Central and the Peak

With its forest of skyscrapers looming over Victoria Harbour, this is the beating commercial heart of Hong Kong, as well as the backdrop for a million postcards.

Central District – Chung Wan in ­Cantonese – is Hong Kong’s business and financial hub, at the heart of the incredible cliff-face of high-rise buildings that extends along the north shore of Hong Kong Island. Wedged between the harbour and the precipitous slopes of Vic­toria Peak, this is where the money is, the financial powerhouses, the glamorous high-end shopping malls, overlooked by the multi-millionaires’ mansions up on The Peak.

Yet, like the rest of Hong Kong, there is little in the way of conventional tourist sights here: despite the efforts of the tourist board to highlight the past with such innovations as the Sun Yat-sen Trail, most of the “landmarks” en route are simply plaques recording some building or other that has long since disappeared. Instead, the fascination is in the contemporary, the everyday life of the place, the drama of the architecture, the amazing contrasts of scale and the sheer energy that emanates from the crowded streets.

And although most of the pedestrians on Central’s streets are attired for business, and giant screens flash the latest news and financial figures from around the world to passers-by, there are still strong elements of former days, with wayside hawkers selling novelties and knock-offs, incense sticks smouldering by tiny shrines, and delivery boys serenely pedalling through red lights with a cargo of fresh meat balanced in their bike’s cast-iron basket.