The Peak
The lights were just coming on across Victoria harbour when Jackie Chan, dressed in a cream linen suit and suspended from a crane, flew in a graceful arc over my head, landing as lightly as a cat in front of the television cameras. The crowd that had gathered on the viewing terrace of the Peak to watch the martial arts film star being interviewed for a local TV show gasped and clapped their approval. As entrances go, it was a pretty good one.
The Peak is the number one tourist attraction in Hong Kong. Take the tram to the top of this impossibly steep hill and fight your way through the crowds in the shopping mall, past the Ripley's Believe it or Not! odditorium and the new Madame Tussaud's, to the viewing deck.
You probably won't see Jackie Chan but you will get to gaze god-like down on Hong Kong Island, the frantic activity of the harbour and the distant skyscrapers of Kowloon. The tranquil gardens of the Peak Café are the perfect spot for a coffee or ice-cream in the shade of a bamboo tree.
Shopping
Hong Kong is not the bargain basement it used to be for electronic goods and garments but few places can offer such a variety of shopping experiences. Try swish shopping malls such as the Landmark and Pacific Place for designer goods (the real thing, with real prices to match), Hollywood Road for antiques and giant malls such as Harbour City for everything else.
The huge night market on Temple Street with its dodgy designer rip-offs and bootleg CDs, palm readers and sidestalls selling murky bowls of turtle soup has a certain tacky charm while the flea market on Cat Street has a hotchpotch of stalls selling kitsch communist paraphernalia such as Chairman Mao side plates and lighters that play the communist anthem.
Traditional Chinese department stores such as Chinese Arts and Crafts and CRC may look unpromising from the outside but are the best place to find reasonably priced Chinese crafts, jewellery and clothing. If time allows, pick your way past the fruit and veg stalls and buckets of writhing eels on Graham Street and stock up on ginseng and Chinese herbs from one of the many wholesalers on Bonham Strand West.
The Star Ferry
The Star Ferry is Hong Kong's answer to the San Francisco cable car or the London double decker - an institution, a mode of transport and a tourist attraction rolled into one. For less than 20 pence the distinctive green and white ferries take passengers between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula. The seven-minute journey gives stunning views of the skyline on both sides, particularly beautiful at night when the skyscrapers are lit up.
There are also regular and cheap ferry services connecting the largest of Hong Kong's 200-plus Outlying Islands.
Lamma Island has some beautiful beaches and good seafood restaurants while sleepy Cheung Chau offers fishing junks, rugged coastal views and a welcome respite from the frenzied activity and traffic of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Green and rolling Lantau Island is undeveloped, although the arrival of a large mouse and his entourage in 2005 will change all that. Land reclamation work has already begun to make way for Hong Kong Disneyland although local environment groups are making valiant, if futile, attempts to minimise the impact. For the time being, the main attractions of Lantau are its good hiking terrain and the Po Lin Monastery with its huge bronze Buddha statue.
Body, mind, soul
Though it may not seem this way to an expat or a weekend visitor, there is more to Hong Kong than making money and spending it. Even the most futuristic skyscrapers are built along feng shui lines and the small and smoky temples are full at lunchtime with office workers and students lighting incense and shaking fortune sticks before gold-plated gods and their cluttered shrines piled high with fruit and flowers.
The Hong Kong Tourist Association can help you fix up an English-speaking tai chi class, feng shui workshop, horoscope reading or a Chinese medical checkup. Full of good health I skipped into the Happy Valley medical centre for my reflexology and pulsology session. One hour later I shuffled out with a weak heart, lungs and liver, poor circulation, malfunctioning digestive system, respiratory problems and a scribbled prescription in Chinese. Deflated, I paid a palm reader in Kansu Street two dollars to tell me that I would live to a ripe old age. He also told me that I had no luck for gambling and that I would only be happy if I married a 'little successful man'. His limited English prevented me from establishing whether the little referred to my future husband's success or his stature.
Dine in style
Hong Kong offers several culinary experiences which should not be missed and many that should. A close shave with a bowl of turtle soup in Temple Street convinced me that menus with pictures or dim sum restaurants where you point at food as it is wheeled round on a trolley were the safest options.
The Super Star Seafood Restaurant on Nathan Road offers a quite alarming range of dim sum options at lunchtime. Deep fried chicken feet and a wobbling, luminous orange blancmange goldfish were offered - and turned down - several times before something vaguely recognisable rolled by.
Make sure you leave room for afternoon tea - a British tradition which the five-star hotels here have turned into an art form. Try The Peninsula in Kowloon or the Mandarin Oriental on Hong Kong Island for the daintiest cucumber sandwiches and pastries.
In the evening, catch a ferry to Lamma Island to dine at one of the many seafood restaurants where the food is so fresh it's still alive. And, at some point in the evening, take the lift to the top floor of the Peninsula Hotel.
Philippe Starck designed the bar here: the drinks are pricey, the decor bizarre and it's full of very large, very successful expats, but the views across the harbour to the bright lights of Hong Kong Island will make the bar bill seem almost reasonable.
Fact file
A five-night stay with British Airways Holidays (0870 24 24 243) at the five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel costs £885 per person for departures between 1 February and 31 March. The price includes return scheduled flights, transfers, accommodation and UK taxes. The supplement to travel in Club World, BA's business class cabin, is £689 one way and £1,378 return, but it buys you the comfort of a seat which reclines fully to make a six-foot flat bed, now available on all BA's Hong Kong flights.
In addition the airline has installed its new World Traveller Plus cabin - an upgraded product for long haul economy travellers - on flights to Hong Kong. The new cabin features wider seats with greater legroom (38 inch pitch compared to 31 inches for World Traveller), extra handluggage allowance and seat back entertainment. World Traveller Plus fares start from £1,153.50 return including taxes. (0845 77 333 77).
