Hong Kong has its own reputation. With its blissful street life and delicious food, it has an iconic skyline, a glittering harbor and towering mountains. The city is absolutely stunning and when you scratch under the surface, you will discover a lot of new things to see and you will surely get a visa for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong pre-arrival registration for Indians is an online registration form, that needs to be filled which allows a fourteen-day visa-free stay in the city. We have put together a list of things that you would want to see when visiting the city.
1.Hong Kong is busy, huge, and crowded.
If you expect Singapore streets to be clean, then you will surely be disappointed. Hong Kong comes in one of the most densely populated and overcrowded cities throughout the world. To make you well aware, Hong Kong’s living quarters are one of the smallest in the world, around 430 square feet on average according to the article published on Reuters.
2. It has got the best street life in the world.
With all the vibrant crowd, there is a continuous rhythmic sound by the talking of the people over the sitting tables present on the sidewalks. Almost in every neighbourhood, there is a market where the vendors put their hands on slicing fresh meat and seafood. Street food is a must-try in this city, especially in a neighbour like Mong Kok. If you have a person who can translate or a language translator app on your phone, you can go to one of the fortune-tellers and tarot card readers that can be found near the Causeway Bay highway.
3.You will spend a lot more money than you expected.
There is no surprise that Hong Kong city is expensive. It’s a place where you can find two Armani stores nearby a block, where a luxurious mall is attached to a super luxurious hotel, where Tesla cars run around the streets. You will be absolutely shocked when you will calculate your expenses just after a few hours of dining and shopping. Even a meal at a medium-range restaurant without dessert or alcohol will cost you $100 for two people. If it comes to shopping, the city is full of malls, but to remind you again, the price tags on the outfits and indie style boutiques can be a tough top-tier competition to the ones existing in New York City or Paris.
4.If you everything right, you can score some good bargains.
Well, Hong Kong city may sound like a play space for rich people who love to spend on things they do not even need, but it can be possible to score some bargains around the clock within a simple budget mid-range hotel, relative to the costs of hotels you find in the United States or Europe.
5. Everything is turned into a mall, shopping is a priority.
Well, there is no official counting on the shopping malls that exist but the malls that people casually observed and are aware of, are more than 100. We are not talking about some typical sub-urban malls that you see in North America, here, the mall is referred to as a cultural touchstone, every floor are filled with popular restaurants that lead the way to luxury stores, only-in-Hong-Kong brands, indie boutiques, streetwear, bespoke housewares, vintage goods, artworks, and a lot more.
6.The Artwork is amazing.
Since 2013, Hong Kong city has been home to one of the largest Art Basel fairs in the world, although nearly every major gallery in the Europe and United States has an outpost here which includes Perrotin, White Cube, Pace and Gagosian. If you dig deeper, you can find the street art striking about politics and socially relevant issues.
7. You will need to carry a lot of cash with you.
This city may look like a wonderland of the future, but you will find that major mall shops, retailers, restaurants, hoteliers accept debit and credit cards. However, keeping cash is still important, the city does not have online Uber/Ola cab services in most areas, so you will have to take a taxi and they do not accept cards. Although, there are a lot of international bank ATMs that you can easily withdraw cash from.
8. Purchase an Octopus card and use it at the MTR.
The MTR is an efficient train lines system that runs mostly underneath the city, that requires an Octopus Card to pay, you can deposit cash at an MTR station Kiosk and get your pre-paid card. You can rely on these trains, as the city is crowded and the taxis can take extra time and become pricey. Even during the peak time hours, the trains pass in every 3-minute window. The stations are huge, clean, have stores around the corners, air-conditioned and safe.