16 Ascott LIVING
lesson, rolling past swish areas like
Admiralty, the vaguely dodgy environs
of Wanchai, the utterly commercial
Causeway Bay. Sit on the top deck,
at the rear, and behold the soaring
residential blocks festooned with
washing and the occasional balcony pot
plant. At ground level, shops of every
description yodel their wares in a blaze
of signage, while a large proportion
of Hong Kong’s seven million citizens
scurry back and forth across the road
and along the pavements, carting
shopping, wielding their smartphones
like a magician’s wand, lugging parcels,
M0nday
Up in the air
At HK$100 a minute, a helicopter tour of Hong Kong (www.
heliservices.com.hk) might seem
a tad expensive ¬ but it’s worth
every cent. The six-seater MD902
Explorer’s outsize, crystal-clear
windows make this the next
best thing to strapping yourself onto a drone. And it makes
a trip up Victoria Peak (www.
thepeak.com.hk) look touristy.
Tuesday
Island getaway
Yin to the concrete jungle’s yang,
the outer islands are a great
getaway, not least as the ferry
ride (www.nwff.com.hk) is a mini
sightseeing excursion in itself. It's
a treat to see a different side of
Hong Kong and to get out to sea.
Cheung Chau’s harbour and its
maze of streets and alleyways are
the top destination, especially when
combined with some lunch —
ideally a seafood meal on the praya.
Photos: Getty Images (Main, MacLehose Trail)
Causeway Bay, the station between
Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po is still
called Prince Edward, and nobody has
proposed replacing the Cenotaph –
which commemorates the Allied dead
of numerous nationalities from two
world wars – with a shopping mall.
“Veni, Vidi, Visa: I came, I saw, I
shopped” could well be Hong Kong’s
unofficial motto – customers can
stroll for kilometres past designer
label boutiques in Central’s various
interconnected malls without once
having to bother about traffic or set
foot on a pavement. But the city’s
cosmopolitan make-up is as important
as its retail scene. If the bulk of the city
is Chinese, and specifically Cantonese,
then there’s considerable international
garnish in the shape of a British legal
system, and a business ethic that owes
much to American can-do. Resident
entrepreneurs as diverse as an Icelandic
technology salesman, a Belgian essential
oils dealer and a Brazilian tango
instructor are all drawn by a lack of red
tape, a general air of prosperity and
the prospect of one billion customers
right next door. Youthful Nepalese
staff the bars and restaurants in the
nightlife quarters, and on Sundays
public parks and squares are submerged
by Filipino and Indonesian domestic
workers celebrating their day off with
great dollops of gusto. Hong Kong’s
not so much a melting pot as a vast
buffet catered by the United Nations.
For the past 100 years and more, the
northern fringe of Hong Kong Island
has been patrolled by trams that look
nothing so much like a squashed biscuit
box on wheels. From Sheung Wan
in the west to Chai Wan in the east,
they trundle along, slower than the
underground railway, more cramped
than a bus, and
a fraction of the
Above right: A wooden
signpost at Sai Wan
cost of a taxi.
beach directs hikers on
the renowned MacLehose For anyone keen
trail, with directions in
to get to know
both English and Chinese.
Hong Kong, the
Right:The funicular Peak
Tramway climbs up to
tram (deen chay
the heights of Victoria
Peak giving passengers
– electric car)
a stunning view of Hong
provides a gentle
Kong's modern beauty
in the background
introductory
delivering meals, bustling off to some
sort of educational class, shepherding
elderly relatives or kindergarteners
or both, up and down and round and
round like so many mahjong tiles being
shuffled. The tram ride is as much a
lesson in anthropology as geography,
and there’s a historical element too.
Back in 1904 the tram ran along the
shoreline, but successive reclamations
– Hong Kong’s cripplingly short of
building space – over the years have
set a barrier between the rails and
the water. Best of all, at HK$2.30
a ride, this rates as the cheapest
sightseeing tour just about anywhere.
Hong Kong conversations have two
standard openings. “How long have you
been here?” and “Where do you live?”
both bearing the subtext: “What are
you worth?” as anyone who’s been here
more than a few years should really
have upped their assets significantly,
and occupy accommodation that’s
reasonably salubrious. As a footnote,
in a city of apartment dwellers, a
lawn mower is a telling status symbol,
though I don’t mention mine unless
whoever I’m talking to is starting to
spout too many zeroes. Besides money,
the other great conversational topic is
food. And the other great introduction
to Hong Kong is to sally forth to a dim
sum restaurant early in the morning.
Cantonese maintain a lifelong
devotion to dim sum, so it follows
that any restaurant that remains in
business must be doing something
right. Lin Heung, on Wellington Street
in Central, has been serving barbecued
pork dumplings, spring rolls, and the
like since 1918, and it’s a restaurant
I relish as much for its atmosphere as
its food. Nobody on the management
team has bothered with revitalising
the décor, and you may find yourself
sitting on a folding stool. No matter,
this is part of the fun, as are the cawing
waitresses pushing steami