Shopping in Hong Kong
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Jade Market
The Jade Market, near the Gascoigne Rd overpass just west of Nathan Rd, has some 400 stalls selling all varieties and grades of jade from inside two covered markets. Unless you really know your nephrite from your jadeite, it’s probably not wise to buy any expensive pieces here, but there are plenty of cheap and cheerful trinkets on offer as well. Shanghai Street on the other side of Kansu St will take you back to a time long past. Once Kowloon’s main drag before Nathan Rd, Shanghai St is still flanked by stores selling embroidered Chinese wedding gowns, sandalwood incense, professional kitchenware and Buddha statues. There’s also a pawn shop at the junction of Saigon…
reviewed
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B
Stanley Market
No big bargains or big stings, just reasonably priced casual clothes (plenty of large sizes), bric-a-brac, toys and formulaic art, all in a nicely confusing maze of alleys running down to Stanley Bay. It’s best to go during the week; on the weekend the market is bursting at the seams with tourists and locals alike.
reviewed
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C
IFC Mall
Hong Kong’s most luxurious shopping mall boasts 200 high-fashion boutiques linking the One and Two IFC towers and the Four Seasons Hotel. Outlets include Patrick Cox, Geiger, Longchamp, Kenzo, Vivienne Tam, Zegna…we could go on. The Hong Kong Airport Express Station is downstairs.
reviewed
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D
Sogo
This Japanese-owned store, in the hub of Causeway Bay, has 12 well-organised floors and more than 37,000 sq metres of retail space. The range is mind-boggling: over 20 brands of ties just for starters. Eclectic departments include the Barbie Counter and the Character’s Shop.
reviewed
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E
Picture This
The vintage posters, photographs, prints and antiques maps of Hong Kong and Asia on sale here will appeal to collectors or anyone seeking an unusual gift or souvenir. There’s also an assortment of antiquarian books related to Hong Kong. Prices are not cheap but they guarantee all maps and prints to be originals. Sunday opening hours are noon to five.
reviewed
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F
Temple St Night Market
Temple St, which extends from Man Ming Lane in the north to Nanking St in the south and is cut in two by the Tin Hau temple complex, is the place to go for cheap clothes, dai pai dong (open-air street stalls) food, Chinese memorabilia, watches, pirate CDs and DVDs, fake labels, footwear, cookware and everyday items. Any marked prices should be considered mere suggestions - this is definitely a place to bargain. It’s also a place to catch some entertainment.
reviewed
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G
Granville Rd
If you want to hunt for bargains and have the time and inclination to riffle through racks and piles of factory seconds, the dozen or so factory outlet stores along Granville Rd should reward you with items at a fraction of store prices.
reviewed
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H
Pacific Place
Pacific Place has a couple of hundred outlets, dominated by higher-end men’s and women’s fashion and accessories. There’s also a Lane Crawford department store and a Joyce boutique.
reviewed
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Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium
This enormous place, with seven floors of ceramics, furniture, souvenirs and clothing, has absolutely everything the souvenir-hunting tourist could possibly want, as well as bolts of silk, herbs, clothes, porcelain, luggage, umbrellas and kitchenware. There’s also a branch in Tsim Sha Tsui on Kowloon Park Dr that’s entered from Peking Rd.
reviewed
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J
Page One
A chain, yes, but a good one. Page One has Hong Kong’s best selection of art and design magazines and books; it’s also strong on photography, literature, film and children’s books. There’s a smaller branch in Tsim Sha Tsui.
reviewed
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Island Beverley Mall
Crammed into buildings, up escalators and in back lanes are Hong Kong’s malls of microshops selling local designer threads, garments from other parts of Asia and a kaleidoscope of kooky accessories.
reviewed
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L
Soho Wines & Spirits
Its name notwithstanding, this place’s forte is its large selection of beer and spirits. If it’s not here, it probably isn’t made or consumed any longer. Its prices tend to be keen, thanks to the shop’s hospitality-trade wholesaling business.
reviewed
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M
Shanghai Tang
Shanghai Tang has reopened in a four-floor ‘mansion’ near its old address. If you fancy a cheongsam (a body-hugging Chinese dress for women) with a modern twist, a Chinese-style clutch or a lime-green mandarin jacket, this is the place to go. Custom tailoring is available; it takes two weeks to a month and requires a fitting. Shanghai Tang also stocks a range of lifestyle objects – cushions, picture frames, teapots, even mah-jong tile sets, designed in a modern chinoiserie style.
