Hong Kong Nightlife

If you have only 1 or 2 nights in Hong Kong and you're uncomfortable roaming around on your own, an organized night tour might be your best choice. Water tours offer four evening tours that combine harbor cruises with various land activities. If you're in Hong Kong anytime from September to May on a Wednesday evening, you can go to the horse races in Happy Valley or Sha Tin. Night Strolls, from Victoria Peak at night, is one of the most beautiful and romantic sights in the world. If you're looking for colorful atmosphere, head for the Temple Street Night Market, near the Jordan MTR station in Kowloon. Extending for several blocks, it has stalls where clothing, accessories, toys, pens, watches, sunglasses, cassettes, household items, and much more are sold.

Theaters & Concerts

City Hall
Add: Connaught Rd. and Edinburgh Place, Central District
Description: Located right beside the Star Ferry concourse, City Hall's Low Block has a 1,500-seat balconied concert hall, as well as a 470-seat theater used for plays and chamber music. Exhibitions are frequently held in the foyer, while the lobby has pamphlets of upcoming events.

Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Add: 1 Gloucester Rd Wan Chai
Description: Located across the street from the Arts Centre, the academy is Hong Kong's institution for vocational training in the performing arts. It also features regular performances in theater and dance, by both local and international playwrights and choreographers. Its Theatre Block is composed of six venues, including the Lyric Theatre, Drama Theatre, Orchestral Hall, and Recital Hall; there's also an open-air theater.

Hong Kong Arts Center
Add: 2 Harbour Rd Wan Chai
Description: Built on Wan Chai's new waterfront of reclaimed land, the Arts Centre hosts the Hong Kong Arts Festival and other international presentations, as well as performances by Hong Kong's own amateur and professional companies. It offers a regular schedule of plays or dances, exhibition galleries, and showings of foreign films. There are three auditoriums: Shouson Theatre, McAulay Studio Theatre, and Lim Por Yen Film Theatre.

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
Add: 10 Salisbury Rd Tsim Sha Tsui
Description: Established in 1977, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra is the world's largest professional Chinese-instrument orchestra (they play Chinese instruments, mainly stringed, which are completely different from Western violins, cellos, etc.). It features more than 80 full-time musicians who perform both new works and traditional pieces in approximately 30 concerts annually, playing a wide range of traditional and modern Chinese instruments and combining them with Western orchestrations or Chinese music.

Hong Kong Cultural Center
Add: 10 Salisbury Rd Tsim Sha Tsui
Description: The Hong Kong Cultural Center is the territory's largest arena for the arts. Opened in 1989, this complex is a good bet for free music and events, including family shows on Saturday afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30pm that may include Chinese dance, a magic show, or music. It features a 93-stop, 8,000-pipe Austrian Rieger organ--one of the world's largest. Two levels of seating surround the stage, which is set near the center of the oval hall. There are also two theaters, the Grand Theatre, used for musicals, large-scale drama, dance, film shows, and Chinese opera, and the smaller Studio Theatre, designed for experimental theater and dance.

Bars & Clubs & Teahouses

C Club
Add: 30-32 D'Aguilar, Lan Kwai Fong Central
Description: It's open Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 2am, Friday from 6pm to 5am, and Saturday from 9pm to 5am.

Curve
Add: 2 Arbuthnot Rd Central
Description: This is one of Hong Kong's friendliest and most crowded gay bars, with a long bar upstairs and a mirrored dance floor downstairs.

Fringe Club
Add: 2 Lower Albert Rd Central
Description: Open Monday through Thursday from noon to midnight and Friday through Saturday from noon until 2am.

JJ's
Add: 1 Harbor Rd Wan Chai, In the Grand Hyatt Hotel
Description: JJ's is open Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 2am, Friday from 6pm to 3am, and Saturday from 7pm to 4am.

Joe Bananas
Add: 23 Luard Rd Wan Chai
Description: Ladies get in free until 1am and even get free drinks on Wednesday from 6pm to midnight. There's dancing Sunday to Thursday from 11:30pm to 5am and on Friday and Saturday from 11:30pm to 6am.

Propaganda
Add: 1 Hollywood Rd Central
Description: Hong Kong's longest-standing and most popular gay disco. It's open Tuesday to Thursday from 9pm to 3:30am, Friday and Saturday from 9pm to 5am.

Agave
Add: 33 D'Aguilar St Central
Description: Open Sunday through Thursday from 5pm to 1:30am and Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 3:30am.

Al's Diner
Add: 39 D'Aguilar St Central
Description: It's open Monday to Thursday from 11:30am to 1am, Friday and Saturday from 11:30am to 4am, and Sunday from 11:30am to midnight.

Alibi Bar and Brasserie
Add: 73 Wyndham St Central
Description: Its happy hour Monday to Saturday from 6 to 9pm includes complimentary canap|s. It's open Monday to Thursday from noon to 3am and Friday and Saturday from noon to 4am.

BBOSS
Add: 14 Science Museum Rd Tsim Sha Tsui East, New Mandarin Plaza
Description: It's open daily from 1pm to 4am.

Bahama Mama's
Add: 4-5 Knutsford Terrace Tsim Sha Tsui
Description: It's open Monday to Thursday from 5pm to 3am, Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 4am, and Sunday from 4pm to 2am.

Bottoms Up
Add: 14 Hankow Rd Tsim Sha Tsui
Description: It's open daily from 5:30pm to 3:30am.

Caledonia
Add: 10 Harcourt Rd Hutchinson House, Central
Description: It's open Monday to Friday from 8am to 2am and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 2am.

California
Add: 24-26 Lan Kwai Fong St Central
Description: It's open Monday to Thursday from noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday from noon to 4am, and Sunday from 6pm to midnight.

Captain's Bar
Add: 5 Connaught Rd Central, In the Mandarin Hotel
Description: It's open daily from 11am to 2am.

Carnegie's
Add: 53-55 Lockhart Rd Wan Chai
Description: It's open Monday from 11am to 2am, Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 5am, Saturday from noon to 5am, and Sunday from 5pm to 5am.

Chasers
Add: 2-3 Knutsford Terrace Tsim Sha Tsui
Description: Happy hour is from noon to 9pm Sunday and the rest of the week from 5 to 9pm. It's open daily from noon to 6am.

Club 97
Add: 9 Lan Kwai Fong Central
Description: It's open Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 4am (happy hour 6-8:30pm), Friday 6pm to 4am (happy hour 6-10pm), Saturday 7pm to 4am (happy hour 7-8:30pm), and Sunday 8pm to 3am (happy hour 8-10pm).

Coyote Bar & Grill
Add: 114-120 Lockhart Rd Wan Chai
Description: Happy hour is daily from 3 to 8pm and midnight to 2am. Open daily from noon to 3am.

Cyrano
Add: 88 Queensway Central, In the Island Shangri-La, Pacific Place
Description: It's open Monday to Thursday from 5pm to 1am and Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 2am.

Sky Lounge
Add: 20 Nathan Rd Tsim Sha Tsui, In the Sheraton Hotel and Towers
Description: This plush and comfortable lounge is on the top floor of the Sheraton, affording one of the best and most romantic views of the harbor and glittering Hong Kong Island. There's soft live music Monday through Saturday nights from 9pm to midnight. It's open Sunday to Thursday from 2pm to 1am and Friday and Saturday from 2pm to 2am.