Lonely Planet - Hong Kong

book cover If you're exploring Hong Kong, be sure to check out these highlights, brought to you courtesy of our friends at Lonely Planet Publications

1. Slip-slidin into the heart of Hong Kong's cuisine

Nothing illustrates Hong Kong's zest for fresh (and, in many cases, live) food more colourfully than a wet market, so called because the ground is continually hosed down to wash away the detritus spilling from the fish, fruit and vegetable stalls. Though the government, ever vigilant against things deemed unhygienic in the wake of SARS and avian flu, has shut down many of the markets in recent years or converted them into sterile and soulless places of aluminium and white tiles, a few places carry on, including our favourite, the outdoor Graham Street Market.

Walk up from Queen's Rd Central (or down from Hollywood Rd) and prepare yourself for the cacophony and bustle, and the press of people lingering over, discussing and bargaining for food. Fishmongers sing out the praises of their grouper and red snapper flapping about on beds of shaved ice while greengrocers tempt shoppers by slicing open samples of their best fruit and vegetables.

Ideally you'll visit a wet market with a local - how else are you going to be able to tell a star fruit from a custard apple or distinguish between preserved eggs (the ready-to-eat greenish-black ones packed in a mixture of ash, lime and salt and buried for 100 days) and bright orange salted eggs, which are soaked in brine for 40 days and cooked before eating, usually with congee (rice porridge). Be warned, though: those of a squeamish disposition might find wet markets unnerving.

2. Rock & roll along Hong Kong Island's northern coast

Though there are any number of inventive ways to be shepherded around Hong Kong Island, our favourite views of the northern shore are from a tram. Hong Kong's venerable old trams are hardly the fastest or flashest way to go, but they're cheap and a lot of fun; in fact, apart from the Star Ferry, no form of transport is nearer and dearer to the hearts of Hong Kong people. These 164 tall, narrow streetcars comprise the world's only fully double-decker tramcar fleet, and they roll (and rock) along 13km of track from Kennedy Town in the west to Shau Kei Wan in the east, carrying almost a quarter of a million passengers a day.

Try to get a seat at the front window on the upper deck for a first-class view while rattling through the crowded streets. Tall passengers will find it uncomfortable standing up as the ceiling is low, but there is more space at the rear of the tram on both decks. And be prepared to elbow your way through the crowd to alight, particularly on the lower deck.

3. A night at the races in Happy Valley

No group of people (with the possible exception of the British) enjoys a flutter as much as the Chinese, and horse racing, worth more than US$1 billion annually, remains the most popular form of gambling in Hong Kong. Be prepared for a lot of, well, excitement (read: noise) at the races. Hong Kong Chinese view it both as a sport and a very serious way to augment their income! The first horse races were held at the Happy Valley Racecourse in 1846. Now there are about 80 meetings a year split between the racecourse here and the newer and larger (but less atmospheric) one at Sha Tin in the New Territories. The racing season runs from September to early July.

If you've been in Hong Kong for less than 21 days and are over 18 years of age, you can buy a tourist ticket, which allows you to jump the queue, sit in the members' enclosure and walk around next to the finish area. Make sure to bring along your passport as proof.

4. Fit for a tea at Hong Kong's legendary hotel

One of the world's great hotels, the Peninsula is both a landmark and an icon of Hong Kong. Though it was being called 'the finest hotel east of Suez' a few years after opening in 1928, the Peninsula was in fact one of several prestigious hostelries across Asia where everybody who was anybody stayed, lining up with the likes of Raffles in Singapore, the Peace (then the Cathay) in Shanghai and the Strand in Rangoon (now Yangon). Taking afternoon tea at the Peninsula is one of the best experiences in town - dress neatly and be prepared to queue for a table.

While you're waiting, you can listen to the string quartet and salivate at the sight of everyone else's cucumber sandwiches, scones and dainty cakes. The price of afternoon tea, served from 2pm to 7pm daily, for one - how sad! - is $238 and it's $338 a couple.

It attracts a mixed clientele - from Japanese tourists to tai tais (any married women but especially the leisured wives of wealthy businessmen), who grab the most prominent tables, sip and gossip with their friends (mostly via mobile phones). When you're through (and to bring yourself back to earth) cross Nathan Rd and have a look round the shopping arcade of the rabbit warren called Chungking Mansions.

