BEDAZZLING HONG KONG
China’s in charge but this city still shines, discovers Max Hastings
THE first time I saw the blazing lights and towers of Hong Kong island it seemed the most exotic place in the world. As a fiercely acquisitive 24-year- old, I hurled myself into bargain shopping like a child given a week of Christmases.
Today, the shopping is long gone. Prices can be above even London’s, and vanished too are the Union Flag and Governor’s Rolls-Royce. Indeed, the former colony becomes ever more Chinese in character, coldly clasped in Beijing’s embrace.
Yet in a week-long family visit, I had a better time as a Hong Kong tourist than in 20 previous trips. The weather was perfect. And I had forgotten that hiking is a local passion, with a surprising number of wild routes.
Climb or take a taxi to the Peak, then the tram down. Scale the steps to the Big Buddha on Lantau island. Take the ferry from Stanley to the traditional fishing village of Po Toi and eat at one of its seafood restaurants. Stroll through the Bird and Flower Markets and, of course, take the Star Ferry back and forth between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
Between December and April, go strawberry picking at the Rainbow organic farm at Fan Ling in the New Territories. Enjoy Stanley street market, though I’ll eat my socks if you see any object a self-respecting British citizen would want in their own living-room. If you seek an unusual hotel experience, stay in the old Tai O police station on Lantau island.
For the MTR underground railway, buy an Octopus card on arrival, then for a hairy shopping experience, ride to the end of the line towards Shenzhen, the vast new metropolis just over the border in mainland China.
Shenzhen is a global capital of fakes — Gucci bags, Valentino shoes and a cornucopia of other stuff including customised art copying. Some of it is rubbish, some wonderfully seductive.
The peak of my culinary experience was dinner at Hutong, looking down from a 20th floor window on the night panorama of Hong Kong harbour amid the best Chinese food I have ever eaten.
Cheap it is not. Our bill was around £80 a head. We drank hot rice wine, which I love, rather than French vintages at stratospheric prices. It is possible to eat more cheaply, but if you have bought tickets across the world it seems silly to opt for bargain-basement dining.
A few more quirky outings: everyone raves about Jason Wordie’s guided historical walks, though I did not get around to trying one myself. My daughter, who lives in Hong Kong, recommends the fabric and ribbon market in Sham Shui Po, and a stroll in the Botanical Gardens.
Four days seems enough for a first-timer, and this is not a childfriendly city. The Chinese today display no sentimentality towards the British, the former colonial tenants, and why should they? Hong Kong’s residents of all nationalities have had only one purpose for the past two centuries: to make money — and that continues today.
The old colony is utterly different from when I first saw it in 1970. But how could it not be, when empire is long gone? What’s more, plenty has changed for the better.