Central is where Hong Kong’s money lives, where its colonial history is most legible, and where you feel most acutely the collision of East and West that defines this city. The HSBC headquarters by Norman Foster stands across Queen’s Road Central from the Bank of China tower by I.M. Pei — both are exercises in architectural ambition, built within years of each other in the 1980s, and they face each other in permanent stylistic conversation.
The Mid-Levels Escalator runs for 800 metres through the hillside from Central Market to the upper residential districts, and the neighbourhood it passes through — SoHo — has become Hong Kong’s most internationally recognised dining and nightlife area. Elgin Street and Staunton Street have restaurants from Nepalese to Argentinian, Japanese izakayas, wine bars, and cocktail lounges jammed into the narrow lanes between old apartment blocks.
Hollywood Road runs parallel to the escalator and is the centre of Hong Kong’s antique trade. The shops sell everything from Qing dynasty furniture to Mao-era propaganda posters to contemporary Chinese ink painting. The range and depth of inventory on this single street is extraordinary, and prices reflect genuine connoisseurship.
Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road is one of Hong Kong’s oldest and most atmospheric temples, dedicated to the gods of literature and war. The interior is perpetually clouded with incense smoke rising from the massive coiled incense cones that hang from the ceiling, burning slowly for days. It is one of the most photographed interiors in the city.
The IFC complex on the waterfront adds the most contemporary layer — a 415-metre tower, a connected shopping mall above the Airport Express terminal, and the Four Seasons hotel with a rooftop pool that looks directly across to Kowloon at night.