Free Walking Tour Hong Kong: Temple, Harbour, Ferry

Your Hong Kong Walking Tour: Temple, Harbour, Prison Yard

1. 1

   Man Mo Temple

   

   Your walk begins in Sheung Wan, at a temple that has stood here since 1847. Man Mo Temple is Taoist and honours two gods under one roof: the God of Literature and the God of War. Scholarship and battle side by side is a good opening note for a city that has always lived from both wit and toughness.

   Step inside and look up. Giant incense coils hang from the ceiling, and each of them burns continuously for up to two weeks. Together they fill the hall with a permanent haze of sandalwood smoke, so the light arrives soft and grey and the room smells sweet and heavy. Give your eyes a moment to adjust before you look for details.

   Entry is free, and the temple closes in the early evening, so make sure you reach it in daylight. Twenty minutes is enough for most visitors; if you like quiet places, stay longer and simply watch the coils smoulder above you.

   Then comes the longest leg of the route: 4,040 m, about 52 minutes on foot, to the harbourfront stop of the Symphony of Lights. The GPS navigation in your browser leads you there.

   Local name

   Sheung Wan Man Mo Temple

   Hours

   Daily: 08:00–18:00

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Man Mo Temple on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Symphony of Lights

   

   This stop is an appointment rather than a building. A Symphony of Lights is a light and sound show across Victoria Harbour, organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and listed by Guinness World Records as the world's largest permanent light and sound show. It runs in the evening when the weather is good and lasts around ten minutes.

   What you see is an orchestration of music, decorative lighting, lasers and, on special occasions, fireworks, all conceived and installed by LaserVision. As of 2017, 42 buildings took part. A new version launched on 1 December 2017 with 40 locations, and its centrepiece is a fan of coloured searchlights, lasers and beam lights sent out from the Central Government Offices and the Revenue Tower.

   Good places to watch include the Avenue of Stars on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, the promenade outside Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai, and the Star Ferry out on the water. At the first two, the music and narration play live. The narration is in English on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, in Mandarin on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and in Cantonese on Sundays.

   If you pass here in daylight, treat it as a preview: look across the water at the towers that will light up later and decide where you want to stand when the show starts. The Avenue of Stars, one of the best spots, is 1,790 m and about 15 minutes away.

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Symphony of Lights on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Avenue of Stars

   

   Modelled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Avenue of Stars runs along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui and honours the people of Hong Kong's film industry. If you grew up on Hong Kong action films or melodramas, this is where you hunt for familiar names.

   The story starts in 1982, when the New World Group built a promenade around its New World Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui East. In 2004 the group spent HK$40 million turning it into the Avenue of Stars, with backing from the Tourism Board, the government's culture department and the Hong Kong Film Awards Association. It opened to the public on 28 April 2004, a day after a ceremony attended by ministers, film people and the group's chairman, and was handed over to the government as public property.

   The first 73 honourees were chosen by the Hong Kong Film Awards Association and by the readers of City Entertainment magazine. In 2015 the government announced a joint redevelopment with the company, promising little commercial appeal and no luxury shops or high-end restaurants. During the works the walkway moved for three years to the Tsim Sha Tsui East Waterfront Podium Garden, and awarding the contract without a tender caused local controversy.

   Give it twenty minutes by day, and come back for the evening show if you can: the music and narration of the Symphony of Lights play live here. The Hong Kong Museum of Art is only 330 m away, about 4 minutes on foot.

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Avenue of Stars on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Hong Kong Museum of Art

   

   The Hong Kong Museum of Art is the city's first and main art museum, a public institution at 10 Salisbury Road with a collection of almost 20,000 items. Entry to the permanent exhibitions is free, which makes it an easy yes even if you only have an hour.

   Its roots lie across the harbour. It opened on 2 March 1962 as the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery in Central, split in 1975 into a history museum and an art museum, and moved here in 1991, next to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Hong Kong Space Museum. Governor Chris Patten formally inaugurated the building on 11 September 1992. In 2015 it closed for a $400 million expansion and reopened four years later, on 30 November 2019.

   Inside, the displays rotate regularly: paintings, calligraphy and sculpture from Hong Kong, mainland China and further afield. The museum has history with local artists too. Its 1962 show Hong Kong Art Today was the first exhibition devoted to Hong Kong art, and since 1975 it has hosted the Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition of contemporary work.

   It is worth going in if you care about Chinese ink and calligraphy or want to see what Hong Kong artists are doing; plan an hour. The Star Ferry pier is 410 m on, about 6 minutes.

   Hours

   Mon–Wed: 10:00–18:00 | Thu: Closed | Fri: 10:00–18:00 | Sat–Sun: 10:00–21:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   hk.art.museum ↗

   Location

   Hong Kong Museum of Art on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Star Ferry

   

   The Star Ferry pier sits on reclaimed land at the southern tip of Tsim Sha Tsui, a spot the ferry company's franchise still calls Kowloon Point. From here the green and white ferries cross Victoria Harbour to Central and to Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, and the crossing is one of the simplest pleasures in the city.

