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Unforgettable Hong Kong

Published:Sunday | June 27, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Noble House junk in front of Hong Kong's National Convention Centre, viewed from Star Ferry. - Photo by Laura Tanna

Laura Tanna, Contributor


Hong Kong in July and August is in the midst of typhoon season which lasts from May to late September and is oppressively hot and humid. A better time to visit is January through March when humidity is lower and temperatures average in the low 70s, although with its sub-tropical climate, the city can still be rainy and humid as we found out last February.

At night, Hong Kong is a blaze of colours with spectacular neon-lit skyscrapers. Couple that with fabulous decorations for Chinese New Year which falls in the middle of its best weather and you have a recipe for a visit you'll never forget, even with the occasional umbrella.

If you're a first-time visitor, take a tour, including a trip to Victoria Peak, 552 metres above the city with views, on a clear day, all the way to the New Territories on mainland China. Stanley  Market is a place to buy souvenirs; perhaps you'll peruse jewellery stores for pearls, enjoy a cruise in Victoria Harbour and spend an evening dining in one of Aberdeen's floating restaurants.

Having done that on our first two visits, this time we viewed a different Hong Kong through the eyes of our nephew, a bright, British bachelor who introduced us to the multicultural singles scene of Mid-Levels transient Hong Kong where hundreds of young people in finance and accounting from throughout the world frequent a range of modern, trendy restaurants and drinking establishments in SoHo.

We dined one night at Phuket, a simple Thai place, another at Bombay Dreams for Indian cuisine, and then had drinks at the ultra chic sky-high Azure Restaurant Slash Bar.

Under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, Hong Kong was ceded to the British in perpetuity; in 1860 Kowloon peninsula across the harbour was acquired by the British, and in 1898 the New Territories were leased for 99 years. With mainland China's concurrence that these areas' economic freedom and more democratic life would be assured for at least 50 years, Britain transferred Hong Kong to the Chinese government under what became known as the "two systems, one China" policy in1997.


Donald Tsang has been the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Regionof the People's Republic of China since  June 21, 2005 and was returned in 2007 to serve until June 30, 2012. The underlying tension between pro-democracy activists and Tsang's role in dealing with the central Communist Chinese government has inno way diminished Hon Kong's astonishing success as a beacon of international modernism,


One rainy day, we went up the escalator to Hollywood Road and Upper Lascar Row aka Cat Street to antiques shops and Man Mo Taoist Temple, then walked down to Landmark Mall with its luxury stores. The Peak was fogged in and we didn't want to shop, so to Star Ferry and over to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Kowloon. As we strolled through the nearby New World Trade Centre, Paul Chan came running out of his tailoring establishment to remind us that he had made a blazer for my husband five years before. Imagine, 28 years earlier I'd felt like an invisible ant about to be crushed underfoot on my first visit to Hong Kong and now someone just catching a glimpse of us walking by remembered us! To our further surprise, he announced his shop was relocating because the centre, which didn't seem old at all, was being torn down and replaced by a mega-story skyscraper. Hong Kong, a city of just over seven million in a small space, constantly reinvents itself.


On our first visit to Hong Kong in 1982 with a Jamaican group, we'd stayed on Hong Kong Island at the famous Mandarin Oriental Hotel where we thought chicken baked inside clay and broken open at the table with a hammer something special. In 2005, we had stayed Kowloon side across Victoria Harbour looking onto Hong Kong from the Peninsula Hotel, a really beautiful place, though we sneaked around the corner to have breakfast at the local YMCA coffee shop which was quite all right and much less expensive. This time family insisted we stay at the five-year-old Four Seasons Hotel in the IFC Mall, Central Hong Kong. The hotel has excellent service, restaurants and décor but the view of Kowloon just isn't as spectacular as is the view of Hong Kong from Kowloon.

Incredible views

Yes, looking over the harbour you have an impression of vast wealth and development, skyscraper upon skyscraper being built on ever-increasing reclaimed landfill. But if I return, I'll try the Intercontinental Hotel on the Kowloon waterfront with incredible views of Hong Kong. Just having a snack in their lounge at dusk, watching the Hong Kong lights come on, and then the 8 p.m. Symphony of Lights laser show is, to me, the most beautiful aspect of modern Hong Kong.

For transit between Hong Kong and Kowloon, most people now take the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) a very clean subway which zips beneath the harbour, though I prefer the Star Ferry which leaves every few minutes from Central for Tsim Sha Tsui, the terminal on Kowloon near my favourite place: The Hong Kong Museum of Art. This time, they had an exhibition about Canton, or Guangzhou as it is named today. Canton was once known as the 'London of the East'. The exhibition covered the period 1685-1839, from Canton opening as a trade port to the first Opium War, a fascinating window into China's history of which I was totally ignorant. Another exhibition, Gems of the Chinese Ceramics, was gorgeous but by then our very gallant nephew wanted to introduce us to Aquaroma, a superb Italian restaurant in a nearby skyscraper, with the proverbial fantastic views of Hong Kong by night.

Hotels:


Restaurants:


  • Aquaroma, 29 + 30F One Peking, 1 Peking road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: 3427 2288
  • Azure Restaurant Slash Bar, 29 & 30/F, Hotel LKF, 33 Wyndham Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 3518 9330 www.azure.hk
  • Phuket, 51 Elgin Street, Mid Level, Hong Kong Tel: 2868 9672
  • Bombay Dreams, 1/F 75-77 Wyndham Street, Central Tel: 2971 0001 www.diningconcepts.com.hk

Museum:


Tailor:


  • Royal Regency Ladies & Gents Custom Tailors, Shop G-15, Mirror tower, G/F, 61 Mody Rd, (opposite Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel) Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, HKpchan@royalregency.com.hk