Travel: Hong Kong

e’ve all experienced that sinking feeling when, having just settled in for a long flight, there’s a sudden jerky movement ahead and, whoosh, the seat in front comes sliding back to what feels like three inches away from your nose. Well, this wasn’t something I was going to have to worry about on one of Hong Kong Airlines’ brand new Airbus A330-200s planes, with all Club Class seating.

I was travelling on one of the airline’s inaugural flights from London Gatwick for a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong and I arrived at Chek Lap Kok airport well rested and ready to take on one of the most spectacular, dynamic and bustling places on Earth.

Although most of Hong Kong’s seven million inhabitants live in skyscrapers in the centre of Hong Kong Island, the “Special Administrative Region” is spread over an area of 1,130 square kilometres. Much of this is the New Territories to the north, a peninsula attached to the south of China surrounded by 265 islands, many of them wild and unpopulated. At the heart of this former British colony is Hong Kong Island, whose northern rim is lined with skyscrapers. Just across Victoria Harbour is Kowloon, the southernmost part of the New Territories.

Along the famous waterfront is the vast and elegant five-star Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, my home for the next two days. The décor pays homage to the Art Deco age, its lobby whose aesthetic recalls the grand ocean liners of the 1930s.

My huge room on the 26th floor had a plush, soft king-sized bed, a desk bristling with technology and floor-to-ceiling windows which allowed me to gaze, god-like, down on the frantic activity of the harbour and the distant skyscrapers of Kowloon. In complete contrast, the bathroom was a large black marble room with a deep tub and separate glass shower. All the fixtures came in dramatic gold plate. Walking between the room and bathroom felt like being transported between a Zen garden in Japan to Versace’s palace in Italy.

With such a short time in Hong Kong I decided to get out there and walk the streets of the downtown Central district and see where my nose took me. Most of this area is linked by elevated walkway with the mid-levels escalator (the largest outdoor escalator in the world) allowing easy pursuit of Hong Kong’s favourite hobby, shopping. For an alternative to the designer-mall swank I wandered the higgledy-piggledy collection of hillside streets with lovely old colonial-era buildings to see what cultural delights I could discover.

After passing locals gathered to practice Tai Chi and elderly Chinese ladies haggling at stalls for gnarled root ginger, I stumbled into a wet market. Nothing, certainly not a European fish market, can prepare you for the assault on the senses that is a big oriental seafood market. The staggering enthusiasm of the Hong Kong people to eat almost anything that lives in saltwater means that instead of a few silvery fishes lined up in orderly fashion, you get the sea turned upside down. There were vats of crabs bigger than dinner plates, giant shellfish, plastic tray after tray of fish – all alive. Things with feelers, things with spines, things the colour of ripe peaches that were crawling away down the street chased by men in aprons brandishing hooks and fire-hoses that spouted green seawater. There were fish that glared, others that snoozed, a few that fought against captivity with tireless ferocity, leaping from tanks and being gently restored to the water by women with big rubber gloves and landing nets.

Feeling brave after a close shave with a bowl of turtle soup, I decided to taste the distinctive local flavour of the sizzling street food and shared a plastic table in the shade of a bamboo tree with strangers, slurping my way through a giant bowl of noodles. Delicious.

Feeling fortified, I pottered on a little further to the atmospheric Man Mo Temple, on Hollywood Road, marvelling at its glittering statues and trying to stifle my coughing in the thick swirling clouds of sandalwood smoke.

Hundreds of years ago, so the story goes, Chinese fishermen passing by in their boats noticed this same smoky aroma as it wafted out from the shoreside temples and began calling this island in the South China Sea “Heung Gong” or Fragrant Harbour. Hong Kong is perhaps the only city in the world named for a smell.

I then took one of the old wooden trams along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, which seemed all the more antiquated as it ding-dinged its way between some of the world’s most famous skyscrapers, including the prism-like Bank of China tower designed by I M Pei, Norman Foster’s HSBC tower and the shimmering International Finance Centre which Batman jumps off in the film, The Dark Knight.

Every cuisine in Hong Kong is catered for, but for quality northern Chinese food we headed to Hutong at One Peking Road in Kowloon, which like all the best things in Hong Kong comes with an astounding vista, thanks to its position on the 28th floor. Our window-side table provided the best view for the Symphony of Light show – at 8pm daily the city erupts in a blaze of neon as more than 40 skyscrapers on both sides of the harbour emit coloured lights and laser beams.

On my second and final day we took the Peak Tram, a 120-year-old, impossibly steep funicular railway to the top of Victoria Peak. Everything I’ve heard about Hong Kong’s restlessness and energy is dramatically reaffirmed by the view at the summit.

From the peak we strode downhill for an hour and a half on a leafy trail heading into the suburb of Aberdeen (named after an Englishman, not the Scottish city). Aberdeen Harbour is home to one of the world’s largest restaurants, the aptly named Jumbo. It’s an enormous floating eatery accessible only via an antique junk ferry and one of the best places to try dim sum. Dim sum (which means “to touch the heart”) is the ultimate fast food – bite-size portions of dumpling, spare ribs or spring rolls that can be eaten at any time of day and are usually served in little steaming bamboo baskets.

One of the most magical experiences for me was catching the Star Ferry. The Star Ferry is Hong Kong’s answer to the London double-decker bus or the San Francisco street-car – an institution, a mode of transport and a tourist attraction rolled into one. The ferry takes passengers between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula, providing stunning views of the skyline on both sides. It’s probably one of the most amazing journeys in the world – and all for around 20p.

Even though this is my first time in Hong Kong, I had a real sense of being home away from home. Although it’s no longer British, I think the Chinese have realised that it’s best not to mess around too much with what made Hong Kong so great in the first place – namely, that it’s a city without rules. Its old colonial charm might be gradually disappearing but you can still pretty much do anything and buy anything you want and, take it from me, you can pack a lot into 48 hours – the locals certainly do.

THE FACTS

Return fares from London Gatwick with Hong Kong Airlines cost from £1,800 for Club Classic and £2,850 for Club Premier, including taxes and charges. Tel: 0844 371 8393, www.hongkongairlines.com

Nightly rates at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong start from HKD 3,900 (£317) +10 per cent per night for a Grand Harbour View Room. Tel: 0845 888 1234, www.hongkong.grand.hyatt.com; www.DiscoverHongKong.com