Most expatriates like to live in the Mid-Levels area which are quite accessible to Central and close to some good schools.

According to my search on the Centanet website, the new high rise apartment complex "The Sorrento" in Jordan district in Kowloon has flats that are in that price range. I am sure they have all the amenities that new complexes have nowadays, like a playroom for kids, swimming pools, club house, etc. Unfortunately their website does not have English. In addition, the management fees for each apartment is probably high - more than 10% of the rent would be my guess.

Another area in Kowloon worth looking into would be Yau Yat Tsuen. It has older low rises on quieter streets with trees, and fairly close to many international schools in Kowloon Tong area.

Hope this helps,
"Tex"

Have a good trip,
"Tex"

Thanks for your nice comments.

If you are travelling second week of April, this is kind of late to try to find accommodations. But according to my book of maps, the address you gave is smack in the center of the Central district - prime real estate (like the Wall Street). So if you really want to stay at a hotel within walking distance, you can expect to spend top dollars. The cross street would be Ice House Street.

Here are a couple of the well-known hotels in that vicinity (within 2 short blocks): Mandarin Oriental, Ritz Carlton.

The Marriott Hotel (which is connected to the Pacific Place mall) is just a 15 minute walk from there - that area is quite safe even for a lady at 11 pm or midnight especially if you are a western person (caucasian, that is, not the cowgirl western!) One subway stop - the subway here is very safe. Even by taxi, it is probably a 2 minute ride - just US$2! So if you generally like to stay at Marriotts, that will be the simplest solution.

Have a good trip!
"Tex"
(p.s. Thanks for your comment about Karma, though I believe in God Jehovah!)

Hotel Recommendation
Things I like about this web site : Excellent information
Comments / Questions:
I'll be travelling to Hong Kong with my wife and 8 yr old son and staying there for 3 days in 1st week of May. Can you suggest the area/hotel to stay that will be convinient from site-seeing, food, shopping point of view. My budget is around 800-1000 HKD per day for hotel. Would you recommend the half day site seeing tours that are available for HK, New Territories, Kowloon etc?

Sorry, I am not familiar with preset local tours.

Have a wonderful time with your little boy!

If you just want to be in a quieter location away from the city and right at the beach, you can try the Silvermine Beach Hotel on Lantau Island. http://www.12hk.com/area/Lantau/SilvermineBeach.html

Have a good trip!

Happy Chinese New Year to you as well, and may God bless you and your family in this new year!

Have a nice trip, "Tex"

Have a nice trip!
"Tex"

Have a good trip!
"Tex"

Have a nice stay,
"Tex"

What school do you go to?
"Tex"

Have a nice stay!
"Tex"

Another thought would be to shop around for a great hotle in the city that has an indoor swimming pool - we could always take the bus to swimj at Repulse Bay (a favorite of ours) and to Ocean City.

He and I have stayed in some pretty funky places on our trips to mainland China - but I thikn I"d like something much more civilized this trip.

Meanwhile, Ocean Park is a bit out of the way. The best way to get to it is probably taking a double-decker bus. I believe the terminus is at Admiralty where there is an MTR station.

Thanks for your message.

Those chain stores listed all sell camcorders. As to what city to get it, here are the things you should consider:
1. Prices in HK are comparable to U.S. prices - but may be cheaper than Hawaii prices though. You can check http://www.ibroadway.com.hk and get a feel - but the site is in Chinese. However I do see them advertise on the front page a SONY DCR-PC101E for HK$9990 (divide that by 7.8 to get the U.S. price).

http://www.ibroadway.com.hk/prod5.php
HK probably has more models though.

2. Prices in Japan are probably cheaper than HK. But the owner's manuals are probably all in Japanese!
3. Unless the product has international warranty, you will not get free service if anything goes wrong within the warranty period.
4. Using a new camera on a trip may mean that you will not get good video clips because you won't have time to experiment with the machine (and view the video on a TV to see the result.)

So that's my two cents' worth! One more piece of advice (assuming that you have not used a camcorder before): a common mistake is to "pan" too fast and the video will be too fast for people to watch without getting dizzy!

Enjoy your trip!

Among the schools for expatriate kids, there are still two different kinds: international schools, and ESF schools. . . . continue

Have fun!

Hope this is helpful,
Tex

"Love is a Many Splendid Thing" sounds like a classic. But not having seen it, I am not sure which one the "hill" scene was filmed in.

There are two hospitals that possibly fit your description:
MATILDA & WAR MEMORIAL HOSPITAL -
    41 MOUNT KELLETT ROAD, THE PEAK
CANOSSA HOSPITAL (CARTIAS) -
    1 OLD PEAK ROAD, THE PEAK

If you have still photos of the hill scene, I can take a look and see if I can figure out.
Cheers,
Tex

Thanks for your message.

