Hong Kong Heritage Museum

Located southwest of Sha Tin town centre, this worthwhile museum is housed in a three-storey, purpose-built structure that is reminiscent of an ancestral hall. It has both rich permanent collections and innovative temporary exhibits in a dozen galleries. The ground floor contains a book and gift shop, the wonderful Children’s Discovery Gallery, with eight learning and play zones (including ‘Life in a Village’, ‘Undersea Garden’ and ‘Mai Po Marsh’) for kids aged four to 10, a Hong Kong Toy Story hands-on area for tots and an Orientation Theatre, with a 12-minute introductory video in English on the hour. There’s also a lovely teahouse. Along with five thematic (ie temporary) galleries, the 1st floor contains the best of the museum’s permanent collection: the New Territories Heritage Hall, with mock-ups of traditional shops, a Hakka fishing village and history of the New Towns; the Cantonese Opera Heritage Hall, where you can watch old operas on video with English subtitles, ‘virtually’ make yourself up as a Cantonese opera character on computer or just enjoy the costumes and sets; and the Chao Shao-an Gallery, devoted to the work of the eponymous water-colourist (1905–98) and founder of the Lingnan School of painting. The 2nd floor contains another thematic gallery and the TT Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art, an Aladdin’s cave of fine ceramics, pottery, bronze, jade and lacquerware, stone carvings and furniture. You may be interested in some of the gifts various Chinese provinces presented to China for the reunification, which are on display in the hallways. To reach the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, take the MTR East Rail to Sha Tin station and walk south along Tai Po Rd. If coming from the Che Kung Temple, walk east along Che Kung Miu Rd, go under the subway and cross the footbridge over the channel. The museum is located 200m to the east.