20 things that will surprise first-time visitors to Hong Kong

There’s nothing more spiritual to Hongkongers than food, whether it’s at a classic dim sum diner such as Luk Yu Tea House in Central or at the culinary high altar of T’ang Court at The Langham Hong Kong which has retained its three Michelin-star rating in 2023 for the eighth consecutive year. With a dizzying choice of restaurants on every street dishing up delicious food day and night, you’ll never go hungry.

Hong Kong is old as much as new

A first-time visitor might see Hong Kong as a contemporary, cutting-edge city, but there are pockets of history amid the high-rises. Landmarks such as The Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery and Tai O fishing village on Lantau Island speak to Hong Kong’s heritage, along with British colonial buildings in the city like The Fringe Club. The best example is Tai Kwun, a restoration of the former Central Police Station, now Hong’s Kong’s Centre for Heritage and Arts and home to The Chinese Library, one of the city’s most beautiful restaurants.

Dining is a minefield of etiquette

As in life, Chinese dining conforms to traditional rules of etiquette that spin like a Lazy Susan. Everything from table manners to placement of chopsticks, seating arrangements, sharing food, drinking tea and even how to handle a seemingly rude waiter (they’re really just doing their job) has a right and a wrong way. To avoid offending your hosts, study a Chinese dining etiquette guide, then eat your heart out.

Is that what I think it is?

Hong Kong dining etiquette also decrees hot hand towels are presented at the start and finish of a meal in place of napkins being used throughout. At more casual diners, like the no-frills Fook Mun Lam on Lantau Island, there may be nothing to clean your sticky fingers with at all. Don’t be surprised if a big roll of toilet paper is plonked on the Lazy Susan as a handy alternative.

It’s a city where nature abounds

Greenery, islands, deserted beaches… in Hong Kong? Venture beyond the fringes of the city’s concrete jungle and you’ll find raw and untouched nature in abundance, a verdant expanse of country parks, mountain peaks, beaches and more than 260 islands, many uninhabited and waiting to be explored by ferry, bus and on foot.

To market, to market …

China’s so-called ‘wet markets’ get a bad rap, some of them rightly so. Hong Kong’s fresh food and produce markets, such as the iconic Wan Chai Market, are a world apart, bustling hubs of daily inner-city shopping and the lifeblood of millions of food-loving Hongkongers each day. Every imaginable choice of seafood, meat, poultry, fruit, vegetable, nut, spice and cookie is on display – wet and dry, raw and cooked, delicious and inedible – and I can assure you, the quality is as fresh as anything in an Australian supermarket.

Where did the hawker stalls go?

On the flip side, Hong Kong’s once-beloved hawker stalls are rapidly disappearing. Stringent food regulations across the city are impacting the ability of traditional mobile food, tea and trinkets carts to keep plying their wares (as few as 300 are still licensed to trade) and pundits fear they may soon disappear altogether.

From Cantons to Cantonese

A Swiss-style cable car in Hong Kong? Ngong Ping 360 is actually the longest aerial cable car system of its kind in Asia, stretching 5.7 kilometres from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island and offering spectacular views of rugged peaks, bays, the international airport and The Big Buddha. New for 2023 is Crystal+, seven fully transparent, tempered glass cabins delivering floor-to-wall panoramas … look down if you dare.

Hong Kong is a safe bet

With images of Hong Kong’s mass protests in 2019-2020 still etched in people’s minds, questions remain if Hong Kong is safe to visit. The answer is a resounding yes. During five days of touring the city in May 2023, I don’t recall seeing a single police presence other than the occasional marine patrol on Victoria Harbour. Hong Kong feels as safe as it always did, the one clear and present danger being the spending limit on your credit card.

Crazy rich Asians, for real

Speaking of money (and lots of it): While the hit movie was filmed in Singapore, it could easily have been set in Hong Kong. Retail sales in 2023 are forecast by some analysts to hit an eye-watering $HK395 billion (about $76 billion) with the local economy and tourists returning post-pandemic. Harbour City on Kowloon’s Canton Road is a shrine to shopping – expect to queue outside major luxury stores, less so towards closing time at 10pm.

It wears its art on its sleeve

Culture runs deep in Hong Kong, so it’s no surprise to see an entire precinct dedicated to the arts. What will surprise is the scope, scale and sheer ‘wow’ factor of the new West Kowloon Cultural District, a world-class showcase of visual arts, design, architecture and performing arts. Set on 40 hectares of reclaimed land on Victoria Harbour and featuring six dedicated indoor and outdoor spaces, the district also delivers some of HK’s best views.

You can haggle for a bargain

Street markets, such as the Ladies’ Market in Mong Kok, are great places to bag a bargain. Stalls crammed with T-shirts, watches, sunglasses, bags, shoes, chopsticks and cheongsams, among other tourist bric-a-brac, line pedestrian-only streets, creating a fun, must-do HK experience by day or night. You can haggle, of course, but don’t expect any traders to undersell themselves.

This city is made for walking

Hong Kong’s relatively compact urban footprint on both sides of Victoria Harbour makes it a surprisingly good destination to explore on foot. A guided or self-guided walking tour, combined with the city’s efficient public transport network, is a great way to hit the highlights of Honkers.

Some things never change

In a city of towering proportions, it’s a joy to see a minnow retain its Hong Kong icon status year after year. The beloved Star Ferry has, in various forms, plied the waters of Victoria Harbour transporting locals and visitors between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island since 1888. Now carrying more than 50,000 passengers a day, the trusty green-and-white ferry bobs across the harbour like a character from Toy Story, delivering the quintessential Hong Kong experience (and the price is right - just $HK5, or $A1 on weekdays).

There’s an app for that

There are more than 18,000 taxis in Hong Kong, but English is not widely spoken and some only accept cash. Make sure to carry small amounts of Hong Kong dollars when out and about and download the city-wide HKeMobility app for real-time transport info.

Secret speakeasy bars

I’m going to have to whisper this, because Hong Kong’s best speakeasy bars are a secret world of prohibition-style inner sanctums for people in the know. I was introduced to Penicillin by May Chow, the firecracker Toronto-born chef behind HK’s sensational Little Bao and Happy Paradise restaurants, who invited me there after one of her cooking shifts. An unassuming door opens to a laboratory-like world of alcoholic and botanical infusions mixed into high-octane cocktails … but that’s all I’m saying.

Don’t look down …

Just when you think Honkers can’t deliver another bonkers moment, dine at Felix, the Philippe Starck-designed restaurant atop The Peninsula Hotel. When nature calls between the hamachi and Hokkaido scallops, the men’s room (can’t speak for the women’s) features three black marble urinals in front of floor-to-ceiling windows with the vast city skyline at your feet. It’s a somewhat unnerving experience, but it just goes to prove that Hong Kong keeps on surprising (dare I say it) to the very last drop.

The writer travelled as a guest of Qantas and the Hong Kong Tourism Board.