- China Trip Planner
HongKong Architecture
- Chinese & Colonial Architecture
- Contemporary Architecture
- Statue Square
- Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building
- Ocean Park
- Former KCR Clock Tower
- Ocean Terminal
- Kowloon Mosque & Islamic Centre
- Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple
Over the years Hong Kong has played host to scores of Chinese temples, walled villages, Qing dynasty forts, Victorian mansions and Edwardian hotels. But Hong Kong’s ceaseless cycle of deconstruction and rebuilding means that few structures have survived the wrecking ball. Enthusiasts of modern architecture, on the other hand will have a field day.
Chinese & Colonial Architecture 
About the only examples of pre-colonial Chinese architecture left in urban Hong Kong are Tin Hau temples dating from the early to mid-19th century, including those at Tin Hau near Causeway Bay, Shau Kei Wan and Aberdeen. Museums in Chai Wan and Tsuen Wan have preserved a few buildings left over from Hakka Villages that predate the arrival of the British. For anything more substantial, however, you have to go to the New Territories or the Outlying Islands, where walled villages, fortresses and 18th-century temples can be found.
Colonial architecture is also in fairly short supply. Most of what is left can be seen on Hong Kong Island, especially in Central, such as the Legislative Council building, build in 1912, and Government House, the residence of British governors from 1856 till 1997. In Sheung Wan there’s the Western Market, built in 1906, and in the Mid-Levels the Edwardian-style Old Pathological Institute, now the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences and dating from 1905. The Old Stanley Police Station and nearby Murray House are important colonial structures in Island South. The Hong Kong Antiquities & Monuments Office itself housed in a British schoolhouse dating from 1902, has information and exhibits on current preservation efforts.
Contemporary Architecture
Manhattan it may not be, but Hong Kong has an increasingly attractive skyline (it was always dramatic) that is further enhanced by surrounding water and mountains, the sine qua non of traditional Chinese painting.
Hong Kong’s verticality was born out of necessity – the scarcity of land and the sloping terrain has always put property at a premium in this densely populated city. While reclaiming land has been a solution since as early as 1851, going upwards offers a viable, less costly alternative.
Some buildings, such as Central Plaza and the new Two International Finance Centre, seize height at all costs; others are smaller but revel in elaborate detail, such as the HongKong and Shanghai Bank building. A privileged few, such as the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, are even able to make the audacious move to go horizontal. Other prominent buildings include the Bank of China Tower, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the Lippo Centre, and the Center.
It’s not unfair to say that truly inspired modern architecture only reach Hong Kong when Sir Norman Foster’s award winning HongKong and Shanghai Bank building opened in Central in 1985. For the first time the territory was seeing what modern architecture can and should be: innovative, functional and startlingly beautiful.
Hong Kong has more than its fair share of booby-prize winners, but before anyone gets too judgmental about the territory’s New Towns and their less-than-inspired housing estates, they really should spare a thought for the thousands of refugees and illegal immigrants who were swamping the territory every day following the end of World War II, during the Cultural Revolution and in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. The government had to move them from squatter settlements and shoehorn them into housing blocks quickly; aesthetics took a back seat to four walls and a roof over their heads.
Statue Square
Statue Square, due south of Star Ferry pier, is divided roughly in half by Chater Road. In the northern part, which can be accessed via a pedestrian underpass from the pier, is the Cenotaph (Greek for 'empty tomb'), a memorial to Hong Kong residents killed during the two world wars. Due west is the venerable Mandarin Oriental Hotel (5 Connaught Road Central), which opened in 1963 and is consistently voted the best hotel in the world, and to the east the Hong Kong Club Building (1 Jackson Road), which houses a prestigious club of that name that was still not accepting Chinese members until well after World War II. The original club building, a magnificent four-storey colonial structure, was torn down in 1981 despite public outcry, and was replaced with the modern bow-fronted monstrosity there now.
Statue Square, on the south side of Chater Rd, is notable for its collection of fountains and covered outside seating areas; it is best known in Hong Kong as the meeting place of choice for tens of thousands of Filipino migrant workers on the weekend, especially Sunday, when it becomes a cacophony of Manilans, Vizayans and Ilocans.
The square derives its name from the various effigies of British royalty once on display here which were spirited away by the Japanese during the occupation. Only one statue actually remains a bronze likeness of Sir Thomas Jackson, a particularly successful Victorian chief manager of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank.
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building
1. Queen's Road Central
Fittingly, the statue of Sir Thomas Jackson in Statue Square is gazing at the stunning headquarters of what is now the HSBC (formerly the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank), designed by British architect Norman Foster in 1985. The two bronze lions guarding the bank's main entrance were designed by British sculptor World War Wagstaff to mark the opening of the bank's previous headquarters in 1935; the lions are known as Stephen and Stitt, after two bank employees of the time. The Japanese used the lions as target practice during the occupation, and you can still see bullet holes in the one to the right.
