Shopping in Hong Kong

Most big malls sit directly above an MTR or Airport Express station, so you can walk from the train into air conditioning without touching the street. Opening hours are roughly 10am to 10pm daily, with restaurants staying open later. These are the six that matter:

• IFC Mall (Central): Above Hong Kong Station and the Airport Express, about 200 shops of international designer and premium brands, a cinema and a rooftop terrace on level 4 with harbour views. Easy for a last stop before In-Town Check-in.
• Pacific Place (Admiralty): Four floors of luxury fashion, a big Lane Crawford department store and a calmer crowd than Causeway Bay. Linked by footbridge to Admiralty MTR and Hong Kong Park.
• Harbour City (Tsim Sha Tsui): The largest mall in the city with 450-plus shops in a run of connected buildings along Canton Road, from the Star Ferry pier to China Hong Kong City. Toys, cosmetics, sportswear and every luxury label; the Ocean Terminal deck at the end has free harbour views.
• Times Square (Causeway Bay): Sixteen floors stacked vertically, with electronics and homewares high up and restaurants on the top floors. The open plaza out front is a meeting point.
• K11 Musea (Tsim Sha Tsui): At Victoria Dockside on the harbourfront, a design-led mall with art installations, concept stores and the best collection of independent Asian brands among the big malls.
• Elements (Kowloon Station): Above the Airport Express Kowloon station and beside the ICC tower, spacious and rarely crowded, with an ice rink and mid-range to luxury brands.

Two others are worth knowing: Langham Place in Mong Kok for mid-range fashion with late opening (some shops to 11pm), and Festival Walk at Kowloon Tong for families. Bargain hunters should take the bus or taxi to Horizon Plaza on Ap Lei Chau, a 28-storey industrial block of outlet stores and furniture showrooms.

Mong Kok is the busiest shopping district in Hong Kong and the place to see how locals shop. Take the MTR to Mong Kok or Prince Edward and walk; the streets are a grid, each specialising in one thing.

• Ladies’ Market (Tung Choi Street): About a kilometre of stalls between Argyle Street and Dundas Street, open roughly noon to 11pm. Clothes, phone cases, bags, souvenirs and toys; most branded goods here are copies. A T-shirt starts around HK$30 to HK$60.
• Goldfish Market: The northern end of Tung Choi Street, past Argyle Street, where tropical fish hang in plastic bags on shop walls. Best from late morning; it is for looking, not buying.
• Flower Market Road: A street of florists and plant shops near Prince Edward MTR, busiest before Lunar New Year when orchids and kumquat trees fill the pavement.
• Yuen Po Street Bird Garden: At the end of Flower Market Road, a walled garden where old men bring caged songbirds, open about 7am to 8pm.
• Fa Yuen Street (Sneaker Street): Between Argyle and Dundas streets, a line of sneaker and sportswear shops with Japanese and Asian releases. Prices are fixed and close to retail; the draw is the range of sizes and models.

South of Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei has the Jade Market on Kansu Street (morning to about 6pm) for cheap jade bangles and pendants, and the Shanghai Street kitchenware shops, which sell woks, cleavers and bamboo steamers at a fraction of Western prices.

Temple Street Night Market in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei sets up from late afternoon and is busiest from 7pm to 11pm. The goods are the same souvenirs, electronics accessories and T-shirts as Ladies’ Market; the reason to go is the atmosphere, the fortune tellers, the Cantonese opera singers near the Tin Hau temple and the open-air seafood and clay-pot rice stalls along the side streets.

Stanley Market in Stanley, on the south side of Hong Kong Island, past Repulse Bay, is a covered warren of stalls selling silk dressing gowns, Chinese-style clothing, paintings, linen and children’s clothes, open about 10am to 6pm. Prices are a little higher than Kowloon but the setting, a seaside village with a promenade and waterfront restaurants, makes it a good half-day. Take bus 6, 6X or 260 from Exchange Square in Central (30 to 45 minutes) for the ride over the hills.

Cat Street (Upper Lascar Row) in Sheung Wan is a pedestrian lane of curio stalls selling Mao badges, old coins, snuff bottles and reproduction antiques, below the serious antique galleries of Hollywood Road. Treat anything on Cat Street as decorative; real antiques come from the galleries with paperwork, and mainland China restricts the export of genuine pre-1949 relics.

Sham Shui Po, two MTR stops north of Mong Kok, is the cheapest shopping district in the city and the one locals use for practical things.

• Apliu Street: A flea market of stalls selling cables, chargers, adapters, batteries, tools, radios, second-hand phones and camera lenses, from about noon to midnight. Bring cash and test anything used before paying.
• Golden Computer Arcade: On Fuk Wa Street, two floors of small shops selling computer parts, storage, gaming accessories and phones at keen prices.
• Ki Lung Street and Nam Cheong Street: The fabric district, with the Western District cloth market and shops selling cotton, linen, silk, lace and buttons by the metre, often at HK$20 to HK$60 a yard.
• Yu Chau Street: Beads, ribbons, leather, zips and craft supplies wholesale and retail.
• Tai Nan Street: Leather workshops, cafes and small design studios on the quieter western edge.