   The first pier was begun in 1904, after the land reclamation that extended Salisbury Road. It opened in 1906 and was destroyed by a typhoon in September of the same year. A replacement for two ferries followed in 1914, and the present twin terminal went up in the 1950s, completed in 1957. It is a piece of Streamline Moderne: two piers with two levels each, resting on wooden piles. Boarding on the upper level costs a little more than on the lower one.

   Unlike its counterpart on the island, this pier has no clock tower of its own, but the Clock Tower of the former KCR Kowloon station stands close by, as do Star House, Ocean Terminal and the Cultural Centre. Fares are inexpensive, and the ferries to Central run until late in the evening, while the Wan Chai route stops a little earlier.

   Take the ferry to Central: Tai Kwun lies in Central, and from the pier the route continues 2,320 m, about 32 minutes, to the old police compound.

   Local name

   Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier

   Hours

   Central – Tsim Sha Tsui: daily 06:30–23:30 | Wan Chai – Tsim Sha Tsui: Mon–Sat 07:30–23:00, Sun & public holidays 07:40–23:00 (last sailing from Tsim Sha Tsui 22:50)

   Price

   HKD 3.70-6.50

   Website

   starferry.com.hk ↗

   Location

   Star Ferry on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Tai Kwun

   

   Tai Kwun is the former Central Police Station Compound, framed by Hollywood Road, Arbuthnot Road, Chancery Lane and Old Bailey Street. It brings together three declared monuments: the former Central Police Station, the Former Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison, 16 historic buildings put up between 1841 and 1925.

   The oldest piece is the Magistrate's House with its jail blocks, built in 1841. By 1862 the prison held 650 inmates and the government expanded onto neighbouring land, and in 1899 the Central Prison was renamed Victoria Prison. It stayed in use until 2006. That matters because most of the city's colonial buildings were bulldozed before the handover to China in 1997; here a whole compound survived.

   In 2008 the government teamed up with the Hong Kong Jockey Club to save it. Work began in 2011, suffered a setback in 2016 when a wall and roof collapsed after a brick pier failed, and took eight years in all. Tai Kwun reopened on 29 May 2018 as a centre for heritage and arts.

   Walk the courtyards and the old cell blocks, then look at what is showing in the galleries. Entry to the compound is free and it stays open late, which makes it a fine place to end the evening; some exhibitions charge. This is the end of the route, and the GPS navigation will lead you back to Man Mo Temple if you want.

   Hours

   Daily: 08:00–23:00

   Price

   Free (exhibitions may charge)

   Website

   taikwun.hk ↗

   Location

   Tai Kwun on Google Maps ↗

Ways to Shape Your Hong Kong Walk

The full route works best as an afternoon running into the evening. If you only have the evening, start at the waterfront instead.

The full route, afternoon into evening

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

For first-time visitors who want both sides of the harbour. 1 h 49 min of pure walking; the only fixed cost is the ferry fare, plus any paid exhibition at Tai Kwun. If you want to see the museum inside, fit it in before the light show starts.

Harbour evening from the Avenue of Stars

Stops: 3, 4, 5, 6

For an evening with the light show at its heart. Watch the show from the Avenue of Stars, then walk on to the museum, the pier and Tai Kwun: 42 minutes of walking in total. Free apart from the ferry fare; if you want to go inside the museum, see it before the show.

How Long Does This Hong Kong Tour Take, Light Show Included?

The pure walking time is 1 h 49 min. Add twenty minutes in the temple, twenty on the Avenue of Stars, an hour in the museum, time for the pier and the crossing and about 45 minutes at Tai Kwun, and you are out for around four and a half hours.

A sample timing: be at Man Mo Temple at 16:00 and leave at 16:30. After 52 minutes you pass the Symphony of Lights stop at 17:22, reach the Avenue of Stars at 17:37 and the museum at 17:59. Stay until 19:50, walk the 4 minutes back to the Avenue of Stars for the show, then continue at about 20:10 past the museum to the Star Ferry, roughly 10 minutes on foot. From the pier, 32 minutes bring you to Tai Kwun at about 20:52.

The harbour evening variant needs about two and a half hours: 42 minutes of walking, the show, a short museum visit, the crossing and Tai Kwun.

Before You Set Off in Hong Kong

• Start and finish: The recommended start is Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan, but you can join at any stop. The walk ends at Tai Kwun in Central; the GPS navigation will lead you back to the start if you want.
• Best day: If you want the light show narrated in English, go on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, and plan your museum visit for earlier in the day.
• Time of day: Reach Man Mo Temple in daylight, well before it closes, and be on the waterfront in time for the Symphony of Lights.
• Costs: The temple, the show, the Avenue of Stars and the museum's permanent exhibitions are free, as is entry to Tai Kwun. Budget for the Star Ferry fare and any paid exhibition at Tai Kwun. The AI Tour Guide starts with 100 free credits; after that you choose between this tour all-inclusive for €19.99 with no time limit, or €5 per hour.

Common Questions About This Hong Kong Walk