Hong Kong's Top 16
Star Ferry
1A floating piece of Hong Kong heritage and a sightseeing bargain, the legendary Star Ferry was founded in 1880 and plies the waters of Victoria Harbour in the service of regular commuters and tourists. At only HK$2.50, the 15-minute ride with views of Hong Kong's iconic skyline must be one of the world's best-value cruises. While the vista is more dramatic when you're Island-bound, the art deco Kowloon pier, resembling a finger pointing at the Island, is arguably more charming.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
The Peak
2Rising above the financial heart of Hong Kong, Victoria Peak offers superlative views of the city and the mountainous countryside beyond. Ride the hair-raising Peak Tram – Asia's first cable funicular, in operation since 1888 – to the cooler climes at the top, as skyscrapers and apartment blocks recede into the distance. At dusk Victoria Harbour glitters like the Milky Way on a sci-fi movie poster, mysterious and full of promise, as the lights come on.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Mong Kok Markets
3With its eclectic speciality markets Mong Kok is your best bet for a rewarding shopping crawl. Ladies' Market has a mile-long wardrobe covering everything from 'I Love HK' rugby shirts to granny swimwear. Exotic seeds and gardening tools sit next to buckets of fragrant florals in the flower market. Stalls displaying colourful aquatic life in softly humming, UV-lit tanks line the streets of the goldfish market. There are vertical markets too – a buzzing computer mall, and a multistorey gadget-lovers' heaven.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Man Mo Temple
4Experience Chinese folk religiosity in Soho. Permanently wreathed in sandalwood smoke from the hanging incense coils, the famous temple is dedicated to Man (literature) and Mo (war) and the gods who govern them. Formerly a cultural and political focal point for the local Chinese, the temple now commands a following beyond conscientious students and the martially inclined, as locals and tourists come to perform age-old rites and have their fortunes told.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Wan Chai Dining
5If you were to hurl yourself, eyes closed, into a random neighbourhood and expect to emerge smacking your lips, you'd stand the best chance if you were in Wan Chai. The district is home to a great many restaurants suiting a range of pocket sizes. Regional Chinese cooking, European cuisines, Asian kitchens, East–West fusion, classy, midrange, hole in the wall… Just name your craving and head on down to the Wanch; you're certain to find it there.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Temple Street Night Market
6Beneath the glare of naked bulbs, hundreds of stalls sell a vast array of booty, from sex toys to Nepalese daggers. You can browse for handy gadgets or quirky souvenirs, and test your bargaining skills. Nearby, fortune-tellers beckon in English from dimly lit tents, and Cantonese opera singers strike a pose. If you're hungry, the many open-air stalls offer snacks or a seafood feast. Sure it's touristy, but its mesmerising and impenetrable aura makes everyone – including locals – feel like a welcome visitor.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Hong Kong Wetland Park
7Surreally nestled under an imposing arc of apartment towers, this 61-hectare ecological park in crowded Tin Shui Wai is a swampy haven of biodiversity. This is urban/nature juxtaposition at its best and, curiously, most harmonious. Precious ecosystems in this far-flung yet easily accessible part of the New Territories provide tranquil habitats for a range of waterfowl and other wildlife. Try to forget the man-made world for a moment and delve into a landscape of mangroves, rivers and fish-filled ponds.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui
8An afternoon's visit to Tsim Sha Tsui's shopping quarters should yield a few gems. If you're seeking Chinese-style gifts, comb the streets near the southern end of the area for that silk gown, teapot or trinket. If glamour is what floats your boat, join the uber-wealthy mainland tourists for a card-swiping marathon in the mile-long block of luxury malls along Canton Rd. Want something unique? Head over to Granville Rd for that super-sized orange blazer or a micromall nearby for those asymmetrical earrings and thigh-high boots.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Big Buddha
9A favourite with local day trippers and foreign visitors alike, the world's biggest outdoor seated Buddha lords over the western hills of Lantau Island. Visit this serene giant via the Ngong Ping 360 cable-car. Negotiate the 268 steps to the three-platform altar on which it is seated and check out the three halls along the way. Reward yourself with some monk food at the popular vegetarian restaurant in Po Lin Monastery below. Buddha's Birthday in May is a colourful time to visit this important pilgrimage site.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Happy Valley Races
10Every Wednesday night the city horse-racing track in Happy Valley comes alive, with eight electrifying races and a carnival of food and beer. You can try your luck at betting or simply enjoy the collective exhilaration and the thunder of ironed hooves. Races were first held here in the 19th century by European merchants who imported stocky stallions from Mongolia, which they rode themselves. Now there are races every week except in the sweltering months of July and August.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Riding the Trams
11Nicknamed 'ding dings' by locals, trams have been sedately chugging back and forth between the Eastern and Western districts of the Island since 1904. A century later the world's largest fleet of still-operating double-decker trams continues to negotiate pathways through the city's heavy traffic. Board a ding ding – Hong Kong's low-carbon transport option – and watch the city unfold like a carousel of images as you relax and ponder tomorrow's itinerary. It's the fun option, too: high fives between passengers on passing trams are not unheard of.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade
12Gleaming skyscrapers lined up between emerald hills and a deep-blue harbour with criss-crossing boats – Hong Kong's best-known imagery is of the Island but, like a hologram, its beauty only shimmers into view when you're looking from the Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade in Kowloon, especially after sundown. Home to windswept museums and a world-class concert venue, the promenade offers pockets of culture as you stroll its length, as intimate with one of the world's best views as you can get without falling into the water.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Hiking the Hong Kong Trail
13Once you've made it past the windy Dragon's Back ridge, the Hong Kong Trail sweeps you into rolling hills, secluded woodland and lofty paths that afford sumptuous views of the rugged south and its wavy shore. Starting from the Peak, the 50km route snakes across the entire length of Hong Kong Island, past beautiful reservoirs, cobalt bays and WWII battlefields. Spread over five country parks, this wonderful trail invites both easy perambulations and harder hikes.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Exploring Lamma
14If there were a soundtrack for the island of Lamma, it would be reggae. The island's laid-back vibe attracts herb-growers, musicians and New Age therapists from a rainbow of cultures. Village shops stock prosecco, and island mongrels respond to commands in French. If you hike to the nearest beach, your unlikely compass will be three coal-fired plants against the skyline, looking more trippy than grim. Then, in the glow of the day's final rays, head back for fried calamari and beer by the pier.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Walled Villages of Yuen Long
15Let Yuen Long's walled villages take you back over half a millennium to a wild and windy time when piracy was rife along the South China coast. Isolated from China's administrative heart, Hong Kong, with its treacherous shores and mountainous terrain, was an excellent hideout for pirates. Its earliest inhabitants built villages with high walls, some guarded by cannons, to protect themselves. Inside these walls today you'll see ancestral halls, courtyards, pagodas, temples and ancient farming implements – vestiges of Hong Kong's pre-colonial history, all carefully restored.
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Hong Kong's Top 16
Ruins of the Church of St Paul, Macau
16Macau's answer to the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty is a dramatic gate perched on a hill 26m above sea level, smack in the middle of the city. A sweep of stairs with landings and balustrades takes you to it, and then to nowhere. Once part of a 17th-century Jesuit church destroyed in a fire, the facade, with fine carvings and detailed engravings featuring Christian, Chinese and Japanese influences, is a captivating historical fragment and a document in granite of Macau's unique Mediterrasian culture.
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