overview

Walking the streets is the best way to experience local life in Hong Kong. Then take a look at the basic characteristic streets and villages that we recommend!

Tai O

Tai O is a fishing village located on Lantau Island, an outlying island of Hong Kong. The stilt houses are the characteristic dwellings here, built on both sides of the river that runs through the fishing village, so some people also call Tai O the "Venice of the East". Visitors can take a boat ride around the island on a boat from a shipping company, and if you're lucky, you can even see the Chinese white dolphins that inhabit the island's periphery.

Tai O's architectural features and customs are well preserved, making it a rare fishing village in Hong Kong. At the entrance of Tai O Village, there is a Tai O Rural Committee History and Culture Room, which exhibits the daily necessities, fishing tools and customs of the fishing village in the old days, and is free for tourists to visit. Dragon boat parade is a century-old custom in Tai O, held every year during the Dragon Boat Festival. In 2011, Tai O Dragon Boat Parade was included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage items. Tourists who travel to Hong Kong during the Dragon Boat Festival may wish to go to Tai O to experience it.

The Tai O Heritage Hotel in Tai O Fishing Village is one of the successful examples of revitalising historic buildings, bringing back to life a restaurant that was once untouched in the middle of nowhere, attracting countless tourists to stay and visit the hotel. The revitalised Tai O Heritage Hotel is a boutique hotel with a rich sense of history. There are nine harbour view rooms in the hotel, each with a different style and named after the rank of police officer, police wheel and landmark of Tai O. There is also a glass-roofed rooftop restaurant, a library, and a historical exhibition gallery that together make up the Tai O Heritage Hotel.

Tour time: 120-180min

Reference ticket price: Free admission

Opening hours: All day

Address: Tai O, Lantau Island, outlying island

Mid-levels escalator

Many tourists choose Central as the first stop on their trip to Hong Kong. Indeed, Central can be described as a condensed version of Little Hong Kong, where high-rise buildings intersperse with historic buildings, and old streets complement modern shopping malls. Central is home to a variety of restaurants, monuments, temples, and bars, and what connects them is the escalator that appears in the movie "Chongqing Forest" where the male and female protagonists meet.

Officially opened in 1993, the Mid-Levels Escalator connects the Central business district of Hong Kong Island with the Mid-Levels Levels, consisting of 18 switchable escalators and 3 moving walkways, which are free for the public to use. The escalator in the mid-levels is set up in one direction, and the system will change the direction of the elevator at different times according to the crowd, so as to facilitate the commuting service of residents.

The Mid-Levels escalator has become a well-known attraction in Hong Kong in its own right. Through the mid-levels escalator, you can also reach the historical revitalization building hall, PMQ, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Muslim Halal Worship Hall and other recommended attractions on this list. Hong Kong gourmet restaurants such as Snake King Fen Restaurant, Lan Fong Yuen, Tai Cheong Bakery, Jiu Kee Beef Brisket and Lin Heung Lou are also spread out around the escalator.

Tour time: 10-20min

Reference ticket price: Free admission

Opening hours: All day

Temple Street Night Market

When you come to Temple Street Night Market, you can vaguely see the past scenes of Hong Kong. If you have watched the movies "God of Food" and "New Love", you will definitely be familiar with the scene here.

When night falls, rows of simple stalls appear one after another on the street behind the temple street archway, which occupy almost 70% of the street space, and pedestrians are extremely crowded in the middle. The stalls sell nothing more than national tourism goods or cheap clothing, which is not very attractive to mainland tourists who come to Hong Kong to scan high-end goods. Singers perform from time to time during the night market hours, attracting many onlookers.

Temple Street used to be a famous red light district in Hong Kong, and to this day, there are still some shops selling CDs and posters on Temple Street, which are generally found in shops on the street, the doors of which are covered by curtains, and the customers in the shops are basically men. Temple Street is also known as a "common nightclub", and it is still a gathering place for various leisure clubs and wandering warblers.

Visiting time: 15min

Reference ticket price: Free admission

Opening hours: Night

Address: Yau Ma Tei Temple Street, Kowloon

Other recommendations:

Stanley Market, Chun Yeung Street