reviewed
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Photo Scientific
This is the favourite of Hong Kong’s pro photographers. You’ll almost certainly find equipment elsewhere for less, but Photo Scientific has a rock-solid reputation with labelled prices, no bargaining, no arguing and no cheating.
reviewed
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O
Sam’s Tailor
It’s not certain that Sam’s is the best tailor in Hong Kong, but it’s the most aggressively marketed and best known. Sam’s has stitched up everyone – from royalty and rock stars to us.
reviewed
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Wan Chai Computer Centre
A safe bet for anything digital and electronic.
reviewed
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Q
Wing On
‘Forever Peaceful’ is notable for being locally owned. It carries a range of goods but is especially well known for inexpensive electronics and household appliances.
reviewed
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R
Kubrick Bookshop Café
This café and bookshop has a great range of film-related books, magazines and paraphernalia, and serves good coffee, sandwiches ($33 to $42) and pasta dishes ($35 to $45).
reviewed
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S
Toy Museum
Top-of-the-line teddy bears, action men, Beanie Babies and Pokemon paraphernalia are crammed into a tight space here.
reviewed
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T
Watson’s Wine Cellar
One of the most exciting new developments for wine lovers is the arrival of new bars offering tastings of premium wines using new ‘enomatic’ technology that permits them to open a bottle and preserve the contents indefinitely. It means that tasting a seriously rare (and expensive) wine is possible without completely bankrupting yourself. You create a tab by handing over your credit card in exchange for a smart card, which you use to operate the wine dispensing machines, which can deliver a few millilitres for an inexpensive taste or a full glass once you’ve made your choice. Watson's is more centred on sales than a place to socialise. The enomatic machines enable you to…
reviewed
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Color Six
Photo developing from digital or from film is relatively inexpensive; it costs from $5 per digital file to print, and to develop a roll of 36 exposures and have them printed costs from $55 for size 3R and from $65 for size 4R. Processing and mounting slide film is $50. Most photo shops will take four passport-sized photos of you for around $50. Some of the best photo-processing in town is available at Color Six. Not only can colour slides be professionally processed in just three hours, but many special types of film, unavailable elsewhere in Hong Kong, are on sale here. Most photography shops are well geared up for printing from digital formats and for copying onto CDs.
reviewed
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V
Queen’s Road West Incense Shops
Head along Queen’s Rd West, several hundred metres past the end of Hollywood Rd, and you’ll find two or three shops selling incense and paper offerings. These are burned to propitiate the spirits of the dead. There’s quite a choice of spirit-world comestibles to make a consumer heaven for the deceased, including complete mini-sets of kitchenware, fast-food meals, cars, gold and silver ingots, the popular hell banknotes, and even computers and personal stereos. They are tempting to buy as souvenirs, but if you’re superstitiously minded, remember that hanging onto these offerings rather than burning them is seen as bad luck here.
reviewed
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Sample Moon
If you want to hunt for bargains and have the time and inclination to riffle through racks and piles of factory seconds, the dozen or so factory outlet stores along Granville Rd should reward you with items at a fraction of store prices. It’s pot luck as to what labels you will find, although they tend to be familiar, slightly premium mainstream casual and leisure brands (both international and local). Hotspots include Hotspots include UNO OUN (29 Granville Rd), Sample Moon (30 Granville Rd) and the Baleno Outlet Store (24B Granville Rd).
reviewed
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Baleno Outlet Store
If you want to hunt for bargains and have the time and inclination to riffle through racks and piles of factory seconds, the dozen or so factory outlet stores along Granville Rd should reward you with items at a fraction of store prices. It’s pot luck as to what labels you will find, although they tend to be familiar, slightly premium mainstream casual and leisure brands (both international and local). Hotspots include Hotspots include UNO OUN (29 Granville Rd), Sample Moon (30 Granville Rd) and the Baleno Outlet Store (24B Granville Rd).
reviewed
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UNO OUN
If you want to hunt for bargains and have the time and inclination to riffle through racks and piles of factory seconds, the dozen or so factory outlet stores along Granville Rd should reward you with items at a fraction of store prices. It’s pot luck as to what labels you will find, although they tend to be familiar, slightly premium mainstream casual and leisure brands (both international and local). Hotspots include UNO OUN (29 Granville Rd), Sample Moon (30 Granville Rd) and the Baleno Outlet Store (24B Granville Rd).
reviewed