Shopaholic's guide to Hong Kong - International Traveller Magazine

There’s no shortage of places to indulge in some retail therapy in China’s ‘world city’ – the hardest part is knowing which shopping precinct to trawl through first, says Alissa Jenkins.

Ah, Hong Kong, the Achilles heel of shopaholics; the promised-land for retail-starved travellers; a world-class workout for the ol’ plastic.

HK (or Honkers) is home to a litany of malls and markets, showrooms and stands. Indeed it is this never-ending supply of vendors coupled with a good exchange rate, which qualifies the city for the title of shopping capital of the world.

“HK is especially popular for Chinese mainlanders as the tax is much lower here," says Paul Stanton, a HK local and the guest liaison manager at the renowned Upper House Hotel, where he’s regularly quizzed on local shopping haunts.

“Not to mention the countless shops that appeal to China’s brand obsession – wealth status is reflected through the designer clothes people wear and the bags they carry."

Adding to Hong Kong’s appeal as somewhat of a retail nirvana is its landscape: just over 1000 square-kilometres in size (and home to more than seven million people), its buzzing streets are squeezed between the iconic Victoria Harbour and Victoria Peak – a 400-metre-high mountain, popular among tourists for its panoramic views.

For shoppers, this means you needn’t travel far from one shiny skyscraper housing countless tiers of high-fashion showrooms and luxury cosmetics to the next.

“It is a very concentrated area for people to shop, they can find designer brands such as Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent to Joyce and Lane Crawford all under one roof," adds Stanton.

So, the question begs, just where to start?

Get your wallet and walking shoes ready. Here we reveal just that.

The big guns

The Pradas, Fendis and La Prairies of the world can all be found in three major shopping destinations on Hong Kong Island – Pacific Place, the IFC Mall and Fashion Walk (although there are many more to scope out).

First stop is Pacific Place located above the Admiralty MTR station.

Nestled amongst office towers and swanky hotels, Pacific Place is home to over 140 shops and restaurants, as well as luxury apartments and five-star hotels, including the renowned Upper House, all owned by property juggernaut Swire.

While there’s no shortage of clothing outlets, Pacific’s specialty is its ‘beauty gallery’ with all the Jurlique and Jo Malone goodness your skin could hope for. There’s also an Yves Saint Laurent stand-alone boutique, which was the world’s first.

While there, check out Shanghai Tang, a high-end local clothing line with the most sumptuous silk print scarves that warrant the $200-plus price tag.

Further west in the city’s Central district is The Landmark, a stronghold of upmarket malls with the pièce de résistance, the IFC (International Finance Centre) Mall.

Inside is layer upon layer of glittering glass-panelled stores – over 200 in fact – from Nine West and Zara at the more affordable end of the spectrum to Cartier and Ermenegildo Zegna at the ‘if you have to ask, you can’t afford it’ end.

And lending a more lifestyle feel to the place, there’s also an Apple store, a cinema, a gym and a supermarket. And if you’re really committed to the IFC experience, you can stay at the adjoining Four Seasons Hotel, boasting both Chinese and western Michelin-starred fare.

Finally we move onto Causeway Bay and its largest outdoor shopping plaza, Fashion Walk.

With a distinctly European feel, Fashion Walk centres round a leafy promenade lined with specialty stores, including Vivienne Westwood and Japan’s Tsumori Chisato.

Almost as good as the shopping is the dining, with alfresco cafés and restaurants dotted along this popular stretch – come on Friday evenings to enjoy the live music performances.

Honourable mention also needs to go to the nearby Times Square, one of Hong Kong’s first mega-malls, with 16 floors of all the usual high-end suspects: Tiffany & Co., Chanel, Coach and the like.

Boutique trawling

Moving away from the glitz and glamour of the city’s big-name malls, there are plenty of more bespoke offerings, specialty boutiques, antique stores and art galleries.

Among the better-known haunts is Hollywood Road, stretching between Central and Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island.

This was the second road to be built when the colony of Hong Kong was founded, so don’t be surprised to find some especially British street names here like the intersecting Old Bailey Road.

Hollywood Road’s forte is its antique stores, stocking expensive porcelain ware and Ming dynasty ceramics to Chinese furniture and kitsch Maoist memorabilia.

Even if you’re not in the market for antiques, it’s still worth a look as many of these shops could double as mini museums.

