Shopping is unofficially a national pastime in Hong Kong, and it’s a great way to explore the city. Here’s our guide to where to find the best shopping in Hong Kong and the various destinations around the city. Whether you are looking for chain stores, malls, boutiques or local designers, we’ve got you covered!
Central – Soho – Poho
Hit the High Street
In this neck of the woods it’s easy to strip-shop. All of the different districts are so close to each other, and each offers different but fantastic options. You’ll find big names in Central and smaller boutiques and restaurants in Soho. Also check out the quieter back streets of Sai Ying Pun and Sheung Wan.
Queen’s Road Central holds a lot of the big labels and fast fashion. To name just a few, there’s the Club Monaco flagship store (16-18 Queen’s Road), Joyce (also #16-18 G/F), and Adidas store (#36). There’s also a trifecta of fast fashion all on one corner (#59-70): Top Shop, COS and Zara. You’ll find Italian lingerie store Intimissimi (#58-62) and a great kids’ store, Seed (#41), all sitting amongst the luxury labels peppering the street. And don’t forget Marks & Spencer (#22-28).
In Soho the strip-shopping gets serious. PMQ (35 Aberdeen Street) has an assortment of stores on each level. Buttonhole at 58 Peel Street is fantastic for samples and accessories. Along Peel and Elgin Streets there are small boutiques with a similar vibe and lots of options. For those over 30, pop into Love It (#18-20) for some amazing clothing and maybe even some style advice from the store’s style gurus.
Pay a visit to Niin (200 Hollywood Road), a noteworthy accessories boutique. If you head further down Aberdeen Street you’ll find Gough Street, lined with boutiques like Tunique (#12).
Malls and More
IFC is Central’s biggest mall and offers the best mixture of upscale brands and fast fashion: Maje, Massimo Dutti, Theory, Lane Crawford, Sandro, a new COS, Zara and much more. 8 Finance Street, Central. ifc.com.hk
Landmark has a smaller selection but houses some the biggest international fashion houses: Celine, Victoria Beckham, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, to name a few. Have a walk through some of the most creative visual merchandising and displays you’ll find in the city. 15 Queen’s Road, Central. landmark.hk
Causeway Bay
Hit the High Street
Causeway Bay has some of the best shopping in Hong Kong and by far the most exciting strip-shopping. It’s bursting with life – you don’t need to be indoors going up and down escalators here. It has the largest mix of brands and offers a serendipitous approach that allows for stumbling your way through the streets discovering shop after shop. The eclectic variety of high-end luxury fashion, fast fashion and random interesting boutiques is simply fab. But don’t make the rookie mistake of going early in the morning; it’s all closed until just before midday.
Fashion Walk is the most exciting area of shopping in the CWB district; there’s just so much to see. It’s here you’ll find Michael Kors, Isabel Marant, a huge H&M, Kate Spade, Comme Des Garcon, Aesop, Ted Baker and more. These are all bricks-and-mortar stores, which makes for a more interesting experience than rifling through racks of clothing, seeing only snippets of the full story. Paterson Street, Great George Street, Cleveland Street, Kingston Street & Food Street. fashionwalk.com.hk
Grab a coffee or some lunch at a café, recompose yourself, and then hit the streets again for more. Yiu Wa Street is full of boutiques and many of them are small vintage stores which are great for one-off pieces.
Malls and More
Times Square is hard to keep up with. It’s Causeway Bay’s biggest mall and boasts 260 shops spread over 16 floors, making it a hub for high-end shopping in Hong Kong. Here are a few picks: Saint Laurent, Longchamp, Lane Crawford, Kurt Geiger, J.Crew, Zara and Club Monaco. 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay. timessquare.com.hk
Lee Gardens & Lee Gardens Two are a pair of relatively small malls also catering to high-end luxury wear and definitely worth the stroll. 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay. leegardens.com.hk
Quarry Bay
Malls and More
Quarry Bay is a mixture of residential and industrial buildings. It’s not a place where you would go to find boutiques, but City Plaza, the main shopping mall in the area, is packed to the brim with brands from all over the place. Although there have been many changes over the years, it’s still one of the best. If you’re looking for a mall with a more middle-of-the-road approach to fashion then this is it; it houses a number of affordable brands, including kikki.K, ALDO, Muji, Max&Co and Uniqlo. 18 Tai Koo Shing Road, Quarry Bay. cityplaza.com
Southside
Malls and More
On top of a great location and fantastic dining options, The Pulse (28 Beach Road, Repulse Bay) has a large retail section. There are several floors of shops, where you’ll find loads of children’s stores with plenty of toys, books and beautiful imported clothing brands like Seed Heritage (Shop 201A&B). thepulse.com.hk
Further on, The Repulse Bay Arcade (109 Repulse Bay Road) houses a range of shops and services. These include lifestyle stores Indigo and INSIDE. therepulsebay.com
While the area is famous for the popular Stanley Markets, Stanley has had a makeover in recent years and there’s much more to see, eat and buy at Stanley Plaza (23 Carmel Road), with everything from Bumps to Babes to H&M – and dining options galore. stanleyplaza.com
Kowloon
Hit the High Street
Granville Road is the place to go for reasonably-priced fashion from chain-stores and boutiques in Tsim Sha Tsui. Nathan and Chatham Roads have so many shops it’ll be an assault on more than just your credit card. Shopping in Kowloon is not for the faint-hearted! As one of the main ports for cruise ships and ferries, the Tsim Sha Tsui area is packed with shops. Many of them target tourists, so bear that in mind when shopping in Hong Kong on the Kowloon side.
Malls and More
Harbour City is a behemoth of shopping in Hong Kong. It is divided into three smaller malls: Ocean Centre, Ocean Terminal and Gateway Arcade. There are over 700 shops, 50 food and beverage outlets, three hotels, and a strip of high-end luxury labels that stretches for over a kilometre down Canton Road. Not for the faint-hearted, it’s easy to lose yourself here. But if you can’t find what you’re looking for at Harbour City, you won’t find it anywhere. 3-27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. harbourcity.com.hk
Elements Mall is deceptive – hard to gauge how big it really is from the layout, and easy to get lost. But it houses lots of well-known brands, from H&M to Hermès, and plenty in between. It’s a lovely shopping experience, and there are some really nice dining options there as well. 1 Austin Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. elementshk.com
New Territories
Like every other area in Hong Kong, the New Territories is peppered with malls and complexes. Bargain hunters, serious shoppers and visitors will not be disappointed if you come here for some shopping in Hong Kong. Check out Newtown Plaza (18 Sha Tin Centre Street, Sha Tin), Discovery Park (398 Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan), Landmark North (39 Lung Sum Avenue, Sheung Shui), Maritime Square (33 Tsing King Road, Tsing Yi), Plaza Hollywood, (3 Lung Poon Street, Diamond Hill), Megabox, (38 Wang Chiu Road, Kowloon Bay), Metro City Plaza (8 Yan King Road, Po Lam) and many more.
This article appeared in Expat Living’s City Guide. Get your free copy now!
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