Shopping in Hong Kong
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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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IFC Mall
As if Central didn’t have nearly enough luxury retail space already, this swanky shopping centre was built. It 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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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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Picture This
The vintage Hong Kong posters, photographs, reproductions and antique maps on sale here make great souvenirs or gifts, but they are on the pricey side.
reviewed
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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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Granville Road
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
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Pacific Place
One of the city’s best shopping malls, Pacific Place has, if anything, gone further upmarket recently. There are a couple of hundred outlets, dominated by higher-end men’s and women’s fashion (from the likes of Burberry, Chanel, Chloé, Loewe, Marc Jacobs and Versace) and accessories (Bottega Veneta, Coach, Fendi, Gucci etc). There’s also a Lane Crawford department store.
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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Island Beverley
Crammed into buildings, up escalators and in back lanes are Hong Kong’s malls of micro-shops selling designer threads, a kaleidoscope of kooky accessories and an Imelda Marcos of funky footwear. Island Beverley is where Hong Kong’s youngest mall trawlers shop for clothes and trinkets.
reviewed
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Shanghai Tang
Updated versions of traditional Chinese garments including cheongsams and collarless jackets with a modern cut and edge featuring lots of lime and orange. It also stocks accessories and Chinese-styled gift items with a modern twist. Custom tailoring is available.
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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Wan Chai Computer Centre
This place, on the northern edge of Southorn Playground, is a cut above Hong Kong’s computer emporiums. The prices on pretty much everything digital are generally keener than the local chain stores.
reviewed
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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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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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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 t…
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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Q
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
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Jilian, Lingerie on Wyndham
Swimwear and a vast range of French and Italian lingerie, from gossamer delicates small enough to swallow with a glass of water to rather outré corsetry with strings and stays and such. There’s even a small range of men’s designer smalls if you just can’t put up with your man’s industrial-sized underpants any longer. Labels stocked include Eres, Argentovivo, ID Sarrieri, Cadolle, Aubade, Bacirubati, Pin-up Stars, Jonquil, Revanche de la Femme, Rosa Cha and Grigioperla.
reviewed
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Mirador Mansion
Mirador Mansion, above an arcade of that name between Mody and Carnarvon Rds, is a 51-year-old residential building with a serene atmosphere. In fact it was Mirador Mansion – and not Chungking Mansions – where Wong Kar-wai filmed most of Chungking Express (1994). Strolling down the open corridors of Mirador Mansion on a breezy day will make you feel like you’ve retreated into a Tsim Sha Tsui that’s disappeared. There are assorted guesthouses here.
reviewed
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Beverley Commercial Centre
Crammed into old buildings, above MTR stations, up escalators and in back lanes are Hong Kong’s micromalls consisting of microshops, selling designer threads, a kaleidoscope of kooky accessories and a colourful closet of funky footwear. This is where Hong Kong’s youngest mall-trawlers go for clothes and trinkets. The best shopping is done from 3pm to 10pm, when all the shops are open. Enter Beverley Commercial Centre via the passage north of Observatory Rd
reviewed
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Prince’s Building
You may find the layout of Prince’s Building disorienting, but it’s worth a look for its speciality fashion, toy and kitchenware shops. The selection is rather eclectic – from high-end boutiques such as Chanel and Cartier on the ground floor to book-sellers, Mothercare, jewellers, stationers and luggage shops on the levels above. It’s an especially good place to bring the kids, as almost the entire 3rd floor is given over to children’s shops.
reviewed
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Lane Crawford
This branch of Hong Kong’s original Western-style department store, the territory’s answer to Harrods in London, is the flagship now that the store located on Queen’s Rd Central has closed. There are branches in Admiralty (2118 3668; 1st & 2nd fls, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway), Causeway Bay (2118 3638; Ground & 1st fls, Times Square, 1 Matheson St) and Tsim Sha Tsui (2118 3428; Ground & 1st fls, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, Salisbury Rd).
reviewed
