THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE YOU fell in love with Hong Kong long before your plane ever landed at Chek Lap Kok. Perhaps it was the rain-slicked glamour of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love. Or maybe it arrived through the pages of Janice YK Lee’s The Piano Teacher or Richard Mason’s The World of Suzy Wong.
Or maybe it was simply the idea of it—that colourful, electric skyline rising out of the South China Sea, all neon and steel and harbour fog, a cyberpunk paradise with ancient roots.
Hong Kong has long been one of fiction’s most glamorous muses, living rent-free in our collective imagination for decades. Which is why, when the chance arrives (even if it’s just a layover, even if it’s only eight hours) the answer is obvious. You go. Because what other cities struggle to deliver in days, Hong Kong aces in a matter of hours. All you have to do is say yes.
First, you’ll need a base. If you’re an Esquire man, this is a non-negotiation: head to the Rosewood, Hong Kong. Turn a familiar corner at Victoria Docks and you are greeted by the opulent yet elegant facade of the property and its discreet brown-black-beige aesthetic. What makes it perfect for the fast-moving, discerning world traveller isn’t just the world-class hospitality or the members-club ambience. What truly sets it apart is that the hotel is an oasis in itself, offering everything from two Michelin-starred restaurants (The Legacy House, specialising in refined Cantonese cuisine and CHAAT, known for elevated Indian street food) to the stunning infinity edge ASAYA pool. Conveniently, it also puts you within striking distance of myriad experiences worth seeing.
And there is plenty worth seeing.
Hong Kong hosts over a hundred museums, each distinct from the last, but M+ in the West Kowloon Cultural District is in a league of its own. The 18-floor Herzog & de Meuron-designed building occupies a whopping 65,000 square metres and offers sweeping views of Victoria Harbour. Its four permanent collections are anchored by the celebrated M+ Sigg Collection which is an unrivalled repository of more than 1,500 holdings that traces the arc of Chinese contemporary art from 1972 to 2012. Keep an eye on their website for current exhibitions, and if there’s one work you seek out, make it Liu Wei’s massive pale-pink oil-on-canvas triptych on the first floor which is meant to be a commentary on the collapse of idealism in the face of rampant materialism.
And how many cities in the world can hand you a world-class museum in one instant and a centuries-old junk boat in the next? The Aqua Luna, one of the last restored, traditional Chinese-style junk boats still sailing, is as iconic to Hong Kong as the skyline itself. Its dramatic red sails cutting across Victoria Harbour, the city’s waterfront rising behind it: it is, as experiences go, romantically and quintessentially Hong Kong.
The boat’s irresistibility extends, naturally, to your table. Hong Kong is home to 77 Michelin-starred restaurants: 57 One-Star ones, 13 Two-Star establishments and seven restaurants with the Three-Star rating. And its bar scene is equally as good, from Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale’s celebrated Penicillin to Montana, Bar Leone founder Lorenzo Antinori’s sophomore effort and the city’s current obsession. Montana doesn’t take reservations, so get there early. The venue is an ode to Cuba’s cocktail heritage. Think 1930s Havana meets 1970s Miami.
And if bars and boats aren’t your cup of tea, Hong Kong also has Tai Kwun—the former police headquarters on Hollywood Road that is now one of the city’s most celebrated heritage projects and proof of what a city can achieve when it commits to the conservation of its own history.
A few hours in Hong Kong will do what full itineraries elsewhere often cannot: it will make you feel unabashedly alive. You may leave the city to head to the next stop on your travels, but Hong Kong, in all its neon-lit glory, won’t quite leave you.