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Major shopping areas are Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, especially along Nathan Road; Central on Hong Kong Island, particularly for upscale designer goods; Causeway Bay for slightly better prices; and the Hollywood Road area.
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On photographic equipment, electronic goods, and watches, you avoid the luxury tax payable in your home country.
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Department Stores.
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Look for Lane Crawford Ltd., an upscale store with branches at Pacific Place, 70 Queen’s Road, and Harbour City; Wing On, one of the oldest in Hong Kong; Marks and Spencer; and the Japanese department stores, Mitsukoshi, Sobo, and Seibu.
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Malls.
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Hong Kong is full of giant malls.
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Harbour City, just west of the Star Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui is one of the largest; Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, is Central’s biggest mall, with retail outlets and department stores; Times Square is a collection of retail outlets in Causeway Bay.
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These stores sell excess stock or factory overruns.
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Hong Kong is no longer a factory outlet center since much of its clothing manufacturing has moved elsewhere.
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There are factory showrooms in the Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, in Central.
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Markets.
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Markets are the places to use your bargaining skills.
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Hong Kong’s most famous and colorful market is the Temple Street Night Market near the Jordan MTR stop.
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Every conceivable kind of goods is sold here: clothing, all kinds of electronics, CDs, souvenirs, crafts, and jewelry.
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Stanley Market is located on Hong Kong’s southern coast, and is well-known for all kinds of clothing, including silk and cashmere.
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Bargain, and carefully examine any merchandise you buy here.
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The Jade Market, on Kansu Street in Yau Ma Tei, is known for both jade and freshwater pearls.
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This is not the place to make expensive purchases, but it’s great for inexpensive pendants, earrings, and gifts.
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What to Buy
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Antiques.
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Hollywood Road in the Mid-Levels above Central is the most famous antiques street in Hong Kong.
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Look for fine Chinese bronzes, embroidery, lacquerware and porcelain, tomb figures, and wood carvings, among other possibilities.
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The experts point out that it is not age alone that determines a Chinese antique’s value — the dynasties of the past had their creative ups and downs.
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Custom-made garments by skillful Hong Kong tailors are still much in demand and cost less than elsewhere for comparable garments.
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For serious antiques, try Honeychurch Antiques at no. 29 for furniture and silver, Tai Sing Company at 122 for porcelain.
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For fun you can visit the Low Price Shop at no. 47 or the Cat Street crafts stores and flea market.
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Brocades and Silks.
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Fabrics from China are a bargain and well worth taking home.
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Inflation has taken its toll in Hong Kong.
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For fabrics, also try Western Market, Morrison Street, in Central.
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Photo buffs know that Hong Kong is the place to buy some of the world’s most advanced photographic equipment, and there are some real bargains around.
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However, be sure you compare prices and models before buying.
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Two reliable places to start looking in Lan Kwai Fong are Photo Scientific in the Eurasia Building and Hing Lee Camera Company, 25 Lyndhurst Terrace.
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Carpets and Rugs.
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Hong Kong is a mecca for Chinese hand-knotted wool carpets and silk rugs.
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Hong Kong’s stores are usually able to arrange shipment.
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Caravan at 65 Hollywood Road and the shops in The Silk Road at Ocean Center in Tsim Sha Tsui are good places to start looking.
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Note that alcohol and tobacco are both exceptions to Hong Kong’s duty-free regime and are subject to tax.
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China (Porcelain).
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In Hong Kong you can have a plate, or even a whole dinner service, hand-painted to your own design.
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Factories in Kowloon and the New Territories, producing traditional and modern china, are geared to entertain and instruct visiting tourists; prices are appealing.
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Two of the largest places to go are the Wah Tung China Company in the Grand Marine Industrial Building in Aberdeen; and the Overjoy Porcelain Factory in Block B of the Kwai Hing Industrial Building, Kwai Chung, in the New Territories.
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In antiques shops, look for highly valued porcelains from China.
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Note that because of the duty-free situation, good bargains may be found in European china, including Spode and Wedgwood.
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Electronics.
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The latest gadgets are sometimes available in Hong Kong before anywhere else.
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Before you begin shopping, pick up HKTA’s “Shopping Guide to Consumer Electronics. ”
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Prices on electronics have risen in the past two years; check prices at home before you buy here.
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Nathan Road has many electronics shops.
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Also check out Star Computer City in the Star House near the Star Ferry terminal.
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You’ll find that prices are about the same in Hong Kong Central and Kowloon, and somewhat cheaper in Causeway Bay, which caters to local shopping.
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Furniture.
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Hollywood Road has several furniture shops.
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Queen’s Road East in Wan Chai is a furniture manufacturing and retail area.
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Jade.
