Hong Kong

Seventy Percent of Hong Kong’s Territory Is Green Country Park and Most Tourists Never Leave the Skyline

The financial district at the tip of the Kowloon peninsula and the northern edge of Hong Kong Island is one of the densest concentrations of skyscrapers on earth. Behind it, nearly three-quarters of the territory is jungled peaks, hiking trails, and hidden beaches. 262 outlying islands trail into the South China Sea. At street level, Cantonese grandmothers haggle over live fish in the morning market while office workers in Italian suits catch the tram to Central five minutes later. A bowl of wonton noodles at a street-level counter costs less than a cappuccino across the road. The Star Ferry has been crossing the harbour since 1888. The city manages all of this simultaneously without visible strain, which is itself an achievement worth noting.

Hong Kong has had a difficult political period since 2019. Visitors to landmarks and ordinary neighbourhoods will generally find the city as safe, efficient, and welcoming as it has always been – the urban infrastructure and the hospitality industry remain exceptional. The West Kowloon Cultural District, with M+ opened in 2021 and the Hong Kong Palace Museum in 2022, created genuine world-class cultural infrastructure on the waterfront that now makes the area a serious destination in its own right. The WestK Performing Arts Centre is scheduled to open in 2026 with a programme of international theatre and performance.

What to See

Victoria Peak at 552 metres is reached by the Peak Tram (a near-vertical funicular upgraded to new cars in 2021), by bus, or by a 45-minute uphill hike from Central. The Peak Circle Walk is a flat, shaded loop with views across the harbour on both sides. Sunset and night are the correct times to be here – the city lights from 552 metres at night are one of the more spectacular urban views available anywhere.

The Star Ferry between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central costs around HK$5 and is one of the world’s great short urban crossings. Frequent, reliable, cheap, and the best way to see the harbour at water level. At 8pm every evening, A Symphony of Lights synchronises building illuminations and lasers across both shorelines; the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade is the right place to watch it.

M+ at West Kowloon holds the largest collection of visual culture in Asia. The permanent collection ranges from design objects to video art to architecture drawings and is substantially more interesting than most visitors expect. The building itself – designed by Herzog and de Meuron – is worth examining from the waterfront promenade. The Hong Kong Palace Museum nearby holds Chinese imperial treasures from the Palace Museum in Beijing, displayed in a purpose-built building by architect Rocco Yim.

The Big Buddha on Lantau Island is a 34-metre seated bronze reached by the Ngong Ping 360 cable car (25 minutes from Tung Chung MTR station). The fishing village of Tai O on the far end of Lantau is 30 minutes further by bus: stilt houses built over tidal channels, shrimp paste production, dried fish hanging in the open air, and a character that feels genuinely removed from the city behind it.

Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan (1847) is a functioning Taoist temple with coils of incense spiralling from the ceiling, dedicated to the gods of literature and war. It has operated continuously since the colonial period and is free to enter.

Food

Hong Kong is one of the great food cities on earth and the food is worth building your schedule around. Dim sum yum cha at a proper teahouse in the morning – arrive by 9am or accept a queue. The city’s roast-meat tradition is its own subject: char siu (Cantonese BBQ pork), roast goose, roast duck, and soy-sauce chicken from dedicated roast-meat shops with whole birds hanging in the window. Wonton noodles in a clear shrimp-roe broth from a street-level counter remain the most underpriced meal you can eat here.

The cha chaan teng (Hong Kong cafe) serves iced milk tea, pineapple buns stuffed with a cold slab of butter, and French toast made with peanut butter – a local culinary tradition that exists nowhere else and is worth seeking out specifically. Any local will tell you their preferred one.

Seafood at a dai pai dong on Lamma Island, Sai Kung, or Lei Yue Mun: you choose a fish from a tank, specify the preparation, and eat at a metal table under fluorescent lights. The quality is exceptional and the setting is the opposite of refined, which is part of the point. Both ferry rides to Lamma Island from Central are worth the trip on their own.

Practical Notes

Get an Octopus card at the airport or any MTR station immediately on arrival. It works on trains, buses, trams, ferries, and 7-Elevens. The MTR is among the world’s best metro systems by any metric: fast, reliable, air-conditioned, and with multilingual signage. The Airport Express runs from Hong Kong Station in the centre to the airport terminal in 24 minutes and has in-town check-in for most carriers.

October through December is the best visiting window: low humidity, clear skies, temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. May through September is hot, very humid, and typhoon-prone. If you are visiting in summer, the indoor cultural spaces at West Kowloon become considerably more attractive.

A hike or an island ferry is always within 30 minutes of wherever you are in the city centre. The trails up Dragon’s Back on Hong Kong Island and Maclehose Trail in the New Territories are both accessible by MTR and give a perspective on the territory that the harbour skyline photographs do not.