Orientation

Visitor Information

Three HKTB counters are located in the arrival halls of the Hong Kong International Airport, all open daily from 7am to 11pm. In town, three HKTB Visitor Information & Services Centres are on both sides of the harbor. On the Kowloon side, a convenient office in Tsim Sha Tsui is right in the Star Ferry concourse, open daily from 8am to 8pm. On Hong Kong Island, an office is in the Causeway Bay MTR station (near exit F), open daily 8am to 8pm. It's rather inconvenient, however, unless you're in Causeway Bay; look for the F exit on Jardine's Crescent. If you're going to Victoria Peak (and who doesn't?), an HKTB kiosk is located in a vintage tram car, between the Peak Tower and the Peak Galleria, open daily 9am to 9pm.

If you have a question about Hong Kong, you can also call the English-speaking HKTB Visitor Hotline (tel. 852/2508 1234), available daily from 8am to 6pm. After-hours a telephone-answering device will take your call and a member of HKTB will contact you the next day at your hotel.

In addition to HKTB's free map, HKTB publishes a wealth of free, excellent literature about Hong Kong. Visitor's Kit is a booklet that gives a brief rundown of Hong Kong's major tourist attractions and information on shopping and dining, while Hong Kong Kaleidoscope outlines HKTB's current free classes and seminars in its excellent "Meet the People" program. Discover Hong Kong by Rail is useful for trips to the New Territories, while Hong Kong Walks is designed for those who like to explore on foot. Business travelers should pick up Hong Kong Leisure Guide for Business Travelers (also available for PDA download at www.discoverhongkong.com), while Hong Kong Family Fun Guide highlights children's sights and activities. In addition, invaluable leaflets are available showing the major bus routes throughout Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, and for current ferry schedules to the outlying islands.

Travelers with mobile phones can have their own virtual guide by purchasing a Mobile Host PIN card for HK$60 (US$7.80/£4.30) at HKTB offices and more than 100 telephone retail shops in Hong Kong. Good for 3 days, the guide provides information on shopping, dining, and sightseeing venues, including how to reach them. It alerts participants to specific shop sales, gives information on seasonal foods and menus, provides a 3-day calendar of events, tells the weather forecasts, gives 30-second or 3-minute spiels on attractions, and links callers to useful telephone numbers and hot lines. You can access the same information without a PIN card by dialing tel. *454, but international roaming charges will apply. You can also access the Mobile Host information through a WAP phone, allowing you to read about the chosen subject, at http://wap.hktb.com, by paying roaming fees. You can also download any of the Mobile Host commentaries on to your MP3 player for free at www.discoverhongkong.com/mobilehost, minus the last-minute information on sales, events, and other current tips.

And if you're traveling to Hong Kong with your PDA (Palm or Pocket PC), a similar free download is available from www.discoverhongkong.com. The Hong Kong Leisure Guide for Business Travellers includes maps (you can even pinpoint your location in Hong Kong if your PDA is equipped with a GPS device), information on sightseeing, shopping, and dining, and voice readings of useful Cantonese phrases.

To find out what's going on during your stay in Hong Kong, pick up HKTB's free weekly leaflet What's On -- Hong Kong, which tells what's happening in theater, music, and the arts, including concerts and special exhibitions in museums. The South China Morning Post, a local newspaper, also carries an events and exhibition section in its Sunday edition. HK Magazine, distributed free at restaurants, bars, and other outlets around town (and aimed at a young expat readership), is a weekly that lists what's going on at the city's theaters and other venues, including plays, concerts, exhibitions, the cinema, and events in Hong Kong's alternative scene. Where Hong Kong, CityLife, and bc are other free magazines published monthly with information on Hong Kong. Where Hong Kong and CityLife are distributed to rooms in major hotels and are also available at HKTB offices. bc is distributed to bookstores and restaurants.

Street Maps

You can get a free map of the SAR from the HKTB. It should be adequate for locating most hotels, restaurants, sights, shops, and bars mentioned in this book. Free giveaway maps are available at most hotels. If you want to explore Hong Kong in more detail, you can purchase an entire book with maps of the city region and areas in the New Territories called Hong Kong Guidebook, available at bookstores, but you probably won't need this. Online, electronic maps are available at www.ypmap.com and www.centamap.com (click "ENG" or "English" for the English-language versions).

Main Arteries & Streets

Hong Kong Island's Central District is larger now than it was originally, thanks to massive land reclamation. Queen's Road, now several blocks inland, used to mark the waterfront, as did Des Voeux Road and Connaught Road in subsequent years. Today they serve as busy thoroughfares through Central, since the steep incline up Victoria Peak follows close on their heels. From the Central District, Hennessy, Lockhart, Jaffe, and Gloucester roads lead east through Wan Chai to Causeway Bay.

It wasn't until 1972 that the first cross-harbor tunnel was built, connecting Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island with Tsim Sha Tsui East in Kowloon. In 1989 a second tunnel was completed under Victoria Harbour; a third tunnel was completed in conjunction with the Hong Kong International Airport.

On the Kowloon side, the most important artery is Nathan Road, which stretches from the harbor north up the spine of Kowloon Peninsula and is lined with hotels and shops. Salisbury Road runs east and west at the tip of Tsim Sha Tsui from the Star Ferry through Tsim Sha Tsui East along the waterfront. Also on the waterfront is the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade affording great views of Hong Kong Island.

Finding an Address

With a good map, you should have no problem finding an address. Streets are labeled in English (though signs are sometimes lacking in more congested areas like the Western District and Yau Ma Tei) and building numbers progress consecutively. For the most part, streets that run east to west (such as Des Voeux Rd. Central, Hennessy Rd., Lockhart Rd., and Salisbury Rd.) all have the even-numbered buildings on the north side of the street and the odd-numbered ones on the south. From Central, roads running through Wan Chai all the way west to Causeway Bay start with the lowest numbers near Central, with the highest-numbered buildings ending at Causeway Bay. On Nathan Road, Kowloon's most important thoroughfare, the lowest-numbered buildings are at the southern tip near the harbor; the numbers increase consecutively, with the evens on the east and the odds to the west.

Remember that the floors inside buildings follow the British system of numbering. What Americans call the first floor, therefore, is called the ground floor in Hong Kong; the American second floor is numbered the first floor. In addition, if you're trying to find a specific office or factory outlet in a big building, it's useful to know that number 714 means it's on the seventh floor in Room 14, while 2312 means Room 12 on the 23rd floor.