World City Guide

Sightseeing

Sightseeing Overview
One should pity the poor locals who never lift their eyes from the streets – Hong Kong can be one of the most riveting and unexpectedly beautiful urban spectacles on earth. A two-minute walk from the bustle of Central reveals a harbour view that the architectural boom of the 1980s and 1990s has turned into a mixture of Manhattan and San Francisco, with added shipping bustle. At night, it just gets better. The view of Hong Kong’s glittering lights from the Peak by night is unforgettable, particularly at 2000 when a nightly laser and music show invigorates the towers of Central and Kowloon’s Tsim Sha Tsui. By contrast, the south side of Hong Kong island, at Stanley or Repulse Bay, is an entrancing islandscape straight out of a classical Chinese ink painting. And any backstreet market provides folksy, ethnic charm by the barrow load. Lamma Island provides a picturesque (power plant excepted) getaway and some excellent seafood restaraunts and vegetarian cafes.

Old colonial Hong Kong may have been short on grand monuments but the now famous Bank of China and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) give the place a 21st-century buzz suited to one of the Pacific Rim’s most important economic hubs. These buildings are sharing the limelight with the rainbow-coloured light show of The Center skyscraper, the waterside steel wings of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and the soaring International Finance Center. Die-hard colonialists can content themselves with Government House, the Former French Mission Building, the Former Gate Lodge on the peak, the Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower, the Former Kowloon British School and a host of other ‘Olds’ and ‘Formers’.

There are far older relics of the region’s past still surviving the relentless forward drive, especially out in the New Territories. These include the Causeway Bay Tin Hau Temple, Law Uk Hakka House, Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb, Sam Tung Uk Village, Liu Man Shek Tong Ancestral Hall, Kun Lung Wai Gate Tower, Yeung Hau Temple and so on. Hong Kong is pinning much of its hopes as a future tourist centre on the Hong Kong Disneyland, which opens in 2005 on Lantau Island as well as a 75m (246-foot) ferris wheel at Victoria Harbour, due to open in 2006. It is also developing closer cooperation and transport links with neighbouring Macau, which is developing as a major casino tourism destination and potential low-cost airline hub in Asia.

Tourist Information
Hong Kong Tourism Board Visitor Information Centre
Ground Floor, The Center, 99 Queen’s Road Central, Central Tel: 2807 6543 or 2508 1234 (tourist information). Fax: 2806 0303.
E-mail: info@hktourismboard.com
Website: www.discoverhongkong.com
Opening hours: Daily 0800-1800.

Passes
The HKTB Museum Pass gives unlimited admission to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the Hong Kong Science Museum, the Hong Kong Space Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, the Hong Kong Museum of History and others, as well as some discounts in the museum shops. Valid for one week, the pass costs HK$30 and is available from HKTB offices and participating museums.