GO CITYBREAK:Feeling nostalgic for the Celtic Tiger? A visit to Hong Kong where shopping is an obsession will remind you of more prosperous times, writes
ARTHUR DEENY
TAKE A TRIP back to the recent past, when the economy was booming and restaurants were opening instead of closing. Visit Hong Kong where shopping is an obsession and the traditional greeting, “Neih sihk jo faahn meih a?” means “Have you eaten yet?”
Hong Kong is a city on the up and a great place to visit if you’re nostalgic for boom times. China is now the world’s second largest economy and it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Plan your visit carefully and you can enjoy colonial-era luxury with 21st-century convenience and, of course, the best dim sum in the world.
You may have to brace yourself for boomtime prices in the fancy places and, if you want fine dining on the 30th floor with a view of one of the most dramatic harbours in the world, you’ll need your flexible friend.
Hong Kong, including the Kowloon peninsula and the New Territories, has a population of seven million busy, commercial souls, but the original Hong Kong island squeezes just over a million people into a high rise strip facing Kowloon across the bay. The built-up area is not much broader than Dún Laoghaire though, of course, a lot taller. This is where you want to be.
YOU CAN’T HELP having a high time in Hong Kong. Half a dozen of the world’s tallest buildings stick up like space rockets around the harbour and light up like roman candles at night. The most modest apartment blocks are all more than 20 storeys, but at street level the shops, stalls, old Toyota taxis and rattling trams are of very human dimensions.
Everyone speaks some English, especially if they think they can sell you something. Official China, in the People’s Republic, uses Mandarin, which they call Ponghua, but in Hong Kong, known as the Special Administrative Region, the locals use Cantonese and capitalism runs pretty rampant.
Efforts at speaking a few Cantonese phrases are met with good humoured indulgence. They do tend to swap the consonants N and L so, instead of greeting them with “Neih hou ma” (Are you well?), as the guidebooks suggest, you’re better saying “Lei hou ma”, to which the response is “Lei hou”. And if you look for something stronger to drink in a local tea house you’ll generally get “Lo beer” in reply.
We booked into the Mandarin Excelsior through Travel Republic and got an excellent deal that worked out at €50 per person per night. You can spend a lot more but you won’t get much for much less, unless you’re in the first flush of youth and happy in a hostel. The Hong Kong dollar is worth about 10 cent, so conversion is easy – just move the decimal point one place and it’s almost right.
The Excelsior was great, from the affable Sikh doormen to the band from Detroit in the cocktail bar on the roof but, with breakfast at HKD170 (€16) and buffet dinner at HKD450 (€41) before you have a glass of wine, we tended to start the day in a Starbucks, move on to dim sum for brunch and then take our pick of the bewildering variety of restaurants around the city for dinner.
The high point of our dining was undoubtedly Hutong, part of the Aqua group, at 1 Peking Road, where the picture windows on top of the skyscraper displayed the futuristic cityscape, while our expert waiter gently guided us through the Pekinese cuisine, explaining why we were ordering too much, and withdrawing some dishes when we began to appreciate what we had taken on. As we alternated the obligatory tea with a cool Gewurztraminer, vertigo mingled with hilarity on one of the most delightful meals we had ever shared.
You can have a lot of fun for a lot less money. There are plenty of Buddhists in Hong Kong and you can find excellent vegetarian restaurants where they can make tofu into bizarrely faithful replicas of roast goose, duck and beef, Tastier than the real thing and cheaper too. Greenfeel in Mong Kok is a brilliant example. Mong Kok is an area in the Kowloon where prices tumble and street markets multiply. It’s still all tower blocks, but they have a more lived-in feel.
On Hong Kong island, where everything is shinier, we had classic dim sum in the Merchants Wharf opposite the Macau Ferry terminal in one of the few red-bricked warehouses to survive the march of the skyscrapers.
With fine cotton table cloths and politely formal waiters, in a room overlooked by a cast-iron balcony, it was a delightful combination of the old Shelbourne hotel and the English Market in Cork. The food came in waves, as it does, so we had dim sum and dim sum more, the way you do.
Guidebooks will tell you to have afternoon tea in the Peninsula Hotel, but the queues can be horrendous. How can you enjoy a cucumber sandwich under the resentful gaze of hungry tourists in steaming sweatpants? Pop round to the Langham Hotel in Tsim Sha Shui, just 45m away, and relax in cosseted obscurity on voluptuous furniture, while the classical violinist plays charmingly and the tiniest cream cakes in the world, and the most sublime jasmine tea, are offered for your amusement.
