A City Lover Seeks out Hong Kong’s Hidden Gems

Where to shop

The local design hub

I like to check out local independent creators wherever I travel, and PMQ is like a design incubator meets shopping destination set in a former police school in Sheung Wan. Rows of small studios surround an open-air courtyard, filled with emerging talent like Edmund Ip of Bathe to Basics, who studied perfumery but uses essential oils to craft a beautiful hand sanitizer spray in a flat circle bottle, roll-on perfume oils and haircare. Taste Library is a kitchen lab offering cooking workshops, author talks and a wide range of culinary books to bring food traditions and stories to life. 

The magical slippers

Shoemaker Miru Wong’s grandfather founded Sindart in 1958; she grew up in his workshop, learned to embroider at 6 years old and eventually took over the business in her twenties. She runs it from a tiny shop in a commercial building in Jordan, where the walls are covered in an array of colourful slippers, from fuchsia velvet to lemon yellow satin to silver mesh, hand-embroidered with chrysanthemums, peonies or butterflies. With most priced around $50, these are a steal, and the chicest house slipper you can imagine (she ships worldwide). I bought a fuchsia velvet pair embroidered with peonies and wore them straight out to dinner. 

The icons

Hong Kong has some iconic shopping destinations, like the glossy department store Lane Crawford and the discerningly curated designer boutique Joyce, whose buyers scour the international collections to offer connoisseurs the latest from Alaia, Yohji Yamamoto and emerging stars like New York-based Chinese designer Caroline Hu’s floaty tulle dresses strewn with 3D flowers.

The elegant mainstay Shanghai Tang, founded in Hong Kong in 1994, offers classic pieces with traditional Chinese details, like a silk column dress with tiny jade buttons across one shoulder, a nod to the qipao dress. (Their in-house candles in ginger flower or longjing dew scents make lovely gifts).

You’ll find all of these stores and many more at the gorgeous, art-filled K11 Musea shopping centre on Kowloon harbourfront. Or if you’re a bargain hunter, make the longer journey to the 28-storey Horizon Plaza outlet mall in Ap Lei Chau, where these three stores and many more offer designer wares marked down from 50 to 90 per cent off, alongside stylish furniture outlets and homewares at Tree, on the top floor.

Tailoring made modern at Frey.

The modern workwear

Hong Kong has a strong tradition of tailoring, mostly in menswear—if you want to get a shirt or suit made, there’s no shortage of options. But the three-year-old brand Frey brings that expertise together with an eye for stylish womenswear. It’s helmed by women who are part of the city’s stylish expat scene, and they use mostly Italian deadstock fabrics from suppliers to the top fashion houses. You’ll find sleek, relaxed separates like a coral boxy blazer in ultra-light tropical wool, a hip-length double-breasted pinstripe vest and flowing wide-leg trousers in olive viscose made of bamboo: Everything is designed to look equally effortless with heels or sneakers. Prices hover between $200 and $600, and for 30 per cent extra, you can get a body scan taken of your measurements and have a piece made to measure (and shipped to you at home). 

Where to spa

The foot treatment

If you’re doing it right, you will spend a lot of time walking in Hong Kong, up plenty of steep, windy streets. Treat your feet to a dose of reflexology, a traditional massage technique that targets pressure points, dating back thousands of years in China. At Tai Pan Reflexology Parlour in Tsim Sha Tsui, you’ll descend from busy Nathan Road into a dimly lit 1940s-inspired space decorated in black and red. If you book a foot massage treatment ($50 for 50 minutes), you’ll change into an oversized black T-shirt and shorts and start in an old-fashioned barber chair as your feet soak and cleanse, then head to a room of lay-flat loungers where you’ll lie under a cozy blanket as a therapist massages your soles, ankles and shins with sweeping, firm strokes. Breathe through the tender points (there are many) and you’ll feel tension release and energy flood up your legs. Add on an herbal foot steaming session ($30), and you’ll sit on a bench with your legs in a bamboo steamer infused with detoxifying Chinese herbs as everything below the knee heats and sweats, a strangely relaxing and invigorating sensation. 

The red carpet facial

The most opulent, skin-reviving experience is the Triple Crown facial at the Four Seasons spa, the signature treatment of celebrity facialist Joanna Vargas, who cares for the complexions of Naomi Watts, Julianne Moore and Keri Russell (her facials aren’t available in Canada, yet). It’s 90 truly transcendental minutes ($845) that will leave you looking as if you definitely didn’t just spend 15 hours on a plane. Gentle exfoliation and hydrating masks and serums bookend the powers of microcurrent, using a proprietary device Vargas developed with a biochemical engineer. After finishing the right side, the therapist shows me a mirror and half of my face is noticeably sculpted and lifted—it looks like I had a brow lift! Take your time in the hydrotherapy area afterwards, steaming, sauna-ing and lying in bubbling water on a curving structure of warm metal pipes. 

What to do

The art destination

Like the MoMa, the Tate Modern and the Pompidou, the three-year-old M+ in the West Kowloon Cultural District is a must-visit modern art and visual culture gallery in a spectacular building (the exterior becomes a giant LED light screen you can see from across the harbour). This fall, the fashion-as-art work of Beijing designer Guo Pei (she of Rihanna’s much-memed yellow Met Gala gown) is on display, while the ongoing Things, Spaces, Interactions is a fascinating collection of influential graphic art, furniture and design from across Asia.

Be sure to catch the trippy, colourful album covers artist Alan Chan created for 1980s Hong Kong pop star Anita Mui, known for her bold androgynous style. The gallery shop on the way out is a prime spot to pick up souvenirs like posters, books and tiny hand-crafted pins and magnets featuring city icons like egg tarts and milk tea. 

The views

For a bird’s eye view over the city, it’s essential to sit back (almost 90 degrees back) as the Peak Tram funicular railway trundles up the steep hillside to The Peak, the highest lookout point in the city with spectacular views across the harbour. Pop a coin into a telescope on the Sky Terrace at the top and you’ll be able to peer into the massive mansions perched on the hillside, imagining the opulence within. On the way back down, stop for snacks, a coffee at % Arabica and souvenirs (I bought a noodle box made of gummy candy). 

The tour

Vancouver-born Virginia Chan of Humid With A Chance of Fishballs offers personalized, ultra-organized and really fun tours. She specializes in food, like an “off the eaten path” exploration of mom-and-pop street food vendors or a nighttime eating tour of Kowloon City, but can put together an itinerary of exactly what you want to see and who you want to meet. Her “Is this a tourist trap?” Instagram video series on famous spots like the Temple St. Night Market or the Aqualuna dimsum cruise is a great resource for deciding your own itineraries. 

The airport

To scratch that last-minute gift or souvenir itch, head to G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) on your way to your gate, for cool printed Ts and design-forward games and puzzles. If you’re flying Hong Kong’s own Cathay Pacific, know that its airport lounges are worth a few hours of pre-departure exploration in their own right. Its flagship The Pier lounge has its own tea house serving glass teapots of jing green tea with walnut cookies and egg tarts, and  a made-to-order noodle bar where I had noodle soup, smashed cucumber salad and dumplings, one of the tastiest meals of my trip.

Rani Sheen was hosted by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which did not review or approve this article.