Overnight at Grand Hyatt
Kowloon is part of Hong Kong’s mainland, situated across Victoria Harbour. We spent the whole day in this area visiting the following sites –
- Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery
- Wong Tai Sin Temple
- Kowloon Walled City
- Temple Street Night Market
- Avenue of Stars
- Star Ferry
Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – We started the day (after breakfast) by taking a direct train from Hong Kong Island to a station near Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. From the station it was just a 5 minute walk to the temple.
This Buddha temple was constructed between 1949-1957. Set on a hilltop, the monastery is accessed by walking up a long curvy path that consists of 431 steps. It is a fun walk as you will be accompanied by 500 golden statues of Buddha, each with a unique expression.
Once you reach the top, the path leads to a courtyard in front of the main shrine. Inside the main temple, more than 11,000 small Buddha statues line the walls from almost the floor to the ceiling.
The courtyard has a huge pagoda that is 9 stories high and 2 pavilions with statues. The view from here of the hills and pine trees is spectacular.
Wong Tai Sun Temple – After visiting the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, we took a train to Wong Tai Sun Temple. The temple is conveniently located right next to the train station.
Wong Tai Sin Temple is one of the busiest temple in Hong Kong. Dedicated to the god of healing Wong Tai Sin, this iconic temple is a feast for the senses, with bright red pillars, bronze zodiac statues, jade-coloured roofs with intricate latticework and dragon adornments, and the scent of incense thick in the air. Visitors can also get their fortune told by shaking a bamboo stick out of a box onto the ground. The temple provides free bamboo for this, with each stick inscribed with a number and corresponding Chinese saying. For help deciphering your fate, head to one of the fortune tellers in the adjacent Wong Tai Sin Fortune-Telling and Oblation Arcade – they will translate the reading, providing context to your life, for a small fee.
Kowloon Walled City Park – Our next stop was the walled city park. This place is a 20 min walk from Wong Tai Sun Temple. As it was too hot and humid for us to walk, we decided to take an uber. We did not know what to expect here but glad we visited this place as it was different.
The original Kowloon Walled City was demolished between 1993 and 1994 to make way for the park. Before its demolition, the densely populated settlement was known for its lawlessness, poor living conditions, overcrowding, and fire risks. After the demolition, the area was transformed into the the park that we see today.
The park also has Kowloon Walled City: A Cinematic Journey’ Movie Set Exhibition – A movie set exhibition recreating the atmosphere of the original Kowloon Walled City using sets from the film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. It is free admission and is set up for a duration of 3 years from 2025-2027. The exhibits include recreated scenes of shops and businesses like a restaurant, barbershop, and dental clinic.
Temple street night market – From Kowloon Walled City Park, we took an uber to Temple street night market, as there were no bus or train station nearby. This is one of the best market for tourists in Hong Kong, where you can buy/find almost anything you can imagine.
Some of the stalls was already set up and some others in the process of being set up for the night visitors. As we walked around the market, we came across a stall selling Indian snacks like Samosa. The person running the stall directed us to the Indian restaurant nearby where we had a hearty lunch.
Avenue of Stars – We took a train from Temple street night market to Avenue of Stars. Located on the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, it honours celebrities of the Hong Kong film industry and is similar to the Hollywood walk of fame. This is a popular place for locals and visitors and is crowded any time of the year.
As you stroll along the waterfront, you will encounter plaques, handprints and statues of legendary Hong Kong actors like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Anita Mui.
At the southern end of the harbour, you will come across a huge Clock tower. We also took a walk inside the harbour mall which is one of the largest shopping malls in Hong Kong, featuring over 450 shops and restaurants.
Star Ferry – We took this ferry on one of the days to travel from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. It takes less than 10 minutes to get over to the other end and costs only a few Hong Kong Dollars to ride, making it one of the best deals in all of Hong Kong. The ferry runs quite regularly throughout the day and hence not crowded.
