Hong Kong: seven adventures in seven days

Within a couple of hours of touchdown at Hong Kong’s ever-smooth international airport, I found myself walking in a waterside area that simply didn’t exist on my last visit. The location: West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD), a creative hub appropriately created on reclaimed land.

Kowloon comprises the peninsula at the southern tip of the mainland – and the most densely populated part of Hong Kong. The westward expansion has created extra space in the most dazzling way, for art ancient and modern.

Let’s start with modern. Against the towering skyline across the water in Hong Kong, a new kid in town has to earn its place. A compendium of culture, M+ has elbowed its way smartly into the premier league of modern art venues. Like Tate Modern and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the structure itself is as compelling as the contents. From the outside, picture a giant anvil with an even mightier slab of glass and steel balanced delicately on top. Inside, M+ comprises a monumental atrium with galleries attached.

What a design: with light and space slicing vertically through the building and reaching down as far as the tunnel for the airport express rail link, it rewrites the book on how ambitious an atrium can be.

M+ also features the ultimate museum cafe, where even a humble caffe latte can be a work of art. You can ping the image of your choice to the staff, who will superimpose it on the foam.

The counterpart in WKCD is the Hong Kong Palace Museum: effectively an annexe of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City of Beijing, with 900 artefacts curated to reflect the depth of Chinese culture – from gold to fabric to ceramics.

One enticing dimension of the museum is a restaurant elevated above the water for views only Hong Kong can provide. It feels comfortably traditional – until you see the robot waiter scurrying between the tables, and realise Hong Kong’s constant engagement with the future.

Hong Kong makes it easy to make the most of the day – and the evening. At dusk, make your way along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to watch the lights come up. Some cities have places where people gather to watch the sun go down; in Hong Kong, crowds build along the southern shore of Kowloon to witness the ultimate sound-and-light show, A Symphony of Lights.

Every evening at eight, a 10-minute laser show is projected onto the skyline of Hong Kong Island. Forty buildings now contribute to this spectacular in a city that loves to bathe in the limelight.

When choosing where to stay in Hong Kong, my preference has long been for the Kowloon side of the harbour – on the mainland. The island is full of wonders, but Kowloon excels in authenticity. Or so I thought, until I chose to take a fresh perspective and checked into the Madera Hollywood. This hotel occupies part of a medium-sized skyscraper jostling with the rest on Hollywood Road in Central – the core of the conurbation on the north side of Hong Kong Island. And it invites you to explore an area in glorious transition.

Take the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator – a wonderfully public form of transport – few flights down to Central Market. I had noticed the handsome Streamline Moderne facade on Queen’s Road, but had never ventured inside the 1930s structure. The traditional market closed 20 years ago, but has been reinvented as a hub for eating, shopping and strolling. Whatever you seek, from cuisine to souvenirs, if you can’t find it here, you’re probably better off without it.

Upwards and eastwards, PMQ is slightly younger: the “Police Married Quarters” dormitory complex was built in 1951 on the former site of Queen’s College (an underground exhibition reveals traces of a building that, in Hong Kong terms, was of the distant past). The police officers and their spouses moved out to cosier accommodation – and the bright young sparks moved in, filling the mid-century architectural masterpiece with workshops, galleries and boutiques.

Along the road stands another law-enforcement venue that has been imaginatively revitalised: Tai Kwun. In the early stages of British colonial rule, this low-rise cluster was constructed to help the authorities keep order; a one-stop shop from crime prevention, comprising Central Police Station, the Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison – where, once upon a time, the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh was locked up.

In a project part-funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the jumble of judicial buildings has been opened up, from the prison yard to the parade ground. Gather a new dimension on Hong Kong’s history in the museum section (with guided tours in English) then sip a botanical gin and tonic in the Botanical Garden – as the outdoor corner of the Magistracy restaurant is known.

Tai Kwun was recognised with an Award of Excellence in the 2019 Unesco Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

Hong Kong Park is a proper garden in the city, infiltrating between the high-rises. Just on the edge of the park stands the terminus for the first funicular railway in Asia: the Peak Tram.

Rather like Dr Who, this marvellous piece of public transport undergoes periodic transformations – with the latest, sixth-generation version just unveiled, offering new, higher-capacity tramcars and better access for travellers with mobility issues.

