How To Have A Good, Excellent, Very Fun Time In Hong Kong

We worked with Qantas to bring you all the best things in to do in Hong Kong, here’s part one of the series. 

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Landing in Hong Kong at night is like flying into a cauldron. The molten thicket of orange light and rising smoke, bobbing on an oil-black sea. That first impression lasts: this city is on the boil.

Diverse precincts creating a distinct voice in the worlds of fashion and art, the best marriage of old and new since Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, the humid heavy air that moves around you like something alive, and the food. Oh my non-denominational-god, the food.

For a mini-break, HK is a pretty solid choice for we young Australians. Flights from Sydney are a succinct eight hours and the city in motion found there more than worth it. Here’s our things-you-gotta-do when you make your own trip.

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Where To Eat

Australia Dairy Company

We couldn’t exclude this Hong Kong institution, despite its cringy, antipodean name. A quick walk from the Jordan train station, this place is a have-to, not particularly a want-to. There will be a line around the block, everyone will tell you to go to the nearby Yee Shun, and you will be shocked by how (famously) aggressive the service is. It’s all worth it. Once your gob gets a hold on the eggs at ADC, or if you’re brave, the macaroni milk pudding steamed egg turnover sandwich, all around will warp into the distance and you will exist for your taste buds alone.

Honorable mention: Yee Shun

Mak’s Noodle (Mak Un Kee)

So legendary they even have a wiki page, these wonton-mee will rearrange your idea of chain restaurants forever. Hong Kong do wonton in a specific style, and you’ll be eating a lot while you’re there, so it’s best to just cut the crap and go for Mak’s. The original restaurant was established before WWII, and it’s very obvious they got the formula nailed down fast and have stuck to it ever since. We recommend the beef.

Honorable mention: Tsim Chai Kee

Teakha

One thing we Australians will never truly nail is afternoon tea. We are a stress-Snickers eaten at our desk people. But Hong Kong, like most of Asia and all of Scandinavia, are awesome at it. Teakha expertly walks the line between being a western-influenced but traditionally minded Chinese tea-house, and their matcha cheesecake will convert you to afternoon tea for life.

Honorable mention: Lin Heung Tea House (this place is a serious, old school tea house – they don’t speak English and will not put up with any of your gluten-intolerance nonsense. It’s so great.)

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Where To Shop

Street Chic: Fa Yuen Street

Okay, this street has the largest concentration of sneaker stores in the whole world. It dominates a massive eight city blocks of Mong Kok and I swear to you, you’ve never seen sneakers until you’ve been to Fu Yuen. More colours and variations than when Jelly Beans went a bit doolally in the early 2000s. Ensconced on the Kowloon side of the harbour, you can find everything from limited edition Nike to Rick Owen’s at cut-price rates. Also, it’s kind of amazing just to look at.

Honorable mention: The Tsim Sha Tsui area

High-End Steal: Horizon Plaza, Ap Lei Chau

It’s impossible to properly describe what 28 floors of outlet stores looks and behaves like. I’ve seen beehives more chill than this place. This place is not for the weak, but the riches are many. Based in the residential area of the far south side of Hong Kong Island, this skyscraper of sartorial heaven bears no signage, no parking. But the things you can find here will take your breath away: we are talking 60 percent off (and further) labels like ACNE, Commes des Garcon, Givenchy and Chloe.

Honorable mention: Citygate Outlets, Tung Chung

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Where To Culture

Art Basel HK

Since 1970 the hyper-cool, globally acclaimed modern art festival Art Basel has been involved in connecting the world’s swankiest galleries (and their cashed-up patrons) to up and coming artists. Serving as a sort of fancy, high-priced, art-world Etsy, Art Basel sets up impressive festivals in cities you’d least expect them, from Miami to Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong iteration has the extra pull of setting up its multiple exhibitions in various abandoned spaces around the city, adding an extra element of curiosity for the young artists and buyers that travel from all around the world to gander.

Honorable mention: Feast Projects, on Ap Lei Chau island

PMQ

It’s kind of an amalgamate of fashion and art, so we’re calling it culture. PMQ is an acronym for Police Married Quarters (which it was, obvi) and it’s been reinvented into a seven-story complex of local fashion and jewellery designers and artists. Hong Kong reminds me a lot of New Zealand in that it’s somehow managed to forge its own relationship with both fashion and art, which has created a genuinely unique and interesting voice in both.

Honorable mention: Chinese New Year

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For more on Hong Kong culture and heritage, go here. Qantas is on sale now with flights to Hong Kong. Sale ends May 2, 2016 unless sold out prior. Conditions apply. Visit qantas.com for more details.