5. Indulge in some yum-yum cha

Yum cha (literally 'drink tea') is the usual way to refer to dim sum, the uniquely Cantonese 'meal' eaten as breakfast, brunch or lunch between about 7am and 3pm. Eating dim sum is a social occasion, consisting of many separate dishes that are meant to be shared.

The bigger your group, the better. Dim sum delicacies are normally steamed in small bamboo baskets. The baskets are stacked up on trolleys and rolled around the dining room. You don't need a menu (though these exist too but almost always in Chinese); just stop the waiter and choose something from the trolley. It will be marked down on a bill left on the table. Don't try to order everything at once.

Each trolley has a different selection, so take your time and order as they come. It's said that there are about a thousand dim sum dishes, but you'd be doing well to sample 10 in one sitting.

char siu bau - steamed barbecued pork buns cheung fun - steamed rice flour rolls with shrimp, beef or pork ching chau si choi - fried green vegetable of the day chun gun - fried spring rolls fan guo - steamed dumplings with shrimp and bamboo shoots fu pei gun - crispy bean-curd rolls fun guo - steamed dumpling with pork, peanuts and coriander fung jau - fried chicken's feet har gau - steamed shrimp dumplings loh mei fan - sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf pai guat - small braised spareribs with black beans san juk ngau yok - steamed minced beef balls siu mai - steamed pork and shrimp dumplings Dim sum restaurants are normally brightly lit and very large and noisy - it's rather like eating in an aircraft hangar.

6. Jump aboard floating history in Victoria Harbour

You can't say you've 'done' Hong Kong until you've taken a ride on the Star Ferry, that wonderful little fleet of electric-diesel boats first launched in 1888. With names like Morning Star, Celestial Star and Twinkling Star, the ferries are most romantic at night. The boats are festively strung with lights, the city buildings beam onto the rippling water, the frenzy of Hong Kong by day has eased (somewhat) and canoodling appears to be the only sensible thing to do. If possible, try to take the trip on a clear night from Kowloon side to Central; it's not half as dramatic in the other direction.

The trip takes about nine minutes (as long as it used to take to read the now defunct Hong Kong Star, a low-brow tabloid newspaper, it was said), and departures are very frequent. Indeed, morning and evening, the Star Ferry is a common way for local people to hop from island to mainland and back again.

7. Calling on the heavens from New Kowloon

Like most Chinese Taoist temples, Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple is an explosion of colour with red pillars, bright yellow roofs and green-and-blue latticework. If you visit in the late afternoon or early evening, you can watch hordes of businessmen and secretaries praying and divining the future with chim, bamboo 'prediction sticks' that must be shaken out of a box on to the ground and then read (they're available free to the left of the main temple). Behind the main temple and to the right are the Good Wish Gardens, replete with colourful pavilions (the hexagonal Unicorn Hall with carved doors and windows is the most beautiful), zigzag bridges and artificial ponds.

Just below the main temple and to the left as you enter the complex is an arcade filled with dozens of booths operated by fortune-tellers.

Some of the fortune-tellers speak decent English (and advertise the fact on signs above their counters), so if you really want to know what fate has in store for you, this is your chance. The busiest times at the temple are around the Chinese New Year, Wong Tai Sin's birthday (23rd day of the eighth month - usually in September) and at weekends, especially Friday evening.

8. A breath of fresh air at the top of Hong Kong Island

The Peak, Hong Kong Island's highest point, has been the place to live ever since the British came on the scene in the 19th century.

The taipans built summer houses here to escape the heat and humidity (it's usually about 5C cooler here than down below). The Peak remains the most fashionable - and expensive - area to live in Hong Kong and is the territory's foremost tourist destination.

Not only is the view from the summit one of the most spectacular cityscapes in the world, it's also a good way to get Hong Kong into perspective. And the only way up, as far as we are concerned, is via the Peak Tram.

Rising above the Peak Tram terminus is the seven-storey Peak Tower, an anvil-shaped building containing shops, restaurants, an outpost of the waxworks Madame Tussaud's and a viewing terrace. Opposite is the Peak Galleria, a three-storey mall of shops and restaurants. Like the tower, it is designed to withstand winds of up to 270km/h, theoretically more than the maximum velocity of a No 10 typhoon.

