A roar­ing bronze lion named Stephen with shrap­nel holes from WWII, a man who looks like Gol­lum and took his name, can­nons to fend off bad spir­its, here are 5 inter­est­ing­ly unique things in Cen­tral Hong Kong that you might have oth­er­wise missed. And they’re all free to visit.

Central Hong Kong

Cen­tral is a dis­trict on Hong Kong Island. The finan­cial and admin­is­tra­tive hub of Hong Kong. A mix of cul­tures, a mix of old and new. West­ern­ers walk the streets in suits and brief­cas­es yelling to each oth­er across nar­row one-way streets. A Wall Street atmos­phere. If Hong Kong is the New York City of Asia then Cen­tral is the Wall Street of Asia. It’s also a place where yup­pies and trav­el bums alike go to drink in Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). It’s home to the enor­mous IFC Mall and Vic­to­ria Peak, one of the eas­i­est to access and best views of the Hong Kong skyline.

Hong Kong, as of 2017 is list­ed as the most expen­sive city in the world and Cen­tral is one of the most expen­sive places in Hong Kong. But you can still see many things here for free includ­ing Vic­to­ria Peak and the 5 (+1) items list­ed here. Any vis­it to Hong Kong should include a stop in Central.

 

1. Stephen and Stitt, Prisoners of War

Decem­ber 8th, 1941, just after 8 am, four hours after the attack on Pearl Har­bor, Japan­ese bombers roared over Hong Kong quick­ly destroy­ing the inad­e­quate air defense. Troops with­drew to Hong Kong Island but weren’t safe for long. One week lat­er, on the 15th of Decem­ber, Hong Kong Island was con­tin­u­ous­ly shelled. It was per­haps the dark­est time in Hong Kong’s mod­ern history.

It was dur­ing this time that Stephen and Stitt, two bronze lions placed in front of the HSBC head­quar­ters in 1935 almost became casu­al­ties of war. Stephen, roar­ing to the East took the brunt of the attack when shrap­nel pierced his thick bronze hide. Holes that can still be seen to this day.

They were both tak­en by the Japan­ese invaders becom­ing pris­on­ers of war and might have been lost for­ev­er if it weren’t for a keen-eyed US Navy sailor who spot­ted them in Osa­ka in 1946. They were returned short­ly after and still bear the bat­tle scars.

See them and read their his­to­ry in front of the HSBC Head­quar­ters in Cen­tral, Hong Kong Island, where they’ve sat ever since guard­ing its entrance.

Get There:

On the Metro take Cen­tral Sta­tion Exit K and you’re right in front of it. The Lions are in front of the building.

2. Hong Kong Gollum

He stands in front of the 7–11 open­ing beer and light­ing cig­a­rettes for drunk yup­pies. “It’s Gol­lum!” a half-drunk young white guy exclaims. I think it’s a bit rude and tell him as much. “No! That’s his name! Google it!” Sure enough, he’s a bit of a celebri­ty here. He doesn’t real­ly speak Eng­lish but can always be found smil­ing and help­ing open bot­tles of beer. His sig­na­ture pos­es are wav­ing an index fin­ger or giv­ing a thumbs up. Take a pic­ture with him and give him a small tip for all he does in the com­mu­ni­ty of drunk­en rev­el­ers. Cher­ish this liv­ing trea­sure of Hong Kong.

Find Him:

Walk around Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) in Cen­tral and look in front of the con­ve­nience stores. I’ve seen him in front of the 7–11 next to Ebe­neez­er’s on Lan Kwai Fong street.

For a bit more infor­ma­tion on Hong Kong Gol­lum check out this article.

 

3. Knit-fitti and the Stone Slab Street (Pottinger Street)

A local artist cov­ers the met­al rail­ings on the Stone Slab Street with knit­ted art, hence the name “Knit-fit­ti”. When I vis­it­ed there was a Hal­loween theme includ­ing Jack from The Night­mare before Christ­mas, com­plete with his trusty ghost dog “Zero”.

