One day in Hong KongHarbour, colony and ghosts
Start early with “From the Star Ferry to Temple Street: Hong Kong highlights”: cross the harbour on the Star Ferry, stroll the Avenue of Stars and head up Nathan Road to the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. Take the MTR back to Central for dim sum at Luk Yu Tea House. In the afternoon, “From the 1841 flag to the 1997 handover” leads from Western Market to Tai Kwun and Statue Square. As the light fades, “Ghosts, oaths and feng shui at dusk” takes in Man Mo Temple and the HSBC Building; finish with siu mei at Yung Kee.
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Morning
From the Star Ferry to Temple Street: Hong Kong highlights
- Star Ferry, Central PierA ferry founded in 1888 whose boats are named after stars, thanks to a Tennyson poem.
- Tsim Sha Tsui Clock TowerAll that remains of the terminus of the railway to Canton, with the scars of war on its walls.
- Avenue of StarsA waterfront promenade dedicated to Hong Kong cinema, with Bruce Lee on guard and the best view of the island.
- The Peninsula HotelThe grand 1928 hotel where, at Christmas 1941, the British governor surrendered to the Japanese army.
- Temple StreetKowloon's most famous night market, «Men's Street», with its entrance arch and its claypot rice.
- Tin Hau Temple, Yau Ma TeiThe temple of the sea goddess that gave Temple Street its name, surrounded by banyans and fortune-tellers.
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Lunch
Try Dim sum, the yum cha ritual at Luk Yu Tea House (陸羽茶室). Stanley Street 24-26, Central, Hong Kong
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Afternoon
From the 1841 flag to the 1997 handover
- Western MarketHong Kong's oldest surviving market building, in red brick with white stripes, in the district where the Chinese merchants settled.
- Possession StreetThis was the shoreline where, in January 1841, the British raised their flag and took possession of the island.
- PMQ, Sun Yat-sen's old schoolBeneath this design hub lie the foundations of the college that educated Hong Kong's Chinese elite.
- Tai Kwun, the former Central Police StationPolice station, magistracy and prison for over a century and a half, now an arts and heritage centre.
- St John's CathedralHong Kong's oldest Western church, the only freehold plot in the city and a Japanese club during the war.
- Statue Square and the Old Supreme CourtA square that lost its statues in the war and a courthouse that served as Japanese military police headquarters and as the legislature.
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Early evening
Ghosts, oaths and feng shui at dusk
- Kwong Fook I Tsz, the temple of soulsA shrine for those who died far from their homeland, on the street where the 1894 plague broke out.
- Man Mo TempleThe temple of the god of literature and the god of war, where oaths were sworn by cutting off a chicken's head.
- Pak Tsz Lane, the revolutionaries' hideoutA hidden courtyard where plots were hatched against the Qing dynasty, next to the spot where a revolutionary was murdered; his grave bears only a number.
- Duddell Street Steps and Gas LampsHong Kong's last gas lamps and the name of a merchant linked to the mass poisoning of 1857.
- HSBC Building and its lionsTwo bronze lions that survived the war and a rooftop of «cannons» behind a feng shui legend.
- Bank of China TowerThe skyscraper feng shui masters compare to a knife, built where a building once stood that had to be exorcised.
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Dinner
Try Siu mei: char siu and roast goose at Yung Kee (鏞記酒家). Wellington Street 32-40, Central, Hong Kong