Travel Hong Kong

First time Hong Kong traveler? Hopefully the following will help you on your upcoming trip to Asia's World City. I've always liked travelling, but could never find the right resources to get me on my merry trip to foreign lands. Hopefully this "humble" entry will help with yours.

Warning. These set of recommendations are in no way responsible for you getting mugged, cheated or swindled from your money when you find out that you actually paid 5x the "retail" amount for that fake Louis Vuitton bag in that small stall in Mongkok.

This entry will morph over time, since I'll continually be adding new stuff when I get the chance (and also remember that I DO have a blog entry like this) So check back on every next trip, I suppose. :)

Resources:
1. Yellow Pages Map - your best friend going around hong kong :) http://www.ypmap.com/en/viewer.asp?mapService=LocationMap
2. Discover Hong Kong site http://www.discoverhongkong.com/login.html
3. Check the weather http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm
4. Hong Kong Airport http://www.hongkongairport.com

Places to visit:
1. Tsim Sha Tsui
- shopping: Harbour City, Park Lane, Cameron Road (lots of little clothes shops :) )
- sites: Space Museum, Avenue of Stars, Science Museum, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Clock Tower, Star Ferry

2. Central
- shopping: Landmark, IFC, Prince's Building, Alexandra House
- sites: Lan Kwai Fong/Soho (Weekend nights), Star Ferry, Peak Tram, Tea Museum, Hong Kong Park, HSBC Building, Bank of China Building

2a. The Peak

3. Admiralty
- shopping: Pacific Place, Queensway
- sites: Shangrila, Conrad hotel

4. Wan Chai
- shopping: street (small side shops) shopping, Wan Chai Computer Center, 298 [Computer Center]
- sites: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Golden Bauhinia, Central Plaza

5. Causeway Bay
- shopping: Lee Gardens I & II, Times Square, Sogo, Windsor, "Night" Bazaar
- sites: Victoria Park, Hong Kong Central Library

6. Kowloon Tong
- shopping: Festival Walk
- sites: ???

7. Mong Kok/Yau Ma Tei
- shopping: Bazaar "night" shopping.. go out to exit E2. Its a free for all place... :P if you want to go the the bazaar.. go 1-2 blocks. its a whole street of makeshift shops. perpndicular to the direction when you come out of the MTR exit.
- sites: ??

Here are a couple of suggestions during your one day trip in hk:

1. TST Harbour City: Take the (1) airport bus (~45min from airport@40HKD) or the airport express (~18mins from airport@80HKD)
http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/index2.jsp?byPass=t
http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/index2.jsp?byPass=t
http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/aguide/bus.html
A21 -3,4,5 preferably 4

2. Take a look around and see if you like the TST Harbour City... you can go shopping there later if you like
3. Star Ferry to Central: Go to the TST Star Ferry pier at the one end of harbour city and take the Star ferry(2.2HKD)
4. Central: once you get off, you'll be in Central. This is the business district, but there are still a lot of places to shop. Mostly the shops here are higher end, like Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton. Its also fun to see HK business people in action during lunchtime.. its as crowded as it gets.. and beware, they walk fast :) I'm not sure, but you can see HSBC and china bank building from the Star Ferry pier :P
5. Peak: Take the Bus#15 (if you want to go straight directly to the Peak, or you can take the scenic route by taking 15c bus to get to the peak tram station that will bring you up to the peak via a almost 45 degree tram path up on the mountain) from the Star Ferry (its actually a bus station terminal when you get off) Peak is one of the highlights of Hong Kong, so if you or your friend haven't been to HK, this is one of the places to go. There's a wax museum, some mini mall and some decent restos so you can have lunch there.
6. You can take the tram peak back down/bus back down. I'd suggest to go back down using the peak tram, because the lower terminal is just right beside the Hong Kong park (see 7)
7. Just right beside it is the Hong Kong Park... it has botanical gardens, aviary etc. Its a nice place to go to. It would be better during winter so the stifling heat isn't going to kill you outdoors, but nevertheless, its a good idea to pass by.
8. If you walk further towards the opposite direction from the peak tram station, you'll get to a mall called pacific place. Shangrila and Conrad hotel can be found here. The mall is pretty good.. it has a good combination of higher end and lower end shops. you might want to look around.. but if you want serious shopping, better hold it off until you reach causeway bay or tsim sha tsui.
9. right outside Pacific Place (along the main road) there's a tram stop. hehehe i'm sure you can ask people where the tram stop is if you have no clue, but there are directions everywhere. You should at least take a ride on it. Its almost symonymous to San Francisco's iconic tram, and usually the less posh people take it (because its cheap, too!) i'd bet you'd see old grandmas around the tram and probably lots of mainlanders. Its another side of hongkong to see aside from all the posh, stylized and fashionable yuppies you'll encounter in TST, Central or the Peak.
10. Take the tram until you get to the 6th stop. You'll know its the correct stop when the tram stop is right near an car overpass/bridge.
11. Go to Times Square. Go around (see above list on Causewaybay).
12. Take MTR from Causeway bay to TST again. CAuseawy Bay and TST are the shopping centers, so if you want to go shopping those are the best places to go
13. You can also take the mtr from TST (from harbour city its about a 10 minute walk to the nearest mtr station) to Mong kok. usually known for their night market.. stores usually start opening around 3-4pm.
14. After that, you can go back to the airport :)