Kowloon Things to Do

A trip to Hongkong is not complete without a visit to Victoria Peak.

Victoria Peak is a good location to view HK's magnificent night scene. Being 554 meters (about 1,817.6 feet) above sea level, The Peak (what it's called now) is the highest point within Hong Kong and occupies the western part of the island. Marvel at magnificent architectural structures around the island through this place!

To reach this very high part of HK,tourists can take the Peak Tram, a pleasant ride ascending the mountain. The tram has been in operation for over one hundred years, and to date, no accidents have ever occurred. Your journey aboard the tram will take eight minutes and upon reaching the summit you will see a seven storied building in the shape of a ship.

This is the Peak Tower in which there are several attractions namely, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium ( I got a separate page for this), and the Peak Explorer Motion Simulator.

As always, there are restaurants, shops for souvenirs and usual amenities.

You must walk along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade at night when all the lights on the tall buildings across the harbor are turned on for a spectacular free show.
The best time to see this wonderful view is during Christmas and Chinese New Year when even more lights are added to put Hong Kong residents and tourists alike in a festive mood.

Start at TST East near the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel and walk west toward the Star Ferry Terminal for a long stroll. If you just arrived in Hong Kong and want a quick glance at what you've travelled so far to see, then simply go through the New World Centre and begin from there toward the Star Ferry Terminal.

UPDATE: An even better free show starts at 20:00 as the Symphony of Lights decorates both sides of the harbor with laser beams and colored lights. The best vantage point for this performance is next to Bruce Lee's statue at the Promenade's Avenue of Stars near the New World Centre.

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This large and busy Taoist temple in the Wong Tai Sin district of New Kowloon, is dedicated to the Great Immortal Wong who lived in the 4th century A.D. Wong Tai Sin is regarded as the bringer of good luck and a healer of illnesses via a practice called Kau Cim where prayers are answered in the form of fortune telling Chi Chi Sticks. 100 sticks are placed in a bamboo cylindrical cup and the querent thinks silently or whispers it to the deity about their question. The shaking of the cylinder results in at least one stick leaving the cylinder and being dropped onto the floor. Each stick, with its designated number, represents one answer via an answer paper. The writing on the piece of paper will provide an answer to the question.

Open: 7am-5.30pm.

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Yau Mau Tei Jade Hawker Bazaar opens daily from 0900 to 1800hrs. It is near Gascoigne Road overpass just west of Nathan Road and split into two parts by the loop formed by Battery Street, has some 400 stalls selling all varieties and grades of jade from inside two covered markets.

There are top grade to cheap glass trinkets. Genuine jade can range in colour from a milky white to a deep translucent green. Fault lines or specks lower the value and the best stones are uniform in colour and cool to the touch. Jade has many imitations so, unless you are an expert, do not worry about intrinsic worth and stick to pieces which you like for their decorative value.

Be prepared to bargain hard and compare prices or unless you really know your nephrite from your jadeite, it is probably not wise to buy any expensive pieces here.

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Thousands of songbirds are displayed in intricately fashioned bamboo or elaborate wooden cages (which are also for sale and make great souvenirs) from some 70 stalls. The birds are valued not so much for their appearance but for their singing abilities. The bird garden opens daily from 0700 to 2000hrs.

This market is a wonderful place to visit, if only to marvel at how the Hong Kong Chinese (especially men) fuss and fawn over their feathered friends. The Chinese have long favoured songbirds as pets. You often see local men walking around airing their birds and feeding them tasty creepy-crawlies with chopsticks. Some birds are also considered harbingers of good fortune, which is why you will see some people carrying them to the racetrack.

If you want up-to-date tourist information of Hong Kong and Kowloon, I suggest that you visit the official tourism website at http://www.tourism.gov.hk/english/visitors/visitors.html

With modern internet technology, it is possible to see day-to-day photos of Hong Kong and Kowloon via webcams so that you will know what the weather is like. For the webcams in Hong Kong and Kowloon, you can visit the webpage stated below.

If you find that you are needing a bit of peace from all of the hustle and bustle in Hong Kong, try heading for Kowloon Park. It's conveniently situated between Canton Road and Nathan Road, and is surprisingly large and goes on a lot further than you expect.

There's a lake with birds swimming around on it, an aviary an a totem pole. You can also see people practising their yoga - the early morning seems best for this.

OK, so this is a blatant rip-off of Hollywood, and unless you are Chinese, you will probably not of heard of most of the names on the stars (Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan being exceptions), but it is a good place to people watch and see the locals. They seem to get quite excited by a lot of them.