Travel To Hong Kong

Once this first sensory wave has rolled over you, though, take a deep breath and start swimming with the current, because you’ll find Hong Kong is a place to delight in. Utterly safe and fantastically well organised, it offers little moments of perfection. You may find them on a plastic stool enjoying a bargain bowl of beef brisket soup or simply gazing at the thrilling harbour vistas. You’ll find them taking afternoon tea in the cool of a five-star hotel lobby or enjoying balmy open-air beers in the party zones.

Hong Kong can nudge you out of your comfort zone but usually rewards you for it, so try the stinky beancurd, sample the shredded jellyfish, brave the hordes at the city centre horseracing and join in the dawn tai chi. Escape the city limits and other experiences await – watching the sun rise from a remote mountain peak, hiking surf-beaten beaches or exploring deserted islands.

If it’s pampering you’re after, money can buy the ultimate luxuries in a city well used to serving its tiny, moneyed elite. Yet Hong Kong is also a city of simple pleasures. Most often it’s the least pricey experiences – a $2 tram or ferry ride, a whiff of incense curling from temple rafters, savouring fishing-village sundowners and seafood – that are the stuff of priceless memories.

Valued throughout Asia for its beauty and elegance, jade is an especially desired keepsake for visitors to Taipei, which has hundreds of stores specializing in jade as well as the colossal weekend Jade Market. As a long-time resident of Taiwan, I’ve been asked on more than one occasion to accompany visiting friends to purchase jade, always declining due to my lack of anything even approaching expertise. So it was good fortune indeed to be invited to take a brief course in jade identification given by the gracious Roxanne Tu, Senior Gemologist at Taipei’s Museum of Jade Art.

Roxanne brings out a velvet lined box of nine jade bracelets and announces that we’ll be starting with a test. ‘Only three of these are real jade. The others are fake. Can you tell them apart?’ The bracelets passes from hand to hand, and are h

eld to the light, examined by five pairs of eyes. When we have separated them, using nothing more than beginners instinct (disqualifying ones that look too real to be true, for example), Roxanne smiles. She does not tell us whether we’d chosen wisely or not. Instead, she asks us if we are ready to learn about jade.

Chinese New Year is celebrated around much of the world – where there’s a Chinatown there’s invariably a Chinese New Year party – but there’s something special about being in one of China’s major cities for the the high point of the Chinese year. You can expect colourful decorations but not a whole lot of public merrymaking; for the most part, this is a family festival.

Throughout the country, the weeks in the build-up to the festival are an explosion of colour, with chūnlián (spring couplets) pasted on door posts, door gods brightening up alleys and streets, and shops glistening with red and gold decorations. Work colleagues and relatives present each other with red envelopes of money and the streets ring with cries of ‘congratulations, make money’.

In Beijing, the White Cloud Temple, the Lama Temple and other temples stage entertaining miàohuì (temple fairs). Celebrations are also held in parks such as Ditan Park. At night the city echoes to the sound of continuous fireworks.

in Shanghai there’s an explosion of fireworks at midnight to welcome in the New Year and ward off bad spirits, and special services are held at Longhua Temple an

d Jing’an Temple. Top restaurants are booked out well in advance for niányèfàn (New Year’s Eve dinner). Another explosion of firecrackers on the fifth day of the New Year heralds the arrival of the God of Wealth.

Essentials: This is China’s biggest holiday and all transport and hotels are booked solid. Demand for accommodation skyrockets and prices rise steeply. Many businesses shut up shop for a week. Local

Attractions: Beijing’s major sights are clustered around the huge concrete block of Tiananmen Sq, while sections of the Great Wall of China are within day-trip range of the city. Cosmopolitan Shanghai has fast become an eastern Milan, and shoppers will feel right at home on 5km-long Nanjing Rd. Take in the best Hong Kong vista from atop 552m Victoria Peak, with views across Kowloon, the business district and Victoria Harbour.

Nothing quite matches Hong Kong from above but, then, it’s difficult to get things wrong with mountains on one side, water on

the other and skyscrapers in the middle to provide the platform. And it’s not just for thrill-seekers; fantastic views of the harbour form the backdrop of some excellent restaurants and a fair number of bars and clubs as well.

Remember, too, that it’s not just about Hong Kong from the top down. Some of the most dramatic sights in the territory are those of Hong Kong from the ground up. Just stand at the water’s edge on the promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui and you’ll understand. Views on the move are another good way to soak up Hong Kong’s uniquely energetic vistas, whether it means boarding a Star Ferry or watching an urban panorama scroll by aboard a clanking, ancient tram.

The rush of energy you get from taking in this futuristic megacity’s outline and the amazing natural topography on which it’s built is immense. You need distance and perspective to do this properly and getting as high as you can (we mean physically) is one good way to enjoy this simple thrill. Head for the Bank of China Tower designed by China-born American architect IM Pei in 1990. Take the express lift to the 43rd floor from where you’ll be rewarded with a panoramic view over Hong Kong.

From here you are about the same height as the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank to the northwest. It’s a pity that you aren’t allowed to go any higher, as it’s exciting swaying with the wind at the top. Even higher (though arguably not as dramatic) is the view from the windows of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Information Centre on the 55th floor of the Two International Finance Centre.

Weather

Both Hong Kong and Macau have a subtropical climate characterised by hot, humid summers and cool, relatively dry winters.

October, November and most of December are the best months to visit. Temperatures are moderate, the skies are clear and the sun shines. January and February are cloudy and cold but dry. It’s warmer from March to May, but the humidity is high, and the fog and drizzle can make getting around difficult. The sweltering heat and humidity from June to August can make sightseeing a sweaty proposition, and it is also the rainy season. September is a grand month if you like drama; the threat of a typhoon seems to loom every other day.

When to go

Hong Kong’s subtropical climate can make it a punishingly hot and humid destination during the summer months. June to mid-September is the hottest time when humidity soars. Summer is also typhoon season, when tropical storms sweep rain and high winds off the South China Sea.

Even in late spring and early autumn, wandering Hong Kong’s streets can be warm work. The best time to go climate-wise is in early spring (March and April) or late autumn (October and November), when the days are generally warm, fresh and (wind direction and mainland smoke stacks permitting) the air often clearer.Things can cool down a good deal in winter, when it can often be overcast (as opposed to merely smoggy) and temperatures may even feel chilly enough to don warmer layers.

Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hong-kong