Tsim Sha Tsui

Of the Kowloon-Canton railway terminus pulled down in 1978, only this tower was kept. It stands 44m, red brick faced with granite. There is no way inside, so a circuit of the base is the whole of the visit.

A 440m walk with the handprints of Hong Kong film people set into the paving. A rebuild reopened it in 2019. That work brought in far more shade trees and places to sit. Some queue always forms at the Bruce Lee statue for a photograph.

Take a place at the railing before 8pm, when it starts. The whole thing runs 10 minutes. Speakers carry the soundtrack only along a marked stretch; anywhere else it comes by radio or a phone app.

A white dome shaped like half an egg laid on its side has stood here since 1980. Inside it a hemispherical screen has you watching with your head tipped back. Wednesday admission to the permanent galleries costs nothing.

A 2019 rebuild added floors and wrapped the building in glass. Cantonese painting, Chinese antiquities and the Hong Kong collection each hold their own level. The permanent galleries take no ticket; only special exhibitions are charged.

Climb the ramp and you pass the old stables and then the time ball tower. This was the Marine Police headquarters of 1884, now shops and a hotel. Floodlights go on at night and wedding photographers turn up with them.

Barracks once held this ground, so the land inside the wall sits a storey above the roads around it. Tai chi groups fill the sculpture garden each morning, and a flamingo pond and an indoor pool share the same enclosure.

You would not want to walk this road end to end. It runs straight from Tsim Sha Tsui up to Mong Kok, but the stretch where signboards pile out over the pavement is only the southern 1km or so. Above that, one stop on the train beats it.

The present building has stood since 1984, its white marble dome holding the corner where Nathan Road begins. Outside prayer times the courtyard is open to visitors. Short clothing is turned away at the gate.

The permanent display, which starts in prehistory and covers six thousand years, came back in 2026 with its eight parts grown to ten, the 21st century added and the full-size 1930s street still in it.

A museum of visual culture that opened on the West Kowloon reclamation in 2021. Its whole harbour face is an LED screen, so after sunset the video works show all the way from Hong Kong Island. The roof garden looks squarely at the Central towers.

Opened in 2022 to show imperial treasures lent in rotation by Beijing's Palace Museum. Book a timed ticket ahead, as same-day ones sell only while they last; Tuesdays it is closed. When shows change, the same rooms fill with entirely different pieces.

A theatre built for Cantonese opera, opened in 2019. Besides full productions, a small tea house stage serves dim sum and tea while short excerpts play, which suits a first-timer. The lobby can be explored without a ticket.

A wide lawn laid over the tip of the reclamation, with the western skyline of Hong Kong Island across the water. People gather at sunset with mats and beer, and one section admits dogs. Shade is scarce, which makes midday hot.

A viewing deck opened in 2017 where Harbour City ends, over the cruise pier. It juts out over the water, taking in Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon shore at once. Admission costs nothing; come sunset, the railing places fill first.

A science museum in Tsim Sha Tsui East built for touching, where most exhibits are about pressing buttons and turning handles, so families with children fill it. A huge rolling-ball machine climbing several storeys of the lobby runs at set times.

A red-brick church raised on a rise above Nathan Road in 1906, the oldest Anglican church in Kowloon. A short flight of steps above Nathan Road, the roar fades. During the Japanese occupation it served as a Shinto shrine.

A signal tower built in 1907 crowns the hilltop. A ball dropped from its top once gave ships in the harbour the time. Climb the tower stairs for a slice of harbour between the buildings; tour groups seldom bother, which keeps it quiet.

Consecrated in 1905 as Kowloon's first Catholic church, Gothic in yellow with white trim. It fronts Chatham Road, so it is easy to step into in passing. Afternoon sun through the altar glass throws colour over the tiles.

A worn 17-storey block on Nathan Road, with cheap guesthouses upstairs and money changers and Indian and African grocers packed in below. The ground-floor rates beat the airport, so many travellers stop by just to change cash. Lift queues are long.

A narrow bar lane reached by stairs up from Kimberley Road. Shops line one side only and many drink at kerbside tables. Nothing of it shows from the main road, so people stroll by unaware.

A 1989 performing arts venue where the old Kowloon railway terminus stood. Its sloping tiled walls face the harbour without a single window, which drew criticism from the start. Even on evenings with no concert, many people sit on its waterfront steps.

An observation deck on the 100th floor of the ICC tower above Kowloon station, 393m up. The lift gets there in about a minute. It looks down on the same harbour from the Kowloon side, opposite Victoria Peak, so by day the Peak itself sits inside the view.