The journey remains the same adventure with altitude: threading first through the high-rises, then the deep green vegetation draped over Victoria Peak. At the top terminus, escalators step in to hoist you to the Sky Terrace – a 1,400-foot-high platform from which you can look down on the skyscrapers.

What I love most about Victoria Peak, though, is the immersion it provides in nature. A network of footpaths threads through the forest. One leads you over the hill and far away: to Aberdeen. The Scottish city has shared its name with the harbour on Hong Kong Island’s southern side.

The downhill walk brings you alongside the hive of maritime activity. You can sample life on the water by hopping aboard the frequent ferry to Ap Lei Chau.

This tiny isle off a larger island is one of my favourite off-grid locations in Hong Kong. Ap Lei Chau now boasts an underground station (Lei Tung, the southernmost on the MTR network), making it swift and easy to return to Central Hong Kong .

Yet beyond the station stands Yuk Kwai Shan, formerly known as Mount Johnston. The hill does not reach even half as high as Victoria Peak. But it makes for a great time. The setting is wild, the hike challenging – with ropes strategically placed to keep you moving safely).

At the summit, the 360-degree view of southern Hong Kong makes all the effort worthwhile and rounds off a great high-altitude day.

Hong Kong has embraced street art. An annual festival, HKWalls, celebrates the transformation of many surfaces around the city, with fresh works of art, great and small. The latest street art gathering, in March 2023, brought in artists to rethink public transport with a divinely decorated “ding-ding” tram and double-decker bus.

At any time of the year, the best way to appreciate the efforts of local and international artists is on a guided walk conducted by Alexandra Unrein, the official tour guide for HKWalls – and “Chief Storyteller” for Wanderlust Walks. An exploration of the side streets of Central confronts you with dozens of images that provide a fresh, frequently changing perspective on life.

“It’s the colour, it’s the moment of discovery that I absolutely love,” Alexandra says. “You just walk around the corner and then suddenly there is a wonderful creation. It can be a fun little animal or a big mural that you discover. It makes me smile, it makes my day.”

The Wanderlust Walks reminds me how Hong Kong is a world city that is comprised of a close-knit collection of villages.

Alexandra’s tour threads around Hollywood Road in Central Hong Kong. Here, amid modernity, you can find spirituality. Man Mo Temple is a Taoist temple dedicated to the gods of literature (Man) and war (Mo). It was built halfway through the 19th century, just after the British had taken control of Hong Kong, and served as a court of arbitration for local people.

Today the temple welcomes visitors, who can wander through an interior as colourful as it is reverential, with smouldering coils of incense providing a heavenly aroma.

Time to eat: always a joy in Hong Kong, especially if you catch the latest gastronomic wave.

I had heard great things about Little Bao, where the bao bun and the burger are taken to a new level by May Chow – whose awards include Asia’s Best Female Chef 2017. “We reimagine Hong Kong comfort food while drawing inspiration from flavours and techniques all over the world,” she says. The modest interior is constantly busy with foodies eager to enjoy the textures and tastes of contemporary Hong Kong.

My final stop on the Central rediscovery: stepping into an anonymous office at 29 Wyndham Street, taking the elevator one floor up and emerging into what feels like the middle of a party. Ho Lan Jeng is a gastropub where you can sip a cocktail, nurse a craft beer and feast on spicy chicken.

Beach life rarely gets better than this. Steps lead down to a sheltered patch of sand which itself invites you to enter the calm sea. At first it feels cool on the feet. But as you immerse, the warmth of the water in this tropical location wraps around you – as does the serenity of raw nature.

Steep, wooded hills crumble into the bay. You feel 1,000 miles from anywhere, rather than 20 miles from the heart of one of the world’s greatest cities.

This lonely corner of the planet is Chek Keng, at the head of a long, narrow bay. I reached it on the scheduled ferry from Wong Shek pier, itself just a bus ride away from Diamond Hill MTR (subway) station. My base for nautical exploration is Bradbury Hall YHA: a friendly and simple hostel for all (they’re not fussed about whether or not you might qualify as a “youth”).

Making a splash is just one of the activities on offer. You can also carve wide arcs in the surface with a kayak, gliding beside the shore. Best of all, Chek Keng is astride the 100km MacLehose Trail.

Hong Kong’s own long-distance footpath was a heroic achievement by Sir Murray MacLehose, the longest-serving governor under British rule and himself a keen hiker. It opened in 1979, and immediately became the target of challenges to cover the ground in less than 24 hours.