The "Mid-Level Elevators" are actually a series of escalators going from Centual up to the Mid-Levels (the mid section of the hill on Hong Kong Island). It just goes up and up and up! To get to the bottom of it to go up, here are the directions:

1. Go to the Central station of the MTR (subway train)
2. Take exit C
3. Once you are on street level (Des Voeux Rd Central), turn left (going northwest).
4. After 3 or 4 blocks, you will see Hang Seng Bank Headquarters building on your right (tall building with rounded stainless steel corners), and Central Market (slated to be demolished some time) on your left (sandwiched between
Queen Victoria Street and Jubilee Street). You will also see two pedestrian bridges / skywalks between overlooking Des Voeux Rd Central. Go up to the same level as the pedestrian bridges.
5. Go southwest once you are upstairs along side the Central Market (away from Des Voeux Rd Central).
6. At the other end of that building, you will find the connection to the escalators.

You can see it on the map of Central station at the MTR web site (find the link in the LINKS section of my site). (the orange line in section 4-R on the map is the escalator.)

Be warned that it is just a one way escalator. In the morning it takes people down. In the evening, it takes people up. (I am not sure of the exact hours.) But there are stairs alongside it for up or down traffic.

Lan Kwai Fong is an area in Central where expatriates hang out in the evenings. Lot of restaurants and bars. There are directions on how to get there in the HK maps website www.ypmap.com.

tourist map > scenic spots > Central > Lan Kwai Fong

Enjoy your stay!

Tex

Short stay for single female
hi,

i am staying one night in hong kong arriving at the international airport at around 6pm and needing to return the following morning for 7am.any ideas for a single female to experience some of hong kong safely in such a limited amount of time or where to stay?

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For westerners in general, HK is quite a safe place - including single females. There are some must go places: waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui (the promenade east of the Star Ferry on Kowloon side), the Victoria Peak (if the weather is clear).

As far as where to stay, since you want to experience HK at least a little, you will have to stay in urban HK (Hong Kong Island or Kowloon) rather than staying at the airport hotel. Since you are probably on business without much luggage, you can stay at a hotel within walking distance to an MTR station (subway - very safe even late at night) and save a few bucks on cabs (e.g. in Tsim Sha Tsui area or Admiralty), or anywhere in urban Hong Kong and get a cab for the airport (e.g. Tsim Sha Tsui, Admiralty, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay are all good and safe location where you can experience urban HK - actually, certain parts of Wan Chai have a lot of bars and are slightly less safe unless you like to be close to bars). But then most hotels offer curb to curb service to the airport for a reasonable fee (under US$12, I think).

If you like to do some shopping - especially name brands, then Admiralty and Tsim Sha Tsui will foot the bill.

How about this: stay in Tsim Sha Tsui, check in, drop off your luggage and have a harbour view dinner at a restaurant in New World Hotel or Regent Hotel (both in Tsim Sha Tsui East), take an after-dinner stroll along the Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront, from the New World Hotel / Regent Hotel toward the Star Ferry Pier, take the Star Ferry (a 5-minute ride) across to HK Island.

At that point, if the weather is clear, and you don't mind the cab fare (probably US$8), take a cab up to Victoria Peak (if you had more time, taking the Peak Tram instead - it is pulled up the mountain by a cable). Catch the spectaular view from the observation deck and return to the hotel to catch a few winks before the wakeup call.

Then write me an email on the plane and tell me what you think!

Enjoy your stay!
"Tex"

I looked it up and the new Snoopy Happy World is in New Town Plaza. It is connected to the Sha Tin KCR train station. So you can take the MTR and switch to the KCR at Kowloon Tong station. Take the KCR train toward Lo Wu for just two stops and get off at the Sha Tin station. The train statioin itself is either New Town Plaza or is connected to it and you can just walk over on the same level as the exit turnstiles.

The following is the link to a news item about the Snoopy Happy World. I guess it opened just this past October.

Have fun!
"Tex"

Hope this helps,
"Tex"

I will be staying at the Imperial Hotel, 30-34 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. Is the area safe at night to go around on my own?

P.S. Excellent site by the way!

Have a good stay!

Also, you mentioned that they couldn/t take "large bags" - what constitutes a "large" bag? If the MTR goes out to the airport, wouldn't they expect normal luggaage?

We arrive at 7 PM, so by the time luggage, customs, etc., it will be after evening rush - or not???

Thank you for your help.

D. Hise

Tex

I followed a link from the Lonely Planet web page to your page. What a brilliant useful page. Thank you for your tought and attention to detail. Could you answer a question for me, I know you must get stacks of email but I can't get an answer on this anywhere.

A website I have found has a link to the "Harbour Plaza NOrthpoint" Hotel. It is apparently brand new and just about to open and is a sister to the Harbour Plaza and H? Hom. It is apparently five star but it is quite affordable as it is having an opening special. My question is, do you know what this hotel is like, and is NOrthpoint so far out that it will be a hassle to get to?

Thank you, I would SO appreciate your answer.

Lyn

Hope this helps, and have a good time when you come to Hong Kong!

If you are travelling by yourself and have a lot of luggage, answering the call of nature could prove a problem since the bathroom entrances are not wide enough for you to wheel your luggage cart in with big suitcases. So you will need to pay US$4 for storing each piece of your luggage while you go to spell "relief".