Hong Kong Shopping

If Hong Kong is the "City of Life", then life is a mall. Some speculate that Hong Kongers need to shop to escape their cramped dwellings; others simply ascribe the shopping mania to disposable income and greed. The large numbers of missionary churches around town may owe their business to guilt at the universal habit of shopping right through Sunday. The prime shopping areas are bedlam at weekends, and merely chaotic during the rest of the week.

For many of the items that it was once famous: electronics, imitation brand-names etc, Hong Kong is just no longer as cheap as it was, and prices are closer to European or American averages. Shops selling Chinese art objects and souvenirs cluster around the escalator up to the Mid-Levels; however anyone planning to visit mainland China should do their research here but save their purchases for north of the border. Within Hong Kong, Shanghai Tang, right by Central MTR station, is probably the best venue for quality Chinese goods: silks, fabrics, ornaments and furniture. Hong Kong's temples to Mammon are plentiful: Pacific Place in Admiralty has three floors of almost entirely luxury brands, while The Landmark and Prince's Arcade vie for the custom of chic Central. Festival Walk at Kowloon Tong MTR station in northern Kowloon is worth the long trip from Central for its variety and quality. Causeway Bay has the big Japanese department stores Sogo and Mitsukoshi, and the overwhelming Times Square, like a mall stood vertically. There are computer superstores at Causeway Bay, Wanchai and Mongkok, full of tiny booths selling the cyber equivalent of Hong Kong tailory and teenage hustlers pushing pirated software; however, for most electrical goods, there are worse places than the many branches of the Fortress chain. Standard opening hours are 0930-1900 Monday to Sunday, the shopping never stops. Hong Kongers bridle at the very idea of a sales tax, so visitors can forget about hoarding their receipts.