Let's Walk Through Hong Kong

Feb 24
7 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Hong Kong is best understood on foot. It might feel like a mega metropolis, seen through cinema as a heart of intense action and a neverending skyscraper skyline, but in reality this walkable city is best enjoyed meandering. Not rushed. Not optimised. Just walked.

This is a city that reveals itself in layers, uncovered by weaving through side streets, craning your neck upwards, and letting the hum of life set the pace. Snacks between temples, street markets, and design details spotted mid-crossing.

Every corner feels alive with contrast. Old and new, sacred and electric, nature and steel. A place where the past hasn’t disappeared, it's simply learned how to coexist.

Below is one way Hong Kong unfolded.

Day 0.5: Looking Up, Always

To walk Hong Kong is to look up.

Skyscrapers rise like vertical cities, while temples sit calmly at their feet, incense curling into the same sky as neon signage. There’s something grounding about this proximity. Spiritual life and financial life sharing the same pavement.

The first evening was about easing in.

A gentle stroll from Jordan to the harbour, past cartoon alley. Past claw machines and cheap Korean fashion. The waterfront, where skyscrapers flicker like circuitry and the water holds everything together.

A city shaped by colonial history, migration, trade, and tension. A place where identities overlap. Missed the light show which takes place at 8pm every evening but breathed in the air and watched the boats go by.

Familiar sights from a trip to Japan called for a necessary Don Don Donki run for toothpaste and accidental snacks. Not as cheap as Japan, but Hong Kong has one of the highest rents in the world which trickles down to shopping. The city has a way of turning errands into experiences though. Temple Street Night Market followed. Lanterns overhead, sticky skin from a surprising tropical temperature, voices colliding. The city’s first lesson arrived early: trust the street. If you see people sitting out, join the atmosphere.

Dinner came quickly and without fuss. Sat on a plastic chair on the pavement, iced lemon tea cooling against the warm night and spicy beans and tofu were enough to satisfy the body, regardless of what time it thought it was after 20+ hours of travel.

Then sleeping on the 13th floor, in a tiny room, cigarette smoke drifting off the communal balcony but the feeling of life touching every sense.

Day 1: A City of Colour Diaries

Hong Kong reads like a moving colour palette.

Temple reds pressed up against concrete greys. Starting in Jordan, heading north to Yaumatei Tin Hau Temple, where incense smoke rises quietly between apartment blocks and men lazily play mahjong in the city park. Dedicated to Mazu/Tian Hou, the Sea Goddess, inside a boat covered in gold to bring good luck to travel. This temple built by fishermen in 1865, is an oasis of reflection.

On to Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market glowing in lacquered greens and sunset oranges. A traditional market, originating in 1913 and designated a Grade II historic building, with fruits from all over the world, giant muscat grapes, Japanese peaches, seasonal varaties with unknown names you've never seen before. Prices are high but browsing is a treat.

Dim sum came late morning at Dim Dim Sum. Generous, warm but slightly underwhelming (maybe as a meat eater you'd do better). Circling through Ladies Market. Sneaker Street, trendy shops for homeware like Hak Dei. 618 Shanghai Street, a makers market and very friendly jewellery seller named Henry Lee who halved the price of a handmade silver ring which felt like a special, good luck momento.

This was a long walk kind of day.

Then further north to Sham Shui Po, where the city feels more industrial, more textured and full of local life. Blush pink tiles stacked beside ageing stone. Craving late lunch at Kung Wo Beancurd Factory. Soft tofu, simple flavours, deeply comforting, but was still full of dim sum for one.

Sham Shui Po rewards curiosity. Knitting factories that sold to Bruce Lee. Antique shops for cassette shopping. Electronics, cameras piled ceiling-high, although with extortionate prices and no warrenty. A hub full of people trying to make a living and avoiding being pushed out for the more modern, squeaky clean shopping malls. Design here is accidental but perfect. Vegetarian dim sum, mango shaved ice break and mochi and frozen yoghurt sealed the evening whilst strolling all the way back down through different streets from the way one came.

Day 2: Old Meets New, Contrast

An early MTR crossed the harbour. The shift is immediate.

On Hong Kong Island, things feel slicker, more polished. Glass, chrome, fast movement. Kowloon, by contrast, carries more grit. Life presses closer. Together, they tell a lot of the story.

Hong Kong Island feels dense, vertical in a different way. Inclines and steps built into the pavement, the world's longest system of travelators and escalators, natures hillside behind the humanmade tallness. Breakfast of takeaway milk tea at Lan Fong Yuen, a ritual in itself. The birthplace of Hong Kong Milk tea, sweet, but still with the dark taste of the leaves.

Then a stroll to G.O.D, where Hong Kong exclusives and soveniers live side by side in design form. Lunch is a takeaway pinapple bun from Bolo Bolo, handmade ketchup, egg and soft sweet bread breaking through the neverending dim sum of the city.

