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Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple
An explosion of colourful pillars, roofs, lattice work, flowers and incense, this busy temple is a destination for all walks of Hong Kong society, from pensioners to businessmen, parents and young professionals.
Some come simply to pray, others to divining the future with chìm, bamboo 'fortune sticks' that are shaken out of a box on to the ground and then read by a fortune-teller, which are available for free to the left of the main temple.
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Sok Kwu Wan
Sok Kwu Wan (Picnic Bay), has many fine restaurants, fishing boats and rafts bobbing in the bay. Although still a small settlement, Sok Kwu Wan supports at least a dozen waterfront seafood restaurants that are popular with boaters. The small harbour at Sok Kwu Wan is filled with rafts from which cages are suspended and fish farmed.
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South Lantau Road
Just under 5km southwest of Mui Wo, Pui O is the first of several coastal villages along South Lantau Rd. Pui O has a decent beach, but as it's the closest one to Mui Wo it can get very crowded. The village has several restaurants, holiday flats galore and, in season, stalls renting bicycles. There's also a decent restaurant right on Pui O Beach called Ooh La La!.
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St John's Cathedral
Consecrated in 1849, this Anglican cathedral is one of the very few colonial structures still standing in Central. Criticised for blighting the colony's landscape when it was first erected, St John's is now lost in the forest of skyscrapers that make up Central. The tower was added in 1850 and the chancel extended in 1873.
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St Stephen's Beach & Military Cemetery
St Stephen's Beach, which has a café, showers and changing rooms, is south of the village. In summer you can hire windsurfing boards and kayaks from the water sports centre. To reach the beach, walk south along Wong Ma Kok Rd. Turn west (ie right) when you get to a small road (Wong Ma Kok Path) leading down to a jetty.
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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; at the weekend the market is bursting at the seams with both tourists and locals alike.
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Statue Square
Statue Square, due south of Star Ferry pier, is divided roughly in half by Charter Rd. In the northern part, reached via a pedestrian underpass from the pier, is the Cenotaph (Greek for 'empty tomb'; 1923), a memorial to Hong Kong residents killed during the two world wars. Due west is the venerable Mandarin Oriental, which opened in 1963 and is consistently voted the best hotel in the world.
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Tai Miu Temple
Further south along Tai Au Mun Rd is this ancient temple dedicated to Tin Hau. It is said to have been first built in the 13th century by two brothers from Fujian in gratitude to the goddess for having spared their lives during a storm at sea. It is particularly busy during the Tin Hau birthday festival in late April/early May.
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Tai O
A century ago this mostly Tanka village on the west coast of Lantau was an important trading and fishing port, exporting salt and fish to China. As recently as the 1980s it traded in IIs (illegal immigrants) brought from China under cover of darkness by 'snakeheads' (smugglers in human cargo) in long narrow boats, sending back contraband such as refrigerators, radios and televisions to the mainland.
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Tai Ping Shan Temples
Tai Ping Shan, one of the first areas to be settled by Chinese after the founding of the colony, has several small temples clustered around where Tai Ping Shan St meets Pound Lane. Kwun Yam Temple (34 Tai Ping Shan St) honours the goddess of mercy, Kun Iam - the Taoist equivalent of the Virgin Mary. Further to the northwest, Pak Sing Ancestral Hall (42 Tai Ping Shan St) was originally a storeroom for bodies awaiting burial in China.
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Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve
The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve is a thickly forested 460-hectare 'special area' and is Hong Kong's most extensive woodlands. It is home to many species of butterflies, amphibians, birds, dragonflies and trees, and is a superb place in which to enjoy a quiet walk. The reserve is crisscrossed with four main tracks ranging in length from 3km (red trail) to 10km (yellow trail), and a short nature trail of less than 1km.
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Tai Po Market
This street-long outdoor wet market is a stone's throw from the Hong Kong Railway Museum and is one of the busiest and most interesting markets in the New Territories. Towards the northern end of the same street, the double-hall Man Mo Temple (; - ) is a major centre of worship for the Tai Po area. It was founded in the late 19th century and, like the Man Mo Temple found in Sheung Wan, it is dedicated to the gods of literature and of war.
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Temple Street Night Market
The liveliest night market in Hong Kong, Temple St 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. While you may find better bargains further north in New Kowloon, and certainly over the border in Shenzhen, it is still a good place to go for the bustling atmosphere and the smells and tastes on offer from the d a ai-p à ai-dawng (open-air street stall) food.
