Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [94]
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TUNG LUNG CHAU
Standing guard at the eastern entrance to Victoria Harbour is the island of Tung Lung Chau ( Map), or ‘East Dragon Island’, whose position was once considered strategic enough for protection. According to the experts the island is Hong Kong’s premier spot for rock climbing (see the boxed text).
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TRANSPORT – TUNG LUNG CHAU
Ferry Kaido run from Sai Wan Ho on Hong Kong Island via Joss House Bay on the Clearwater Bay Peninsula in the New Territories. There are single sailings on Tuesday and Thursday, with more regular services only on weekends and public holidays. A weekend and holiday service also operates from Sam Ka Tsuen near Yau Tong MTR.
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Tung Lung Chau lies to the south of the Clearwater Bay Peninsula across the narrow Fat Tong Mun channel. To the west is Shek O and Big Wave Bay on Hong Kong Island’s east coast. In addition, the northwest tip of the island boasts an important rock carving of what is generally thought to be a dragon. It is quite possibly the oldest such carving in the territory and it is certainly the largest, measuring 2.4m by 1.8m. The ferry pier is close by.
TUNG LUNG FORT Map
Tung Lung Chau
Tung Lung Fort, on the northeastern corner of the island, was built in the late 17th or early 18th century and was attacked a number of times by pirate bands before being abandoned in 1810. The fort once consisted of 15 guardhouses and was armed with eight cannons, but little of it remains today except for the outline of the exterior walls. There’s an information centre ( 9am-4pm Wed-Mon) here.
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PO TOI
Eating Click here
A solid favourite of weekend holiday-makers with their own seagoing transport, Po Toi ( Map) is the largest of a group of four or five islands – one is little more than a huge rock – off the southeastern coast of Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong’s territorial border lies just 2km to the south. Visitors frequent the seafood restaurants beyond the jetty at Tai Wan, the main settlement, in the island’s southwest.
There’s some decent walking on Po Toi, a tiny Tin Hau temple across the bay from the pier, and, on the southern coast, rock formations that (supposedly) look like a palm tree, a tortoise and a monk, and some mysterious rock carvings resembling stylised animals and fish. You can see everything here in an hour.
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TRANSPORT – PO TOI
Ferry Kaido run to the ferry pier from Aberdeen and Stanley on Tuesdays, Thursdays, weekends and public holidays.
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SHOPPING
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OPENING HOURS
BARGAINING
DUTY FREE
WARRANTIES & GUARANTEES
REFUNDS & EXCHANGES
SHIPPING GOODS
WHAT TO BUY
HONG KONG ISLAND
CENTRAL, LAN KWAI FONG & SOHO
ADMIRALTY & WAN CHAI
SHEUNG WAN
CAUSEWAY BAY
KOWLOON
TSIM SHA TSUI, TSIM SHA TSUI EAST & HUNG HOM
YAU MA TEI & MONG KOK
NEW KOWLOON
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top picks
Arch Angel (Click here)
Chinese Arts & Crafts (Click here)
Coup de Foudre (Click here)
Delay No Mall (Click here)
Joyce (Click here)
Lulu Cheung (Click here)
Muji (Click here)
Shanghai Tang (Click here)
Wattis Fine Art (Click here)
What’s your recommendation? www.lonelyplanet.com/hong-kong
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Everyone knows Hong Kong as a place of neon-lit retail pilgrimage. This city is positively stuffed with glitzy shopping malls, its giant temples to massive and conspicuous consumption.
Yet while any international brand worthy of its logo has at least one outlet here, Hong Kong’s reputation as a bargain hunter’s paradise is largely a thing of the past. While you can still find some bargains, these days you can get pretty much anything that’s on sale here a few notches cheaper just over the border in China. Asia’s world city charges world-city prices for most things, and it has to: have you seen the rent the landlords charge?
While you will find an embarrassment of top-end