Then a long walk toward Times Square. There’s a constant hum of life on every street corner. Fast, dense, not as emotional as the Kowloon side, but pockets of old life. Weave through the Chanel shops, past M&S, muddle through it slowly. Shopping unfolded: Bubble Shoes, iconic HK beauty brand Two Girls, tucked between global brands. If big brand shopping is your thing, this is the place.

A stop at trending Bakehouse for an egg tart. Not one to queue for a TikTok famous place, but this was worth it. Crunchy sourdough pastry with rich caramalised egg custard, still warm from the oven.

And the walk continues. Down hills, onto platforms, back across the water.

Dinner landed at Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop. An unassuming Michelin recommended noodle place. Seated with strangers around a tiny table for handmade noodles, with heaps of ginger and spring onion, greens, oyster sauce. Rich, warming, exactly right after a long city day.

Day 3: Old Hands, Steady Brushes

The morning started softly with congee from a spot just around the corner. No need to overthink it. Shredded lettuce and corn mixed across steaming soft rice.

Wong Tai Sin Temple followed. A sacred place to pray for good fortune and future. Statues of each zodiac in human-like form guard the door and fortune tellers wait to provide readings for those in need. The sound of sticks being shaken in pots until one falls out to provide guidance and koi fish and turtles lazily swimming back and forth in the small pond.

Colour everywhere. Red pillars, gold details, pops of pink layered together.

On then, through shopping malls to Namco gaming centre for a daily fix of claw machines. Followed by adventure. Tucked away from the main currents of the city, sits Yuet Tung China Works, Hong Kong’s last remaining hand-painted porcelain factory.

Founded in 1928 and still family-run, still painting everything by hand, this space feels suspended in time. Floor-to-ceiling porcelain. Shelves stacked high with works-in-progress. Kilns humming nearby. Watching this level of craft feels grounding.

Inside, the rhythm is slow and deliberate. Watching artisans paint intricate details by hand, each stroke precise and unrepeatable, is a quiet lesson in patience. Nothing breaks, despite all logic suggesting it should with towers of ceramic this tall. Searching for hours for the perfect piece, gift, memory to take home. Craftsmanship here isn’t nostalgia. It’s continuity. Proof that care can survive speed.

Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery came next. Calm geometry. Wood, water, balance. A pause. Tall skyscrapers peaking over the garden walls, jasmine and lotus flowers. An elaborate and peaceful bonsai garden with bells quietly ringing from a distance. And a sunset just peaking through from the vast sky reaching over the city.

Dinner brought things full circle with another visit to Mong Kok one last time for final souvenirs. Warm dumplings. Classic tofu pudding with sticky ginger syrup. Young and trendy kids hang out at T.O.P mall shopping for the latest Japanese anime figures and Korean fashion. Stocking up on discounted asian beauty at Lung Fung Mall. The city repeating itself, but differently.

Day 4: Looking Back Before Leaving and The Sound of Moving Through

Breakfast at Victory Restaurant set the tone. Classic, no-frills. Like stepping into an old caf time capsule. Walked past the line at trending Australian Dairy Company, all the way down the street, and wondered why not more people go to local favourites instead. Classic eggs and french toast and more iced tea of course

Back to Hong Kong Island a final time. The tram up to Victoria Peak revealed the scale of it all. Stepping off straight into an overpriced mall was strange, like a dystopian Disneyland, but once out in nature (not from the paid viewpoint) the sight of skyscrapers, harbour, hills beyond. Hong Kong from above looks impossibly dense and perfectly placed.

Walked more. Walked down. Almost vertical hillside and giant butterflies. Central came next. Wandering Cat Street. Antiques. A camel flask bought, small but useful and only made and purchasable in Hong Kong. Past Man Mo Temple. Then down past handmade stamps and to seek out the freshest Sichuan spices.

Always listening as Hong Kong has its own soundtrack. Traffic light beeps echo through narrow corridors of buildings. MTR chimes ripple underground. Birdsong cuts through the mechanical hum of building work.

These sounds layer themselves naturally, like a composition that only exists when you’re inside it. Music here isn’t separate from place. It’s embedded in the movement. Recorded some sounds to backdrop future music and make drum beats from and stood still and paused whilst listening.

The ferry back to Kowloon slowed everything down. Water as a reset. Avenue of Stars at dusk to see the sunset and reflect on time here.

What makes Hong Kong quietly magnetic is its refusal to choose one era. A temple nestled between office towers. A century-old craft workshop beside a convenience store glowing fluorescent green. Handwritten signs sharing space with LED screens. This is a city that teaches observation. That rewards curiosity. That leaves colour stains, smells and dreams of food on the mind long after you’ve gone.

A final veggie dim sum dinner. Checking out K11 Art Mall and then back to Temple Market for dessert and to buy a £3 souvenir t-shirt. Packing, reluctantly.

🎧 The Hong Kong mini-playlist is now live on Spotify. Featuring Hong Kong artists to discover, alongside tracks overheard drifting from shops, streets, and open windows. Songs that feel like walking.