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“ Good for the health” is just one of the many magical qualities that are attributed to these beautiful emerald-green or turquoise stones.
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Real jade is extremely expensive, and you may be offered counterfeit jade, which looks exactly like the genuine article.
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Some people say you can test the authenticity by touch — real jade feels smooth and cool.
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Alternatively, you can shine a lamp on the stone — real jade shows no reflected light.
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Better still, go shopping with an expert.
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Jewelry.
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Thanks to the duty-free situation, prices in Hong Kong are lower than they are in some other places.
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Popular purchases include diamonds and freshwater pearls.
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If you do plan to buy jewelry, be sure to consult the “Shopping Guide to Jewellery” published by the Hong Kong Tourist Authority to find a reputable dealer.
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The statues in the main shrine represent Man, the god of literature, and Mo, the god of war, a curious juxtaposition.
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The temple is always crowded with worshipers.
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Just past the temple is the aptly named Ladder Street.
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As you get off, the 52-story Jardine House with porthole-shaped windows catches the eye.
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Go down one flight of steps to Lascar Row, popularly known as Cat Street, for more antiques and curio shops.
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Walk up the steps to reach Caine Lane, where you’ll find the Museum of Medical Sciences (open Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5pm; admission by donation).
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The interesting Edwardian building was formerly the Pathological Institute, founded to combat the 19th century’s 30-year-long outbreak of bubonic plague.
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The old laboratory is still intact, and there are exhibits on Chinese pharmacology and the history of medicine in Hong Kong.
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Servicemen relaxing from the rigors of the Vietnam War poured millions of dollars into the Wan Chai boom of the 1960s.
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There are restaurants and a Starbuck’s in the basement, and you can access the raised pedestrian crosswalk from the escalators on the ground floor.
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The Wan Chai waterfront is dominated by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the largest in Asia, which includes hotels, theaters, and exhibition halls.
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The convention center, an extension on reclaimed land, affords stunning views of the Wan Chai waterfront.
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Adjacent, just west of the convention center, is another modern highlight, the Academy for the Performing Arts on Gloucester Road.
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On Wan Chai’s Bowen Road, Maiden’s Rock, also called Lover’s Rock, is the gathering place for the annual Maiden’s festival.
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Although it is not a tourist attraction, the rock is steeped in tradition.
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Every August young women convene to light joss sticks and some even climb the nine-meter (30-ft) rock to pray for good husbands.
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About 2 km (a mile) east of Wan Chai, Causeway Bay is second only to Tsim Sha Tsui as Hong Kong’s place to shop.
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A prosperous tourist district, it is full of shopping centers and department stores, along with a number of good restaurants.
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The busy night-and-day crowds make this area vibrant and lively.
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On the nautical side is the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter, where expensive yachts are anchored almost gunwale to gunwale, and the Hong Kong Yacht Club has its headquarters.
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Across Gloucester Road, opposite the World Trade Centre, is the Noonday Gun, which under British rule was sounded on the stroke of midday.
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Next to the Jardine building is Exchange Square, a complex with a large shopping mall; just behind it is the General Post Office with a philatelic center on the ground floor.
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Silent for a time, the tradition has been revived and is a tourist attraction.
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It’s not clear how the custom started.
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One story has it that traders Jardine, Matheson & Co fired a private salute for a visiting tycoon, an act that incensed the colonial authorities, who felt that they had the sole right to issue such a 21-gun welcome.
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As a result, the merchants were forced to limit their salvoes to one a day — and from then on, they signaled the noon hour daily for all to hear.
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The gun was made famous by Noel Coward’s satirical song, “Mad Dogs and Englishmen. ”
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Farther east is Hong Kong’s largest park, Victoria Park, with sports grounds and other facilities.
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On the eastern side of Victoria Park on Causeway Road is Tin Hau Temple, dedicated to Tin Hau, the Taoist Queen of Heaven and patroness of seafarers.
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On the 23rd day of the Third Moon, the birthday of the goddess is celebrated here and in all Hong Kong fishing communities.
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Inland from the bay is Happy Valley.
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At one time it was a very miserable valley, a swampland conducive only to breeding malarial mosquitoes.
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It is home to Hong Kong’s first racetrack.
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Hong Kong’s gamblers are so eager to play the horses that, despite the opening of a bigger and better racetrack at Sha Tin, the Happy Valley Racecourse is thriving.
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Up Tai Hang Road behind Causeway Bay is Aw Boon Haw (Tiger Balm) Gardens (open daily 9:30am–4pm), founded in 1935 by the late Aw Boon Haw, who became a millionaire by producing the medicinal Tiger Balm.
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(It does not, in fact, contain any ingredients from tigers, but does promise to cure a wide range of problems such as colds, headaches, rheumatism, gout, toothache, and scorpion bites. )
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