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Central District

Central is our central business district in Hong Kong.  You can find the best hotels, brand name shops, businessmen in their smartest suits. Various countries' consulates and  headquarters of all major banks can be found in Central too.

You can thus imagine living in Central is expensive.  From 500 square foot flats near the town or 2000 square foot seaview flats on the Peak, they cost a lot.

As a tourist, however, you still have a choice of staying in posh 5-star hotels or guest house run by organization like YWCA.  And if you know where to shop and eat, it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

Where to stay:

Click here for a list of Hotels to stay in Central:

Shopping:

To name a few, Landmark, Lane Crawford, Prince's building and the International Finance Centre (IFC)  are where you find quality and brand name shops.

Look for Li Yuen Street East and Li Yuen Street West for export outlets and bargains.  These two little lanes are full of boutiques, souvenir shops, cheap junk shops and stalls and they are targeted at tourists.  That means they are not frightened to speak English and you should get ready for bargaining with the stall owners. 

If you miss Marks and Spencer (the English department stores), you may find it on Queen's Road Central.

Chinese crafts:

• Li Yuen East and West Street: you will find Chinese souvenir Chinese outfits for adults and kids
• Chinese Arts and Crafts: a Chinese emporium on Queen's Road Central which sells better quality silk garments, embroidery items and jades  

Book shops:

• "Dymocks" at International Finance Centre (IFC) - the Airport Express building
• "Bookazine" at Princes' Buidling and basement of Jardine House
• "Hong Kong Book Centre" at Des Voeux Road Central near World Wide House
• "Joint Publisher" at D'Aguilar Street

Dining:

Up above D'Aguilar street is Lan Kwai Fong.  You can find pubs and trendy restaurants serving international cuisine. This is considered a very westernized place for many expatriates love to come here to meet their friends in pubs and dine.

SoHo - Look for Shelley Street and Staunton Street on the Pedestrian Escalator (see Walk and Leisure below).  It's another Lan Kwai Fong where you can find fine small western cuisine restaurants.

Dim Sum and Chinese Restaurants can be found in:

• basement of Jardine House (near General Post Office)
• International Finance Centre (IFC)
• Exchange Square II
• City Hall Chinese Restaurant

Walk and Leisure:

City Hall located right next to the old Star Ferry pier.  Besides performance, you can also look for new couples for there is a marriage registration office.  Sometimes the brides may wear traditional Chinese red gown instead of western wedding dress!  Time allowed: within half an hour.

Next to the City Hall is the City Hall library. 

General Post Office:

You can find the General Post Office near to the Star Ferry for complete postal service, philatelic counters and all year round philatelic exhibition.  Time allowed: 15 - 30 minutes

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is in Central and is really worth a look as a tourist destination on it's own right.  Though it's very expensive to stay there!  Well, maybe if you are much richer than me!

Botanical Garden:

Situated near the old Governor House, the Botanical Garden is a nice and pleasant place for the whole family.  You can find mammals, birds, reptiles to plants and Chinese herbs here.

Time allowed: 30 minutes - 1 hour

The Peak:

How to go to the Peak:

• From Star Ferry, you can catch  bus no. 15C or bus no. 125 from Admiralty (if weather is good, they will use an open double-deck bus) to the Peak Tram terminus.  Then catch the Peak Tram (HK$30 for  return tickets)  or
   
• catch bus no. 15 from Exchange Square from Central to the Peak (no Peak Tram)  or
   
• catch bus no. 15B from Tin Hau to the Peak (no (Peak Tram) or
   
• catch bus no. 515 from Sai Wan Ho to the Peak (no Peak Tram) or
   
• catch mini bus no. 1 outside the Star Ferry near to the City Hall (though I have to warn you the road is very winding, you may want the Peak Tram if you suffer car motion sickness)

What is on the Peak?

• Wonderful view of Victoria Harbour: you will be at about 400 meters above see level and this gives you a good view of the harbour.  Strange enough, you will find the tallest building International Finance Centre (IFC) level with you!
   
• The Peak Cafe: it is a landmark in the Peak. 
   
• There are two big malls on the Peak. The Peak Tram will take you to the Peak Tower and opposite to the Peak Tower is the Peak Galleria.
  
  The Peak Tower is extremely confusing, make sure you've picked up a leaflet for the building.  The Peak Tram takes you to level 3 of the Peak Tower where you will also find the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" Odditorium.  The Odditorium is a bit spooky and it may not be suitable for young children.
  
  You will find the Madame Tussaud's HK at level 2 of Peak Tower.  The entrance fee is $95 for adult and $55 for student/children.  It opens from 10am till 20:00 daily.  The HK version retains the French Revolution section (similar to the one in London), HK famous people, stars and important people worldwide.
  
  Level 4 is where you need if you want to leave this building.  REMEMBER THIS because the whole thing doesn't make sense.  Your leaflet of the building won't tell you this and you will end up going up and down the escalators several times until you have walked through the whole building!
  
  Level 4 is also where the Peak Explorer Motion Simulator is, if this is your sort of thing.   You can get an American coffee from Pacific Coffee or pizza from Grappa's Pizzeria.  Then you can move on to level 5 for the Viewing Terrace to have a good look of the Peak and Hong Kong.
  
  There is a restaurant on level 6 and 7 called Movenpick Marche Restaurant.  It's only when I sat down the waiter told me that I had to get my own food and drink as 'Marche' means market, you have to shop for yourself!  They will give you one card per person and you have to go to their market layout counters to choose your food.  It may take the chef 10 to 15 minutes to cook your food.  The food is ok and is comparatively cheaper than, say, the Cafe Deco on the Peak Galleria building.  Though you have to guard your food very well.  I don't know if their kitchen has run out of plates or not.  There are at least 3 times the waiters/waitresses come and both take away or try to take away our plates when there is still a little bit food left.  At last we were mad, we shouted and asked him to pXssed off!

Pedestrian Escalator - The escalator starts at the junction between Cochrane street and Queen's Road Central. But before you get on to the longest pedestrian escalator in town and go up to the Mid-Levels district, take a look of the Central Market for a little taste of the real local shopping.  You may surprise to find that the butchers don't put the meat in the refrigerator!

Along the escalator, you will find residential buildings mixed with antique shops at Hollywood Road, Victorian style police station and SoHo the new trendy dining district. When you pass Caine Road on the escalator, you will start to see some of the expensive apartments in town (around Robinson road and Conduit Road) We are talking about HK$5 million (US$650k) and up for these 1,000 sq ft flats.

Time allowed: 30 - 45 minutes

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