Get into the Hong Kong Shopping frenzy
Central, Admiralty and Western are renowned for brand-name luxury goods, designer labels and mega-malls such as The Landmark and Pacific Place.
Hollywood Road is a magnet for collectors of antiques, arts and unusual knick-knacks.
Lyndhurst Terrace has shops selling ancient maps, prints and paintings, stationery and picture frames.
Western Market in Sheung Wan is filled with Chinese handicraft stores and fabric shops. The area is famous for its small Chinese-style shops selling dried seafood and medicinal herbs. Cat Street Bazaar is best known for stalls selling pocket-sized antiques, such as watches, old coins and stone carvings.
Man Wa Lane is the place to find Chinese “chops”, stone stamps engraved with the owner’s name in Chinese characters.
Spring Garden Lane is a good place to shop for clothes originally meant for export, meaning the quality and prices are very competitive.
Over in Causeway Bay there are Japanese department stores, shopping centres like Times Square, In Square, The Lee Gardens and Island Beverley, as well as open-air markets selling everything from clothes to costume jewellery. Jardine’s Crescent is great for inexpensive clothing, accessories and domestic goods. Shops specialising in shoes, electrical appliances and fashion for young people are also concentrated around Causeway Bay, and Wan Chai has a number of excellent rattan and Chinese furniture shops along Queen’s Road East.
On the South Side, the beaches of Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay, and the villages of Stanley and Shek O, are among this area’s scenic treasures. Attractions like Stanley Market is popular for Chinese paintings, handicrafts and furniture, silk, curios, clothes and souvenirs.
Head to Kowloon (on the cruise terminal side) for Tsim Sha Tsui, one of Hong Kong’s major entertainment areas, featuring a blaze of neon and shopping along Nathan Road. There’s the Star Ferry, Clock Tower, Hong Kong Space Museum, Science Museum, Museum of History, Museum of Art, and the Cultural Centre.
Don’t miss Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, a lively and fascinating area full of speciality shops and open-air markets.
Much of the Kowloon promontory is a shopper’s dream. There are lots of department stores and shopping centres like Ocean Terminal and Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui as well as the Grand Century Plaza in Mong Kok, and many factory outlets along Granville Road and in the Hung Hom area. Nathan Road’s famous ‘Golden Mile’ is crowded with shoppers day and night.
Temple Street Night Market is the most famous open-air market, a bustling bazaar and bargain-shopper’s heaven as well as being crammed with entertainment, including fortune-tellers, Cantonese opera singers and elderly musicians playing traditional instruments. Ladies’ Market, along Tung Choi Street, is best for bargain-priced clothes and beauty products, while the Jade Market, at the junction of Kansu and Battery Streets and with 450 registered stall-holders, sells amulets, ornaments, necklaces and trinkets made from the revered green stone, claimed to have magical healing properties.
The Hong Kong Tourist Board (www.discoverhongkong.com) have excellent maps, guides and suggestions for all visitors.
Sensational Hotels and Dining
Hong Kong’s hotels reach for the stars and the city contains several of the world’s most famous and most awarded properties.
Heritage and nostalgic types will be in their element with the grand and regal 85-year-old Peninsula in Kowloon and its fleet of Rolls Royce limousines or the comparatively youthful 50-year-old Mandarin Oriental on Connaught Road in Central.
Many modern cruisers demand all the latest, largest, luxurious and lavish. And Hong Kong hotels do this in spades.
There’s a cavalcade of fantastic 21st century five-star hotels just waiting for the tired jetsetter to relax and enjoy. Four Seasons, Shangri-La, T Hotel, ICON, Ritz-Carlton and Langham are all there for the asking, but one rises above this glittering pack garnering accolades like no other: The Upper House (TUH).
Recently rated the number one hotel in Asia and number two in the world in the coveted 2014 TripAdvisor Readers’ Choice Awards, TUH is a property of Swire Hotels and opened on October 2009 inside a thoroughly refurbished former residential tower at Pacific Place. This sprawling residential and commercial complex covers some 480,000 sqm of prime real estate and also contains the five-star Conrad, Island Shangri-La and JW Marriott.
GM, Dean Winter, says, “Our hotel was created to provide a retreat removed from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong.” Designed by renowned local architect, Andre Fu of AFSO, it uses natural materials, distinctive sculptures and original artwork to accentuate the individuality and exclusivity.
This is achieved immediately upon arrival with guests elevated from the driveway to the sunlit Level 6 sanctuary. This sensation of separation helps the guest relax and create a sense of isolation from the hurly-burly of Hong Kong.
TUH’s 117 rooms all feature panoramic harbour or island views, including 21 114 sqm suites and two 182 sqm penthouses – the largest in Hong Kong. Bathrooms with their own breathtaking vistas come with walk-in rain showers, dressing area and deep soaking baths.
Part and parcel with any stay at TUH has to be the dining experience at Café Grey, the 49th floor ‘grand café’ with sweeping views over Victoria Harbour. Celebrated chef Gray Kunz returned to Hong Kong with his personal style of European classic and signature dishes from the best kitchens in Europe, Asia and America. The highlight is a 14-metre-long open kitchen and an equally long bar.
www.upperhouse.com
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