As you become more familiar with Hong Kong, you’ll develop your own personal stamping ground for shopping – no two people I have spoken to have exactly the same preferences. I’ve included here a selection of shops, malls and streets devoted to particular merchandise that will hopefully act as a useful starting point. The general consensus is that you can get pretty much anything you want, but you may have to hunt for it.

To locate a phone number, call directory enquiries free on 1081, or visit www.timway.com.hk  or www.yp.com.hk. The Yellow Pages website also has a handy ‘location search’ facility. Reductions are best found during Shopping Festival (end of June through August) and Winterfest (late November to January 1).

Qts Shops

It’s worth looking out for shops that display the Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme logo (see the colour plate section for the QTS logo). If you do encounter problems, give the Consumer Council a call on 2929 2222. The idea that the ‘customer is king’ has not caught on here and generally speaking it is difficult to return goods that have been opened or worn, or if the delay between buying the item and bringing it back is too long. Always check what ‘right of return’ you have before you buy. Large department stores offer goods at a fixed price, but in smaller shops, as with markets, bargaining is allowed.

Malls

Hong Kong has several large shopping malls, many of which are plush marble-floored buildings decorated with orchids and water features. They are popular with expatriates and locals because they provide a mix of entertainment, dining and shopping options close together, and are air-conditioned havens from the hot and humid summer weather. The major malls include:

• Harbour City (www.harbourcity.com.hk) is accessed from Ocean Terminal next to the Star Ferry Pier or from the upper reaches of Canton Road – an eight-minute walk from TST MTR. The mall includes City’super and Wellcome supermarkets.
• Festival Walk (www.festivalwalk.com.hk), above Kowloon Tong MTR station, includes a ParknShop superstore.
• Times Square (www.timessquare.com.hk), above Causeway Bay MTR, should be avoided on Saturdays and Sundays if you dislike large crowds. It includes ParknShop and City’super supermarkets.
• IFC Mall (www.ifc.com.hk) above Central’s Airport Express Station is the newest mall and includes a City’super supermarket.
• Pacific Place (www.pacificplace.com.hk) includes Great supermarket. Access is from Admiralty MTR station and via the elevated walkway from Central’s Harcourt Road.
• Wonderful Worlds of Whampoa in Hunghom (www.whampoaworld.com). Not strictly speaking a mall, this huge shopping hub is divided into Fashion World, Treasure World, Screen World and Home World. A free air-conditioned shuttle service can ferry you between worlds.
• Cityplaza (www.cityplaza.com.hk) and the interconnected Kornhill Plaza are located near Taikoo MTR station. They include the Japanese department stores Uny and Jusco.

 

All the malls have, or are very close to, a cinema. Festival Walk and Cityplaza have ice rinks. Other amenities such as parking, clean public toilets, banks and ATM machines are also conveniently available. The malls are enlivened by occasional performances of live music, model shows, art displays and advertising stands.

Shops

Below is an A–Z listing of the main types of shopping available in Hong Kong. Services are mentioned under the relevant chapter.

Antiques

Hong Kong has a thriving antiques business, mostly centred around the Hollywood Road neighbourhood. For late nineteenth and twentieth century European and Scandinavian art and antiques, go to Manks in Quarry Bay ( www.manks.com ; tel. 2522 4115). At the bottom of Hollywood Road, past the Man Mo Temple and down the steps, is Cat Street, an interesting place to browse for fortune sticks, curios, posters and second-hand household bric-a-brac. Antique furniture can also be found at warehouse-style shops such as Shamabala (2/F, Horizon Plaza, Ap Lei Chau; www.shambala.com.hk ). Wah Tung China Ltd (G/F and 1/F, Lee Roy Commercial Building, 57–59 Hollywood Road; www.wahtungchina.com ) is well known for its reproduction ceramics and porcelain.

The shops offer a wide selection of genuine antiques and reproductions, including furniture, silk fragments, ceramics, fossils and sculpture, for the connoisseur and the casual browser. Serious acquisitions can be made at Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses, both in Central.

Genuine antiques are accompanied by Oxford Test certificates that establish the age of the piece; several tests should be performed at different sites on a large object. Perhaps most importantly, find a dealer who you trust – there is no professional body you can contact, so it’s very much a case of caveat emptor. Reproduction antiques are advertised as such by reputable stores and are good value for money, but make sure that they have been properly made: reproduction lacquerware, for example, is very popular, but hastily prepared lacquer can crack in Hong Kong’s humidity.

Consider how you will care for your antique once it is installed in your home. Hong Kong’s humidity can damage silks, leather and wood, so take professional advice.