The Stone Slab Street (Pot­tinger Street) itself an inter­est­ing bit of pre­served his­to­ry. Add the “Knit-fit­ti” and it’s well worth a vis­it, though it’s not always there.

Get There:

“Stone Slabs Street” or “Pot­tinger St” runs between Stan­ley St and Hol­ly­wood Rd. The street has stalls sell­ing trin­kets and the upper por­tion just below Hol­ly­wood Rd. is where you’ll find the “Knit-fit­ti”

 

4. Feng Shui Cannons:

When con­struc­tion was fin­ished on Hong Kong’s HSBC build­ing in 1985 at HK$5.2 bil­lion, (rough­ly US $668 mil­lion or 1.5 bil­lion USD today), it was the most expen­sive build­ing ever con­struct­ed in the world, owing in part to the Feng Shui prin­ci­ples it adhered to.

I.M Pei and Part­ners most­ly ignored the prin­ci­ples of Feng Shui when they designed the near­by Bank of Chi­na Tow­er with its dis­tinc­tive knife-like edges, the first major build­ing in Hong Kong not adher­ing to these prin­ci­ples of Chi. Its screw­driv­er like shape is believed by some to be “Drilling the wealth out of Hong Kong”. The build­ing has been blamed for a num­ber of tragedies includ­ing bank­rupt­cy and a bad fall by Mar­garet Thatcher.

HSBC’s answer was the instal­la­tion of Feng Shui “Can­nons” on top of the build­ing. Two crane-like struc­tures direct­ed at the Bank of Chi­na Tow­er, deflect­ing the bad energy.

Get There:

The HSBC Build­ing stands promi­nent­ly on the sky­line of Hong Kong Island and is beau­ti­ful­ly light up at night.
On the Metro take Cen­tral Sta­tion Exit K and you’re right in front of it. For bet­ter views of the can­nons walk away from the build­ing as they’re hard to see when you’re right in front of it.

 

5. Longest Outdoor Escalator System in the World

Span­ning over 800 meters (2,600 ft) with a height gain of over 135 meters (443 ft) the Cen­tral-Mid-Lev­els esca­la­tor sys­tem is the longest out­door esca­la­tor sys­tem in the world, shut­tling 78,000 com­muters and sight-seers up and down the steep hills of Hong Kong Island every day.

There are all kinds of shops and restau­rants you’ll pass on your free tour up the steep slopes of Cen­tral as you ride the esca­la­tors, but you should note this is a fair­ly expen­sive area even for the already pricey Hong Kong.

Get There:

Start at 100 Queens Road in Cen­tral. You can walk up the stairs to the cov­ered over­pass or go inside the build­ing and up the esca­la­tor to the offi­cial start of the sys­tem. If you’re rid­ing the Metro go to Cen­tral Sta­tion Exit D2, go to Queens Road and walk NW for about 5 min­utes to the inter­sec­tion of Queens Road and Cochrane St.

The esca­la­tors run down­hill from 6 am to 10 am bring­ing com­muters to work and uphill from 10 am to mid­night dai­ly and it takes about 25 min­utes to go up or down.

With 14 entrances and exits, you have many choic­es on where to get on and off.

 

6. Graham Street Wall Mural

There is lots of good street art in Cen­tral Hong Kong, and while murals, of course aren’t unique to this area I thought this par­tic­u­lar mur­al is beau­ti­ful and my favorite in Hong Kong, so this is a bonus to check out while you’re wan­der­ing around Cen­tral. For me, it’s a beau­ti­ful depic­tion of the cramped hous­ing in Hong Kong. Some­thing like the Mon­ster Build­ing or the now torn down Kowloon Walled City. It cer­tain­ly makes for some good pictures.

Get There:

It’s right at the inter­sec­tion of Gra­ham St and Hol­ly­wood Rd. on the side of a build­ing. Look for the cam­era car­ry­ing tourists, there are sure to be some.