Aberdeen is the oldest face of Hong Kong’s harbour culture. For generations, the Tanka boat people lived their entire lives on the water in this sheltered bay — born aboard, married aboard, raised their children aboard, and died aboard without ever having a permanent address on land. The typhoon shelter today still holds hundreds of fishing vessels, sampans, and liveaboard boats, though the permanent floating population has shrunk to a fraction of what it was.
The sampan tour is the essential Aberdeen experience. The women who operate these small flat-bottomed motorised boats navigate through the moored vessels with casual expertise, pointing out the traditional fishing junks, showing you how the shelter protects against typhoons, and passing close enough to the liveaboard boats that you can see someone cooking dinner in a galley the size of a wardrobe.
Aberdeen Promenade along the waterfront is a pleasant walk with views across the shelter to the hills behind. The Aberdeen Fish Market operates wholesale in the early morning, and the surrounding streets have retail fish and seafood shops open through the day. The restaurants along the waterfront do excellent steamed fish, salt and pepper squid, and fresh crab.
Ocean Park is Hong Kong’s major theme park, adjacent to Aberdeen, and genuinely worth visiting — better than many visitors expect. It has a serious marine biology centre alongside the roller coasters, with excellent giant panda and Chinese alligator exhibits, and a section of thrill rides with views of the South China Sea that are objectively spectacular even if you are too nauseous from the ride to appreciate them.