While you’re there, have a look in Goods of Desire (G.O.D), a funky local homeware, giftware and clothing retailer with eight stores across the city. Think east-meets-west design with a dash of quirk.

Neighbouring Hollywood Road is one of the city’s hottest up-and-coming shopping destinations, Sheung Wan. Start at Upper Lascar Row (known as Cat Street), where you can peruse antique shops and pick up goodies like Ming dynasty furniture and jade jewellery.

Afterwards, mosey down the road to Gough Street, where trendy new boutiques and restaurants are springing up, attracting a wave of the young, cool and moneyed.

Among our favourites is Moustache for seriously chic menswear and Organic Modernism, the HK outpost of the hip Brooklyn-based furniture store.

However, no visit to Sheung Wan is complete without having a look around the handicraft shops at the Western Market, buzzing inside an Edwardian-style mall.

Wander just west of here for street markets filled with seafood, soups and tonics, especially around Ko Shing Street, where you can see ancient Chinese medicine in action.

Back at the nexus of Sheung Wan and Hollywood Road is another area called SoHo, full of buzzing bars and slick restaurants (look up ChaChaWan), as well as more boutiques.

Also in the Central area is the NYC-SoHo-esque Wan Chai StarStreet precinct, consisting of Sun, Star and Moon streets. Historically the site of Hong Kong’s first power station (from 1899 to 1922), the streets were apparently named after the three major elements that generate electricity.

Today the neighbourhood is one of the city’s newest (but no less chic) shopping destinations best known for its stylish home design stores, but it also boasts an impressive collection of galleries, bars and flagship restaurants.

While there, be sure to pop in to the Carven and Kapok boutiques, and keep an eye out for pop-up shops such as Anya Hindmarch.

End your shopping expedition with a drink (or three) at nearby Ted’s Lookout, an intimate little bar tucked away on Moon Street.

It’s cheeky and gritty with Banksy-esque graffiti, and a ‘hiding from wife’ telephone alongside a list of things to tell her when she asks where you are.

The Prohibition-era cocktails ain’t bad either.

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

To market, to market

Traditionally, the go-to market experience for tourists has been Stanley Markets, situated on Hong Kong Island’s south coast foreshore.

A warren of stalls selling knick-knacks and souvenirs, some would say this huge market was at its peak some 20 years ago. Since then it’s been slowly erring more on the side of gimmicks than genuine keepsakes.

The best markets can be found off the island and on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, particularly around the vibrant Mong Kok area.

Here one of the best known shopping strips is the Ladies Market, a one-kilometre stretch down Tung Choi Street jam-packed with over 100 stalls of bargain clothing (*cough* counterfeit labels *cough*), cosmetics, accessories and souvenirs, all ready for you to fine tune your haggling skills on.

And don’t be fooled by the name; there’s plenty here for fellas too from clothing to electronics, CDs and all sorts of trinkets.

But it’s Kowloon’s themed streets that are really worth the visit: entire strips dedicated to selling the same product.

In Mong Kok there’s the Goldfish Market on Tung Choi Street, with every goldfish variety imaginable on sale, as well as the odd seahorse and jellyfish.

On Fa Yuen Street, the stretch between Argyle Street and Dundas Street has been dubbed Sneaker Street with just about every sports shoe under the sun.

The Yuen Po Street Bird Garden may sound idyllic but it’s best to give this one a miss unless you fancy seeing great tropical birds trapped in undersized cages.

Instead, visit the nearby Mong Kok Flower Market, which colours Prince Edward Road West, Sai Yee Street and Yuen Po Street with stall after stall of blossoms and bouquets.

While you probably won’t be taking these through customs, chances are your suitcase will already be bursting at the seams anyway.

Details

How to get there

Cathay Pacific flies 74 times a week from Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Cairns and Brisbane) direct to Hong Kong, and onto more than 190 destinations around the world.
cathaypacific.com.au

Where to stay

The gorgeously designed The Upper House is more a home than a hotel.
upperhouse.com

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

Shopaholic’s guide to Hong Kong

The big guns

Boutique trawling

To market, to market

Details

How to get there

Where to stay

Inside Cathay Pacific’s new business-class suites

What the Cathay Pacific business class lounges at Hong Kong Airport are really like

A new era of Regent Hong Kong

A guide to Hong Kong’s best neighbourhoods

These community homestays are changing how travellers experience Nepal