Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [46]
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WESTERN DISTRICTS
Sleeping Click here
Beyond Sheung Wan the districts of Sai Ying Pun ( Map) and Shek Tong Tsui ( Map) are often lumped together as ‘Western’ by English speakers. Kennedy Town is the working-class Chinese district at the end of the tramline.
While these districts are not perhaps among Hong Kong’s must-see areas, they do contain pockets of interest and important historical links. Kennedy Town’s maritime connections can still be felt the closer you get to the Praya (officially Kennedy Town New Praya), the name of which comes from the Portuguese praia meaning ‘beach’ or ‘coast’, which was commonly used in Hong Kong in the days when Portuguese merchants were a force to be reckoned with on the high seas.
The area wedged between the Mid-Levels and Sheung Wan doesn’t have an official name as such, but is usually called Pok Fu Lam after the main thoroughfare running through it. It’s a district of middle-class housing blocks, colleges and Hong Kong’s most prestigious university.
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TRANSPORT – WESTERN DISTRICTS
Bus Bus 3B from Jardine House in Central, buses 23, 40 and 40M from Admiralty, and bus 103 from Gloucester Rd in Causeway Bay all stop along Bonham Rd ( Map).
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HONG KONG UNIVERSITY Map
2859 2111; www.hku.hk; Pok Fu Lam Rd; 23 & 40M from D’Aguilar St in Central
Established in 1911, HKU is the oldest and most prestigious of Hong Kong’s eight universities. The Main Building, completed in the Edwardian style in 1912, is a declared monument. Several other early-20th-century buildings on the campus, including the Hung Hing Ying (1919) and Tang Chi Ngong Buildings (1929), are also protected.
The University Museum & Art Gallery ( 2241 5500; www.hku.hk/hkumag; Fung Ping Shan Bldg, 94 Bonham Rd; admission free; 9.30am-6pm Mon-Sat, 1.30-6pm Sun) houses collections of ceramics and bronzes spanning 5000 years, including some exquisite blue and white Ming porcelain. The bronzes are in three groups: Shang- and Zhou-dynasty ritual vessels; decorative mirrors from the Warring States period to the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties; and almost 1000 small Nestorian crosses from the Yuan dynasty, the largest such collection in the world. (The Nestorians formed a Christian sect that arose in Syria, were branded heretics and moved into China during the 13th and 14th centuries.) The museum is to the left of the university’s Main Building and opposite the start of Hing Hon Rd.
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THE MID-LEVELS
Eating Click here; Sleeping Click here
The Mid-Levels ( Map) have relatively little to offer tourists in the way of sights, though there are a few gems, particularly houses of worship, hidden within the forest of marble-clad apartment blocks. Check out the Roman Catholic Cath-edral of the Immaculate Conception ( Map; 2522 8212; 16 Caine Rd), built in 1888 and financed largely by the Portuguese faithful from Macau; the Jamia Mosque ( Map; 2523 7743; 30 Shelley St), erected in 1849 and also called the Lascar Mosque; and the Ohel Leah Synagogue ( Click here).
Another district with rather elastic boundaries, the Mid-Levels stretches roughly from Hong Kong University and Pok Fu Lam in the west to Kennedy Rd in the east. Caine Rd is the northern boundary and the Peak the southern one. But the Mid-Levels are as much a state of mind as a physical area, and some people regard the middle-class residential areas further east to be the Mid-Levels as well.
DR SUN YAT SEN MUSEUM Map
2367 6373; http://hk.drsunyatsen.museum; 7 Castle Rd, Mid-Levels; adult/concession $10/5, free Wed; 10am-6pm Mon-Wed & Fri- Sat, 10am-7pm Sun; 3B, alight at the Hong Kong Baptist Church on Caine Rd
Sun Yat-sen was an early 20th-century revolutionary, dedicated to overthrowing the Qing dynasty, and a key figure in modern Chinese history. He had many links with Hong Kong, not least of them being his education here and his formative experience of the colony’s order and efficiency (standing in stark contrast to China at the time). Dr Sun’s story is one of