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Temples & Shrines
At the western end of Stanley Main St, past a tiny Tai Wong shrine and through the modern shopping complex called Stanley Plaza, is a Tin Hau temple (119 Stanley Main St; ; - ), built in 1767 and said to be the oldest building in Hong Kong. It has undergone a complete renovation since then, however, and is now a concrete pile, though the interior is traditional.
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The Repulse Bay
The Repulse Bay, a copy of the wonderful old colonial Repulse Bay Hotel, built in 1922 and bulldozed 60 years later, contains a small shopping mall and several food outlets, including the Verandah Restaurant.
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Tin Hau Temples
Cheung Chau has four temples dedicated to Tin Hau, the empress of heaven and patroness of seafarers. Pak She Tin Hau Temple lies 100m northwest of the Pak Tai Temple. Nam Tan Wan Tin Hau temple is just north of Morning Beach; Tai Shek Hau Tin Hau temple is to the west on Sai Wan Rd. Sai Wan Tin Hau temple is west of Sai Wan (Western Bay), on the southwestern tip of the island. You can walk there or catch a kaido from the cargo pier.
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Trappist Monastery
Northeast of Mui Wo and south of Discovery Bay at Tai Shui Hang is the Roman Catholic Lady of Joy Abbey - better known as the Trappist Monastery. The monastery is known throughout Hong Kong for its cream-rich milk, sold in half-pint bottles everywhere, but, alas, the cows have been moved to the New Territories and Trappist Dairy Milk now comes from over the border in China.
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Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade
One of the best city skylines in the world has to be that of Hong Kong Island, and the promenade here is one of the best ways to get an uninterrupted view of it. It's a lovely place to stroll during the day but comes into its own at night, during the nightly Symphony of the Stars, a spectacular sound-and-light show involving 20 buildings on the Hong Kong Island skyline from to .
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Tung Chung
In recent years change has come to Tung Chung, on Lantau's northern coast, at a pace that can only happen in Hong Kong. This previously all-but-inaccessible farming region, with the small village of Tung Chung at its centre, has seen Chek Lap Kok, the mountain across Tung Chung Bay, flattened to build Hong Kong's international airport and a New Town served by the MTR rise up.
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Tung Lung Fort
Tung Lung Fort, on the northeastern corner of the island, was built in the late 17th or early 18th century and was attacked a number of times by pirate bands before being abandoned in 1810. The fort once consisted of 15 guardhouses and was armed with eight cannons, but little of it remains today except for the outline of the exterior walls. There's an information centre (; - Wed-Mon) here.
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Tung Wan Beach
Tung Wan Beach, Cheung Chau's longest and most popular (though not its prettiest) beach lies at the end of Tung Wan Rd, due east of the ferry pier. The best part of Tung Wan is the far southern end, which is a great area for windsurfing. Just south of Tung Wan Beach, Kwun Yam Wan Beach is known to English speakers as Afternoon Beach and is a great spot for windsurfing.
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Victoria Park
At 17 hectares, the biggest patch of public greenery on Hong Kong Island, Victoria Park is a popular place to escape to. The best time to stroll around is in the morning during the week, when it becomes a forest of people practising the slow-motion choreography of t'ai chi. At the weekend they are joined by Indonesian amahs , who prefer it to Central.
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Western Monastery
A short distance down from the Yuen Yuen Institute, the Buddhist Western Monastery offers a sharp contrast to what's going on up the hill. This is a tranquil complex in which to pass the time, observing points of interest both architectural and spiritual. After being greeted by a Bodhisattva statue in the entrance, the main building lies behind, styled as a classical Chinese palace.
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Yuen Po St Bird Garden & Flower Market
This market is a wonderful place to visit, if only to marvel at how the Hong Kong Chinese (especially men) fuss and fawn over their feathered friends. The Chinese have long favoured songbirds as pets; you often see local men walking around airing their birds and feeding them squirming caterpillars with chopsticks. Some birds are also considered harbingers of good fortune, which is why you'll see some people carrying them to the racetrack.
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Yuen Yuen Institute
Stuffed with vivid statuary of Confucian and Buddhist deities, this is very much on the tourist trail but well worth a visit nonetheless. The main building is a (vague) replica of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. On the upper ground floor are three Taoist immortals seated in a quiet hall; walk down to the lower level to watch as crowds of the faithful pray and burn offerings to the 60 incarnations of Taoist saints lining the walls.
