Hong Kong Audio Tours

Hong Kong stacks itself vertically because it has no choice. The mountains come down to the harbour on Hong Kong Island, and Kowloon across the water is dense and relentless with it. The result is a city where you can step off the Peak Tram into subtropical forest at 400 metres, then be back at sea level in fifteen minutes, surrounded by neon signs in Cantonese, fresh-killed chickens hanging in market windows and the smell of incense from temples pressed between towers. The Star Ferry has crossed Victoria Harbour for over 130 years and the crossing still feels like the right way to arrive anywhere.

The food culture here is its own argument for visiting.

Dim sum at a Hong Kong teahouse on a Sunday morning -- bamboo steamers stacked to the ceiling, trolleys pushed by aunties who don't slow down -- is an institution worth queuing for. Char siu bao, har gow, egg tarts from the bakery below your hotel: these are not tourist attractions but what people eat. Sham Shui Po in Kowloon is where locals shop for electronics, fabric and street food, largely untroubled by visitors, and it feels more genuinely Hong Kong than anywhere on the tourist circuit.