city guides: hong kong

Chek Lap Kok International Airport

CLK is Hong Kong’s only airport and handles around 45 million passengers per year. It has links to 150 international airports, not counting a further 42 cities on the Chinese mainland, and its passenger terminal is one of the largest enclosed spaces in the world. Fortunately, it is also one of the easiest to navigate.

Journeys to and from distant gates are assisted by a subway-style Automated People Mover, and the whole complex is clearly signposted. Departures and arrivals are on separate levels, each served directly by Airport Express. Taxi ranks and bus services are also clearly flagged, but Airport Express is the quickest and most comfortable way to get to town.

A good range of retail outlets and restaurants/cafés are found before and after immigration, and for fast-food addicts, McDonald’s and Burger King both have outlets at the airport. Recent additions airside include a seafood bar, a sports bar and a branch of the Café Deco chain, best known for its outlet on The Peak, which serves fusion food.

The new Cyber Break Café at Level 6 Departures in the Northwest Concourse offers unlimited free Internet access, and most lounges offer up-to-date telecommunications facilities. Outside those areas, 170 “Power Phones” located throughout the terminal allow laptop Internet connections, with charges itemized on the phones.

Airport Express passengers should remember that they can check in early-with their luggage-at the Hong Kong and Kowloon stations between 24 hours and 90 minutes of departure.

Getting around

Few things could be easier than getting from Chek Lap Kok International Airport (see sidebar) to downtown Hong Kong. The platform to Airport Express is just a 90-second walk away across the arrivals area, and a HK$100 ticket will get you to the Tsim Sha Tsui station in downtown Kowloon, or the next stop in the Central business district on Hong Kong Island, in considerably less than half an hour.

Hong Kong is compact and easy to get around. Taxis are cheap and plentiful, and locals use them as casually as people in other cities use buses or the subway. Not all drivers speak English fluently, but most speak enough for you to make yourself understood, and your hotel concierge will happily write down your destination in Chinese for you. Fares for red taxis in the urban areas are HK$15 for the first two kilometers and HK$1.40 for each 200 metres or one minute of waiting time after that.

The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) subway system is also inexpensive to use, and, since traffic is often congested, can be a quicker means of getting from point to point. All subway stations have maps near the exits to help you find street addresses. You may find it worth your while, if you’re staying a few days, to buy an Octopus card, which every man, woman and child who lives here now carries. It’s an electronic stored value card, which you can buy from the Airport Express service counter and top up with cash at various locations. It works on the Airport Express, MTR, ferries, buses and even at convenience stores. Soon it will also work for parking meters, but visitors here generally don’t drive. Rental cars, given limited parking, are expensive and troublesome. If you want to arrive somewhere in style, many hotels-and various companies listed in the yellow pages of the telephone directory-offer chauffeur-driven limousines. You can cash in your Octopus before you leave, or keep it for a future visit.