Hong Kong travel advice?

I'm going to be in and around Hong Kong around Christmas. What are some things I should see and do? Anything I should avoid? Any good travel advice for that part of the world or customs I should be aware of? I'm also thinking of visiting Tokyo on the same trip, but haven't decided yet. This will be my first time visiting Asia. If all goes as planned I will carry-on all my luggage.

Thanks for any advice,
-David

You will likely find both cities to be more modern and significantly slicker than any city you have visited in the US. HK trails only Shanghai and certain provinces of Sichuan as harboring some of the prettiest women in China. Cuties abound around Tokyo and neighboring prefectures. That is all you really need to know about HK and Tokyo .

Usual places for tourists would be:

The Peak: to see the harbour of Hong Kong and the real concrete jungle on both sides of it.

The Avenue of Stars: in the evening to look at Hong Kong from Kowloon side. They may even have laser performances at 8pm if you are there on the right evenings.

Lantau Island: to see the Bo Lin Monastery with its giant Budda statue and, on your way down the hill, to see Tai O and the floating houses there.

The most useful tip in Hong Kong to remember that everything is paid for in Hong Kong $, not US$. People ask you to pay in US$ are bul_-shi_ting you. And when buying electronic goods, stick to the big chainstores such as Broadway, Fortress, TaiLinRadio etc. Other stores, especially many in the Tsimshatsui and Causeway Bay areas have known to rip off tourists quite regularly. Many of these chainstores can be found in SaiYeungChoi Street in Mongkok area (Underground train MTR accessible). Do your research beforehand and know the exact models you want to buy. A usual trick is that they will say the model you want has been deleted and you should go for another model - usually a cheaper model and they will say it is a better and more expensive model. The once popular trick was that when a Tourist asked for Canon EOS1, the salesman would say this was no longer available but the more expensive model was EOS1000 as it had a higher model number. As we all know, in Canon, the highest specs are always in the machines with the lowest model numbers. Be careful.

Finally, the most important place to visit is Apliu Street in Shamshuipo (MTR accessible). This is where you would achieve your utmost orgasm. This is where you will find all your fires: Surefire, Ultrafire, Trustfire and Set-fire (to your wallet)!

Hope this info would be a good start for you. Good luck.

Don't go to Disneyland. Its really small.

I got free tickets because my uncle works there. lol

ps. If you want to go to a theme park, go to ocean park.

Windscale said:

The most useful tip in Hong Kong to remember that everything is paid for in Hong Kong $, not US$. People ask you to pay in US$ are bul_-shi_ting you.

Click to expand...

And if you didn't already know, here are the current exchange rates It's a big difference!

1 Hong Kong dollar = 0.128185 U.S. dollars (US$0.13)
1 U.S. dollar = 7.80122479 Hong Kong dollars (HK$7.80)

Windscale said:

Finally, the most important place to visit is Apliu Street in Shamshuipo (MTR accessible). This is where you would achieve your utmost orgasm. This is where you will find all your fires: Surefire, Ultrafire, Trustfire and Set-fire (to your wallet)!

Click to expand...

LOL! :laughing: Well-said!

What DrfT3R said about Ocean Park. A visit to HK is never complete w/o a trip to the always expanding OP . If you have a Palm, or Windows Mobile device, purchase and install PlecoDict. I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese, have studied Chinese abroad at Fudan University, Shanghai, and continue to find PlecoDict an invaluable resource to this day. And in all honesty, the nightlife in HK these days pales in comparison to what neighboring Shenzhen offers.

Windscale said very well!
Here is no gun city, don't take it. :nana:

Mongkok is shopping paradise, you can find the finest all over the world with reasonable price.
Sure Apliu Street in Shamshuipo is the heaven for flashaholic. You can find 90% of current production market flashlight there.

If you like hiking, just 1 hrs taxi, you can reach wonderful trials around Sai Kung. Sure you need good preparation before start.

We got a efficient government, rare to hear corruption.
Police is quite helpful too.

New years fireworks over Hong Kong Harbour is pretty good, but they close a lot of streets on Kowloon peninsular which can be a pain, especially as we needed to get the airport (midnight in the departure lounge).
The best advice we got was to check in early at the desks in the central train station. We got to offload our hold luggage so we could walk back into town to spend the day shopping. We could then wait as late as we dared knowing that we just needed to get through security, but there is a separate security point as you get off the train so there was no queue.
N

Thanks for all the replies guys, keep them coming!

I'm definitely going to do some flashlight shopping while there, and visit ocean park.

Is PlecoDict a program to learn Chinese or more of a translator?

Is there anything besides electronics to look for in Mongkok? Will I be able to get some good deals on watches?

I've been told for food I should just find a street vendor, is this correct?

Download, are there any knife laws I should be aware of? are locking blades under 3 inches ok or not? What about a swiss army knife?

Everything that has been said here has been very helpful!

I highly suggest not carrying any blades, swiss army knife is marginal.
I took swiss army knife with me to camp in country side only.
You will be in trouble if you do not have right reason to carry 3 inches blades in city.
Our street crime rate is low, even it happened, most of the time local people will help to fight.

A prepay local slim card for you phone will be useful. It is cheap per air time even for oversea call. We use 900MHz, 1800MHz & 3G only.

Buy a prepay Octopus card, for using like McDonald, Bus, MTR(subway), 7-11,.......no more coins.
It will charge you a little when you return it within 3 months, still worth it.

Every local restaurant is fine, Chinese restaurant are even better, cheap price for world class Chinese taste.

You can easily find watch in MongKok, from Casio to Rolex. Mostly the cheapest place all over the world.
Seiko is 2/3 price compare to Tokyo. Still check the price before you go.