Sham Shui Po is also one of the best areas for cheap local food, so plan a lunch of dim sum or rice rolls between shops.

Causeway Bay is the Island’s main shopping district and one of the busiest retail streets in the world: Times Square, Hysan Place, the SOGO department store and Lee Garden for luxury brands, with side streets of Japanese drugstores, cosmetics shops and fashion boutiques. Weekend afternoons are crushingly crowded; weekday mornings are not.

In Central, the Landmark and Prince’s Building hold the heavyweight luxury houses, and the Pedder Building has small fashion outlets. For local design go uphill towards the Mid-Levels: PMQ on Aberdeen Street, a former police married quarters, has about 100 studios selling jewellery, ceramics, stationery and clothing by Hong Kong designers, and Tai Kwun, the restored Central Police Station compound, has a smaller set of shops and galleries. In Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun, Des Voeux Road West and Wing Lok Street sell dried seafood, bird’s nest and Chinese herbs, and the tea merchants around Queen’s Road Central sell oolong and pu’er from about HK$50 for a small tin.

Wan Chai has the cheapest street shopping on the Island: the market lanes of Tai Yuen Street and Cross Street for toys, homewares and clothes, plus a stretch of Lockhart Road with electronics chains. Across the harbour, Granville Road in Tsim Sha Tsui is a cheaper alternative to Causeway Bay for youth fashion and sample stock.

Hong Kong is no longer cheap for most things, but some categories still beat home prices or are hard to find elsewhere.

Gold is a serious local purchase: the Chow Tai Fook, Chow Sang Sang and Luk Fook chains sell 24-carat jewellery priced by weight at the day’s gold rate plus a workmanship fee, and the price per gram is posted in the window.

Hong Kong tailoring is a real trade with real differences in quality. The established shops are in the arcades and side streets off Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui; Sam’s Tailor in Burlington Arcade is the best known. A good tailor wants at least two fittings over three to five days, so order on your first day. You choose the cloth (local wool blends are cheapest; Italian and English mills cost more), they take measurements, and you return for a fitting with the basted jacket.

Avoid anyone on the street offering “suit, copy watch” and avoid 24-hour suits, which are glued rather than sewn. Ask whether the canvas is full, half or fused, agree the price and cloth in writing, pay a deposit of 30 to 50 percent, and keep the receipt. Most tailors will ship finished pieces overseas and keep your pattern for reorders by email.

Electronics in Hong Kong are rarely much cheaper than at home any more, but the range is wide and the stock arrives early. Buy from the big chains, Fortress and Broadway, or from brand stores (Apple has shops in IFC, Festival Walk, Causeway Bay and Canton Road), where prices are fixed and receipts are proper.

• Warranty: Many shops sell “parallel” or grey imports at lower prices. These carry a shop warranty valid only in Hong Kong, not the manufacturer’s international one. Ask which you are getting and get it on the receipt.
• Plugs and versions: Hong Kong uses UK-style three-pin plugs. Check the model number matches your home market for phones (network bands) and cameras (menu language, region).
• Nathan Road traps: Small shops along Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui have a long record of bait-and-switch: a low quoted price, then the “real” version costs more, accessories are extra, or the box is swapped. If anyone refuses to show a printed price, leave.
• Check the box: Unseal and test the item in the shop, compare the serial number on the device and box, and pay by credit card for chargeback protection.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board’s Quality Tourism Services (QTS) scheme marks shops that have passed checks; the logo in the window is a reasonable sign.

Malls and chains take Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay and often Amex, as well as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay and WeChat Pay. The Octopus card pays at convenience stores, supermarkets, bakeries, drugstores and many cafes, which saves carrying coins. Street stalls and small shops want cash in HK$20, HK$50 and HK$100 notes; ATMs are everywhere and HSBC, Hang Seng and Bank of China machines take foreign cards.

Malls open about 10am or 11am and close at 10pm; Mong Kok and Causeway Bay street shops stay open until 10pm or 11pm; markets keep the hours given above. Most shops open every day including Sundays; the main disruption is the first two or three days of Lunar New Year, when many small shops close.

There is no export tax and no refund to claim on departure. Two Hong Kong rules matter when leaving: you may take out no more than two cans (1.8 kg) of powdered infant formula per person aged 16 or over, and you must declare cash or bearer instruments worth more than HK$120,000. Then check your home allowance before you buy big: as a rough guide, the US allows US$800 duty-free per person, the UK £390, the EU €430 for air travellers and Australia A$900, with lower limits for alcohol and tobacco. Keep receipts handy for customs officers at home.