Rough Guides - Pocket Rough Guide Hong Kong & Macau (Travel Guide eBook)

Facing each other across the Pearl River estuary, Hong Kong and Macau offer an exciting yet easy entry into the Chinese world. Colonies of Britain and Portugal respectively until they were returned to mainland China in the 1990s as Special Administrative Regions (SARs), today their southern Chinese heritage is increasingly apparent. Among the hi-tech infrastructure and the populations Westernized outlook, conservative traditions persist, from shrines to the god of wealth and age-old festivals, to the way contemporary architectural design takes principles such as feng shui into account. Former colonial ties are most obvious in the fact that many people speak English as well as Cantonese, and in Macaus decidedly un-Chinese antique buildings.

Lok Ke Wan beach

Shutterstock

Tai Mo Shan

iStock

Hong Kongs famously futuristic harbourside architecture has long set the standard for similar cityscapes rearing up all over Asia. Theres also a broad mix of other architectural styles here, encompassing Mong Koks ramshackle town housing, traditional clan villages in the New Territories, Tai Os stilt-houses and the centuries-old temples which are dotted around. The accompanying markets and street life are compellingly frenetic, while the shopping though no longer a bargain offers the chance to compare a vast range of products sold everywhere from open-air stalls to hi-tech malls. Hong Kong is also one of the best places in the world to eat Cantonese food, while the territorys Western influence means theres a plentiful selection of bars and nightspots.

Surprisingly, Hong Kongs outlying areas remain fairly undeveloped, with a countryside of beaches, rugged hills, wild coastline and islands although none of it especially remote where you can escape the pace and claustrophobia of the downtown areas. Hong Kongs only real downside is that the overwhelming commercialism and consumption make it hard to engage with the underlying Chinese culture though you can glimpse it at Happy Valleys horse races, Mong Koks Bird Market or simply by watching early-morning tai chi practitioners going through their routines in Kowloon Park. Cultural barriers also drop at the several annual Chinese festivals sprinkling the calendar Chinese New Year, the Dragon Boat Races and Cheung Chau Bun Festival are the liveliest when even visitors will find it hard not to get caught up in the action.

When to visit

Hong Kong and Macau are tropical, which means generally humid conditions throughout the year. From December to February is the coolest period (16C), though usually dry; temperatures rise from March through to May (23C) and rainfall increases; while from June until September the weather is steaming hot (30C), often with fearsome typhoons (from the Chinese tai fung big wind), whose storms affect sea traffic. Tourist levels are even year-round, but book accommodation in advance, especially for international sporting events and for Chinese New Year in January or February.

Whats new

Limited space and a craze for cutting-edge architecture means that large-scale land reclamation and enormous construction projects have long been a fact of life in Hong Kong. Current builds include a third airport runway and an )-->.

Smaller and more visually attractive than its neighbour, Macau is also ethnically Chinese, but its charms rest more on its backdrop of old Portuguese churches, forts and streets, which lend the place a colonial-tropical ambiance. Its tiny scale means you can see just about everything on an easy day-trip from Hong Kong, while its superb food marries Portuguese, Chinese, Goan, Brazilian and African influences, washed down with Portuguese port and brandy. As far as the Chinese are concerned, however, Macaus main appeal is in its many casinos its the only place on Chinese territory where they are legal which draw in swarms of punters from Hong Kong and mainland China.

Grand Lisboa Casino, Macau

Alamy