Unless you are an ultra competitor, much better to pace yourself: plan to walk the trail in three to five days, or (as I did) choose a stretch at a time for a day of adventure. Climb east from Chek Keng beach on a well-marked, agreeably surfaced trail, where you will meet friendly fellow hikers.

Just beyond marker post M040, side-track steeply north for 10 minutes to reach a view that will take what remains of your breath away: as though you are gazing from the top of a natural amphitheatre towards a silvery strand of sand with Tai Long Wan Bay beyond. As I gazed, I promised myself I wil complete the whole MacLehose Trail, one day at a time, on future trips to Hong Kong.

Even if you can’t tell your feng shui from your tai chi, Hong Kong welcomes you with high-intensity experiences. And the deeper you delve, the richer the rewards.

For the first time, I explored Sham Shui Po – which, in Cantonese, means “Deep Water Pier”. The district is on the waterfront, barely two miles from the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula, and just a few minutes away by MTR. Yet Sham Shui Po feels refreshingly local – which makes a foodie tour all the more rewarding.

William Ip from Walk in Hong Kong guided me around the area. If you wish, you can eat your way around Asia here. But I was keen to make a journey to the source of some of Hong Kong’s finest tofu. The Kung Wo Beancurd Factory creates succulent blocks of nourishment from soya, which are served to eager customers as fast as they are made.

For a more formal feast, yet still well on the right side of affordability, Tim Ho Wan is an excellent choice: it comes with a Michelin commendation, which helps to explain the line of expectant appetites outside. I feasted on shrimp dumplings; bao with barbecued pork; rice rolls; and lettuce.

For dessert? It has to be durian, the tropical melt-in-the mouth fruit whose distinctive aroma precedes it. Finally William and I savoured the flavour of artisan coffee at Colour Brown: a café and roastery in a former textile factory. Come for the coffee, stay for the ambience.

One more Sham Shui Poi surprise: the unexpected joys of the youth hostel. Mei Ho House does more than provide 129 clean, comfortable rooms. It also gives a window into Hong Kong’s past. The building, on a hill slightly outside the centre of the district, occupies a 1950s resettlement block. It was one of several H-shaped blocks built following a terrible fire in 1953 that left thousands homeless.

The story of how the area rose from the ashes is told in the hostel’s own heritage museum, which gives a compelling insight into the development of Hong Kong into a 21st-century world city. If that were not enough, Mei Ho House has absolutely the best café I have visited this side of the year 2000: a pet-friendly eatery where every day is canine party day.

Lantau Island, very close to the international airport, is the largest of the Hong Kong isles – and commensurately offers a wide range of experiences. I love a decent day hike, and goodness I found a beauty.

Start on the outskirts of Tung Chung, close to the international airport. A well-marked and surfaced path leads up and over a ripple of hills – soon converging with the line of the Ngong Ping cable car. (This high-altitude conveyance provides an excellent alternative for those not quite so keen on uphill treks.)

Ngong Ping, the village at the top, is the location for an immense creation: Big Buddha, comprising 250 tonnes of bronze and facing north towards Beijing. The stairway to the sculpture lifts you heavenwards, with the reward of sweeping views – notably of the Po Lin Monastery, which offers a convivial vegetarian lunch to help you refuel ahead of the next stage of the trans-Lantau adventure.

All downhill, gently, from here to the sea at the western end of the island – and the fishing village of Tai O. Traditional life endures here: it’s an “end of the road” outpost that rewards the effort. Wander through the compact lanes that provide slices of daily life for you to contemplate.

Then continue along the edge of the harbour to the former marine police station. The structure was built in a commanding position overlooking the shore. Today it is the Tai O Heritage Hotel: with just nine individually curated rooms.

Even if you are staying elsewhere, you are welcome to eat and drink at the glass-roofed Tai O Lookout. The staff looking after you are likely to be drawn from the community: Tai O is managed as a non-profit social enterprise by the Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation. This exemplar for sustainable tourism makes an ideal end for your Hong Kong adventures, and perhaps a starting place for the next one.

Simon Calder paid £524 to fly to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, and £540 to fly home to London Heathrow with British Airways.

For more information and to start planning your own exciting adventure in Hong Kong, visit www.discoverhongkong.com