an overview of key events in Hong Kong’s history. 
The Peak: The best views of Hong Kong Island, the harbour, Kowloon and Lamma, with pleasant tree-lined walks beating with birds and butterflies.
The Races: The Hong Kong Jockey Club stages meetings twice weekly on Weds and weekends during the season (Sept-Jun), at either Happy Valley or Sha Tin racecourse. Unless privately invited, take a Come Racing tour organised by the Tourist Association, which includes hotel pick-up, meal in a private box and expert local betting advice, all for HK$490. The entrance to Happy Valley is on Wong Nai Chung Rd, MTR Causeway Bay; for the Sha Tin track, take the KCR to Sha Tin station. 
Stanley Market: Everything from silk pyjamas and Chinese paintings to designer T-shirts. There’s more than just shopping: the bus ride is spectacular and there’s a good choice of restaurants and pubs in the ‘village’. Bus from Exchange Square bus terminal, Central or Admiralty. 
Temple St: Set amid the crumbling alleys off Jordan Rd, stalls sell bargain-priced clothes and souvenirs among the hawkers and prostitutes, unlicensed doctors, fortune-tellers and, on most nights, Cantonese opera. 
Wong Tai Sin Temple: One of the most popular and colourful in town, dedicated to a local deity with reputed magical healing powers. The huge prayer pavilion is usually thronged with worshippers and wreathed in smoke from incense, with fortune-tellers and palm-readers outside. 
Man Mo Temple: In the heart of Hollywood Rd’s antique shop zone and at the foot of a recently built high-rise tower, this temple is one of Hong Kong’s oldest, dedicated to the deity of Man Mo. The one-storey structure is full of atmosphere and incense smoke that pours off large coils suspended from its ceiling. Donations are appreciated.
Shopping                                                                   Boka resa     Queensway Travel
Don’t expect electronic bargains in Hong Kong. Many items are cheaper in the UK. High rents and staff costs ensure high retail prices for most products. For clothing, factory outlets that stock international brand overruns have good bargains, as do the local high-street casual wear chains Baleno, Bossini, Giordano, G2000 and U2. Shops selling cameras and electronics like only the latest models, so you can often pick up older stock for close to list price. With many designer label garments produced by Hong Kong manufacturers on the mainland, factory outlets can be good hunting grounds. Customised furniture and carpets can be ordered and reliably shipped at very reasonable prices, and local Chinese department stores attract visiting shoppers with a broad range of arts, crafts and souvenirs, often better than those found on the mainland. Shanghai Tang in Central is the upmarket version of these stores, with accordingly higher prices. As for Chinese antiques, the dealers say that few good buys are left, but that shouldn’t deter a keen collector from browsing. Stanley Market is still very worthwhile for clothing and footwear, and many people are now making the trip across the border to Shenzhen for designer copies and cheap tailor-made clothes. 
Credit card payment is ubiquitous in Hong Kong and more widely practiced than in the UK. Beware, though, the high added percentage premiums for credit card payment demanded by some travel agents and independent electronics shops, who blatantly quote high to encourage you to part with ready cash instead. Repeat or longer-term visitors should consider getting an Octopus card – a smart card swiped at barriers on the MTR, buses, minibuses and ferries. They can be picked up at any MTR station for a refundable deposit of HK$50 and topped up as and when required for however much you like. 7-11 stores also provide top-up points and McDonald’s restaurants are one of the first retail outlets to allow payment with Octopus. 
Remember, too, that although Hong Kong is no cheaper than elsewhere for most goods, camera film and Hi-8 video cassettes are significantly cheaper here than in Europe. Fortress electronics chain store, with branches all over the SAR, is a safe bet for these.
Where to walk
The energetic should take a taxi to Tai Tam Reservoir. Stop at the car park on the left before the reservoir and start walking, simply following the signs for Mount Butler. This walk culminates in a 600-step climb to the top, from where there is a terrific view of the harbor and the old Kai Tak Airport. Follow the path onward to the Park View Apartments, and then pick up a taxi back. Western District, which adjoins Central but has so far avoided merging with it, recalls Hong Kong in the late 19c and early 20c. Little has changed, with traders selling rice, eggs, herbs and other produce from open-fronted shop-houses, and traditional crafts like jade carving carried out. For a 2-3 hr walk, Hollywood Rd is known for its antique and curio shops, as is the parallel Upper Lascar Row, also known as ‘Cat Street’. Just to the north is Man Mo Temple (see listing above), dedicated to the Gods of Literature and War. Continue to Staunton St, with its proliferation of small ethnic restaurants, from where you can walk down the stepped streets to Queen’s Rd Central. 
For a taste of real life Hong Kong, get off the MTR at Sham Shui Po or Mong Kok – the latter being the most densely populated area on Earth – and just walk around. Off the main streets, tiny shops sell cheap, mainland China products and equally small eateries serve up traditional savoury and sweet Cantonese snacks that used to be sold by street hawkers before they were outlawed.
Weather and Climate
Oct to Dec is the most bearable season, with dry, balmy weather. Otherwise during the summer it’s hot, rainy and very humid – 80% is average – and alternately warm and cold in winter. May-Sept is the typhoon season. A series of typhoon signals sounds according to how close the storm is. When a typhoon signal 8 goes up, transport is severely curtailed and sometimes even suspended.