YOU CAN EASILY take a train to see the Big Buddha in Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island. Like everything else in Hong Kong this is a very modern institution. The giant figure of the Enlightened One only went up in the past 25 years.
Nonetheless, they are sincere in their faith and the whole place, from the veggie tea house to the stairway to heaven, has an atmosphere of calm reflection. The most spectacular aspect is the cable car ride, which doesn’t just go straight up the mountain but loops over peaks and valleys in dizzying swoops.
When we hung, like a bird on a wire, a thousand feet above Tung Chung, where the skyscrapers were children’s blocks and the hawks hovered far below us, it felt about as much like nirvana as I ever expect to experience on a holiday.
Hong Kong isn’t like anywhere else, and it isn’t for everyone. But if you want to see the smile on the face of the tiger, and feel the giggling contentment of people who like to shop for bargains at two in the morning and are prepared to toe the government line, so long as they can do it in Jimmy Choos, then Hong Kong is an adventure that you will enjoy and a memory you will always treasure.
Hong Kong where to . ..
3 places to stay
Value: Bishop Lei, 4 Robinson Road, The Mid-Levels, 00-852-2868-0828. Floor-to-ceiling windows in a nice clean hotel run by the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. Just behind the towering Two International Centre and across the road from the cheap and cheerful Star Ferry Pier. Check out the outdoor aviary in Hong Park on the hill behind. Doubles from HKD900 (€81).
Mid-Market:The Excelsior, 281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 00-852-2894-8888. Great views of the harbour, especially from the ToTT bar on the top floor. The rooms are spacious, especially for Hong Kong, and quiet. If you want a bang, the Noonday Gun is fired just across the street at, you guessed it, 12 noon each day. The underground MTR is just around the corner, as is the Victoria Park and public swimming pool. Doubles from HKD1,180 (€106).
Upmarket: The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, 00-852-2920-2888. When you see the row of Connaught green Rolls Royces parked out front you know what to expect. This place has been pampering potentates since 1928. The queue for afternoon tea is insane. Check out the Felix cocktail bar instead for sensational views and some serious splashing out. Doubles from HKD5,000 (€450).
3 places to eat
Value: Greenfeel Vegetarian, 145 Sai Yee Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon, 00-852-2393-8012. Excellent vegetarian restaurant in a budget area of Kowloon where you can find fantastic bargains in the street markets. They do the strangest things with tofu to make it taste just like famous Chinese meat dishes, only better. All the tea you can drink but no alcohol is served. If that sounds dull, trust me, the food is hilarious and ludicrously good value.
Mid-Market:Peak Lookout, 121 Peak Road, Victoria Peak, 00-852-2849-1000. Go for the location. After you have queued for the funicular tram and schlepped around admiring the view, this is the perfect place to recuperate. The leafy garden setting is like something transported from Tuscany. The food is good, if not particularly local, and they have a full bar and friendly staff. An unbeatable lunch spot.
Upmarket:Hutong, 1 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Shui, Kowloon, 00-852-3428-8342. The cuisine of northern China is the speciality here. Thats Pekinese to me and you. Less spicy than Szechuan and less hearty than Hong Kong. The duck, of course, is sensational. So is the service, the view and the funky furniture, resembling something from an emperors tomb. Its part of the Aqua group, which also has a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant upstairs. Pricey, but youre worth it.
Shop spot
Shopping is the opium of the people in Hong Kong. from the boutiques of Causeway Bay to the flea markets of Kowloon. Ignore the guys selling fake Rolexes and go to Raja Fashions at 34C Cameron Road, off Nathan Road, to get a handmade suit for reasonable money. The best shops we found were in the Citygate Outlets, 20 Tat Tung Road in Tung Chung. This isnt actually in Hong Kong, but on the nearby Lantau Island, where you go to see the Big Buddha. You can reach it by MTR in half an hour. All the big brands, lots of big discounts. They even have a wine bar where you can park the husband when he loses the will to live.
Night spot
The Chinese would sooner shop than drink, so the expats who want to party, cluster in Lang Kwai Fong on Hong Kong island, where the bars stay open late and the staff are broadminded. Its like Temple Bar, but not as messy, and the vibe is nice and mellow.
Get there
British Airways (ba.com), Qantas (qantas.com) and Virgin Atlantic (virgin-atlantic.com) fly from London Heathrow to Hong Kong