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beautiful and arrestingly built environments in Hong Kong, this large Buddhist complex, originally dating from the 1930s, was rebuilt completely of wood (and not a single nail) in the style of the Tang dynasty in 1998. It is a serene place, with lotus ponds, immaculate bonsai tea plants and bougainvillea, and silent nuns delivering offerings of fruit and rice to Buddha and arhats (Buddhist disciples freed from the cycle of birth and death) or chanting behind intricately carved screens. The design (involving intricately interlocking sections of wood joined without a single nail) is intended to demonstrate the harmony of humans with nature. It’s pretty convincing – until you look up at the looming neighbourhood high-rises behind the complex.

You enter the complex through the Sam Mun, a series of ‘three gates’ representing the Buddhist precepts of compassion, wisdom and ‘skilful means’. The first courtyard, which contains the delightful Lotus Pond Garden, gives way to the Hall of Celestial Kings, with a large statue of the seated Buddha surrounded by the deities of the four cardinal points. Behind that is the main hall, containing a statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha flanked by two standing disciples and two seated bodhisattvas (Buddhist holy people). Below the complex is a cafe selling vegetarian snacks and dim sum for $14 to $25.

To reach the nunnery, take exit C2 of Diamond Hill MTR station, walk through the Hollywood Plaza shopping centre and turn east on to Fung Tak Rd. The nunnery is a five-minute walk away.

Lei Yue Mun

Southeast of the old Kai Tak airport is the residential neighbourhood of Kwun Tong ( Map), and a bit further southeast is the rapidly modernising fishing village of Lei Yue Mun ( Map). Ly-yèw means ‘carp’ and mn is ‘gate’; the ‘carp gate’ refers to the channel separating southeast Kowloon from Hong Kong Island, which is the narrowest entrance to Victoria Harbour. Across the water on the island and looming on the hillside is 19th-century Lei Yue Mun Fort, which now contains the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence ( Click here).

SAM KA TSUEN SEAFOOD PRECINCT Map

MTR Yau Tong (Exit A2)

The ‘village’ of Lei Yue Mun is one of Hong Kong’s prime seafood venues; around two-dozen fish restaurants (Click here) line narrow, winding Lei Yue Mun Praya Rd overlooking the typhoon shelter. The area is a colourful and lively place to dine by the water at night and is always busy. To get here from the Yau Tong MTR station, use exit A2 and follow Cha Kwo Ling Rd and Shung Shun St south for 15 minutes or catch green minibus 24M from outside the station. Bus 14C links the Yau Tong Centre halfway down the hill with the Kwun Tong MTR station.

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NEW TERRITORIES

By far Hong Kong’s largest chunk of territory (747 sq km, or almost 68% of Hong Kong’s land area), the New Territories ( Map) offers a great deal of cultural as well as natural interest. Ancient walled villages, wetlands teeming with aquatic and bird life, temple complexes and generous expanses of rugged, unspoiled country are just some of its attractions.

The eastern section, notably the Sai Kung Peninsula in the northeast and the area around Clearwater Bay further south, has some of Hong Kong’s most beautiful scenery and hiking trails. Life in these more rural parts of Hong Kong is more redolent of times past –simpler, slower and often more friendly.

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top picks

NEW TERRITORIES

Sai Kung’s beaches ( Click here)

Hong Kong Wetland Park ( Click here)

MacLehose Trail (Click here)

Tsuen Wan’s monasteries and museums (left)

Hong Kong Heritage Museum ( Click here)

10,000 Buddhas Monastery ( Click here)

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The New Territories was so named because the area was leased to Britain in 1898, almost half a century after Hong Kong Island and four decades after Kowloon were ceded to the crown. For many years the area was Hong Kong’s rural hinterland; however, since WWII, when some 80% of the land was under cultivation, much of it has been urbanised. In the past two decades the speed at which this development has taken