When people in Hong Kong refer to the Peak, they usually mean the plateau and surrounding residential area at about 400m. The summit, Victoria Peak (552m), is about 500m northwest of the Peak Tram terminus up steep Mt Austin Rd. The governor's mountain lodge near the summit was burned to the ground by the Japanese during WWII, but the gardens remain and are open to the public.

You can walk around Victoria Peak without exhausting yourself.

Harlech Rd on the south side and Lugard Rd on the northern slope together form a 3.5km loop that takes about an hour to walk. If you feel like a longer stroll (and want to avoid the Peak Tram and its crowds on the way down), you can continue for a further 2km along Peak Rd to Pok Fu Lam Reservoir Rd, which leaves Peak Rd near the car park exit. This goes past the reservoir to the main Pok Fu Lam Rd, where you can get bus 7 back to Central. Another good walk leads down to Hong Kong University. First walk to the west side of Victoria Peak by taking either Lugard or Harlech Rds. After reaching Hatton Rd, follow it down. The descent is steep, but the path is clear.

9. Take a trip back through time

Commercial Hong Kong may have its eyes firmly on the future, but when you see a computer-shop owner tending a shrine to the earth god Tou Tei in his store, you get the notion that at least some of the city's character lies in its past.

'The Hong Kong Story' at the Hong Kong Museum of History takes visitors on a fascinating walk through the territory's past via eight galleries, starting with the natural environment and prehistoric Hong Kong on the ground floor - about 6000 years ago, give or take a lunar year - and ending with the territory's return to China in 1997 and a tear-jerking (well, we cried) video collage of Hong Kong through the ages on the 2nd.

Along the way you'll encounter replicas of village dwellings; traditional Chinese costumes and beds; a re-creation of an entire arcaded street in Central from 1881, including an old Chinese medicine shop; a tram from 1913; and film footage of WWII, including recent interviews with Chinese and foreigners taken prisoner by the Japanese.

A favourite exhibit remains the jumble of toys and collectables from the 1960s and '70s when 'Made in Hong Kong' meant 'Christmas stocking trash'. If you are like us and prefer modern history to ancient, you'll take a lift to the 2nd floor and do the exhibit backward.

That way, if you run out of time, you can give all those cave dwellers and their stone ornaments a miss.

10. Cheap and cheerful with all kinds of bargains

Stanley, on Hong Kong Island's southern coast, is known for a lot of things, including its fort that became a notorious prison during WWII, its beaches and its colourful dragon boat races in June. But its real claim to fame is Stanley Market and the reason why buses 6, 6A, 6X and 260 are almost always full. The covered market that fills the alleys and lanes to the southwest of Stanley Village Rd is stuffed to the gills with bric-a-brac, cheap clothing and junk.

Some people find it overrated but as Ellen McNally points out in her excellent and now fully revised Shop in Hong Kong: A Insider's Guide 'This market is one of the few places where you can find large sizes, fashionable cashmere sweaters at a reasonable price...well-known children's brands at greatly discounted prices [and] unique bed linens'.

At the weekend - even in the rain - the market is bursting at the seams with tourists and locals alike on the prowl for bargains; if possible, schedule your visit during the week. And after you've purchased everything you really don't need, consume further at one of the attractive waterfront bars or restaurants to the east such as the Boathouse.

11. Up with the birds in a rooftop aviary

Deliberately designed to look anything but natural, Hong Kong Park is one of the most unusual parks in the world, emphasising artificial creations such as its fountain plaza, conservatory, artificial water fall, indoor games hall, playground, t'ai chi garden, viewing tower , museums and an arts centre. For all its artifice, the eight hectare park is beautiful in its own weird way and, with a wall of skyscrapers on one side and mountains on the other, makes for dramatic photographs.

The best and liveliest feature is the Edward Youde Aviary , named after a much-loved former governor (1982-87) and China scholar who died suddenly while in office. Home to hundreds of birds representing some 150 different species, the aviary is huge and very natural-feeling. Visitors walk along a wooden bridge suspended 10m above ground, at eye level with tree branches where most of the birds are; there are about a dozen viewing platforms.

Schedule your visit in the morning, when the birds are most active.

Volunteers from the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society lead visitors through the park and aviary, identifying various species, including sulphur-created cockatoos, Chinese bulbuls and blue magpies.

