Customer Reviews

Fodor's Hong Kong 2000

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As a native who grew up and used to live in Hong Kong, it is always fun and entertaining to read about these wonderful and exciting accounts about the city from the eyes of foreigners.

A restless and vibrant city with more than 6.5 million inhabited on 1071 square miles, Hong Kong is the center of the Far East, dubbed "Pearl of the Orient". A tour-guide of 200 or so pages probably can't portrait the exciting lifestyles led by locals and all the fun this island has to offer.

Yet Fodor has done quite an awesome job.

In addition to the usual tidbits on "how to get there" and the A-Z guide, Fodor team really does the homework and presents the city with unusual details and point-of-interests that are not commonly known to foreigners. A city made up of the Kowloon peninsula, the Hong Kong Island (where major financial and business center locates), and 235 outer islands, one would have to explore the outlying islands, whether inhabited or not, in order to complete travel experience in Hong Kong. Fodor delivers vivid and lucid photos of the islands as well as shopping guidelines, food and drinks, and destivals and seasonal events.

There is no best time to visit in Hong Kong. You might want to avoid the summer months of hot and humid weather. A stroll around the Central District will expose you to the heart of the city - financial district. You will also find historical monuments left by the British empire, which once ruled over this colony for 150 years. A walk up the mid-level from Central introduced dozens of specialty restaurants which serve from bagels to cajun chicken to pita bread.

Be sure to Fodor with you on your next vacation to Hong Kong. Read and study it and you will find your travel experience rewarding and exciting. Like many tour guides published, local cultures and hang-outs are never sufficient and infact, visitors are usually advised to stay away from "local" areas; yet I recommend you walking through the local neighborhoods i Hong Kong, which are relatively welcoming and safe. You will find surprised delights like roasted goose, exotic Chinese pastries, and hand-made crafts.

Hi, we are going to Hong Kong next year, and I bought this book to help me decide where to stay and pick a few highlights that I will want to plan on seeing.

This book is really, really helpful when it comes to listing hotels and restaurants according to regions of the city. There are also quite a few maps that are fairly easy to read and they have laid out the book so that you could take it along on a walking tour of Hong Kong Island or Kowloon, etc. and refer to it very easily. They also include information on public transportation i.e. buses, the subway, etc., how to get to and from the airport, etc. The book is a convenient size to put in a small backpack as well.

The only thing that I would do to improve this book is to add more pictures of some of the things described!

This book also includes lots of useful information on side trips to both Macau and Guangzhou, which are both easy day trips from Hong Kong.

While the book provide some useful information, it is not do a good job providing maps and cross references. I regret I bought it, not very useful at all.