The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Building is a masterpiece of precision, sophistication and innovation The building reflects architect Sir Norman Foster wish to create areas of public and private space and to break the mould of previous bank architecture. The ground floor is public space, which people can traverse without entering the building; from there, escalators rise to the main banking hall. The building is inviting to enter – not guarded or off limits.
Ocean Park
oceanpark.co.hk; Ocean Park Rd; adult/child 3-11 HK$180/90; 10am-6pm Ocean Park, southeast of Aberdeen town centre, is a fully fledged amusement and educational theme park, complete with the celebrated Dragon roller coaster, Abyss Turbo Drop and other stomach-turning rides It is also something of a marine park, with a Pacific Pier housing seals and sea lions, daily dolphin and killer-whale shows, and aquariums. The Atoll Reef is particularly impressive, with around 2600 fish representing 200 species in residence. The walk through Shark Aquarium has hundreds of different sharks on view and scores of rays. Bird-watchers are also catered for, with aviaries and a flamingo pond.
The park is in two sections. The entrance is on the lowland side, where there are gardens and the Giant Panda Habitat, home to An An and Jia Jia. It is linked to the main section on the headland, where most of the attractions are found, by a scenic (and rather frightening for some) cable car. The headlands section affords a beautiful view of the South China Sea and at the rear entrance, where a giant escalator will bring you down to Tai Shue Wan and Shum Wan Road, is the Middle Kingdom, a sort of Chinese cultural village with temples, pagodas and traditional street scenes.
As well as Ocean Park has City bus package tickets that include transportation and admission to Ocean Park (adult/child HIZ,$204/102) from Star Ferry pier and Admiralty (bus No 629) daily, and from Hung Hom train station (bus No. 630) on Saturday and Sunday. Buses leave every 10 to 20 minutes from 9 or 9:30am to 3pm; the last buses return at 5:30pm.
Former KCR Clock Tower
Tsim Sha Tsui Public Pier; admission free; l0am-6pm Sun
Immediately southeast of Star Ferry pier, this 45m-high clock tower (1921) was once part of the southern terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR), built in 1915. Operations moved to the modern train station at Hung Hom to the northeast in late 1975. The station was demolished in 1978, though you can see a scale model of what it looked like if you visit the Hong Kong Railway Museum in Tai Po in the New Territories. A station just east of Chatham Rd South in Tsim Sha Tsui East now allows travel to Hung Hom and the old KCR East Rail as well as the new KCR West Rail, which terminates in Tuen Mun. A maximum of 15 visitors at a time are allowed into the clock tower for 15 minutes on Sunday only.
Ocean Terminal
Tel 2118 8668; Salisbury Road
To the north of the clock tower is Star House (3 Salisbury Rd), a frayed-looking retail and office complex. At its western end is the entrance to Ocean Terminal, the long building jutting into the harbour. It is part of the massive Harbour City shopping complex that stretches for half a kilometre north along Canton Rd and offers priceless views of Tsim Sha Tsui's western waterfront.
Ocean Terminal was built to serve passengers from the ocean liners that moor at Hong Kong's only large-scale pier. It is thus filled with top-end shops selling antiques and curios, carpets, designer clothing, jewellery and the like while the adjoining Ocean Centre has outlets largely catering to everyday shoppers Ocean Terminal is not the place for cheap souvenir hunting, but it's interesting for a stroll.
The stunning blue and-white colonial structure on the hill above where Canton and Salisbury Rds meet is the former Marine Police Headquarters, built in 1884.
Kowloon Mosque & Islamic Centre
Tel 27240095; 105 Nathan Rd; 5am-10pm
This large Taoist temple complex adjacent to the Wong Tai Sin housing estate, was built in ]973 and is dedicated to the god of that name, who began his life as a humble shepherd in Zhejiang province. When he was 15 an immortal taught Wong Tai Sin how to make a herbal potion that could cure all illnesses. He is thus worshipped both by the sick and those trying to avoid illness. He is also a favourite god of businesspeople. The image of the god m the main temple was brought to Hong Kong from Guangdong province in 1915 and initially installed in a temple in Wan Chai, where it remained until being moved to the present site in 1921.
Like most Chinese temples, this one is an explosion of colourful pillars, roofs, lattice work, flowers and shrubs. If you come in the early evening - Friday evening is the busiest time - you can watch hordes of businessmen and secretaries praying and divining the future with chim, bamboo 'prediction sticks' that must be shaken out of a box on to the ground and then read by a fortune-teller (they're available free to the left of the main temple).
Behind the main temple and to the right are the Good Wish Gardens (HK$2 donation requested, 9am-1pm Mon, 9am-4pm Tue-Sun), replete with colourful pavilions (the hexagonal Unicorn Hall with carved doors and. windows is the most beautiful), zigzag bridges, waterfalls and carp ponds.
Just below the main temple and to the left as you enter the complex is an arcade filled with dozens of booths operated by fortune-tellers, some of whom speak English.
The busiest times at the temple are around the Chinese New Year, Wong Tai Sin's birthday (23rd day of the eighth month – usually in September) and at weekends. Getting to the temple is easy. From the Wong Tai Sin MTR station, take exit B2 and then follow the signs or crowds (or both).
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