12. Where you get dinner and a show

Temple Street, named after the temple dedicated to Tin Hau at its centre, hosts the liveliest night market in Hong Kong. It used to be known as 'Men's Street' because the market only sold men's clothing and to distinguish it from the 'Ladies Market' on Tung Choi St to the northeast. Though there are still a lot of items on sale for men, vendors don't discriminate - anyone's money will do.

But don't just come here to shop; this is also a place for eating and entertainment. For street food, head for Woo Sung St, running parallel to the east, or to the section of Temple St north of the temple toward Man Ming Lane. You can get anything from a simple bowl of noodles to a full meal served at your very own kerbside table. There are a few seafood and hotpot restaurants as well or you might pop into Mido, Hong Kong's best known cha chan tang (cafe with local dishes).

You'll also find a surfeit of fortune-tellers and herbalists and some free, open-air Cantonese opera performances here. The market officially opens in the afternoon and closes at midnight but it is at its best from about 7pm to 10pm, when it's clogged with stalls and people. If you want to carry on, visit the colourful wholesale fruit market (corner Shek Lung and Reclamation Sts), which is always a hive of activity from midnight to dawn.

13. Hides and feather in the marshes

If you're a real bird fancier, the Mai Po Marsh, a fragile, 270-hectare ecosystem in the northwestern New Territories and one of the largest natural habitats for wildlife in Hong Kong, is the best place to meet up with thousands of your feathered friends. But it's reserved for serious aficionados and is not the easiest place to reach. The more accessible Hong Kong Wetland Park contains a huge visitor centre called Wetland Interactive World, with three major galleries and a surfeit of hands-on and educational exhibits, a theatre and a resource centre.

Outside there are four brief boardwalk walking trails through marshland and mangrove swamps, complete with viewing platforms and bird hides, and a discovery centre - all in all, a kind of high-tech Mai Po Marsh. The park is also now the home of Pui Pui, the irascible pet crocodile that escaped and managed to find his way to the Shan Pui River in Yuen Long, eluding would-be captors from Hong Kong, China and Australia for seven not-so-snappy months in 2004. Pui Pui seems content in his 'furnished' tank at the start of the nature trails but, like us, is no doubt unimpressed with the backdrop of Shenzhen on the mainland belching out pollution.

14. As high as it gets here

'Hong Kong is like no other place in the world, where the East collides head on with the West' was a sentence we wrote some years back in an article that dealt with the territory as an exotic destination and it remains true today. Superlatives and cliches are - and always have been - acceptable to people in this, the world's largest Cantonese, city. Biggest, brightest and especially highest - those are the sort of things that make Hong Kong tick.

To get as high as you can in Hong Kong (and we're talking lifts and elevators here), head for the Bank of China Tower designed by China-born American architect IM Pei in 1990. Take the express lift to the 43rd floor from where you'll be rewarded with a panoramic view over Hong Kong. From here you are about the same height as the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank to the northwest. It's a pity that you aren't allowed to go any higher, as it's exciting swaying with the wind at the top.

Even higher (though arguably not as dramatic) is the view from the windows of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Information Centre on the 55th floor of the Two International Finance Centre. OK, the exhibits focusing on Hong Kong's currency, fiscal policy and banking history are not exactly a crowd-pleaser, but who's come all the way up here for those?

15. Where Buddha and Mickey Mouse are at one

Much of Hong Kong is based on artifice and one of the best ways to see it at its most 'plastic' is to combine a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland with one to Ngong Ping Village via the new hair-raising Ngong Ping Skyrail. To make the trip, catch the Tung Chung MTR line from Central or Kowloon and change at Sunny Bay station for Disneyland Resort.

After a quick look around (that's all you'll need - it's one of the world's smallest Disney theme parks), take the MTR to Tung Chung and transfer to the Ngong Ping Skyrail, which departs from the terminus just northwest of the Tung Chung MTR station. The journey, which takes 20 to 25 minutes, offers startling (and very real) views of the airport, Tung Chung and North Lantau Country Park, and ends at Ngong Ping Village, a Chinese 'Disneyland' with multimedia attractions relating to the life of the Buddha and the Buddhist Jataka tales.

Have a look at the living and fully working Po Lin Monastery immediately to the east and then catch bus 2 to Mui Wo (Silvermine Bay), where the ferry will take you back to Central (or on the weekend Tsim Sha Tsui).