Cinema and Film

The vast majority of Hong Kong cinemas show films in Cantonese, though details of the city's 30 or so English-language cinemas are available from the HKTA offices or papers and listings magazines. Most are multi-screen complexes situated in Causeway Bay. Other cinemas may show first-release films in English with Cantonese subtitles, which means the Chinese can - and do - chatter through the entire film. For fun you might try Cantonese films - martial arts flicks or lightweight gangster and comedy pot- boilers - with English subtitles. Queues are common, but ticketing is computerised: you pick your numbered seat from those remaining when you arrive at the box office. Real film buffs should aim to take in the annual Hong Kong International Film Festivai (August), which offers an eclectic mixture of local, Chinese, Asian and other films from across the globe. 

Event Information

Details of current listings and other information regarding clubs, bars, live music venues and most other cultural and entertainment events can be found in the Hong Kong Tourist Association's free Official Dining and Entertainment Guide, available from tourist offices and in the free weekly HK Magazine, widely available in shops, bars, hotels and restaurants. Also try newspapers such as the daily South China Morning Post, and the large bulletin boards outside City Hall by the Star Ferry terminal also hold posters and listings of forthcoming events. 

Nightlife Locations

Entertainment venues are scattered across the city, but the main concentration of bars, clubs and restaurants in Central are gathered in the tightknit Lan Kwai Fong area . Wan Chai's Lockhart Street and the surrounding area, another nightlife enclave, has traditionally had a rather down-at-heel atmosphere, but high rents elsewhere have seen the opening of new and more enticing venues. The Tsim Sha Tsui district is also good for nightlife, appealing to younger visitors, though here, too, new venues have turned the little area around Knutsford Terrace (a block north of Kimberley Road) into Kowloon's newly trendy equivalent of Lan Kwai Fong. 

Bars and Hostess Clubs

It is well worth noting that in Hong Kong the distinction between clubs, pubs, bars and restaurants is often blurred. Many bars serve full meals and many have live music some nights or a small dance floor for late-night dancing. When it comes to the city's other well-known nightspots, the so-called hostess bars, 'girlie' bars or topless bars, there is just one word - don't. Although pushed by the Tourist Association as a typical Hong Kong experience, most of these places are indescribably sleazy, sell drinks at exorbitant prices, and often conjure up numerous ways of fleecing gullible tourists. If curiosity gets the better of you, the two most famous such bars are Bottoms Up(14 Hankow Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon) , notable principally because part of the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun was shot here, and the extraordinary and super- smart Club BBoss (sic), supposedly the largest club of its type in the world(New Mandarin Plaza, 14 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui). 

Cover Charges

Many of Hong Kong's dance clubs are in the Wan Chai district on and around Lockhart, Jaffe and Lugard roads. Most are smart affairs where the latest fashions rule - the crazier the better - though the city's clubs tend to be less intimidatingly trendy than those in London or New York. However, prices are often high by western standards, and most clubs have a cover charge, though this usually includes the price of one or two drinks. Reckon on anything up to HK$250 for the most expensive places. Many clubs are free from Monday to Thursday and only levy a cover charge on Friday and Saturday. Others may admit women free, or admit men and women free until a certain time.